Kawah Ijen: Blue Fire. This is an ongoing documentary photography project that combines nature and human beings. In reality, it is like three or four stories in one. On the one hand, we have the story of nature, wild and beautiful: volcanoes, lake, trees, etc... which together with the rare and spectacular phenomenon of blue lava make up unique landscapes. On the other hand, there are the human stories, which I have grouped into two for the moment { but there are more }: tourists and porters, and miners.

   The Ijen volcano complex is a group of composite volcanoes located on the border between Banyuwangi Regency and Bondowoso Regency of East Java, Indonesia. It is known for its blue fire, acidic crater lake, and labour intensive sulfur mining. It is inside an eponymous larger caldera Ijen, which is about 20 kilometers wide.

   In 2016 the lake of Ijen crater has been included in UNESCO'S World Biosphere Reserves. Ijen Geopark became part of UNESCO Global Geoparks in 2023. UNESCO Global Geoparks are single, unified geographical area where sites and landscapes of international geological significance are managed with a holistic concept of protection, education and sustainable development. 

   The active crater at Kawah Ijen has a diameter of 722 meters, and a surface area of 0.41 square kilometers. It is 200 meters deep, and has a volume of 36 cubic hectometers. 

   The crater lake acts as a chemical condenser for the volatile water from shallow magmatic heat sources. The magmatic volatiles are assimilated in crater lake systems because of the direct mix of magmatic vapor { SO2, H2S, HCI, and HF }. It is injected through fractures that connect to the solfatara or through the bottom of the lake. Thus, the interaction of rain water, rock chemistry, and magmatic vapor is mixed and then heated to become very acidic crater lake water.  The lake is recognised as the largest highly acidic crater lake in the world.

   Blue fire is formed due to the reaction of sulfur with oxygen. On most of the world's volcanoes, this kind of reaction will produce red or orange fire. However, in Ijen crater, the reaction occur in very high sulfur concentrations at temperatures over 360oC, which can then produce blue fire. 

   Blue fire is a phenomenon that occurs when sulfur burns. It is an electric-blue flame that has the illusory appearance of lava. Despite the name, the phenomenon is actually a sulfuric fire that resemble the appearance of lava, rather than actual lava from a volcanic eruption. 

   An active went at the edge of the lake is a source of elemental sulfur and supports a mining operation. Escaping volcanic gases are channeled through a network of ceramic pipes, resulting in condensation of molten sulfur. The sulfur, which is deep red when molten, pours slowly from the ends of these pipes and pools on the ground,  turning bright yellow as it cools. The miner break the cooled material into large pieces and carry it away in baskets. Miners carry loads ranging from 70 to 90 kilos { a weight that in most cases exceeds their own } in two bamboo baskets joined by a wooden stick that they carry on their shoulders, up 300 meters to the crater rim, with a gradient of 45 to 60 degrees, and then 3 kilometers down the mountain for weighing.  This system of sulfur mining didn't change from 1968, when the first pipes were installed in the Kawah Ijen crater. 

   At the Pos Paltuding collection point, miners weigh their loads of sulfur and receive their money. They then deposit the sulfur in a truck parked there, which transports it to the sulfur factory in the village of Tamansari, about 13 kilometers away, One kilograms of sulfur is paid at 1,500 Indonesian rupiahs { 0.092 USD }, so, for a load of about 70 kilos of sulfur, the miner will receive about 6 and half US dollars. 

   The volcanic sulfur is primarily used to purify sugar at nearby sugar factories. The mineral is also used to make soap, skin treatment, explosives and fertilizer. 

   The Ijen volcano crater is one of the few places in the world where mining activities are carried out completely free of mechanization, entirely manual and primitive. 

   The sulfur miner in the Ijen crater are completely unprotected, they are freelance miners, working at their own risk and expenses. The working conditions are extremely hard and very dangerous, especially due to inhalation of toxic gases, potentially fatal in the medium-long term. No sulfur miners uses gloves to protect their hands, many work and walk up and down the volcano in plastic flip-flops, less than half of the miners use gas masks. Bu yes!! All the miners smoke cigarettes continuously while working, they say that cigarettes give them the strength to face the hard work. If you are not a great cigarettes smoker you cannot be a great sulfur miner...

   At the beginning of the last decade, between 2010 and 2013, there were about 200 miners working regularly in the Ijen crater extracting sulfur, and not too many visitor ventured there. But this sequence has been reversed, with fewer miners and more tourists now. Since 2014 when National Geography reported on the electric-blue flames in the Ijen crater, tourists and visitors have begun to arrive in great number, slowly at first, and then in masse a few years later until today. This tourist activity has also been promoted by regional and local authorities to boast the local economy, taking advantage of the proximity of the popular tourist island of Bali. Also being sites includes by UNESCO as a biosphere reserve and geological park has contributed to giving relevance and notoriety to the place. 

   All of the above mentioned has contributed to producing important changes in sulfur mining and creating other businesses and alternative jobs such as: tour operator, guides, and porters. Currently, in 2024, sulfur miners barely exceed thirty, in contrast to the 200 there were a decade ago. Many of these former miners have been retrained as tourist porters. 

   A rudimentary wheelbarrow made of iron bars and two wheels has been converted into a mountain taxi. Two porters carry a tourist { three if he is very heavy } to the rim of the Ijen volcano.  For a sum of between 1,200.000 to 2,000.000 Indonesian rupiah { 74 to 123 US dollars }. If we compare these amounts with what the sulfur miners have earn, we can understand why many miners have retrained to become porters for tourists. Although the work of porter is also hard, it is not comparable to the hardship and danger of the work of extracting and transporting sulfur. One of the porters stands in front and pulls a rope attached to the wheelbarrow { two if the tourist weighs 100 kilos or more } and the other porter pushed the wheelbarrow from behind. To go down the mountain, the price are much cheaper { only a porter is required } and the effort is much less. 

   As a tourist, the porters call their wheelbarrow and their service as taxis, and in a funny way, it is common to hear them offering tourist their " Ferraris and Lamborghinis ".

   The Ijen stratovolcano complex is a unique place, in nature and in humans...