First 2011 Photo Expedition

I'm on my way back to New York from teaching a multimedia class at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Istanbul, and thought it opportune to announce that my first photo~expedition in 2011 will be to Gujarat, India. I have yet to pinpoint the dates, but I am leaning towards January 23 to February 6, 2011.The Travel Photographer's In Search of Sufis photo~expedition will focus on the visual exploration of the syncretism which exists between Islam (especially Sufism) and Hinduism. Syncretism is the combination of disparate or contrary beliefs, often fusing practices of various traditional philosophies. This expedition will travel in the southern peninsula of Gujarat, and photograph at the various Sufi shrines/darghas as well as Hindu temples,...

Read more »

Posted in: India,Photo Tours,Photographers: Travel

My Work: Belly Dancing In Istanbul

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedDue to the distance between the historic Sultanahmet district and Kadikoy where the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop was based, I wasn't able to photograph much of Istanbul...except for some grab shots with my new GF1.However, some of us did manage to take some time and attend a folkloric dance program in Sultanahmet, where we were allowed to photograph at will.The above photograph was made at the Hocapasha Cultural Center in Eminönü during a wonderful performance. The dance was under black light or UV light...and was minimally color corrected.I used my Canon 5D Mark II and a 70-200 2.8 Canon lens....and yes, my Foundry class attendees; it's a vertical...

Read more »

Posted in: Photographers: Travel,Turkey

Chico Sanchez: Andalucian Flamenco

Photo © Chico Sanchez-All Rights ReservedHere's another lovely audio slideshow by Chico Sanchez, 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.The title of this audio slideshow is The Angel.This time, Chico documents the spiritual side of Flamenco, whose mystical, almost religious origins, are almost forgotten by the admirers of this genre of music and dance. Chico is well placed to do so...he's a native Andalucian, a musician and was involved in flamenco himself.I would have loved to see a flip book effect in Chico's work...various shots of a dancer (or singer for that matter)...and arranged in...

Read more »

Posted in: Photographers: Travel,Soundslides

Foundry Workshop (Istanbul) Signed Off

Photo © Anamitra Chakladar-All Rights ReservedPhoto © Anamitra Chakladar-All Rights ReservedWell, what is there to say except that I had a blast! The Foundry Photojournalism Workshop has ended with a marathon session to show the work completed by some 130-odd photographers who joined it. It was a visual overload of photographs and multimedia projects, and was followed by the customary beer bash at a nearby bar.My Introduction To Multimedia class was attended by a cross-section of the nationalities represented at the Workshop, and I was extremely pleased to work with Brenda Bravo, Pierre Claquin, Yagmar Dolkun, David Hagerman, Pedro Gomes, Jeroen de Kluiver and Roubina Margossian. The class also benefited enormously from Anamitra Chakladar's...

Read more »

Posted in: Events,Photojournalism

On The Way: Foundry Photo Workshop

Photo © Guy Calaf-All Rights ReservedWell, after a few days of intermittent internet service at our hotel in Kadikoy, Istanbul, it seems we're back to full time availability. The Foundry Photojournalism Workshop has started in full blast, and it's amazing to see so many various nationalities amongst the students. Different languages different styles perhaps, but all connected by a common denominator: photography.A splendid cast of instructors (some veterans of the workshop, others new), bringing their personal styles into the mix, and surely there'll be awesome projects and results. My class has met a couple of times already (n fact, I must rush to give my second class this morning), and projects range from documenting traditional religious...

Read more »

Posted in: Events

WSJ Photo Journal: Sufi Anniversary

Photo © Deepak Sharma/AP-All Rights ReservedThe WSJ's Photo Journal has featured the above photograph by Deepak Sharma (AP) of Pakistani pilgrims carrying an offering of embroidered cloth (which I believe is called kiswa) to cover the tomb of Sufi saint Khawaja Moinuddin Chisti on the anniversary of his birth in Ajmer, India.I should have been there!!! My kind of event!Shaikh Khawaja Syed Muhammad Moinuddin Chisti was the most famous Sufi saint of the Chishti Order of the Indian Subcontinent. He introduced and established the order in South Asia, and was succeeded by various notable saints such as Nizzam Uddin Auliya.I've never checked on this, but Khawaja in Egyptian Arabic means "foreigner", and was used as a title for all Greek and Italian...

Read more »

Posted in: Events,India,Photojournalism

Think Tank Multimedia Buyer's Guide

Photo Courtesy Think TankI don't have any Think Tank products (except for its see through bag for cables and stuff), but I must say that it's one of the companies that seems to be in lock-step with the industry's evolution with multimedia.Here is it's latest effort in the multimedia field which is the Multimedia DSLR Buyers Guide. It's essentially a fluff piece about various products that can be used by photographers as additional tools for story-telling purposes. While some of the information is pretty basic, I found it quite useful when I got to the Accessories and Wired It Up sections. Naturally, Think Tank also lists its various bags as "must-haves" in the guide, and deservedly so.As readers of this blog know, I do not advertise products...

Read more »

Posted in: Hard Gear,Multimedia

Istanbul-Bound

I'm on my way to attend the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Istanbul, where I'm giving a class on multimedia (Introduction To Multimedia). The class will adopt a simulated under pressure work environment where class participants have to shoot, edit and present their photographs and audio tracks to me, to eventually produce a publishable 3-5 minutes audio slideshow.I'm stopping over in London for a couple of nights, then catching a flight to Attaturk Airport on the 19th June. I will try to post on this trip as much as I can...perhaps even post some photographs of the workshop's going-ons. I'm taking my new Panasonic Lumix GF1 especially for that purpose. I'm also hoping to shoot for a personal project in Istanb...

Read more »

Posted in: Events,Photojournalism

NYT's LENS: A.K. Kimoto

Photo © A.K. Kimoto-All Rights ReservedThe New York Times' LENS blog features a poignant photo essay on opium addiction in Afghanistan by the late A.K. Kimoto. The photo essay is in black & white; dark and brooding as befits such a subject matter. See it...I highly recommend it, along with its accompanying article.Kimoto was a 32-year-old Japanese photographer based in Bangkok, who died in March while traveling to Australia. He spent years photographing families in the remote northeastern mountains of Afghanistan, controlled by the Taliban. He roamed remote settlements in Badakhshan, Afghanistan, to find out why so many of the inhabitants (even the young) had become addicted to opium. As Emily Anne Epstein explains in the piece: "The poverty...

Read more »

Posted in: Afghanistan,Photographers: Photojournalists,Photojournalism

Trevor Snapp: La Santa Muerte

Photo © Trevor Snapp-All Rights ReservedTrevor Snapp is a self-taught photographer with degrees in anthropology and African studies, and his work is syndicated with Corbis and Millennium Images. His clients include Stern, National Geographic Traveler, BBC, Time.com, Chicago Tribune, Marie Calire and others. He has also worked for a variety of NGOs such as Heifer International, Gates Foundation, and Intrahealth in Africa.Now based in Kampala, Trevor photographed La Santa Muerte in Mexico, among other galleries of Central AmerciaThe cult of Santa Muerte is unusual because it's the cult of the drug lords, the dispossessed, and criminals. There are many shrines to Santa Muerte in the capital city, but Tepito is where the most popular shrines are....

Read more »

Posted in: Mexico,Photographers: Photojournalists

The Daily Beast: Veronique De Viguerie

Photo © Veronique de Vigurie-All Rights ReservedOne of my favorite photojournalists, Veronique de Vigurie, was featured on The Daily Beast blog in an article/interview titled The Bravest Photographer.Veronique de Viguerie is based in Paris and, at the age of only 32, has already won prestigious awards including Canon’s coveted Female Photojournalist of the Year Award in 2006. Her photographs regularly appear in Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, Marie-Claire, and The Guardian.She's known for her empathy with her subjects, and that trait got her in hot water in 2008 when she photographed a group of Taliban fighters who had killed 10 French soldiers. Paris-Match published her photographs, and her critics accused her being used to spread Taliban...

Read more »

Posted in: Interviews,Photographers: Photojournalists

Greater Middle East Photo

Photo © Manal Al Dowayan-All Rights ReservedFinally! Someone came up with the timely idea to publish a photography blog titled the Greater Middle East Photo blog, with the commendable intent to provide space for photography from a region which is sadly under represented. This new blog hopes to be a facilitator of great photos, great photographers, and great minds discussing photography from the greater Middle East. I hope so as well. The Middle East has been lagging behind in terms of photography, and this blog will perhaps be an added venue to showcase more of its talent.The photograph above is by Manal Al Dowayan; a photographer who lived for most of her life in a semi-enclosed compound in Daharan in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia....

Read more »

Posted in: Photographers

Joey L. : The Mentawai (The Movie)

Here's a highly recommended 16-minute long movie documentary of Joey L.'s (and his team) excursion into the land of the Mentawai. It starts with the 10-hour crowded cargo ferry ride from Sumatra across the strait to the islands of the Mentawai, approximately 150 kilometers off the Sumatran coast. The excursion took 2 years to plan and prepare, and we are treated to a behind the scenes look at the photo shoots along with snippets of the Mentawai's life. The amount of gear that Joey and his team had to carry was quite significant. This is not a destination where you show up with a couple of cameras and flashes. They had to lug heavy lighting equipment, large reflectors and lightboxes, cameras, lenses, video equipment, generators, food and so forth. The most visible Mentawai tribesmen in the...

Read more »

Posted in: Indonesia,Multimedia,Photographers: Travel

In The Shadow of Everest At RMA

Photo © Tom Wool-All Rights ReservedThe Rubin Museum of Art in New York City is showing the photographs of Tom Wool in an exhibition In The Shadow of Everest, which runs until July 26, 2010.Coming from a fashion photography background, Tom Wool has devoted himself to work for humanitarian organizations. Using a medium format Hasselblad, he photographed Tibet's Rongbuk Valley and its inhabitants in May 2001. The valley stretches about 30 miles from the base of Mount Everest on the north side, and is home to some 3,000 Tibetans. It's considered sacred, with deep religious connotations to the Tibetans. The valley is home to the Rongbuk Monastery, the highest of any in the world at 17,000 feet above sea lev...

Read more »

Posted in: Events,Photographers: Travel,Tibet

Fons Rademakers: Haridwar Kumbh Mela

Photo © Fons Rademakers-All Rights ReservedI've featured so much work from various photographers, and seen so many photographs of the Nagas and pilgrims here and elsewhere, it's as if I've been there myself. I'm pretty sure these photographers who were at the Kumbh will either recognize each others work, or recognize the subjects.However, here's the work of Fons Rademakers who's a physicist working at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva, where the largest particle accelerator is operated and where the World Wide Web began as a project. Fons leads a software project that provides programs for data processing and analysis, but started his connection with photography when 12 years old, and regards it as his passion next...

Read more »

Posted in: Festivals,India,Photographers: Travel

John Batdorff II: Peru

It runs in the family, as they say. John Batdorff II is the son of two avid photographers, and it was only natural that he was "infected by" the same passion. Based in Chicago and in Ennis (Montana), John developed his craft early on by photographing for his family's newspaper, and enhanced it by specializing in landscape and travel photography.His work has been exhibited in museums and featured in various publications.While John's galleries include one of India, I'm bucking my own trend this time and featuring his work of Pe...

Read more »

Posted in: Peru,Photographers: Travel

Revamp: The Travel Photographer's Website

It took a while, but I completed setting up two websites based on the popular WordPress F.8 theme that will run in parallel to my current website.The first WordPress-based website contains 15 photo galleries, which are also iTouch and iPad-compatible.The second WordPress-based website contains 8 audio-slideshows.The Travel Photographer's original HTML/Flash-based website still remains as ...

Read more »

Posted in: Photographers: Travel

POV:The Future of Travel Photography Gear?

Yes, I caved and got an Voigtlander 40mm optical viewfinder for my Panasonic GF1. It's well suited to the Panasonic 20mm 1.7 lens.But this is not about the viewfinder or how much better the GF1 feels with it...it's about the above 'minimalist' gear which is an option when I'm planning an assignment or a photo trip. I can have all this in a small Domke bag, and have spare room for a book, an audio recorder, an itouch and lots more.Imagine the bliss of having all one's gear in a small and light bag!!!Here's a statistic: The combined weight of the GF1, the Acer netbook and a WD Passport hard drive (from their individual listed specifications) is 3.8lbs. The combined weight of a Canon 5D Mark II and a 24-70mm 2.8 lens is 3.9lbs.Am I contemplating...

Read more »

Posted in: POV

Mark Thomas: Haridwar Kumbh Mela

Here's another feature from the recent Kumbh Mela which was held earlier this year in Haridwar, North India. This body of work by photographer Mark Thomas is titled Kumbh Mela 2010, and is mainly of portraits he made during that religious event.Mark Thomas is a photojournalist and a multimedia expert, whose work appeared in various publications, including The Boston Globe and National Geographic News. He professes a deep passion for documenting and photographing India.His Kumbh Mela 2010 gallery consists of portraits of naga babas, the ash-covered sadhus who belong to the Shaivite sect, as well as pilgrims.Mark's website has other Indian-centric galleries such as Faces of Kashi, Visions of Kashi and Child Labor. A worthwhile website to bookmark...

Read more »

Posted in: Festivals,India,Photographers: Travel

Jehad Nga Talks to BJP

Photo © Jehad Nga-All Rights Reserved"I respond more to fashion and fine-art, carrying these fields and variables in photojournalism." -Jehad NgaThe British Journal of Photography (which revamped its website) published an interview with Jehad Nga, one of my favorite photographers. This blog featured many posts on Nga, and his distinctive chiaroscuro style. Titled From Kansas To Nairobi, the recent interview sheds a light on Nga's decision to join the Institute for Artist Management instead of VII and Magnum.Nga first visited the Middle East in 2001 spending months in different medical volunteering positions in Gaza. When he interned at Magnum Photos in 2002, he was also training to become an Emergency Medical Technician. But since 2004, when...

Read more »

Posted in: Interviews,Photojournalism

Kate Baumgartner: Religious Asia

Photo © Kate Baumgartner-All Rights ReservedKate Baumgartner describes herself as an avid photographer, and that may well be an understatement. Based in Hong Kong, she photographed to Cambodia, Burma, India, China, Namibia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Vietnam...returning with splendid photographs, like the one above of the Cao Dai monks. Cao Dai is the relatively new, syncretist, monotheistic religion established in 1926 in Vietnam.Take a look at Kate's gallery of photographs under the Religion category, and you'll find many of the different faiths and traditions of Asia, including the unusual rituals during the Thaipusam festival in Singapore, which is celebrated mostly by the Tamil community. On the day of the festival, devotees will shave their...

Read more »

Posted in: Asia,Photographers: Travel

Test Shots: Panasonic GF1 + 20mm f1.7 Lens

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedPhoto © Tewfic EL-Sawy-All Rights ReservedHere's a couple of "on-the-go" photographs made with my brand-new Panasonic GF1/20mm 1.7 lens on Bleecker street in NYC's West Village. There was a couple of garbage bags on the sidewalk which I had to frame out of the top photograph by chopping off the woman's shoes. The second is of a woman balancing 4 (actually 5, I think) lemonades and seemingly on collision course with another...it didn't happen.I shot these with the GF1's Intelligent Auto mode on; essentially the "point & shoot" mode, which I'm using for a couple of days until I get used to its handling. The IA mode allows me to photograph in both RAW and jpeg. The images above are the jpeg versions...

Read more »

Posted in: Hard Gear

Paolo Evangelista: Zanzibar

Photo © Paolo Evangelista-All Rights ReservedPaolo Evangelista holds degrees in music and anthropology, but decided to pack his bags, his espresso machine (after all, he's Italian) and his cameras to live in Australia for a while. Currently based in Perugia, he traveled to Zanzibar where most of his galleries are of.Most interesting are Paolo's street photographs in Stone Town. It's the old city and cultural heart of Zanzibar, where nothing much has changed in the last 200 years. Its winding alleys, bustling bazaars, lovely mosques and typical Arab houses are exquisite backdrops for this sort of photography. Its name conjures sea traders, explorers, Sultans and the fragrance of exotic spices. It was also declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.Also...

Read more »

Posted in: Africa,Photographers: Photojournalists

MSF's Starved For Attention

"this year 195,000,000 children will suffer from malnutrition"and so starts “Starved for Attention” the extremely well produced multimedia campaign by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and VII Photo which exposes the neglected and largely invisible crisis of childhood malnutrition.The campaign aims to present a series of multimedia documentaries of still photography and video from the well-known photojournalists at the VII Agency, such as Marcus Bleasdale, Jessica Dimmock, Ron Haviv, Antonin Kratochvil, Franco Pagetti, Stephanie Sinclair, and John Stanmeyer.The first multimedia reportage is titled Frustration and is by Marcus Bleasdale, who narrates it out of Djibouti.Bookmark this website, since the remaining reportages...

Read more »

Posted in: Africa,Asia,Events,Photojournalism

New Handheld Recorder Zoom H1

Photo Courtesy Samson AudioAy...I hate innovation. Well, not really of course, but a new (and occasionally improved) gadget always turns up a few months after a purchase, and this is annoying. Why can't the stuff I buy stay fresh and on the cutting edge of things all the time?I'm kidding...sort of. But here's the H1, a new handheld audio recorder from Samson Audio, which may not have the top of the range recording schemes, but is a handy portable stereo recorder at an unheard-of $99 price. It's supposed to give you 10 hours of battery life on a single AA cell, and can accommodate up to 32GB of removable microSDHC storage. Its microphones are configured in an X/Y pattern for optimum stereo imaging.At this price (and assuming its performance...

Read more »

Posted in: Audio,Hard Gear

Interview: The Travel Photographer on the Matador Network

In a new series on Matador Network's Notebook which features periodic interviews with professional photographers, MatadorU faculty and travel photographer Lola Akinmade caught up with me to discuss my perspectives on travel photography, and my insights on the industry as well as on my photo~expeditions. You can also leave your comments if you wish.Read the interview, in which I confide that "it was almost like having two personalities; one being a “starched” banker during workdays, and a more relaxed personality befitting that of a travel photographer during the weekends."I have a bunch of other interviews, which are listed under My Other Websites on the rig...

Read more »

Posted in: Interviews,Photographers: Travel

Got it! Panasonic GF1 + 20mm f1.7 Lens

Having lost patience with Amazon's delivery system, and the fact that its delivery was now estimated to be between June 1 and June 14, I called yesterday and canceled my order. The customer service lady was extremely pleasant and nice, making me feel somewhat guilty for a while.My guilt didn't last too long after I saw that Adorama had a Panasonic GF1 with a 20mm/F1.7 for $847 excluding NYC tax, but including some stuff like an 8 GB SD Sandisk memory card, a Lowepro carrying case (I much prefer my own pouches), a wonderful USB 2.0 SD card reader (like a memory stick), and a cleaning kit (of dubious use except for a nice lens brush).I walked over to the store, got served by a lovely young woman (inexplicably wearing a scarf in NYC's heat) and...

Read more »

Posted in: Hard Gear

Darren Ornitz: East Africa

Today I'm featuring the work of Darren Ornitz, who as a freelance photographer, traveled for 14 months in Africa and Asia including Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Yemen and Oman. Quite a number of photographs in Darren's East Africa gallery are of Lalibela, one of Ethiopia's holiest cities, and a center of pilgrimage for much of the country. The population of Lalibela is almost completely Ethiopian Orthodox Christian, and having spent a few days there photographing during the Epiphany celebrations, I can only describe it as "Biblical".Part of the East Africa portfolio are some photographs of Zanzibar, and more specifically Stone Town. A UNESCO listed old city, Stone Town was David Livingstone's base when preparing for his final expedition in 1866. The...

Read more »

Posted in: Ethiopia,Photographers: Travel

One Million Visitors!

I'm immensely gratified that since inception in mid-January 2007, The Travel Photographer blog has now received a total of 1,000,000 visitors!What originally started as a lark has taken a life of its own, and The Travel Photographer blog seems to have its comfy little place place amongst other photography blogs. A million visitors is a drop in the ocean for blog behemoths, but for this one-man blog, it's enormous.I sometimes hesitate in calling it a blog, because in reality it's more of a compilation of photo-essays, galleries (my own but mainly by others), multimedia, occasional geo-political rants and diatribes (some serious others downright silly), opinions (some ridiculous and others touching a nerve or two) and whatever else took my fancy.However,...

Read more »

Posted in: Events