Thank you to everyone who submitted their photos. Stay tuned for future announcements.
Image credit: Api Husien
Kota Sepi Kota Sunyi is a special Tiga Mata photography project developed in conjunction with Sementara: Ahmad Zakii Anwar from the Steve Wong Art Collection, an art exhibition presented at GDP Campus from October 2026 to January 2027.
Bringing together works by Malaysian artist Ahmad Zakii Anwar from the Steve Wong Art Collection, Sementara considers impermanence and the act of paying attention; what we notice when we remain with something long enough to see beyond our first understanding of it. Across still life, the human figure, animals and the city, Zakii returns to subjects that are immediately recognisable, asking us to look again and remain a little longer.
Within the exhibition are Zakii’s Kota Sepi and Kota Sunyi, works that turn his attention towards Johor Bahru, the city of his birth.
In Malay, kota means city, while sepi and sunyi both speak to states of quietness, but with different shades of meaning. Sepi can suggest solitude, loneliness or the sense of a place being deserted, while sunyi leans towards silence, stillness or the absence of sound and activity. The two words overlap, and their meanings can shift with context. Rather than fixing Kota Sepi and Kota Sunyi to single English translations, this open call takes these different qualities of quietness as its starting point.
Zakii has spoken about being drawn to the city at 3 a.m., when most people are asleep but other characters emerge and a different energy can be felt. In these works, the familiar city becomes quieter, stranger and more closely observed.
It is from this point that Tiga Mata enters the conversation.
Photography has long been a way of observing the city: its people and places, its changing rhythms, and the moments that might otherwise pass unnoticed. Through this open call, Tiga Mata extends the ideas behind Kota Sepi and Kota Sunyi beyond Johor Bahru, inviting photographers across Southeast Asia to turn their attention towards the cities around them.
What might sepi and sunyi look and feel like in Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila, Singapore, Hanoi, Phnom Penh or elsewhere across the region? How does silence exist within a crowded city? Where does solitude appear? What remains when activity subsides?
This is not an invitation to reproduce Zakii’s images through photography. Rather, his way of looking becomes a starting point for another medium, another generation of image-makers, and many different cities.
Selected photographs will be curated by Zontiga into a physical exhibition at Level 1, Testing Ground, GDP Campus, presented in conjunction with Sementara.
A city is rarely silent.
Even late at night, something continues: lights remain on, vehicles pass, people work, wait, eat, travel or simply linger. Yet within the density and movement of a city, there are moments when it seems to withdraw from us. A street empties. A familiar place becomes unfamiliar. Someone appears alone within a crowd. Spaces normally passed through without notice suddenly hold our attention.
Kota Sepi Kota Sunyi asks photographers to look for these moments.
We are looking for photographic work that explores quietness, solitude, silence and emptiness within the urban environment, while encouraging photographers to interpret these ideas broadly.
Silence does not necessarily mean the absence of people. Solitude can exist among thousands. An empty place may still carry evidence of those who have occupied it. A city can become quiet for only a few minutes before transforming again.
We are interested in the different ways photographers encounter these conditions across Southeast Asia: in large capitals and smaller cities, city centres and peripheral neighbourhoods, streets and interiors, public spaces and overlooked corners.
The work does not need to resemble Zakii’s Kota works. Instead, we invite photographers to begin with the same gesture:
Go out. Look around you. Pay attention.
Find your own Kota Sepi Kota Sunyi.
We are pleased to announce the contributors selected for Issue 5: Truth Flux. We extend our congratulations to all selected contributors and our sincere thanks to everyone who submitted their photographs.
Your participation and support continue to make this publication possible, and we are grateful to every artist who shared their work with us.
All selected participants will be contacted via email. Please make sure to check your inbox.
Akkara Naktamna is a photo artist and curator born in 1979 and raised in Bangkok. His work has been featured in numerous photography festivals, including the Miami Street Photography Festival (2013), the Singapore International Photo Festival (2016), the Photo Bangkok Festival (2015–2018), and the Dali International Photography Exhibition (2019). His photobook, Signs, was showcased at the NY Art Book Fair 2016 at MoMA PS1 and was selected for the Anamorphosis Prize 2016, leading to its inclusion in the Franklin Furnace Archive and the MoMA Library.
In 2016, Akkara founded CTypeMag, and in 2021, he opened a photography gallery in Bangkok dedicated to supporting contemporary photography globally, with a particular focus on emerging artists. He has curated several notable exhibitions, including “The Interpreter” (2022) at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) and “Photography Never Lies” (2024) at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC). In 2025, he authored the book Notes on Photography (ข้อสังเกตบางประการเกี่ยวกับศิลปะภาพถ่าย). Currently, Akkara works as a photographer and a curator at Kathmandu Photo Gallery.
This Open Call is open to both amateur and professional photographers and photo-related artists who are nationals of Southeast Asian countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam.
Submitted works must be authored by the submitting photographer or artist. Collaborative work is welcome, provided the nature of the collaboration and authorship is clearly stated.
Applicants under the age of 16 must provide written consent from a parent or legal guardian.
We are not looking for one particular representation of a quiet or silent city.
Kota Sepi Kota Sunyi can be interpreted literally, psychologically, socially or spatially. A photograph may contain no people at all, or it may contain many. It might have been made at 3 a.m. or at midday.
We are particularly interested in work that demonstrates attention—photographs that emerge from spending time with a place rather than simply illustrating the words sepi or sunyi.
Consider what changes when a city slows down. Consider its edges and intervals; the spaces between events; people who remain when others have left; traces of activity; temporary occupations; artificial light; waiting; distance; isolation; familiarity and estrangement.
Most importantly, show us the city as you encounter it.
Number of images: Up to 5 images
File format: JPEG
Colour space: sRGB
Image size: 3000 pixels on the longest edge
Maximum file size: 10 MB per image
Please do not include watermarks, borders, photographer names or other identifying information within the image itself.
Original high-resolution files will be requested from selected photographers for exhibition production.
All entries must be submitted digitally through the Tiga Mata Kota Sepi Kota Sunyi Submission Form.
Submission Form: Here
If you experience technical difficulties with the submission form, please contact tigamata@zontiga.com.
The email address supplied in your submission will be used as the primary means of communication.
Submissions may only be made on behalf of yourself or your collaborative team.
Open Call begins:
16th October 2026
Submission deadline:
8th November 2026, 23:59 MYT (UTC+8)
Selected photographers announced:
19th November 2026
19 December 2026 – 1 February 2027
Level 1, Testing Ground
GDP Campus
The exhibition will be presented during the final period of Sementara: Ahmad Zakii Anwar from the Steve Wong Art Collection.
Submission fee: RM 30
The submission fee supports the administration, curation and production of the project and exhibition.
Payment of a submission fee does not guarantee selection.
Selected photographs will be curated by Zontiga into a physical exhibition at GDP Campus.
Selection will consider the strength of individual photographs as well as how the works collectively expand the interpretation of Kota Sepi Kota Sunyi across different Southeast Asian cities and experiences.
Not every photograph from a selected submission will necessarily be exhibited. Zontiga reserves the right to select individual photographs from a submitted series and to determine the sequencing, scale and presentation of works within the exhibition.
Selected photographers will be contacted by email and may be asked to provide high-resolution image files, captions, biographical information and other materials required for exhibition production.
Printing and production costs for works selected for the exhibition will be covered by Zontiga.
There is no additional exhibition or production fee payable by selected photographers.
Copyright in all submitted works remains with the respective photographer, artist or rights holder.
Submission of work to Kota Sepi Kota Sunyi does not constitute a transfer of copyright to Tiga Mata, Zontiga, GDP Architects or R+.
By submitting work, entrants grant Zontiga (The Next Level Sdn Bhd), R Plus Projects Sdn Bhd and GDP Architects Sdn Bhd a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to reproduce selected works for purposes directly related to Kota Sepi Kota Sunyi, Tiga Mata and Sementara, including:
Where reasonably possible, photographers will be credited whenever their work is reproduced.
Copyright and authorship remain with the photographer.
All submitted works remain the intellectual property of their respective creators.
Zontiga is responsible for the curatorial selection, sequencing and presentation of Kota Sepi Kota Sunyi. Curatorial decisions will be made with consideration for the integrity and intention of individual works while creating a cohesive photographic response to the theme.
Submission of work does not guarantee selection. All curatorial decisions are final.
KOTA SEPI KOTA SUNYI
Tiga Mata Open Call — Special Project
A photography project developed in conjunction with
Sementara: Ahmad Zakii Anwar from the Steve Wong Art Collection
Curated by Zontiga
Presented by Tiga Mata / Zontiga
In collaboration with GDP Architects/R+
