One Shot: NYT's Rina Castelnuovo

Photo © Rina Castelnuovo-All Rights Reserved
The New York Times' Lens blog features the work of Rina Castelnuovo in Palestine & Israel. Essentially a "smooch" job by the writer, but there's no denying that she deserves every word of it.

After all, she's the photographer who captured the infamous photograph of the thuggish Israeli settler tossing wine at a Palestinian woman on Shuhada Street in Hebron.

Amongst Ms Castelnuovo's photographs on the Lens blog, I chose the one above as my favorite. The photograph is of a group of Haredi Jews (or Haredim) during a festival in the Mea Shearim district of Jerusalem. The Haredim are Ultra-Orthodox Jews who consider their belief system and rituals to extend in an unbroken chain back to Moses.

I'm intrigued by some of the hats worn by these Haredim. The fur hats worn by some are called spodik while the flat ones are called shtreimel, however I can't figure those worn by the fellows on the left of the photograph which resemble white fezzes complete with black tassels.

The fez of course, is the well-known red hat with tassel of the Ottoman Empire, which was popular in its dominions such as Egypt, the Maghreb and some Greek islands. The fez was banned by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk as being regressive.

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Posted in: One Shot,Photographers: Photojournalists,Photojournalism

One Shot: Arun Bhat

Photo ©Arun Bhat-All Rights Reserved.
Arun Bhat is a travel photographer and writer based in Bangalore. He has been traveling all over India for past five years, especially the mountain regions, photographing the country's diverse culture and landscapes. He's also the author of The Painted Stork travel blog, and rides a Royal Enfield Bullet Thunderbird motorcycle during his travels across India.

While on my Theyyams of Malabar photo-expedition, I came across Arun as we were photographing a Theyyam ceremony at the Trikannad Temple near Kasargode. He mentions our encounter here, where you will find many more of his well composed images of the Theyyam. He captioned the above image of the Theyyam as practicing the raudra rasa, or anger expression, by looking at his refection in a hand mirror. (The image is not as sharp as the original sent by Arun...that's because I had to enlarge a bit for the blog).

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Posted in: India,One Shot,Photographers: Travel

One Shot: Fabiano Busdraghi

Photo ©Fabiano Busdraghi-All Rights Reserved.
I haven't posted a One Shot feature in quite a while, and Fabiano's work in Antarctica seemed just right for it.

Fabiano Busdraghi is a Milan-born Italian photographer. He has a master in Physics at the University of Pisa, and another in Oceanography and Meteorology at the University Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris where he now lives and works. He recently took photography and writing as his full time occupation, traveling to various remore areas of the world including Antarctica.

Fabiano's photographic works range from travel, reportage and more artistic and personal work. He works in digital and traditional photography, and has been using alternative techniques, such as palladium and platinum, gum bichromate, cyanotype, Van Dyke Brown, and carbon prints.

His main website is here.

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Posted in: One Shot,Photographers: Travel

One Shot: Aloha Diao Lavina: Bali

Photo ©Aloha Diao Lavina-All Rights Reserved
Aloha Diao Lavina's photographs have been featured in Estamos! a lifestyle magazine in Ecuador, in an illustrated poetry book in the US, and various online magazines including Utata Tribal Photography. She won second place in the Betterphoto contest, and is a fellow of the Bangkok Photographic Society, and a featured photographer of Fotegrafik, an image bank in Singapore.

Aloha, apart from being a multi-faceted photographer, is also a doctoral student researching the interaction of culture and creativity in children.

From her many excellent galleries, I chose the above photograph for the One Shot feature, and it's from her Eye on Bali. Her travel galleries include Myanmar, Rajasthan, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos.

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Posted in: Bali,One Shot,Photographers,Photographers: Travel

One Shot: Peter Bendheim: Sangoma

Photo ©Peter Bendheim-All Rights Reserved
Peter Bendheim is a documentary photographer in Durban, South Africa. He's represented by africapictures.net and his work is part of the permanent collection of the Durban Art Gallery, and his documentary work was exhibited in various galleries to include on the Digital Journalist website.

Peter's favorite photographers are Sebastiao Salgado, W. Eugene Smith, Gary Winogrand and Martin Parr. His favorite camera equipment is Nikon, and is the editor and principal photographer of MetroBeat, a full color magazine of 400,000 copies in circulation. He also worked with the National Geographic Traveler magazine on a specific assignment.

I chose his portrait of sangomas for this post. Sangomas are practitioners of herbal medicine, divination and counseling in traditional the Zulu, Xhosa, Ndebele and Swazi societies of Southern Africa. The practice is based on a belief in ancestral spirits.

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Posted in: Africa,One Shot,Photographers: Photojournalists,Photojournalism

One Shot: Anoop Negi

Image Copyright © Anoop Negi-All Rights Reserved
Anoop Negi is a photographer from India, whose above photograph of a Theyyam dancer in Kerala can only be described in my view as "National Geographic" quality. I found his work on Flickr, but his biography is sparse.

This photograph is of a dancer symbolizing a male deity in the dance form popularly known as "Theyyam". Theyyam is a popular ritual dance of north Kerala,generally performed in front of the village shrines, and also performed as ancestor worship with elaborate rites and rituals.

In earlier posts on TTP, here and here, I wrote this on Theyyam: Theyyam is a popular ritual dance of north Kerala, south India, particularly presented in the Kannur and Kasargode districts. It originates from centuries old traditions, rituals and customs, and as such embraces almost all castes and classes of Hindu religion in this region. The term Theyyam is a corrupt form of daivam or God. It is a rare combination of dance and music and reflects important features of a tribal culture.

Anoop Negi's Flickr page is here.

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Posted in: India,One Shot,Photographers: Travel

One Shot: Goran Tomasevic

Image Copyright © Goran Tomasevic-All Rights Reserved
I chanced on this great photograph on the MSNBC photoblog (link below). The photograph is by Goran Tomasevic for Reuters, and is of an Afghan little boy looking at Dutch soldiers as they search his family's home in the Uruzagu province in Afghanistan. Tomasevic photographs for Reuters, and has made quite a name for himself in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mish Whalen, one of MSNBC's multimedia editors (who must've chosen this photograph for inclusion on the blog) commented on the photograph by writing this: "This photo caught my eye at first glance. I love the one eye of the woman on the left peeking out from the hood."

Whaaaat?!!! Ms Whalen ignores the overall tension in the scene, ignores the fear in this little boy's eyes, glosses over the apprehension in the woman's eye, and ignores the mother's protective crouch over her children... and crows about the "eye peeking out"?

Yes, I know...it's a storm in a teacup, but I'm just saying.

MSNBC's Photo Blog

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Posted in: Afghanistan,One Shot,Photojournalism

One Shot: Tatiana Cardeal

Image Copyright ©Tatiana Cardeal -All Rights Reserved
Tatiana Cardeal is a Brazilian independent photographer based in Sao Paulo, who spent her early career as an art director and graphic designer for international magazines. She decided to shift her focus to photography and document social, cultural and human right issues in 2003.

Her particular interest in South American indigenous people started at an early age, when she studied indigenous traditions and cultures. She calls her photography "social photography" because of the consequences and possible social changes that evolve from it. Her photographs can be interpreted as a denunciation, a call for action or a petition to help indigenous people by respecting them, respecting their land, their economy, their needs and their culture.

Tatiana says that her projects are long term in nature...some take at least 4 years to complete...but despite the difficulties, the lack of funding and the skepticism and frequent bureaucratic obstacles, she perseveres in documenting the various South American indigenous people. With the quality of her photography and her tenacity, I hope she is successful in her noble objectives.

Tatiana Cardeal's Blog

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Posted in: Brazil,One Shot,Photographers: Travel

NY Times: Christian Lebanon

Image Copyright © Bryan Denton for The New York Times-All Rights Reserved
An interesting slideshow and an accompanying article from the New York Times deals with the current political situation in Lebanon...interesting to those who follow events in the Middle East. Robert Fisk, the preeminent journalist at the Independent newspaper and bestselling author, who's an expert on Lebanon (and the Middle East), has warned repeatedly that the Lebanese are on the edge of a civil war.

The article in the NY Times highlights that the current "struggle is over who gets to be the next president, a post reserved for a Christian under Lebanon’s Constitution, and which must be filled by the end of November. But the larger question — one that is prompting rival Christian factions to threaten war — is whether Lebanese Christians must accept their minority status and get along with the Muslim majority or whether Christians should insist on special privileges no matter what their share of the population."

Isn't majority rule one of the fundamental principles of democracy?

Another telling paragraph in the article: "The Christians allied with Hezbollah have had to overcome their own deeply entrenched prejudice against Muslims, Mr. Franjieh said: “We were always taught that we were superior to the Muslims. Now we must realize they are our brothers, and we must help each other.”

Ah, yes...the poison of religious racism.

In my view, Muslim political dominance in Lebanon is inevitable...it'll either be achieved by changing the country's constitution or through civil war.

The slideshow is of photographs by Bryan Denton.

Here's The New York Times' Christian Lebanon Registration may be required.

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Posted in: One Shot,Photojournalism

One Shot: Subhash Sharma

Image Copyright © Subhash Sharma-All Rights Reserved
Subhash Sharma is a freelance photographer based in Mumbai, who frequently chooses his own photo stories rather than those handed over to him by editors. An admirer of the works of Ernst Haas, Andre Kersetz, and Sebastiao Salgado, he's primarily interested in photographing ordinary people in their daily environment and circumstances. His first book titled “Digital Glimpses Of India” was well received, and his forthcoming book “ The Land Of The Holymen “ is currently under print and explores the lifestyle of the Naga Sadhus (naked aescetics) of India.

For this week's One Shot feature, I chose Subhash's sobering photograph of Maina Bai, a Jain in the process of committing the act of Santhara. This is a procedure in which a Jain stops eating with the intention of preparing for death. It is differentiated from suicide as it is not done in an emotional state of mind, but is undertaken only when the body is no more capable of serving its owner as a instrument of sprituality and when inevitability of death is a matter of undisputed certainty.

Subhash tells me that Maina succumbed after 25 days of Santhara. She felt guilty that it was taking so long for her to die as her guru and disciples had to wait. He was witness to Maina's final days, and was awed by the certainty in her decision.

There's an ethical debate in India concerning the legality of Santhara. In India, euthanasia is banned and suicide is a crime, but proponents of Santhara argue that it cannot be termed as suicide... the persons who undertake it do so with an open mind and conscious thought, and it's part of the Jain religion and customs, traditions and rituals are protected by India's constitutional guarantees.

Subhash's other photographs on Bishnois, Jainism, Pushkar, Indian Islam, the festivals of Kumbh Mela, Holi and Dahi Handi can be seen in his Photoshelter Galleries

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Posted in: India,One Shot,Photographers: Photojournalists