Bali: First Post

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedI've been in Bali since Wednesday afternoon, and having been able to shrug off some of the jet-lag and its resultant disorientation, I've been quite busy in Ubud and its environs. For starters, I'm working on a feature covering a famous Wayang Kulit in Sukawati and other projects.In the meantime, Komang (my driver and fixer) suggested that I attend a small Balinese wedding close to Ubud, which we just chanced upon it as we were driving. While the wedding itself was not a tremendously "visual" event in itself, I am always amazed at the generosity and hospitality of the Balinese who, despite of us being nothing more than wedding crashers, welcomed us with open arms, and plied us with food and beverages....

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Posted in: Bali,Photo Tours

Foundry Photojournalism Workshop's Stats

It's been almost a month since the wrap-up of the very successful Foundry Photojournalism Workshop (FPW) in Istanbul, which achieved an impressive degree of multi-ethnicity amongst its participants...a veritable United Nations of photojournalism.According to Neal Jackson, FPW Istanbul was attended by about 130 photojournalists (excluding instructors) from 41 countries.The largest contingents were from the United States (30), host country Turkey (15), India (8) and Romania (7). Notably, 8 Middle Eastern countries were represented, fielding 16 photojournalists including 1 from Palestine/Gaza.A tremendous achievement by all concerned; its founders, its staff, its instructors and its participants....and Istanb...

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Posted in: Events,Photojournalism

On My Way: Bali!!!

I'll shortly be on my way to Bali to lead my Island of Odalan Photo~Expedition™, which officially starts on August 1 to August 15. I'm in London for a short stop over, then on to the Thai Airways flight from Heathrow to Bangkok and onwards to Denpasar.I'll spend a few days before the start of the photo-expedition in Ubud where I'll work on a short two-day assignment, renew my friendship with this delightful small town, and with Bintang beer.I will be joined in Ubud by 8 photographers, but this is my last photo~expedition with such a high number of participants. Those who follow my blog know I've recently decided to limit my forthcoming trips/workshops to 5 participants, and to further enhance their photo-journalism component and multimedia...

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Posted in: Bali,Photo Tours

POV: Robert Fisk Is A Mensch

What does Robert Fisk of The Independent have to do with photography? Probably nothing, but he's a mensch, which in Yiddish means "a person of integrity".And why do I think that? Well, it's about his opinion piece on Octavia Nasr of CNN (or I should say, previously of CNN) and the British ambassador to Beirut, Frances Guy (still at her post, as far as I know).Here's a quotation from this opinion piece published in The Independent of July 17, 2010:"I loved the "controversial" bit – the usual "fuck you" word for anyone you want to praise without incurring the wrath of, well, you know who. The Foreign Office itself took down poor Ms Guy's blogapop on old Fadlallah, thus proving – as Arab journalists leapt to point out this week – that while Britain...

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Posted in: Books,POV

Mongolian Racer

Reading and posting Stan Greene's excellent interview yesterday will probably satisfy my photojournalism interest for this week, so for a change in pace here's a lovely travel multimedia piece titled Mongolian Racer by The Guardian photographer Dan Chung, and narrated by Tania Branigan. (click the arrow).The multimedia piece is on a horse trainer and his 10-year-old jockey who face the biggest day of their year at Mongolia's Naadam festival, which dates back to before Genghis Khan's time and celebrates the 'manly sports' of wrestling, archery and racing.The Mongolian traditional festival of Naadam is also called in the local dialect as "the three games of men". These are Mongolian wrestling, horse racing and archery. The festival is held throughout the country during the midsummer holidays,...

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Posted in: Asia,Multimedia,Photographers: Travel

LENS: Stanley Greene Talks To Michael Kamber

Photo © Stanley Greene/Noor-All Rights ReservedStanley Greene’s Redemption and Revenge on the New York Times' LENS blog is one of the most interesting (and candid) interviews with a photojournalist/photographer I've read in a long time. Having met Stanley Greene in Mexico City, I don't think I'd be wrong in describing Stanley as an iconoclast, as someone who doesn't mince words and who doesn't imitate. His opinions and responses as expressed during this interview confirm my view. This interview is a no platitudes no bullshit zone...and may rile some "lemmings", but for those who appreciate iconoclasts, it's a must read.Excerpts that particularly resonate with me:"When journalists start to distort reality, then I have a real problem with it....

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Posted in: Interviews,Photojournalism

Jacob Maentz: The Infanta Penitents

Photo © Jacob Maentz-All Rights ReservedI've been terribly remiss in covering the Philippines on this blog, but Jacob Maentz's fine work on this Asian nation will go a long way to rectify this.Originally from the United States, Jacob is based in the Philippines from where he does considerable amounts of travel, working on freelance assignments and shooting stock photography. His travels to Latin America whilst in college is where he discovered his passion for the camera. He was brought to the Philippines in 2003 when he joined the United States Peace Corps and has found himself repeatedly drawn back to this part of the world since then.Most of his galleries are of the Philippines, and I chose to feature the very interesting Infanta Penitents...

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Posted in: Asia,Photographers: Travel

The 710th Google Follower

My list of Google Followers have now grown to over 700 people. This list is distinct from my Twitter and Facebook followers and/or friends, Feed subscribers or from the subscribers to my newsletters.To commemorate this milestone, I've decided to feature the 710th Google Follower whose screen name is Ruma2008. There not much on background information on his/her blog except that she or he is probably from Japan, likes Japanese calligraphy and landscape photography.The Ruma2008's blog is titled Calligraphy In The Landscape, and thank you for following The Travel Photographer's bl...

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Posted in: Events

PBS Features "Starved For Attention"

PBS' Need To Know is featuring a Starved For Attention slideshow with 19 large photographs by Marcus Bleasdale, Jessica Dimmock, Ron Haviv, Antonin Kratochvil, Franco Pagetti, Stephanie Sinclair, and John Stanmeyer.It's based on 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.As an aside, I also noticed on Need To Know an article by Kavitha Rajagopalan on the buffoonish remarks made by Palin on the plans to erect a mosque and Islamic center near Ground Zero. All I have to say is that it is New York and its inhabitants who suffered on September 11, 2001....and it's they who have the voice...

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Posted in: Africa,Asia,Central America,Photojournalism

Andrea Pistolesi: The Rohingya Refugees

Photo © Andrea Pistolesi-All Rights ReservedAndrea Pistolesi is a pro in the full meaning of the word...a my kind of guy...a photographer who fuses travel and editorial imagery, and who's candid enough to say that professional travel photography as it existed is now extinct, and that travel publications and ancillary glossies are a dying breed. He espouses the view -like I do- that interesting visual stories are all around us, but that we need to broaden our scope by creating new ways of distribution (think of the new VII Magazine, as an example).Andrea was born and lives in Florence, and studied geography at the local university, evolving in a travel photographer specializing in geographic and global social reportage. He published books on...

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Posted in: Bangladesh,Burma,Photographers: Travel,Photojournalism

Mervyn Leong: Hammams, Spreader of Warmth

Here's a lovely audio-slideshow by the gifted Mervyn Leong W.Y. which you can either view on Vimeo (click above) or via his website here. The quality of the latter is better.Mervyn attended the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Istanbul (he also attended last year's in Manali), and participated in Rena Effendi's Telling A Human Story Through A Compelling Portrait class. I spent time with Mervyn as he prepared to photograph inside the less-than-hospitable-for-photography interiors of the hammams, and can vouch for his meticulous planning, and how he took pains to wrap his camera, lenses and audio gear in saran-wrap (to protect them against moisture and steam).An engineer by profession, Mervyn took photography and photojournalism more seriously a couple of years ago, and has made impressive...

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Posted in: Multimedia,Photographers: Travel,Soundslides,Turkey

Mugur Vărzariu: Pillars of Faith

Photo © Mugur Vărzariu-All Rights ReservedPhoto © Mugur Vărzariu-All Rights ReservedPhoto © Mugur Vărzariu-All Rights ReservedMugur Vărzariu is a photojournalist based in Romania who attended the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Istanbul, and was in Adriana Zehbrauskas' On Assignment class.It's a testament to Mugur's intrinsic talent that he started as a photographer less than four months ago. Yes, you read that right...less than 4 months ago, and he also just won the ‘Leica for AICR’ People Photo Contest, where one can read his interview.He tells us that his first choice for a photojournalism project was to document faith, and to stress through his imagery that, despite the difference in the names or sites of worship, people’s faith is...

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Posted in: Photographers: Photojournalists,Turkey

Daniel Berehulak: Kashmir

Photo © Daniel Berehulak-All Rights ReservedDaniel Berehulak is based in New Delhi, working for Getty Images News Service and covering the South Asia region and beyond. He joined Getty Images in 2002 in Sydney and relocated to London as a staff news photographer in 2005. Daniel’s work is regularly published in major newspapers and magazines worldwide, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Independent, The Times, Stern, Time, Newsweek and many more.With his image (the B&W version) of a Kashmiri girl mourning the death of teenager Zahid Farooq during his funeral on the outskirts of Srinagar, Daniel was awarded First Prize: News Folio of the Year in the Press Photographer's...

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Posted in: Kashmir,Photographers: Photojournalists

Bali Photo~Expedition™: Two Weeks To Go!

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedI've started to think about gear packing for the forthcoming Bali: Island of Odalan Photo~Expedition™, which is to start on August 1.A brief stop-over in London, then it's a grueling 16 hours aggregate flight time from Heathrow to Bangkok, and onwards to Denpasar to reach it on July 28. This will give me a couple of days for a personal project, and to meet the rest of the participants.I am tempted to ditch my preferred combination of the Domke shoulder bag and a non-name messenger bag in favor of my older Lowepro backpack. The reason? I want to take my old workhorse of a camera: the Canon 1D Mark II along with the 5D Mark II, as well as my Panasonic GF1. Also included are my whole panoply of lenses;...

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Posted in: Bali,Photo Tours

Photojournalism From SE Asia

For those who are hard-core fans of South East Asian photojournalism, OPEN-i hosted a live webinar a few months ago which featured work from photographers living and working in South East Asia, and who discussed the challenges and rewards of working in that region.The webinar (moderated by Paul Lowe) is unusually long (about 105 minutes), and the acoustics are not great, but it offers insight into the work and working conditions of 4 photographers/photojournalists.Jack Picone - Thailand Justin Mott - Vietnam Veejay Villafranca - Philippines Rony Zakaria - Indonesia OPEN-i is a global online community of practice for the professional photojournalism industry where members can discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the industry in live webinars and online foru...

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Posted in: Asia,Multimedia,Photojournalism

Amy Johansson: Lethal Leather

Photo © Amy Johansson-All Rights ReservedAmy Johansson is a Swedish photographer, who's currently about to move from her Bangladesh base to attend an international photojournalism course at the Danish School of Media and Journalism . After completing a degree in fashion design, Amy worked as a designer for several years, until moving to Dhaka as a product developer.Upon her taking up photography, she rapidly won awards and has been represented in numerous galleries and exhibitions, such as the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait exhibition at the London National Portrait Gallery in 2009.Amy attended the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop last year in Manali (India) where she won the emerging photojournalist award, and also attended it in Istanbul...

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Posted in: Bangladesh,Photographers: Photojournalists,Soundslides

The Travel Photographer: Updated Website

I updated The Travel Photographer website with a new slideshow of more recent photographs made during my 2009-2010 trips, and added details of my planned In Search of Sufis Photo~Expedition™, which will be the first scheduled for 2011.It's well on its way to being sold out, as I am restricting it to only 5 photographers.The In Search of Sufis Photo~Expedition™ is not for first-timers to India, nor is it for photographers expecting choreographed photo-opportunities. This trip will be the quintessential fusion of travel photography and photojournalism, and aims to merge the visual with the intellectual.It's structured for photographers interested in multimedia story-telling, interested in exploring the existing syncretism between Sufism and Hinduism, interested in documenting traditional ways...

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Posted in: Photo Tours,Photographers: Travel,Photojournalism

Andy Spyra: The Shadows of Srebrenica

Photo © Andy Spyra/Courtesy FP Magazine-All Rights ReservedI don't think of Foreign Policy magazine as one to feature top notch photojournalism, but it unfailingly does.Its latest feature is on the 15th anniversary (if we can call it an anniversary) of the Serbian army entering the town of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina, and in the days that followed killing 8,000 Bosniac Muslim men and boys. The Srebrenica genocide was the largest mass murder in Europe since the end of World War II, and the country is still recovering from the war that ended 15 years ago.The Shadows of Srebrenica is a collection of black & white photographs by the incredibly talented Andy Spyra, and is a powerful reminder of that era, and also reminds us that...

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Posted in: Photographers: Photojournalists,Photojournalism

Pierre Claquin: Surviving Dreams

Photo © Pierre Claquin-All Rights ReservedPhoto © Pierre Claquin-All Rights ReservedWhilst attending my Introduction To Multimedia class at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop (Istanbul), Pierre Claquin divulged that he had been a photographer at the age of 16 through a younger brother who owned a Foca camera and let him use it. Matters progressed, and Pierre graduated to an Asahi Pentax Spotmatic, then a Nikkormat...and he stayed with Nikon ever since.Pierre also divulged that he had produced a photographic book titled Surviving Dreams: The Struggling Circuses of Bangladesh, which documents the few remaining circuses in that country. Very few remain, struggling against bureaucracy, corruption, prejudice and financial difficulties. The book,...

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Posted in: Bangladesh,Books,Photographers: Photojournalists

One Day On Earth: Participate!!!

One Day on Earth Participant Trailer from One Day On Earth on Vimeo.On October 10th, 2010, thousands of people from every nation around the world will film their perspective and contribute their voice to one of the largest participatory media events in history. The event will result in a feature documentary and online video archive that will showcase the diversity, conflict, tragedy, and triumph that can occur in one day on earth. The more people are involved, the more accurate and comprehensive a record of the planet that is created....so check it on One Day On Earth...

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Posted in: Events

Dilla Djalil-Daniel: The Istanbuli Silversmith

Photo © Dilla Djalil-Daniel-All Rights ReservedPhoto © Dilla Djalil-Daniel-All Rights ReservedPhoto © Dilla Djalil-Daniel-All Rights ReservedDilla Djalil-Daniel is a photographer currently living in Jakarta, and attended the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Istanbul. She participated in Andrea Bruce's class, and chose me to review one of her portfolios of the Cap Go Meh celebration in Singkawang, West Kalimantan. Naturally, this captured my undivided attention on account of her colorful images of the unusual rituals and trances. Dilla traveled around the world for her photography, especially in Asia and has a large portfolio that ought to be shown on her own personal website, which I urged her to have.Her project in Istanbul for Andrea's...

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Posted in: Photographers: Travel

POV: I Don't Kneel To A Golden Calf

A few days ago, I posted an opinion piece (or POV) on a renowned photographer about to engage in a project which I deemed unrelated to his travel documentary specialty.As a consequence, I was criticized by a half dozen people in the blogosphere who, perhaps having misread the gist of my opinion, disparaged my photography, my prior career, my being Egyptian-born (as if that made me unfit to speak my mind), etc. Bah.I was reminded of Jean-Jacques Rousseau who said: "Gratitude is a duty which ought to be paid, but which none have a right to expect" when I noticed some of the disparaging remarks on that blog were made by the very same people whose photographic work was frequently lauded, applauded and supported on my blog. Double Bah.I don't know...

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Posted in: POV

Dede Pickering: Bhutan

Photo © Dede Pickering-All Rights ReservedDede Pickering has just returned from Bhutan with a collection of new photographs, which she posted on her Bhutan Gallery. She traveled in that Himalayan country from its west to its east and trekked in the rarely visited Sakten Valley.I chose Dede's lovely photograph of the unfurling of a thongdrel for this post. The thongdrel is a large tapestry typically depicting a seated Guru Rinpoche surrounded by holy beings, the mere viewing of which is said to cleanse the viewer of sin. During tsechus, it's unrolled before dawn and rolled up by morning.Having retired from the corporate world, Dede became a world traveler and photographer. She has traveled to Antarctica, Mongolia, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma,...

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Posted in: Bhutan,Photographers: Travel

NPR: Ed Kashi On Pakistan

Photo © Ed Kashi/National Geographic-All Rights ReservedApart from joining the agency VII, Ed Kashi was also featured on NPR's The Picture Show in a piece titled On Photographing Pakistan. He also has more of his photographs on the National Geographic blog.Ed Kashi's objectives were to show how the people of Punjab live, and how millions of Pakistanis just try to live their lives despite the threat of religious fundamentalism, especially as it's also home to the peaceful sect of Sufism.I had the pleasure of meeting a number of young Pakistani women photographers at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Istanbul just last week or so, and I was amazed at how they just lived their lives to the fullest, worked and crafting their impressive body...

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Posted in: Pakistan,Photographers: Photojournalists

WSJ Photo Journal: Sayyida Zeinab Shrine

Photo © Suhaib Salem/Reuters-All Rights ReservedReaders and followers of this blog know that I am always interested in religious rituals of all sorts because it's during these rites, festivals and traditional events that devotees are devoid of day-to-day artificiality.The WSJ Photo Journal recently posted the above photograph of devotees praying at the Sayyida Zeinab shrine in old Cairo commemorating her birthday. Zeinab was the daughter of Ali and the grand-daughter of the Prophet Muhammad. There's a disagreement as to whether she was interred in Damascus in a shrine bearing her name, or in Cairo.Al Sayyida Zeinab is the patron saint of Cairo, and her shrine is located in mosque that bears her name. It was renovated and rebuilt many times...

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Posted in: Egypt,Photojournalism

2011 Photo~Expedition™: In Search of Gujarat's Sufis

I've just announced my first photo~expedition™ of 2011, and it'll be once again in Gujarat, but much different in context and objectives than the one I led earlier this year. As I always do, its details are shared to those who subscribe to my newsletter, and after a week or so, I make them public.It will involve photographing tribal life in western Gujarat, the hijras at the famed Bahucharji temple, document the syncretism between Sufi Islam and Hinduism in various shrines and sacred sites in Gujarat's southern peninsula, and the African Indian Mystics of Gujarat, with their distinctive music and rituals. This photo~expedition™ is limited to a maximum of 5 photographers, and its details have now been sent to my newsletter recipients. It promises...

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Posted in: India,Photo Tours

Saleem Ahmed: Kyoto

Photo © Saleem Ahmed-All Rights ReservedNirja Desai is a follower of my blog, and suggested that I take a look at Saleem Ahmed's photographs. I did and immediately agreed with her that his work would be shown on this blog which is one of the platforms for emerging photographers to get some additional exposure.Saleem is an undergraduate student (photojournalism major) at Temple University, and has a passion to do something for the world and tell stories. He traveled to a number of countries to include the Bahamas, Egypt, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, UAE, Switzerland, Spain, Syria, the UK, Iraq and India.There's a multitude of gallery choices on Saleem's website, and I was especially attracted to his Japanese travel work. Kyoto, Yokohama, Miyajima,...

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Posted in: Photographers: Travel

Dani Salva: Tibet's Kham

Photo © Dani Salva-All Rights ReservedI can only guess that Dani Salva is a Spanish (possibly Catalan) photographer from his website, but there's no biography that I could find. It's a pity because I am sure that photo editors would like his work (they probably do already) but, except through his blog, he doesn't make it easy to know a little bit of him. He has quite a few galleries and projects on his website, and while all of them are visually interesting, I can strongly recommend the one on Tibet's Kham, and the one in Bolivia...the Potosi Mines is also another gallery you want to drop by and see how the miners work in this nightmarish environment.As is evident from the above image from Dani's Tibet's gallery, he's enamored with shadows,...

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Posted in: Bolivia,Photographers: Travel,Tibet

Foundry Photojournalism Workshop (Istanbul)

Photo © David Storey-All Rights ReservedPhoto © Brenda Bravo -All Rights ReservedI thought I'd post these two photographs of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop for posterity. The top photograph is of the instructors, assistants and staff who all donated their time, talent and knowledge to make Istanbul such a success. (I'm in the back as usual).The bottom photograph is of some of the instructors, staff and students during the final beer bash at Kadikoy's Zurich beer bar. This was probably at around 1:00 am on Sunday June 27, if I'm not mistaken. (I'm sitting in the front center, for a chang...

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Posted in: Events,Photojournalism

New Banner!!!

This is an expression of unbridled gratitude to the half-baker's dozen who dismissed my posts as rants and "pontifications". As promised, I've changed the banner of this blog to include this lovely descriptive word, which suits my blog and posts just perfectly. I regret not having thought of it first, but a banker-turned-photographer is not necessarily a wordsmi...

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Posted in: Innovative Stuff,TTP Show Off

POV: Les Chiens Aboient La Caravane Passe

My post on McCurry's taking a celebrity photography project was criticized on another blog by a handful of readers as being misplaced, rude and judgmental...which puzzled me since I specifically wished him the best of luck with his new project, and described him as a pioneer and an inspiration to many.The thrust of my post was not about McCurry or his future but to stress the need for all of us to diversify by learning and using multimedia, FCB and Soundslides...and not remain stale and repetitive. In fact, here's a quote from the post which encapsulates my point of view:"McCurry is one of the pioneers of travel photography and is an inspiration to many who follow his style....and to read of this new project is an uncomfortable reminder that...

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Posted in: Multimedia,POV

Travis Dove: The Holy Mountain

Photo © National Geographic/Travis Dove -All Rights ReservedTravis Dove interned on the photo staffs of several American newspapers including The Boston Globe and The Charlotte Observer, and was named the 2007 College Photographer of the Year by the Missouri School of Journalism. He also completed a prestigious photo internship at National Geographic Magazine.His work has been awarded by World Press Photo, POYi, PDN, the NPPA, and the WHNPA, among others. In the fall of 2008, and appeared in the National Geographic, The New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, amongst many others.I loved his photo essay The Holy Mountain made amongst the monks in Mount Athos, the spiritual center of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Mount Athos is a mountain...

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Posted in: Photographers: Photojournalists,Photographers: Travel

Stijin Pieters: Durga Puja

Stijn Pieters is a self taught freelance photographer based in Gent, Belgium whose work focuses on under-reported social, political and environmental issues. He completed projects in Nepal, Kashmir, Palestine, Northern Ireland, Swaziland, Yemen, Morocco, Iran, Vietnam, The Philippines, India and Bangladesh; most of which tackle diverse issues, from HIV/aids in Swaziland to the pervasive gun culture in Yemen, from Agent Orange victims in Vietnam to stateless people in Bangladesh.For his projects in Yemen in 2006 and Morocco in 2007, Stijn received respectively grants from the Pascal Decroos Foundation and the King Baudouin Foundation. His work has been published in Belgian magazines like MO*, Vrede, Menzo, Tertio, Vacature, Varen and Isel Magazine.The...

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Posted in: Bangladesh,Festivals,Photographers: Travel,Photojournalism

FPW Istanbul: Intro To Multimedia Class

I was privileged to teach a class titled Introduction To Multimedia for the third straight year at this year's Foundry Photojournalism Workshop which was held in Istanbul June20-26.As a couple of my class attendees are in the process of shopping their projects to publishers, I'm unable to publish them until they're made public by their creators. However, I am able to show an image from each project along with a description.The attendees were Brenda Bravo, Pierre Claquin, Yagmar Dolkun, Pedro Gomes, David Hagerman, Jeroen de Kluiver, and Roubina Margossian.1. Brenda Bravo: Kadikoy Underground PuppetryPhoto © Brenda Bravo -All Rights ReservedBrenda's project documented an underground puppetry group in Kadikoy, from applying their make-up to walking...

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

Toby Morris: Animal Charmers

Photo © Toby Morris -All Rights ReservedToby Morris is a photographer based in Los Angeles and New York. Having attended the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Texas at Austin, he worked for various newspapers in Chicago, New York, New Hampshire and Connecticut.I liked his environmental portraits of animal charmers in India. These are mostly of snake (cobra) handlers, as well as monkeys. Snake charming probably originated in India, especially that Hinduism holds snakes to be sacred. Indians also considered snake charmers to be holy men and traditional healers.In India, the Kalbelia and Sapera are nomadic tribes nomadic that specialize in snake charming, and are clustered in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan.As for monkeys, one of the...

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Posted in: India,Photographers: Travel

POV: From Afghan Girl To Martin Scorsese?

Photo Courtesy The Guardian -All Rights ReservedI was saddened by reading an interview with Steve McCurry recently published in The Guardian in which he shares the news that he's preparing a project in which he would be taking portraits of 30 celebrities in their home cities: Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese in New York, Amitabh Bachan in Mumbai. A sort of project that Annie Leibowitz would do...but Steve McCurry? C'mon!I was also saddened to read that McCurry would be setting the shots, and choreographing the image-taking...the Leibowitz's style. While I'm told by various participants on his photo trips that he frequently stages scenes during his workshops, photographing celebrities requires a different type of discipline, and a different...

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Posted in: Photographers: Travel,POV

Jon Guido Bertelli: Last of Zapatistas

Photo © Jon Bertelli -All Rights ReservedJon Bertelli is an international photographer, who currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia, but was raised in Florence and academically trained in the visual arts there and in Oslo.He lived in Mexico in the late nineties, and documented the last surviving Zapatista fighters; the veterans of the 1910-20 Mexican Revolution of the South, led by the famed (and feared) Emiliano Zapata. While Pancho Villa's revolution was concentrated in the north of the country, Zapata and his insurgents represented the south.Jon photographed the surviving insurgents; most of which were over 100 years old. These were idealistic men and women who sacrificed their well-being and lives to follow Zapata. Many were decorated...

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Posted in: Mexico,Photographers: Photojournalists,Soundslides