My Show-off: Pankawallah

Photograph © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
This is my second photograph for the Show-Off feature with an example of my personal photography on The Travel Photographer's blog. Click on the photograph to view it larger size. I used Lightroom 2.0 to accentuate the photograph's saturation. It was photographed with a Canon 28-70mm 2.8L at 28mm 1/60 sec at f 7.1

This is Muhammed Jashem, a pankawallah and one of the more colorful caretakers at the Nizzam Uddin dargah, an ancient and popular Muslim shrine in Delhi. The dargahs (there are a few in Delhi) are my favorite haunts for environmental portraiture.

A pankawallah is someone who works a ‘pankah', a large cloth fan on a frame, and in this specific case, fans the dargah's devotees while they're performing their prayers, or listening to qawwali songs. The dargah pankawallah does not expect tips, but gladly accepts if these are offered. Muhammed is also in charge of lighting wood coal for the burning of incense at the shrine.

Here are more of my photographs of Indian Raga.