Chico Sanchez: Mexican Bullfighting

Photograph © Chico Sanchez-All Rights Reserved
I've featured Chico Sanchez's work on a number of occasions (links below), and he's back on TTP with his SoundSlides slideshow on Mexican Bullfighting. The audio is well chosen, and weaven quite nicely into the slideshow with narrative, ambient sound, etc.

Although the subject matter may offend many who (in my view, justifiably) oppose this gruesome and cruel activity, there's also the consideration that it is a tradition, and part of Mexican history. The Spanish occupation of Mexico led to the rise of bullfighting which is locally known as la fiesta brava.

The justifications for this controversial tradition in some the slideshow's captions are rather puerile but whether we like it or not, it has been one of the most popular "sporting" events in Mexico for the last 400 years

Chico Sanchez is a freelance photographer based in Mexico City. Chico worked in Venezuela, collaborating with Reuters, European Pressphoto Agency, Agencia EFE, and freelances for various newspapers and magazines.

Previous posts of Chico Sanchez's slideshows are (here, here, and here).

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Posted in: Mexico,Photographers: Travel,Soundslides

Kalpesh Lathigra: Transmission

Photograph © Kalpesh Lathigra-All Rights Reserved
As previously noted in The Travel Photographer blog (see below for link), Kalpesh Lathigra is an enormously talented London-based freelance photographer, working for most of the United Kingdom's newspaper magazines, including the Sunday Times Magazine, and The Independent Magazine. His work ranges from photographic essays of the American Midwest to the aftermath of the Asian tsunami, as well as social issues related photography projects such as The Brides of Krishna, the widows in Vrindavan.

He has recently published a series of photographs titled Transmission on his website which portray women prostitutes (including some hijras, or eunuchs who dress and identify themselves as female) outside of their usual environment in Mumbai, India. Kalpesh chose to photograph his subjects, not in the brothels as many photographers have done, but in his studio.

In an accompanying article in the Independent, Kalpesh says: "They were really surprised that I wanted to take their photographs in the studio and not in a brothel, but I did it because I wanted to isolate the women visually in a direct way. The photographs are for me a way of breaking away from visual clichés – and more importantly, a way of breaking away from the taboos and stigma of HIV, which in India are still very prevalent."

Viewing these dignified portraits, I'm reminded of Sebastiao Salagado's "If you take a picture of a human that does not make him noble, there is no reason to take this picture. That is my way of seeing things."

Previous post on Kalpesh Lathigra (Link)

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Posted in: India,Photographers: Photojournalists,Photojournalism

WP: Mumbai Attacks

Photograph © Altaf Qadri/AP-All Rights Reserved
The media is full of reports of the attacks on Mumbai's landmark hotels and others areas. This is the third day that militants and Indian security forces are battling, with reports of about 150 dead, and over 300 wounded. The majority of the casualties and wounded are Indians. The situation still appears confused, with continuous news of blasts and gunfire still being heard in areas.

Here's a slideshow of images by various photographers which appeared on the Washington Post's website. The one above is by Altaf Qadri, an AP photographer. I wonder what the blurry figure on the right of the photograph is doing....putting his life in danger in such a fashion.

(Registration may be required by The Washington Post, and some images are graphic).

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Posted in: Events,Photojournalism

Nikon Outs Its DX3

Image Courtesy Engadget
In the pursuit of fair and balanced reporting, here's a Nikon item. According to the Engadget website, Nikon has outed its yet to be formally announced DX3 DSLR. It's said that it will have a 24.5mp FX sensor, 5:4 and DX crops, 5fps at full resolution; DX crop shoots 10mp images at up to 7fps, ISO 100-1600, with an extendability of down to 50 and up to 6400 along with 16 bit EXPEED processor.

This Nikon model targets Canon's 1DS Mark III as its main competitor, but whether photographers will ditch their high-end Canons and lens investments in favor of the new Nikon is doubtful. We'll have to wait and see.

Price and delivery date are unknown.

Via BJP's 1854

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Posted in: Hard Gear

National Geo's Photo Contest: Results

Photograph © Van Nguyen/Courtesy NG-All Rights Reserved
The National Geographic's website just featured the winners of its International Photography Contest. Its categories were People, Places and Nature. However, to see all the submissions, one needs to download some program called Silverlight from Microsoft...which is not compatible with Power PC Macs. Too bad...and sort of shortsighted from National Geographic's deciders.

The above photograph is my favorite amongst those I could see on my treasured Power PC Mac. It combines a compassionate and candid moment by photographer Van Nguyen of a Vietnamese girl during a journey to America for medical treatment....she's probably a burn victim.

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Posted in: Contests,National Geographic

Makin' Babies: A Laugh

I think a joke will lift our collective spirit on this Thanksgiving day. It's a bit long, but you'll get into it pretty quickly. Of course, it's a good thing the photographer is a Canon user...it wouldn't work otherwise. Thanks to Ralph Childs for relaying it to me.

***

The Smiths were unable to conceive children and decided to use a surrogate father to start their family. On the day the proxy father was to arrive, Mr. Smith kissed his wife goodbye and said, 'Well, I'm off now. The man should be here soon.'

Half an hour later, just by chance, a door-to-door baby photographer happened to ring the doorbell, hoping to make a sale.

'Good morning, Ma'am', he said, 'I've come to...'

'Oh, no need to explain,' Mrs. Smith cut in, embarrassed, 'I've been expecting you.'

'Have you really?' said the photographer. 'Well, that's good.Did you know babies are my specialty?'

'Well that's what my husband and I had hoped. Please come in and have a seat'.

After a moment she asked, blushing, 'Well, where do we start?'

'Leave everything to me. I usually try two in the bathtub, one on the couch, and perhaps a couple on the bed. And sometimes the living room floor is fun. You can really spread out there.'

'Bathtub, living room floor? No wonder it didn't work out for Harry and me!'

'Well, Ma'am, none of us can guarantee a good one every time. But if we try several different positions and I shoot from six or seven angles, I'm sure you'll be pleased with the results.'

'My, that's a lot!', gasped Mrs. Smith .

'Ma'am, in my line of work a man has to take his time. I'd love to be in and out in five minutes, but I'm sure you'd be disappointed with that.'

'Don't I know it,' said Mrs. Smith quietly

The photographer opened his briefcase and pulled out a portfolio of his baby pictures. 'This was done on the top of a bus,' he said.

'Oh, my word!' Mrs. Smith exclaimed, grasping at her throat.

And these twins turned out exceptionally well - when you consider their mother was so difficult to work with.'

'She was difficult?' asked Mrs. Smith .

'Yes, I'm afraid so. I finally had to take her to the park to get the job done right. People were crowding around four and five deep to get a good look'

'Four and five deep?' said Mrs. Smith , her eyes wide with amazement.

'Yes', the photographer replied. 'And for more than three hours, too. The mother was constantly squealing and yelling - I could hardly concentrate, and when darkness approached I had to rush my shots. Finally, when the squirrels began nibbling on my equipment, I just had to pack it all in.'

Mrs. Smith leaned forward. 'Do you mean they actually chewed on your, uh...equipment?'

'It's true, Ma'am, yes... Well, if you're ready, I'll set-up my tripod and we can get to work right away.'

'Tripod?'

'Oh yes, Ma'am. I need to use a tripod to rest my Canon on. It's much too big to be held in the hand very long.'

Mrs. Smith fainted.

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Social Documentary Website

I've stumbled across the Social Documentary website, a new addition to documentary photography on the web, and which features documentary photography from around the world.

According to its self-description, Social Documentary welcomes "professional and amateur photographers, journalists, NGOs, students—anyone with a story to tell and a collection of good photographs" and who seek to create easy and affordable websites on SocialDocumentary.net.

Its secondary goal "is to create an online image bank of quality photographs documenting all aspects of the world created by an international collection of photographers. "

The Terms & Conditions are here, and, as usual with such ventures, make sure you read and accept these before deciding.

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Posted in: Innovative Stuff

Yan Seiler: The Outsiders

Photograph © Yan Seiler-All Rights Reserved
Yan Seiler travels allows him to document the plight of people in several Asian countries, an experience that provides his work a strong humanitarian slant.

His biography on his website is sparse, but it appears the Swiss national’s interest in photography is very recent, and was kindled by the gift of an old film camera in 2004. He discovered his indisputable talents quite rapidly, bought a digital SLR and took a break from his office job to leave for Asia.

I feature this SoundSlides slideshow titled The Outsiders of Yan's work amongst a community of lepers in India.

By way of background, leper colonies still remain around the world, in countries such as India, Japan, Egypt, Nepal and Vietnam. It is now commonly believed that many of those segregated into these communities were presumed to have leprosy, when they actually had syphilis. Leprosy is not highly infectious, as approximately 95% of people are immune and sufferers are no longer infectious after only a few days of treatment.

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Posted in: India,Multimedia,Soundslides

A New Canon 5D Mark II Video

Canon EOS5DmkII, One night in Beijing. from Dan Chung on Vimeo

Here's a video filmed by the UK's The Guardian newspaper photographer Dan Chung entirely on a production Canon EOS5DmkII and adapted Nikon and Zeiss lenses using manual focus. The camera was purchased to use solely as a video camera with existing Nikon kit.

The film was shot an edited in about twelve hours directly after picking the camera up from a Beijing camera store and charging the battery.

What can I say? It's very impressive. It's reported that the Canon 5D Mark II will be shipped to US retailers starting November 25. It'll be interesting to see how well this camera does in this economic environment...will they fly off the shelves at B&H, Adorama, J&R. Amazon and the rest of the stores? There is significant pent-up demand for this model in particular, but the holiday shopping season is predicted to be dismal....time will tell.

via PDNPulse (Link)

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Posted in: Hard Gear

Sacramento Bee: The Chhat Festival

Photograph © AP / Bikas Das-All Rights Reserved
The Sacramento Bee website has recently joined the list of large-image blogs with its The Frame. Two of the others are the Boston Globe's The Big Picture and WSJ's Photo Journal.

The Frame has featured photographs of the Chhat festivities in India last week. Hindu devotees worship the sun god and fast all day for the improvement of their family and society during the festival.

Chhat is celebrated twice a year, once in summer (May-July), called the Chaiti Chhat, and once during October-November, six days after Deepawali, called the Kartik Chhat. The first day of Chhat begins with a ritual bathing (preferably in the Ganges River), followed by a period of abstinence by the worshipers. Photographs are by a number of photographers such as Altaf Qadri and Bikas Das among others.

I expect more large-image blogs will be imitated by many newspaper websites across the country. I don't know how these will be monetized other than through accompanying adverts, but they certainly are an excellent platform to show off work by deserving photographers.

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Posted in: India,Photojournalism

Tom Hoops: Wai Kru Ceremony

Photograph © Tom Hoops-All Rights Reserved
Tom Hoops' biography is sparse....very sparse. His website only says that he's a freelance photographer, based in Bangkok and available for worldwide assignments. That's it.

However, his work speaks for him. Mostly black & white, with a few in color, Hoops has a natural affinity for portraits...striking portraits. A few of his subjects display enormous magnetism, and his Heads gallery is a must-see on his website.

But the gallery I liked best is the Documentary one because Hoops displays his work on the annual Wai Kru (homage to the teacher) ceremony at Wat Bang Phra, a Buddhist monastery 25 miles west of Bangkok. It is here that thousands of laborers, taxi-drivers, truck drivers, mobsters, small time crooks arrive once a year at the temple to take part in ceremony known as wai kru. They receive new tattoos, refresh faded ones, and get high or drunk.

(Tom Hoops gallery via Penelope Gan's blog)

I'm very familar with Wat Bang Phra (or Phro) and its tattooing monks. I photographed the monks at the monastery, and have a blog post here.

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Posted in: Photographers: Photojournalists,Photojournalism,Thailand

POV: Photographers & Recession Part 2

In contrast to my previous Photographers & Recession, today's POV post strikes a happier note, and here's why:

I was emailed last night by a potential buyer looking for a travel/documentary photographer (he'll remain anonymous to respect his privacy) who, among his many travels, photographed in Tibet. It seems the buyer wanted to buy his photographs of Tibet, searched the net for them, and found a post on The Travel Photographer's blog featuring his work, website, etc.

I was asked for this photographer's email (I don't know why the buyer didn't see it on his website), so I provided it with great alacrity, and hopefully the deal will be done soon.

This is certainly not the first time (or the last) that I've been contacted for information on photographers who appear on this blog...some from buyers, some publishers...many ask me the whereabouts of certain photographers....for some I know and for others I don't...but I always try to help. In many cases, my posts on photographers appear on top of the Google search pages, so buyers, collectors and publishers try The Travel Photographer's blog first.

I'm gratified that The Travel Photographer's blog serves such a purpose. When I started it, this never crossed my mind, so it's doubly gratifying.

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Posted in: POV

Enrico Martino: Mexico's Tehuanas

Photograph © Enrico Martino-All Rights Reserved
After considerable thought, the gallery on Enrico Martino's website that I liked the best is titled "A Matriarchy in the Land of Machos...it's the photographer's ode to the tehuanas, the beautiful women of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in southern Mexico. These women wear beautifully colored dresses and when they dance, they have the male spectators eating out of their hands. Such are the tehuanas , the ancient soul of Mexico; the reason why Frida Khalo wore their traditional dresses, and why Diego Rivera immortalized them with his murals.

Enrico Martino is an Italian photojournalist living and working in Turin. He started his career as a photojournalist, publishing stories in various publications and magazines such as Epoca, Espresso, Elle, Marie-Claire, and Rutas del Mundo, to name but a few. He specializes in travel and cultural assignments, and has directed his talented eye on Latin America, with particular emphasis on Mexico.

His website is replete with extraordinarily interesting galleries. Among Enrico's recent work are Holy Cora Week (Judea Cora), Panama, Tangiers, The Dancing Gods of Kathakali (I struggled a lot not to feature this gallery!), and among his archives, I found Antigua in Guatemala and the best of all, The Living Stones (Orient's Christians).

A word of advice: give yourself the time to explore all of Enrico's galleries. They'll open up new worlds and if you're a travel photographer with my sort of mindset, you'll find fresh directions in his work

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Posted in: Mexico,Photographers: Photojournalists,Photographers: Travel

Canon's Behind The Lens: Marco di Lauro

Photograph © Marco di Lauro-All Rights Reserved
Canon's Behind The Lens features Italian photographer Marco di Lauro. He's a photographer since 1993, and has been shooting for Getty Images since 2002 after working as a freelancer for The Associated Press. He covered conflicts in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Africa and The Balkans, and recently returned from a two month embed with British paratroopers in Afghanistan.

Although the article on Marco is essentially a promo piece for Canon's products, I was struck by this quote:

"I prefer to use short lenses than the longer EF70-200mm f/1.4L USM I have in my bag, they are more suitable for the type of photography I do and they really fit my personality. I use the EF35mm f/1.4L USM for at least 80% of the pictures I take - I need to be close to the subjects I photograph. Some photographers are really good long lens photographers; I am not. I need to feel the breath of the subject I photograph, I need to feel what I feel, I need to go through his emotions and, if he is suffering, I need to suffer with him."

Not that I'm remotely close of being a conflict photographer, but it's uncanny how this quote describes my style of photographing as well (minus the "suffering" bit, which is not what I'm involved with). I started off my travel photography by using, virtually exclusively, the 70-200mm f/2.8 for my photographs. I don't know whether it was an initial unwillingness to approach the subject(s) and engage or whether it was my visual preference at the time, but I found that over the ensuing years, I used it less and less. It's a great lens, but I much prefer shorter lenses...and while I haven't yet mastered my new 24mm 1.4L lens as much as I would like, I know that it -and the other short zooms in my kit- provides me with the ability of getting really close to my subjects.


Marco di Lauro: Between Duty and Downtime

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Posted in: Photographers: Photojournalists,Photojournalism

POV: Photographers & Recession

Photograph © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
The United States stocks crashed to five-and-a-half year lows yesterday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 427 points, the S&P 500 losing 52 points and the Nasdaq Composite falling 52 points. At opening today, the Dow dropped another 150 points to get to a low of 7850.

The Associated Press solemnly announced that Japan, Hong Kong and European countries including Germany and Italy are officially in recession and the U.S. and Britain would be joining them soon. In my estimate, we're already there.

We have recently read that newspapers and magazines are reducing their costs to a degree not seen before in the industry....and some are already stopping their print editions, relying only on their online presence.

I've said it many times before, but it's worth repeating as often as a Buddhist mantra: if photographers do not diversify and use the new technological products now available, they'll end up not working nor selling their work. Whether you're a travel or editorial photographer, embrace multimedia, use it and become proficient in producing cutting edge work. That's the only way to stay ahead and to hopefully offer something that will be different. I predict that photo editors and similar buyers will rely more and more on Flickr images (or similar), because they won't have the budgets to pay working photographers.

The next 3-4 years will be rough....even rougher than we think.

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Posted in: POV

LAT: Cementerio Norte

Photograph © Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times-All Rights Reserved
Here's a multimedia feature published on the Los Angeles Time's website titled Cementario Del Norte (I think it should be spelled Cementerio), a cemetery in the north of Manila. About 50,000 poverty-striken Filipinos consider this cemetery as their home, and have converted the burial site into a village of the living.

The photography and audio of the slideshow is by Luis Sinco.

Historians say that both living and the dead have populated the cemetery since it opened in 1884, since it needed caretakers to guard valuables often sealed with the dead inside the mausoleums.

The accompanying article by John M. Glionna is worth a read as it explains the circumstances and the current lifestyle of the unusual community that makes this cemetery its home. For instance:

"In one exclusive area, paid caretakers of the grave site of the family of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo -- an immense pyramid flanked by marble sphinxes -- enjoy air conditioning, cable television and a washer and dryer."

There is another similar community in Cairo dwarfing any other, where nearly a million people live in its City of the Dead...a 6 kilometers-long area called Al Arafa which is -and has been- Cairo's main cemetery for over 700 years.

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Posted in: Asia,Multimedia,Photojournalism

Gemma Thorpe: Footsteps in the Gobi

Photograph © Gemma Thorpe-All Rights Reserved
Gemma Thorpe is a British freelance documentary photographer currently based in Beijing, who specializes in social and environmental issues. Having studied Geography at Sheffield University before turning to photography full-time, Gemma initially studying at Leeds College of Art and Design and then in 2007 for an MA in International Photojournalism and Documentary Photography, completed in Dalian, NE China.

She has exhibited in the United Kingdom and in China, and has published work in the UK and Europe. Her website has a number of galleries, most of which are of China but I was drawn to two of her projects: Shamanism in Korea and Footsteps In The Gobi.

The latter is a Soundslides feature of Emma's photograph made while crossing the Gobi desert, retracing the travels of Mildred Cable who was the first Englishwoman to cross the desert. From 1923 to 1936, Mildred and two friends, sisters Francesca and Eva French, traveled back and forth across the route that has become known as the Silk Road.

The Gobi Desert is the largest desert region in Asia, and covers parts of northern and northwestern China, and of southern Mongolia. It's also the 6th largest desert in the world, and is the location of several important cities along the legendary Silk Road.

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Posted in: China,Multimedia,Soundslides

The New Yorker: Photogs' Memorable Meals

Photograph © Brent Stirton/Courtesy The New Yorker
For some reason, the New Yorker magazine's website decided to feature an audio slideshow titled Tea & Wallaby, in which some photographers describe memorable meals they've had whilst working in the field. John Stanmeyer talks of chai, Rena Effendi of a gruesome-looking sheep stew, Carolyn Drake of pears in Uigur-land and Stephanie Sinclair of her favorite eating place in Beirut.

Just to add my two cents' worth to this mix:

On a self-assignment in Chhattisgarh (central India), I ate red ant chutney which is a delicacy favored by the indigenous Adivasi of the region. The red ants carry a sort of venom, and when prepared into a chutney, it adds a “je ne sais quoi” sting to one’s palate. It wasn’t bad…it had just added different kind of “zing” to the meal. The tiny critters were somewhat crunchy as well.

The other staple food that ranks high on my “avoid” list is injera; the spongy, sour flat bread of Ethiopia. Its period of fermentation gives injera a sour taste, which may well be an acquired thing. I tried to acquire the taste while on a photo-trip to Ethiopia but found it was impossibly unpalatable.

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Posted in: Multimedia,Photographers: Photojournalists,Photographers: Travel

Jasmine Debels: India

I'm frequently referred to web galleries of travel photographers such as the one of Jasmine Debels, a Belgian photographer, whose India photo gallery is prefaced by a quote by Mahatma Ghandi essentially saying that happiness is in the eye of its beholder....how true.

Most of Jasmine's Travel portfolio is of India, although one or two of her photographs seem to be of Burma and Bhutan. Her biography is unfortunately sparse, but she does say that she likes to travel around the world ( and who doesn't?) and wanted to share her photographs. She seems to have recently exhibited her photographs, and lists these in Flemish.

As an aside, there was quite a large number of Belgian tourists in Bhutan and amongst them a noticeable number of keen photographers.

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Posted in: India,Photographers: Travel

DxOMark

DxO Mark proclaims that it's a website for people who are passionate about image quality. It's still in beta version, and it "features the first database of objective digital camera image quality measurements entirely accessible via the internet."

In addition to the Image Quality Database itself, the website proposes its new DxOMark Sensor scale, which allows it to rank digital camera with a single number for photographers to evaluate and compare models.

Certainly an interesting concept, and quite useful for buyers when confronted with the myriad of camera choices. Being interested in the new Canon 5D Mark II, I'll be keen to have a look at DxO Mark's measurements when these are published.

DxO Mark's Canon Database

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Posted in: Innovative Stuff,Soft Gear

Richard Daniels: Buddha Factory

Photograph © Richard Daniels-All Rights Reserved
Richard Daniels is a British photographer who studied at the Royal Melbourne Institute in Australia, and is currently working out of Bangkok. He has exhibited his work at the National Museum Bangkok and participated in the International Photography Best of Show 2008 curated by Bill Hunt of Hasted Hunt (NY). His photographs were also recently published in the Lucie Awards Book, and in Through Our Eyes (Thailand Close Up).

I encourage you to visit all of Richard's galleries, although my favorite is of his recent Buddha Factory.

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Posted in: Photographers: Photojournalists,Photographers: Travel,Thailand

Magnum Blog: Advice To Young Photogs

Alec Soth's recent post Advice to Young Photographers on Magnum's blog is extremely useful, and I think it's certainly a must-read for many emerging and established photographers. Not only does it include Alec's own advice to image-makers, but also sensible advice from about 35 other Magnum photographers ranging from Abbas to Alex Majoli, from Constantine Manos to Paolo Pellegrin, and from Olivia Arthur to Susan Meiselas. Some of the advice is obvious, but others are witty and thought provoking.

Perhaps it's Abbas's advice of wearing good shoes that takes the fillip. Whether it does or doesn't, it certainly gave me the excuse to show my photograph of a tsechu dancer during the Wangdue festival in Bhutan. This amiable fellow may never be a photographer...look closely, and you'll see that his dancing shoes are so well-worn that they almost have no soles!

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Posted in: Photo Interviews,Photojournalism

NYT: Tin in the Congo

Photograph © Johan Spanner-All Rights Reserved
The New York Times features a multimedia slideshow titled A Scramble for Tin in Congo ably narrated by Lydia Polgreen and with Johan Spanner's photographs. The main scene is in Bisie, a tin-rush village of about 10,000 people who mine the tin in terrible conditions, and whose output enriches renegade Congolese army troops.

One cannot help by looking at the harrowing photographs and, most of all, by reading the accompanying article (by Polgreen) of recalling Joseph Conrad's “the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience,” in describing what was happening in the Congo during the early 1900s, which was then considered by King Leopold II of Belgium (a monstrous criminal if there was ever one) as his personal fiefdom. Also joining the fray was Mobutu Sese Seko who looted his own country (then called Zaire) to such an extent that African kelptocracy is synonymous with his name.

(Registration may be required by the NYT)

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Posted in: Africa,Multimedia,Photojournalism

Bob Krist: The Kerala Project

Photograph © Bob Krist-All Rights Reserved
Here's an article in Digital Photo Pro magazine by the legendary and distinguished travel photographer Bob Krist who writes of his recent experiences photographing in Kerala. Bob tells us he had never been to Kerala, and decided to go to this wonderful part of India on a self-assignment. He describes how he planned his trip carefully, and chose to deal with an Indian travel agent rather than paying the extra commissions on dealing with a U.S.-based middleman. Also included in the article is a list of Bob's gear, and various tips as how he managed to photograph the Puram festival in Trissur.

For further photographs of Kerala (and elsewhere) by a master photographer, visit Bob Krist's website.

The article is timely as I've just concluded the planning for my photo-expedition to photograph the Theyyam dancers of Malabar this coming February, and I certainly echo Bob's decision to use a local agent to eliminate extra commissions. I've hired local travel operators on all my photo expeditions, for all self-assignments and solo travels...and by doing so, saved a bundle for myself and for the participants on my photo trips.

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Posted in: India,Photographers: Travel

Peter Dench: Egypt's Zabaleen

Photograph © Peter Dench-All Rights Reserved
Peter Dench is a British photographer who works primarily in the fields of commercial and editorial photography. He was granted a World Press Photo award, and his work was chosen to participate in PDN's Photo Annual 2008.

His website offers many interesting galleries (his work on UK themes is thought-provoking), but I chose his work on the Egyptian Zabaleen to bring here on the pages of TTP.

A bit of background on this unusual community (excerpted from Wikipedia):

"The Zabbaleen are an Egyptian community of mainly Coptic Christians who are self-employed in Cairo to collect and dispose of much of the city's waste. They perform this service very cheaply or for free, making a living by sorting the waste materials for reuse or recycling. Waste food is fed to livestock (most often pigs) or poultry. Other materials, such as steel, glass and plastic bottles, are sorted by hand and sold as raw materials. Other items are repaired or reused. Some material is burnt as fuel. Traditionally, donkey driven carts are used by males to collect waste from homes, which is sorted by female members of the family in zabbaleen homes. It is claimed that zabbaleen reuse or recycle 80-90% of the waste they collect. "

An estimated 60,000 - 70,000 Zabbaleen live in an area known locally as Garbage City, and are mostly descendants of poor farmers from Upper Egypt who settled in the city in the 1950s. By virtue of their being Coptic Christians and of their occupation, the zabaleen are discriminated against, and face compounded hardships brought about by the pervasive corruption and kleptocracy of Egypt's governance. Since they're not Muslims, social services provided by Islamic organizations are not extended to them as well.

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Posted in: Egypt,Photojournalism

Faces of India: Vincent de Groot

Photograph © Vincent de Groot-All Rights Reserved
I previously featured Vincent de Groot's photographs of Mali on this blog, and now he returns with his newly uploaded Faces of India Soundslides feature. The photographs are in black & white, and are accompanied by a hip-hop style of music....it could well be modern Bhangra. This might be a little incongruous at first, but maybe this is precisely what the photographer intended.

Vincent de Groot took photography up in earnest in 2001, and progressively switched to digital photography since then. Born in the Netherlands, he worked and lived in Germany, then Switzerland and currently resides in France.

His previous slideshow on Malian portraits is here: (Link)

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Posted in: India,Photographers: Travel,Soundslides

Bhutan: Tamshing & Thangbi Mani festivals

Here's a gallery of my photographs titled Tsechus of Tamshing & Thangbi Mani which features the dancing monks are they prepare and perform at these two provincial festivals (or tsechus) in Bhutan's heartland of Bumthang, and from which I just returned from.

The enjoyable, but time-consuming, task of evaluating and processing all of the images brought back from my 2008 Bhutan photo-expedition has started in earnest mid-last week and is now an ongoing exercise. I just bought a OWC 500gb external hard drive specifically to host these images, and it'll supplement my existing setup of Lacie drives as well.

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Posted in: Bhutan,Photographers: Travel,TTP Show Off

My Show Off: Lakhang Butter Lamps

Photograph © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
Here's an image made while I was entering the Wangdichoeling Lakhang in Jakar to photograph a prayer ceremony. I was hurriedly climbing a very steep set of wobbly wooden stairs to get to the lakhang's prayer room in time for the ceremony, and this scene of a woman lighting butter lamps unfolded in front of me.

In my view, little can surpass the pleasure of capturing a serendipitous scene such as this one, where all the elements fall into place for just a moment...a moment I happen to be right there, albeit somewhat out of breath.

For the techies: f2.8, 40mm, 1/30th, 100 iso (click for a larger view)

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Posted in: Bhutan,Photo Tours

Chico Sanchez: Day of the Dead

Photograph © Chico Sanchez-All Rights Reserved
Chico Sanchez brings us once again a nicely-done Soundslides feature of the El Dia de Los Muertos from the Mexican towns of Xochimilco and Toluca. He combined a well chosen ambient audio and music to create an interesting soundtrack to his photographs.

The Day of the Dead is a holiday celebrated mainly in Mexico, and focuses on family gatherings and friends to pray for and remember loved ones who have died. The celebration occurs on the 1st and 2nd of November, in connection with the Catholic holy days of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day.

Traditions include building private altars honoring the deceased, using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts. Scholars trace the origins of the Day of the Dead to indigenous observances dating back thousands of years.

Chico Sanchez's other features on The Travel Photographer's blog are Lucha Libre, Lady of Guadalupe and Holy Week.

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Posted in: Mexico,Multimedia,Photographers: Photojournalists,Soundslides

Heather McClintock

Heather McClintock announced that her solo exhibition, The Innocent: Casualties of the Civil War in Northern Uganda, opens at Gallery FCB in New York City from November 13th until January 1st (Monday - Friday: 12-5pm). The artist’s opening reception Thursday November 13th from 6-9PM.

Gallery FCB is located at 16 W.23rd st between 5th & 6th ave on the 3rd floor.

The Travel Photographer blog had a post on Heather McClintock in November 2007. (Link)

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Posted in: Events,Photojournalism

The Travel Photographer's 2009 Tours

Here's a post to plug my 2009 upcoming photo-expeditions-workshops, including my participation in the Foundry photojournalism Workshop in Manali, India.

For further information and details:

Theyyams of Malabar Photo Expedition

Gnawa Festival In Essaouira

Bhutan: Land of the Druk Yul 2009

Foundry Photojournalism Workshop 2009

For a feel on how I conduct my photo-expeditions, and how they compare to others, drop by The Travel Photographer, and also read my previous posts on this blog.

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Posted in: Bhutan,India,Morocco,Photo Events,Photo Tours

Foundry Photojournalism Workshop 2009

Further details on the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop 2009 have now been published. The workshop will be held in Manali (Manali-Kulu Valleys, Himachal Pradesh, India) from 26 July to 1 August 2009, for a total of 6 days.

Tuition is $900 for the workshop program, which includes six days of classes, all slideshows, panels, parties, portfolio reviews, and events during the workshop week. This does not include travel costs, lodging, airfare, food, etc. For South Asian photojournalists, tuition is $450. Scholarships will be also be available.

All classes will be limited to 10 students, and will be divided into multiple experience levels- intro, medium, and advanced/master class.

A number of world-class photographers have joined as instructors, and I encourage all emerging photographers who are interested to register. It's an opportunity not to be missed.

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Posted in: Events,Photojournalism

1 on 1: Kirsten Luce

Photograph © Kirsten Luce-All Rights Reserved
The Travel Photographer blog occasionally posts interviews with both travel and editorial photographers. This interview is with Kirsten Luce, a freelance photojournalist working in New York City. Her work was published in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Time, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Houston Chronicle, Miami Herald (International Edition), AP, Bloomberg News and CARE International. She recently attended the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Mexico City, and her photo project featuring Clowns in Xochimilco received wide acclaim.

An enormously talented photographer and photojournalist, Kirsten recently took the time to respond to TTP's questions.

1) TTP: When did you decide to become a photographer? Who or what influenced your decision?

While enrolled in art school at the University of Georgia, I took a photojournalism class and promptly switched majors. my professor, Jim Virga, was a newspaper photojournalist turned educator. He took a practical approach to photojournalism that spoke to me. He taught us the basics: how to put together a portfolio to apply for jobs. I got my first newspaper internship with a portfolio compiled from these class assignments. If it weren't for the perspective that I gained from him and my classmates, I would not be a working photojournalist.

2) TTP: Do you have any formal training regarding photography?

I took 3 or 4 photo classes in high school/college and I interned at The Birmingham News in Alabama for six months.

3) TTP : If you had the choice, where is your favorite place to live and work as a photographer in the world and why?

I absolutely fell in love with Mexico. I won a grant to study journalism and lived in Colima, a small university city in western Mexico, and I have been consumed by the country ever since. I went there for a semester and ended up staying for several months longer, freelancing for the AP, and eventually taking a newspaper staff job in McAllen, Texas on the Mexican border. I very well may end up back in Mexico some day.

4) TTP: Describe your own favorite image, and describe how you went about creating it.

Photograph © Kirsten Luce-All Rights Reserved
One of my personal favorites is from my first few weeks in Mexico in 2004. I was at a carnival with my Swedish roommate and snapped some photos of a street performer. It doesn't have much news value but it makes me smile. It ran in a little Mexican newspaper that I would contribute to. They paid me $3 to use it.

5) TTP: Describe a day in your professional life.

My professional life was recently turned upside down. I chose to leave my staff job at a newspaper on the border to move to New York city and freelance. It's my self-designed grad school. I wake up, contact editors, brainstorm, edit recent projects and plan for future projects. If I have an assignment, I photograph, edit and FTP the images.

6) TTP: Tell your funniest, scariest, most bizarre, most touching story from a photoshoot!

Earlier this year, I accompanied a Mexican reporter to cover the aftermath of a shootout between suspected drug cartel members and Mexican soldiers in a small border town in Mexico. When we arrived, the situation was still very tense and at least three people had died. There were hundreds of people gathered in the streets to watch the story unfold. The chilling part was that no one would talk to us. No one wanted to be photographed, in fear that they would be identified as a witness. No one even wanted to be seen with us. It was my first glimpse of just how powerful the cartels are in Mexico and how intimidated the local population remains.

7) TTP: What types of assignments are you most attracted to?

I love photographing assignments that give me time and access to whatever it is I am covering. I prefer to work alone, as I don't like photographing things with other photographers or videographers present. At the newspaper, I would really enjoy photographing a 'day in the life' of a person or place. When you have the time and access, you can wait for the right light and moments.

8) TTP: How would you describe your photographic style?

Subtle, textured and quiet...but I am evolving.

9) TTP: Who or what would you love to photograph that you haven't already?

There are too many things. At the moment I am drawn to Arctic cultures. I have spent a lot of time working in the heat, and look forward to documenting people that live under vastly different environmental conditions.

10) TTP: Describe the photo gear, as well as (if digital) your computer hardware and software you use.

I photograph with Canon gear. I own a 5d, 17-35, 24 1.4, 70-200 and a 550ex strobe. I prefer to travel light. I miss my Mark II from the paper but adjusting to the 5d. It's a fine camera. I still use Photo Mechanic and Photoshop, but transitioning into Lightroom. I have a wireless internet card that makes my life a lot easier...so I can transmit images from virtually anywhere I am.

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Posted in: Photo Interviews,Photographers: Photojournalists

WP: The Healing Fields

The Washington Post brings us a poignant feature titled The Healing Fields. It's about hundreds of uninsured and under-insured American citizens who come to an isolated county in Virginia every year to seek treatment at a field hospital operated by the Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corps.

I cannot understand how can anyone decry universal health-care in our country after watching and reading this feature (registration may be required by the WP)

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Posted in: Events,Multimedia,Photojournalism

Ethiopia's Nomad Warriors: Salgado

Photograph © Sebastião Salgado-All Rights Reserved
Rolling Stone magazine published black & white photographs of Ethiopia's Nomad Warriors by Sebastião Salgado. The tribes of the Omo Valley such as Hamer, Mursi and the Sumer are featured in this essay of images by a master photographer. In my view, the images are too small to appropriately convey these people's beauty and charisma, and I look forward to perhaps seeing them elsewhere.

A Sebastião Salgado quote that always stays with me:

"If you take a picture of a human that does not make him noble, there is no reason to take this picture. That is my way of seeing things."

For a sample of my own images of the Omo Valley tribes, go here.

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Posted in: Ethiopia,Photojournalism

Kumari: Nepal's Living Goddess

Photograph © Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
I read on the National Geographic’s website that Nepal has just chosen a new Kumari, the living goddess, a few days ago. The Kumari is essentially Nepal’s virgin goddess, whose body houses the spirit of Taleju (an incarnation of Goddess Durga).

There are stringent rules for a girl to be chosen as a Kumari. She must belong to the Shakya clan (a community of goldsmiths), her family must be extremely pious Hindus, she must have 32 characteristics of physical perfection (including a set of 40 teeth), and she has to prove her fearlessness by spending a night in a dark room with decapitated carcasses.

The chosen Kumari will be taken away from her family (it’s a huge honor), declared a living goddess, and installed in her royal chambers. She will not talk to ordinary mortals, her feet won’t touch the ground and she won’t venture out of her palace more than a handful of times a year. She loses her status with the onset of puberty, and returns to her family.

To me, taking a child away from his or her parents is cruel, but I can't judge whether the Kumari tradition constitutes child abuse or not. With many traditions that are not ours, Western sensibilities frequently over-react, and we view such practices through our own set of prisms. However, there are also a number of Nepali organizations that criticize the Kumari tradition, and I feel these are the best suited to do so and are the most qualified to establish a dialogue between traditionalists and modernists.

A National Geographic video can be seen here

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Posted in: Events,Nepal

PDN + Canon?

I received my PDN November issue yesterday, and was surprised to see its cover was a Canon advertisement for the EOS 50D. Now, I'm all for magazines to make money from advertisers, but to have PDN's cover taken over by an ad is annoying, and a turn-off.

To be clear, PDN still has a regular cover, but it's covered by another cover: the Canon ad, and ripping it off damages the issue.

A note to PDN people: I like PDN (not always, but most of the time) and Canon is my brand of choice, but this is not a good idea and certainly not one that I'd like to see again. I have to thumb through enough pages of ads as it stands to get to articles and features...so another ad layer is not welcome. I don't know if this gimmick is only for subscribed issues or for all issues in circulation.

This is worse than the ads that appear before multimedia presentations because I paid for the magazine and this ad doesn't go away after 15 seconds. Since I really don't want to have a Canon ad in my face whenever I reach for this PDN magazine, I tore it off.

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Posted in: Hard Gear,Rants

In Harm's Way

Here's In Harm's Way, a film produced by CBS/Warner Brothers following war photographer Zorial Miller and photojournalist Alissa Everett through Gaza and the West Bank.

However, while the above link can only be seen in the United States, the film can now be seen on You Tube.

Zoriah Miller is the freelance photographer who published pictures of dead U.S. Marines on his blog, which led him to be ejected from his U.S. military embed in Iraq. He was featured on The Travel Photographer here (Link) and here (Link).

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Posted in: Multimedia,Photographers: Photojournalists,Photojournalism

Bhutan's Coronation

Photograph © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
The Himalayan nation of Bhutan crowned its fifth king Thursday after a two-year wait for the precise moment deemed most auspicious by court astrologers. At precisely 8:31 a.m. local time King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, 52, placed the Raven Crown on the head of his son, 28-year old Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck, giving him the title of Druk Gyalpo, or Dragon King.

The ceremony was held in Thimpu's Tashichho Dzong, a 17th century white-walled fortress that serves both as administrative headquarters and a monastic center. Bhutanese came from all over the country for the ceremony, including nomadic yak herders who trekked for days from the icy Himalayan mountains of northern Bhutan, as well as members of the country's Hindu minority.

While traveling in Bhutan earlier last month on my Land of the Druk Yul photo-expedition, we saw frenetic activities for this coronation. Unfortunately, I don't know its Dzongkha equivalent, but I extend my congratulations to Bhutan.

The above image is of a Black Hat dancer practicing on a ceremonial trumpet at the Tamshing tsechu last month.

Update: For photographs of the coronation, including some by Paula Bronstein of Getty Images, visit The Boston Globe's The Big Picture.

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Posted in: Bhutan,Events

David Rochkind: Kenya

Photograph © David Rochkind-All Rights Reserved
David Rochkind is based in Caracas, Venezuela and covers news and produces feature stories all over Latin America and elsewhere. His images and stories have been published by The New York Times, Time magazine, Glamour, Stern, The Observer's Sunday Magazine and CARE.

He was chosen as one of Photo District News' 2008 New & Emerging Photographers To Watch.

Although most of David's portfolios are of Latin or Central America, I chose his powerful portfolio of images made in the urban slums of Mathare, Kenya to highlight on this blog. Has the fact that our President-elect has Kenyan parentage influenced me? Perhaps.

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Posted in: Africa,Photographers: Photojournalists

Chobi Mela V: Photo Festival

The dates of Chobi Mela V: The International Festival Of Photography in Bangladesh have been delayed to 29th January 2009 - 20th February 2009.

Among other reasons, the organizers have had to delay Chobi Mela V due to the overwhelming response and the large number of high quality entries. They also claim that Chobi Mela V will be bigger, better and more diverse than any of the previous festivals.

For further information, visit Chobi Mela V

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Posted in: Events,Festivals

Yes We Can

Photograph © Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune-All Rights Reserved

"This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time - to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth - that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes We Can."
-Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States

And we did...and we shall...and the United States and the world rejoices.

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Posted in: Events

My New G10: First Shot

Photograph © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
I bought a Canon G10 two days ago, and haven't had the time to really put it through its paces yet...however, I've formed a bunch of initial impressions from a couple of shots made in the streets of New York. I will follow up with further thoughts as I use it, and will post these on TTP. I suspect that many of my eventual thoughts, if not all, will mirror other comments made about the G10.

First and foremost, a no-brainer: this is not a DSLR...it's a point and shoot. This fact was reaffirmed to me when I walked over to the DSLR counter at B&H, and was directed by the guy to walk to the other side of the store...to the point & shoot department. So if you expect DSLR quality from the G10, think again. It may come close, but that's about it. Will it replace your DSLR? No. Will it be a back-up for your DSLR? Again, probably not...but that depends on what your definition of back-up is. For me, it won't be.

Secondly, the shutter lag is noticeable. In the above photograph taken while crossing an avenue in New York, you'll notice the tip of a vehicle in the bottom left corner of the frame. This appears because of the shutter lag...the vehicle wouldn't appear had I used a DSLR. I shot this frame at 25mm, f4.5, 1/200th, and an iso of 80.

The quality of the image and color rendition are fine, although still not as good as from a large-sensor DSLR....okay, since you got the message by now, let's drop the comparison to DSLRs since it's really comparing apples to oranges.

The size of the G10 is ideal for street photography (which is the reason I bought it in the first place), it's easily portable in a coat jacket and it's easy to use out of the box. I don't think the G10 will be great for active people photography for instance. I'm quite sure it wouldn't do well at the dance festivals in Bhutan...but it could be very useful in posed environmental portraits.

To be continued....

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Posted in: Hard Gear

My Show Off: Gangtey Couple

Photograph © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
Here's a photograph of an elderly farming couple at the Gangtey Goempa monastery, who were quite excited to attend the festival's rehearsals. It was rumored that the King of Bhutan would be attending the actual festival the following morning. The valley of Gangtey is one of the most beautiful in Bhutan, and the Gangtey Goempa monastery is the only Nyingmapa monastery on the western side of the country's Black mountains.

While I like this photograph for its humanity, I wish I had the presence of mind to move to the right of the couple to avoid having the wisp coming out of her head. In the heat of photographing, one frequently misses seeing extraneous background stuff. I don't think it spoils the photograph, but just one step to the side would've made it better.

In any event, I photographed the husband and wife for a few minutes and they were stiff as boards. However, once I relayed to them that they had to look at each other as if they were still both in their twenties, this is the result. It didn't take much to persuade them...the affection that these two Bhutanese farmers have for each other was immediately obvious.

For the techies: 50mm, f5.6, 1/250th, 100iso. Click to enlarge.

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Posted in: Bhutan,TTP Show Off

POV: Birds of A Feather...

Picking up the thread from various postings in the past week or so, here's a list of travel photographers, who seem to be "birds of a feather" in terms of overall style, visual and geographical interests, compositional affinity, and passion for cultural experiences.

So here are (alphabetically-listed) four blogs/websites I encourage you to visit often and bookmark to satisfy your thirst (or hunger) for travel photography:


Matt Brandon of The Digital Trekker





David duChemin of The Pixelated Image


Gavin Gough of Gavin Gough Photography



Mitchell Kanashkevich of Mitchell Kanashkevich Photography

I've had the experience of photographing along Gavin Gough (who joined me in Bhutan on my Land of Druk Yul photo-expedition), and thought it very interesting that I, from the first day, could instinctively (well, almost) tell what and where Gavin would be photographing. As I said, birds of a feather...

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Posted in: Photographers: Travel

My Show-Off: Black Hat Dancer

Photograph © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
The Black Hat dance (Shana) is an important dance during the annual tsechus in Bhutan. These dances are also used in purification ceremonies during the construction of dzongs, temples, and chortens.

The Black Hat dancers (such as the one above, photographed at the tsechu held in Wangdue on October 2008), assume the role of yogis with the inherent power to subdue and create life. The dancers wear brocade robes, wide brimmed black hats and aprons with the face of a protective deity.

We spent at least a solid 3 hours photographing non-stop at this particular festival during my Land of Druk Yul photo-expedition.

For those interested in technical stuff: 180mm, f4.0, 1/500th, iso100. Click to enlarge.

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Posted in: Bhutan,TTP Show Off

Lance Rosenfield: Thirst For Grit

Photograph © Lance Rosenfield-All Rights Reserved
I occasionally post travel and documentary photography projects "made in America", and I recently thought it was time for one...so I'm glad that Lance Rosenfield's marvelous B&W photo essay "Thirst For Grit" came to my attention at just the right moment.

Thirst for Grit is about the bull and bronc riders who travel from one rodeo to the next and who, as Lance poetically describes them, "these men tango with beasts, they dance with the devil, they ride". I longed for ambient sounds of the rodeos supplementing Lance's terrific images, but I guess we may have to wait for another project.

Lance Rosenfield is a freelance commercial and editorial photographer (and a storyteller) based in Austin, Texas. He has published work in The New York Times, The Digital Journalist and The Seattle Times, among other publications.

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Posted in: Photographers: Photojournalists,Photojournalism