Kawah Ijen 2007

This is my first post, with photos from Indonesia in late 2007, when I was taking pictures for The Jakarta Post in Indonesia. This is Kawah Ijen, a volcanic crater lake in East Java. The workers here collect the sulfur that solidifies on the rocks around the vents then hike up the steep crater wall and cart it off to sell to a nearby sugar refinery. It is a dangerous job, with the sulfur fumes causing respiratory illnesses that cut these workers lives extremely short. I got caught in a cloud of the stuff on my way down and pretty much thought I was going to die cause I couldn't breathe or see and my nose, eyes and mouth were stinging. When a couple of these guys came past, smoking clove cigarettes, climbing with 8okg of sulfur on their shoulders and not even using a rag or anything to breathe through like I was I realised I didn't need to worry so much. Tough guys...