My Work: Ranakpur Priest-Caretaker

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights ReservedAt the outset of my Tribes of South Rajasthan & Gujarat Photo~Expedition, we traveled to Ranakpur, north of Udaipur.The Ranakpur temple is one of the most famous Jain temple in India, and is dedicated to Adinath, the first Jain Tirthankar, or saint. Jainism is an ancient religion of India that prescribes a path of peace and non-violence towards all living beings. The Ranakpur temple is made of white marble, with more than a thousand columns, none of which are alike. Having been to Ranakpur a number of times during my traveling in India, I didn't expect to photograph much. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of Jain pilgrims we encountered during our visit, and the suffused light in the temple...

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Posted in: India,TTP Show Off

It's Holi Time

Photo © K. K. Arora/Reuters- (Courtesy WSJ Photo Journal) -All Rights ReservedHoli is a festival of color and was recently celebrated all over India. This exuberant festival aims at infusing fresh hope to people as it marks the end of the winter days and the start of summer. Originally, Holi was a festival to celebrate harvests, and to give thanks for the fertility of the land.Although Holi is observed all over the north of India, it's also celebrated with considerable zest in Vrindavan and Mathura, and other towns which are said to have housed Krishna. In Vrindavan, Holi takes place over the course of two weeks in Vrindavan, and is observed with numerous processions, folk songs, and danc...

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Posted in: Festivals,India

Greg Du Toit: The Waiting Game

Photo © Greg du Toit- (Courtesy The Daily Mail) -All Rights ReservedHere's an interesting story reported by The Daily Mail (a UK newspaper) which tells us that Greg du Toit, a wildlife photographer living in south Kenya's Great Rift Valley, spent 3 months submerged in a wild lions watering hole for three months, just to get what he deemed to be the perfect photograph of these lions drinking.The photographer had tried to get the right photograph for a year, but failed to get "it", so he waded into the murky pool with his camera where he spent 270 hours and ended up contracting several tropical diseases, including the potentially deadly Bilharzia.There are some inconsistencies in this story as the Daily Mail's article mentions that the photographer...

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Posted in: Africa,Photographers

Book: Charlotte Rush-Bailey: Soul Survivors

I've just received the book Soul Survivors from its author Charlotte Rush-Bailey, who was a participant in The Tribes of Rajasthan & Gujarat Photo~Expedition, and it's certainly a wonderful addition to anyone's travel book collection.It's essentially a tribute to the people of the Sahel, and focuses on Niger which Charlotte visited in the fall of 2005, amidst a food crisis that had enveloped that nation. Despite the food shortages, Charlotte marvels at how she was welcomed with generous hospitality everywhere she went. The book is full of lovely photographs; many of which are portraits, processed in the photographer-author's signature style. Published and available through Blurb, the link above provides a preview of some of the book's pages....

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Posted in: Africa,Books

Agnes Dherbeys: Street With No Name

Agnes Dherbeys is a freelance photographer based in Bangkok since 2001. She decided to take up photography as a career after graduating from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques and Sciences of Communication at the Sorbonne.Since then, she mostly worked in Thailand, Cambodia, East Timor, Aceh), Nepal and the Palestinian Territories. She was recognized with numerous awards, and is member of the photo collective Eve PhotographersHer galleries generally depict social and humanitarian issues in South East Asia, such as Tibetans in exile (Nepal), 5 years after the tsunami (Aceh), the temple of doom (Thailand), and I chose her work in Cambodia titled The Street With No Name. This is a photo essay on the Karaoke girls in Siem Reap, and was photographed...

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Posted in: Cambodia,Photographers: Photojournalists

Antonio Perez Rio: Omo Valley

Photo © Antonio Perez Rio-All Rights ReservedAntonio Perez Rio is a Spanish emerging photographer with a special focus on documentary and travel photography. He has two degrees in Law and Social Work, as well as a specific training in creative writing. He has traveled to more than 20 countries, and speaks Spanish, English, French and is learning Arabic.Antonio tells me that he plans to join the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Istanbul (June 2010) to broaden his already considerable skills.His Omo Valley slideshow features many of the tribes found in southern Ethiopia, including the Hamer, Karo and the Arbore. Antonio's use of flash brings to my mind the photographs made by Brent Stirton in the Lower Omo Valley.Antonio also documented the...

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Posted in: Ethiopia,Photographers: Travel

Ron Haviv: Haiti

Let's move away from the insignificance of photojournalists conducting photo tours to Haiti (and wherever else there is human misery), and contemplate the work of Ron Haviv of VII Agency who, less than 24 hours after the earthquake hit the island on January 12, 2010, arrived in Haiti without fanfare to chronicle the ensuing devastation and human suffering.Ron Haviv's photographs will be showing at an exhibition and fundraiser on March 4, 2010 at VII Photo Agency in Brooklyn, New York. VII is also releasing a book on the Haitian disaster. All the proceeds will go to Partners in Health.This multimedia presentation was produced by telegraph21 and the VII Photo Agen...

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Posted in: Haiti,Multimedia,Photojournalism

Sean Gilligan: Morocco

In my experience, Morocco is one of the most difficult places for people photography. One not only needs the technical skills of photographing quickly and unobtrusively, but also have an enormous reservoir of patience. I think that Sean Gilligan managed to pull it very well with his gallery titled God, King & Country . The title is from the 3rd image of the gallery which shows a mound of dark sand in which the words God, King, Country are inscribed in white.Sean Gilligan is a photographer based in New York City, whose objectives are to document cultural diversity, unexpected beauty, intimacy, landscape, and individuals personalities. He has a deep connection with Africa and Ireland and has, over the years, been documenting traditional life...

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Posted in: Morocco,Photographers

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV Review

Digital Photography Review is dedicating a massive 33 pages review to the new Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, granting it an overall rating of 89%. It garners the highest marks in build quality, features and performance (speed).According to DPR, the Canon EOS-1D Mark IV "has the feel of a product that is determined to be as close to perfect as possible", and "From the point-of-view of the tasks it was built to tackle, there is nothing that can touch the detailed, high resolution images that it can deliver ten times a second."I obviously have to carefully digest these 33 pages before I can make a decision as to whether to buy the Canon EOS-1D Mark IV or not, but I must say that I was pleasantly impressed by the ergonomics of the new Canon 7D. Handling...

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Posted in: Hard Gear

Ed Ou: Journey To The Promised Land

Ed Ou is a Canadian-Taiwanese photojournalist living and working in the Middle East, who covered his first big story during the Israel – Hezbollah conflict from southern Lebanon in 2006, when he was studying Arabic and International Relations in the Middle East.Since then, he has worked with Reuters and the Associated Press covering diverse stories such as the ongoing conflict in Somalia, child soldiers in Uganda, California wildfires, faith and conflict in the Holy Land, and even fashion in New York City. He is also a featured contributor to Reportage by Getty Images.Ed was selected by Photo District News as one of the 30 Emerging Photographers of 2008. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Time Magazine, Guardian...

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Posted in: Ethiopia,Photographers: Photojournalists

Anamitra Chakladar: Kushti

Photo © Anamitra Chakladar-All Rights ReservedAt the outset of my Tribes of Rajasthan and Gujarat Photo~Expedition, I spent a few days in Delhi where I had the immense good fortune to meet with Anamitra Chakladar, a friend who attended the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Manali last July.Along with Terri Gold and Wink Willett (participants in the photo expedition) we visited a Kushti akhara (a traditional Indian wrestling arena), and spent a couple of hours photographing the wrestlers.Anamitra was born in Kolkata, and expected by his parents to be a teacher or an accounting executive/CPA (he graduated with an accounting degree), but chose to be a photographer instead.He joined an established newspaper as a trainee photographer, then moved...

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Posted in: India,Photographers

POV: P As In Professional

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedThe New York Times' Gadgetwise blog features an interview with Harry Benson, the legendary Scottish photographer, who shared some tips on taking photos in low-light situations. It was also picked up by WIRED's Gadget Lab.Harry Benson's tips are:1. Use program (P) mode to get the best results and to capture detail.2. Remain in the reasonable ISO range, and avoid setting it above 1000.3. Use manual focus instead of autofocus in dark situations.4. Avoid using flash which, in Benson's words, makes one lose a lot of humanity. It's refreshing to read such advice, especially since i've come across many photographers who shudder at the thought of using the P setting on their cameras (or admit to it).I frequently...

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Posted in: POV

My Work: The Rabari & The Charpoy

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedWhile in Dasada (in the Little Rann of Kutch) during the The Tribes of Rajasthan & Gujarat Photo~Expedition ™, we stopped by a small Rabari village to photograph. We fanned out to photograph whatever caught our eye, and whoever was willing to cooperate. The previous evening at the Rann Riders Resort, we were shown a wonderful book of Olivier Follmi's photographs; some of which were of the area. One photograph in particular caught our attention, and it was of a Rabari shepherd asleep on a traditional rope bed called "charpoy". It was a photograph that I (and others in the group) was determined to imitate, provided I found the necessary rope-bed and a willing and able photogenic Rabari.I easily found...

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

Rajibul Islam: The Rohingya

Photo © Sheikh Rajibul Islam-All Rights ReservedThe Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group of the Northern Arakan State of Western Burma, are denied citizenship and suffer persecution and discrimination in Myanmar. Hundreds of thousands have fled to Bangladesh. An estimated 25,000 unregistered Rohingya refugees are living in the Kutupalong makeshift camp in Bangladesh, and are being forcibly displaced from their homes, in an act of intimidation and abuse by the local authorities. Few have been granted refugee status. The majority struggle to survive, unrecognized and unassisted in Bangladesh.Precious little on Sheikh Rajibul Islam's background is available on the internet, although he is listed on Lightstalkers as a Bangladeshi documentary photographer...

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Posted in: Bangladesh,Photographers: Photojournalists

Charlotte Rush-Bailey: Tribes of Raj & Gujarat

Photo © Charlotte Rush-Bailey- All Rights ReservedCharlotte Rush-Bailey is the second group member of The Tribes of Rajasthan & Gujarat Photo~Expedition ™ whose work is being showcased here on TTP.As demonstrated by her photographs here, and by those on her impressive website, Charlotte's quest to explore the unknown and learn from it has always been with her. Her career covered three decades of marketing and communications positions in a variety of global industries including energy, financial services, media, conservation, technology and professional services. This gave opportunities to work with people all over the world, and to learn to appreciate cultural nuances and the influences of socio-political forces.Photo © Charlotte Rush-Bailey-All...

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Posted in: Photo Tours,Photographers: Travel

Tribes of Rajasthan/Gujarat Photo Group

Photo © Kantilal Doobal-All Rights ReservedKantilal Doobal is the Bhuj-based photographer/guide who accompanied us on our forays in the tribal lands of Bhuj area. He photographed alongside us, and emailed us this group photograph at a Wadha village on the last day in the Kutch.From left: Sharon Johnson-Tennant, Colleen Kerrigan, Sandy Chandler, Tewfic El-Sawy, Kim McClellan, Terri Gold, Cathy Scholl and Charlotte Rush-Bailey. The fellow in the blue turban is the village's chief. Missing are Wink Willett and Jamie Johnson.Kantilal Doobal's Flickr stream is he...

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Posted in: India,Photo Tours

Alessandra Meniconzi: The Roitschäggätä

Photo © Alessandra Meniconzi -All Rights ReservedPhoto © Alessandra Meniconzi -All Rights ReservedAlessandra Meniconzi's work has graced the pages of The Travel Photographer blog on many occasions, with photographs of far-away and remote areas of the world, however she sent me some of new work made in her back-yard. Yes, literally in her back-yard in Switzerland, although when I first viewed the photographs, I took them to be from Mongolia or even perhaps Papua New guinea.But not at all...these were made in the villages of the Lötschental valley. It's the largest valley on the northern side of the Rhône valley in the canton of Valais in Switzerland, which lies in the Bernese Alps. The masks are worn by the Roitschäggätä, who are unmarried young...

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Posted in: Festivals,Photographers: Travel

NPR: The Mekong, A River

Here's a wonderful multimedia piece The Mekong: A River And A Region Transformed, which is produced by NPR, as only a sterling institution such NPR would know how. It documents the Mekong through a 3,000-mile journey from the river’s source on the Tibetan plateau to its mouth at the South China Sea, relying on Michael Sullivan and photographer Christopher Brown examine the turbulent history and uncertain future along the Mekong. The Mekong is one of the world’s major rivers, and is its 12th-longest, and the 7th-longest in Asia. According to Wikipedia, its estimated length is 4,350 km or 2,703 miles, running from the Tibetan Plateau through China's Yunnan province, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. I've traveled to most countries...

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Posted in: Asia,Multimedia

Apple iPad & Photography

Apple announced its newest creation, the iPad, while I was in the Kutch area in Gujarat, and had no reliable internet access so I'm still pretty much out of the loop in as far as its technical specifications are concerned...but that won't stop me from expressing my knee-jerk opinion on it from what I already know.I gather from a couple of opinions written about the iPad that the jury (from a photography standpoint) is still out. Some say that it will "save" photojournalism and newspapers, while others are more low-key and only say it will provide a new platform to display one's photographs.I view it as the latter...a magnified iTouch. No more and no less. I initially got very excited, hoping that it could replace netbooks, but it doesn't. From...

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Posted in: Hard Gear,Innovative Stuff

POV: The Gulf Between Us?

Photo © Charlotte Rush-Bailey -All Rights ReservedOh, how our eyes can deceive us sometimes..and how easily photographs captured in a split-second can convey a very different story from reality. Here's a photograph of me while at the Jama Masjid in Ahmedabad during prayers (called namaz in India), in which I look wary of the man who's crossing my path. Our body language and side glances seem to convey a mutual distrust, with the space between us accentuating that wariness. But nothing could be further from the truth. A second later I greeted him with the traditional Muslim al-salam aleikum, unmistakably pronounced in Arabic. Surprised, his face immediately softened as he recognized a fellow Muslim, and he responded, with warmth in his voice....

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Posted in: Beyond The Frame,India,POV

Foundry PJ Workshop: Istanbul

If you haven't checked the updated website for the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop recently, do yourself a favor, and do so. Not only has it been totally revamped (I believe it's the work of the talented Chilean photojournalist and webmaster Gabriel Morty Ortega Berger), but it also showcases work by FPW's astoundingly creative alum such as Monte Swann, Dhiraj Singh (who attended my multimedia class in Manali), Tristan Wheelock and Mansi Midha.Wait...there's more! Not only are many of the FPW instructors(such as Andrea Bruce, Ron Haviv, Guy Calaf, Adriana Zehbrauskas to name only four) returning for an encore, but their ranks will be augmented in Istanbul by absolutely brilliant photojournalists such as Tyler Hicks, David Bathgate, Lynsey...

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Posted in: Events,Photojournalism

Peter Turnley: Haiti

Photo © Peter Turnley-All Rights ReservedMuch as been said and written about the horrific earthquake which befell Haiti and its aftermath, ranging from the compassionate to the cynical, with disparate opinions as to whether Zoriah Miller and Andy Levin are right to conduct photo workshops on the island at this time or not, including thoughtful entreaties from photojournalists like Asim Rafiqui not to consider Haiti a zoo. Ignoring this debate for the time being, I choose to showcase Peter Turnley's powerful 50 picture photo essay on Haiti which was made three weeks after the event, when the Haitian people are restarting their lives as best they can. Haiti: Between Life & Death is exclusively shown on The Online Photograph...

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Posted in: Haiti,Photographers: Photojournalists

The Travel Photographer Blog: 3 Years

The Travel Photographer blog turned 3 years old on the 24th of January, and I missed celebrating it while leading the Rajasthan & Gujarat Photo Expedition...but no matter.About 1700 posts, thousands and thousands of unique visitors and subscribers, followers and an enormous amount of support from photographers, full timers and part timers, and many other creatives. And to think that I started this blog to write about myself and my photography...I ran out of things to say in less than a week, and decided there were many more interesting photographers, emerging and established, than I could ever be...and the rest is history as they say.This blog helped my second career in ways that I could never imagine. I'm hugely chuffed when I'm introduced...

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Posted in: Events

Kim McClellan: Tribes of Raj & Gujarat

Photo © Kim McClellan -All Rights ReservedPhoto © Kim McClellan -All Rights ReservedPhoto © Kim McClellan -All Rights ReservedKim McClellan is a professional photographer (as well as working for the SBA in DC), and graduated from the Washington School of Photography in January 2001. She's passionate about international travel photography, and her work was featured in juried exhibitions and shows in the Washington DC Metro Area. She's well-known for her work in fashion, glamour, and classical figures. Kim joined my Bhutan: Land of Druk Yul Photo~Expedition ™ this past October, and will join my forthcoming Bali: Island of Odalan Photo~Expedition ™ in August. On her way to cover the Venice Carnavale, Kim found the time to send me a sample of her...

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Posted in: India,Photo Tours

Haridwar Kumbh Mela

© Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP (Courtesy WSJ Photo Journal)The three month-long bathing festival Kumbh Mela along the Ganges river in Haridwar occurs every 12 years, and about 50 million Hindu devotees performing their prayers and washing away their sins in river's waters are expected in this holy city. However, non-accredited photographers seem to face mounting difficulties and restrictions in photographing main events, such as the bathing at the Har-Ki-Pairi ghats.Tom Carter, an American photographer, is quoted as saying: "I was planning on attending the Maha Shivratri Pratham Shahi Snan first royal bath on February 12 and the main royal bath on April 14 to photograph the infamous Naga Sadhu processions, however I was informed that tourists won’t...

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Posted in: Festivals,India

Tribes of Rajasthan & Gujarat: Photo Shoot!

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights ReservedRather than posting a group photograph of the members of the Tribes of South Rajasthan & Kutch Photo~Expedition™ in which everyone is smiling rather self-consciously, I thought this one would be more appropriate. This cluster of the group members was not really the norm, as most of the time we wandered either individually or in twos in villages to photograph what appealed to our individual eyes. However, a subject occasionally appeared so photogenic to all of us that clustering was the only option. In this case, the subject was Leshma, a beautiful Wadha girl, who was so naturally comfortable in heeding instructions that I think she must have been a professional model in a previous life.From left...

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Posted in: India,Photo Tours

Book: To Cambodia With Love

Having not read the fine print and that Amazon and Barnes & Noble were promoting the publication date of 1 March 2010 for the new guidebook To Cambodia With Love - A Travel Guide for the Connoisseur, I was on the verge of getting my credit card out to order it on Amazon , only to realize that it's still unavailable, and listed as a pre-order only. Nonetheless, I am hugely chuffed that a book with my photographs of Cambodia is on major booksellers' websites, even if my name is misspelled on the Amazon website. Ah...my name! I'm always amused how many on my photo~expeditions struggle to pronounce my name and, eventually defeated, call me 'T' (making me feel a bit like Tony Soprano...which is a gigantic compliment in my way of thinking), while...

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Posted in: Books,Cambodia

Tribes of Rajasthan & Gujarat: Verdict

Bathing Pilgrims (Baneshwar) © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights ReservedI can best summarize my verdict on the Tribes of South Rajasthan & Kutch Photo~Expedition™ as being a mixed bag. Readers of this blog know that I (in contrast to the majority of other travel photographers who lead photo tours) do not not sugar-coat nor gloss over the results of my photo-expeditions, and that I report the ups and downs on each of these trips. It's unreasonable to expect that a photo-expedition will not encounter disappointments, and realistically managing one's expectations is always sensible.Most of the team members were women, outnumbering the 2 men and the resulting gender imbalance naturally influenced the group's synergy and dynamics. All of the participants...

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Posted in: India,Photo Tours