Interview on James Robinson's Blog

I'm privileged to have been interviewed by James Robinson for his outstanding blog, which you can find here.Thank you James for including me on your roster of photographe...

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John Delaney: Mongolia

Photo © John P. Delaney-All Rights ReservedJohn P. Delaney’s series titled “Golden Eagle Hunters of Mongolia” garnered him one of the International Photography Awards' most coveted prizes. His work was chosen out of nearly 22,000 submissions spanning 124 different countries. Delaney is also a Master Printer working closely with photographers such as Bruce Davidson, Richard Avedon, Patrick Demarchelier,...

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WSJ Photo Journal: Kathakali

Photo © Arko Datta-All Rights ReservedA Kathakali dancer in the traditional South Indian dance, performing at the recent Kala Ghoda Festival of Arts in Mumbai. The nine-day festival showcases Indian arts and heritage.I'm currently in Kasargod (Kerala) on my Theyyams of Malabar photo-expedition, and on my way to Thrissur and Kochi where we are planning to attend and photograph Kathakali performanc...

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James Nachtwey: Congo

TIME magazine has published a photo essay by James Nachtwey of VII, along with an article by Ben Affleck, an actor, who has traveling to Congo since 2007 to learn, and to report. Affelck writes:"The warring parties in the east can be distilled into three main groups: the Congolese army; a breakaway faction composed mainly of Tutsis, led by a former general, Laurent Nkunda; and an outlaw militia, the...

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The Big Picture: Tibet's Monlam Festival

Photo ©REUTERS/Reinhard Krause-All Rights ReservedThe Big Picture of the Boston Globe featured photographs of Tibet's Monlam Festival. Tibetans observe this important festival with prayers, ritual dances, traditional foods and giant tapestry-like paintings. Chinese officials have prohibited the festival in the past, and still discourage participation, but ethnic Tibetans are maintaining their traditional...

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David Zentz: Haiti's Saut D'Eau

Photo ©David Zentz-All Rights ReservedDavid Zentz is a photojournalist based in Los Angeles, California. Following his master’s in mass communications at the University of Florida in 2005, David completed internships at a number of newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune and the St. Petersburg Times, before a full-time position at the Journal Star. In 2008 he left newspapers and moved to Los Angeles...

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Chris Bickfrod: Paris

Chris Bickfrod made his first appearance on this blog through his work published by The New York Times on Venice's Carnevale. Funding his expenses by working as a wedding photographer mostly in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, he devotes his summers and early winters to traveling to Europe and working on his street photography. He started work on books of Dubrovnik, Venice, and Paris. In an infrequent...

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Canon 5D Mark II Microphones

Kevin Reylek at B&H wrote an article on Recording Great-Sounding Audio with the Canon EOS 5D MkII, and listing 6 different options for affixing a microphone to the camera. These options vary in terms of price and quality...and practicality. During my photo expedition in South India, I will test my own option, which is just plugging a Sony ECM-DS30P into the camera's audio in port. This is probably...

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Around the World with TPN

Members of Travel Photographers Network (TPN) have collaborated to create a photo-book of juried travel images called "Around the World with TPN". The images in the book were selected by 6 judges (including Kah Kit Yoong, and David duChemin) and the books layout was created by professional graphic designed and photographer Sarah Clarehart. Some of the 50 photographers with work presented in the...

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Alessandra Meniconzi: Hidden China

I now have Alessandra Meniconzi's new book Hidden China, which I've enthusiastically perused all last week. As I previously posted, this book explores some of the most remote regions of China and brings to life a world far removed from the great metropolises, a world nearly forgotten, where the people continue to live their traditional lifestyles largely undisturbed. If you are interested in minority...

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POV: Mentorships

Photo ©Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedA recent spate of photography mentorships and scholarships have appeared on my radar screen...and for obvious reasons, some more than others.For instance, the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops recently announced that it offers the opportunity "of working with a mentor to expand your photographic knowledge and skills, and to refine your photographic personality."....

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Jean Michel Clajot: Sacrification

Jean-Michel Clajot is a Belgian photographer, who began his career with a trip to Somalia. He worked for various newspapers, most recently with News Press Agencies in Brussels. Concentrating on Africa, he signed up with Cosmos Photo Agency in Paris for the worldwide distribution of his work, and with Aurora Photos for North American sales.He has been working for the past three years on " Scarification...

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One Shot: Aloha Diao Lavina: Bali

Photo ©Aloha Diao Lavina-All Rights ReservedAloha 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...

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Aurora Novus

Aurora Photos has launched a new company, Aurora Novus, to cater to the needs of clients' demand for video, motion picture and interactive content, and for storytelling.The new company seeks to offer a "one-stop visual solution" to such clients. It's not a new approach, with Media Storm being a well-known industry leader in this particular field.Another reason to check out Aurora Novus' website is...

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NY Times: Venice's Carnevale

Photo ©Chris Bickford-All Rights ReservedThe Venice Carnevale is starting in earnest this weekend, and the New York Times has published a slideshow to remind us of the event. It has been celebrated on and off throughout the ages, in different ways and intensity.The word carnevale comes from the Latin for "goodbye, meat!". As Lent (which begins on Ash Wednesday) obliged people to fast, all meat, butter...

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Innocence: Child Soldiers of Sri Lanka

Here's Innocence: Child Soldiers of Sri Lanka, a SoundSlides production by duckrabbit multimedia, with the song of Irish singer Luka Bloom.Before 2007, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebel movement was accused of recruiting thousands of children into their ranks. The LTTE has been accused of knowingly recruiting and using child soldiers as front-line troops. Amid international pressure, LTTE...

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One Shot: Peter Bendheim: Sangoma

Photo ©Peter Bendheim-All Rights ReservedPeter 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,...

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Matt Brandon: Thaipusam

Matt Brandon, aka The Digital Trekker, has just produced an audio slideshow using the SoundSlides platform of his photographs of Thaipusam in Penang. Some 800,000 Hindu Tamil and Chinese devotees of Muruga (also called Subramaniam), the Hindu God of War, gathered in Penang to celebrate Thaipusam, and Matt was there to record the images and ambient sound.In contrast to the nervous energy from his pulsating...

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Medford Taylor: El Corazon de Mexico

Photo ©Medford Taylor-All Rights ReservedIt is a delight to bring Medford Taylor, a photographer with an incredible eye for color, to the virtual pages of The Travel Photographer. Since 1974 Medford worked on assignment for Time Magazine, Newsweek, GEO, National Geographic magazine and National Geographic Traveler, among others. His photographs have been published in various books and publications...

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Robot Posts

As I'm getting swamped in my final preparations for the imminent departure of my Theyyams of Malabar photo-expedition, I've set up and scheduled various posts which will be posted during as many days of my absence as possible. This will ensure an uninterrupted stream of posts for a while so readers of The Travel Photographer continue to read one of their favorite blogs as long as possible. I will...

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Foundry PJ Workshop 2009: Update

The Foundry Photojournalism Workshop has announced the availability of three separate tuition scholarships which will benefit 6 photojournalists.Separately, Eric Beecroft just announced that the Foundry Photojournalism Workshops and N11/Lightstalkers are pleased and proud to announce the two winners of the full tuition Lightstalkers Foundry Workshop Scholarships. The winners for 2009 are Ashwini Bhatia...

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New York Photo Festival: May 13-17

The New York Photo Festival, which drew positive reviews when it debuted last year, has changed its plans to expand from four to 10 days in 2009. After announcing last year that the festival would take place May 14 to 24, NYPH '09 quietly rescheduled for May 13 to 17.Festival co-founder Frank Evers said the change was the result of programming decisions, with the slowdown in the economy being a lesser concern. It made more sense to make the festival...

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Marantz PMD 620

I finally succumbed. I dropped by B&H yesterday to check on whether they had any Canon 5D Mark II batteries in stock, and walked out with a Marantz PMD 620 audio recorder. But first things first; the LP-E6 Rechargeable Lithium-Ion batteries are unavailable. The salesman said that there were none available in the United States...perhaps an exaggeration, but probably not that far off. I guess the...

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BBC: Lalibela's Bet Maryam

Photo ©Karoki Lewis-All Rights ReservedI'm not too fond of the BBC these days as a result of its unconscionable decision not to air the Gaza appeal, however it has recently published an interesting audio slideshow with photographs and audio by Karoki Lewis, and produced by Phil CoomesAs part of a series looking at religious pilgrimages around the world, Karoki recorded the all night ceremony at Bet...

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Simon Norfolk: Future of Photography

My apologies for spoiling your Sunday, but here's a sobering interview by Simon Norfolk on the World Press Photo website. I would say that two of his predictions for the future are ones that forward-looking photographers have certainly realized for a while, and have acted upon already. There are quite a number of "masterclasses" that have sprung up recently, such as Gary Knight and Philip Blenkinsop...

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Some Canon 5D II's Fail in Antartica: Luminous Landscape

Michael Reichmann of Luminous Landscape has written a detailed report on his 2-week long photo expedition to Antarctica, and what has worked and hasn't. He writes this about the Canon 5D Mark II cameras used by some of the participants on the expedition:"The largest group of failures though were among the Canon 5D MKIIs. Of the 26 samples of this camera onboard, one quarter (six) failed at one time...

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Jason Larkin: Cairo's Souq El Gomma

Photo ©Jason Larkin-All Rights ReservedJason Larkin is a British photographer currently based in Cairo, and works extensively throughout the Middle East region. Recent commissions include Monocle, FT Magazine, L’Espresso, New York Times, Der Spiegiel, and The Guardian. Jason chose the unusual subject of Souq El Gomma (Market of the Friday) to feature on his website, which he describes as "an exploration...

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Chico Sanchez: Island of the Dolls

Photo © Chico Sanchez -All Rights ReservedHere's an audio slideshow on the SoundSlides' platform by photographer Chico Sanchez with the audio production by Leslie Mazoch titled The Island of the Dolls.The island of the dolls is in the heart of the Xochimilco's canals, and has an unusual history. It is said that since the early 1950's, Julián Santana Barrera began collecting discarded dolls. He lived...

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Canon 5D Mark II: CPN Video

The Canon Professional Network has put together an informative series of videos on the Canon 5D Mark II. These are presented by CPN's Technical Editor David Newton, who is also a professional photographer and photography tutor for Canon use...

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Zackary Canepari: The Raika of India

Photo © Zackary Canepari-All Rights ReservedZackary Canepari is an freelance editorial photographer based in New Delhi, India and whose self-description on his website is "I am a photographer". That's the extent of his biography. His photographs have appeared in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, IHT, The San Francisco Chronicle and others.He recently was awarded first place in the Travel Portraits...

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Tyler Hicks: War In El Atatra

© Tyler Hicks/NYTimes-All Rights ReservedThe New York Times (perhaps in a spasm of conscience) has published a slideshow of Tyler Hicks' photographs showing the absolute devastation of a village in Gaza. The War In El Atatra presents raw images of what Tyler saw and documented of this unfortunate village, and tells a piece of a story that will resonate and haunt those who've kept silent about the...

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Ethiopia's Saint by Cyril le Tourneur d’Ison

© Cyril le Tourneur d’Ison/LightMediation-All Rights ReservedFrom the Lightmediation Photo Agency comes this very interesting photo story by photographer Cyril le Tourneur d’Ison. It's this kind of photographic storytelling that merges ethnography and religious traditions which interest me the most in travel photography, and this subject matter is particularly captivating because it's virtually unknown...at...

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TTP's Twittering & on Duckrabbit's Island

The Travel Photographer's posts are now on Twitter!!! As many of you know, Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.Not only that, but should duckrabbit multimedia be stuck on a desert island and could take one blog along with them, it would be the Travel Photographer!Benjamin Chesterton,...

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Foundry PJ Workshop 2009: Scholarships!!!

Eric Beecroft, director of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop, has announced scholarships for emerging photojournalists to attend the workshop in Manali, India.The scholarships are from The Travel Photographer and REDUX Pictures. The terms and conditions of The Travel Photographer scholarship are:1. Full scholarship of $450 for a South Asian photojournalists. (South Asian countries include India,...

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Paolo Pellegrin: Guantánamo

From Magnum Photos' In Motion comes a photo essay by Paolo Pellegrin on Guantánamo. This certainly is a topical issue since President Obama announced his administration's decision to close the controversial maximum security camp. The United States Supreme Court ruled that prisoners held as “enemy combatants” in Guantánamo could file habeas corpus petitions in US district courts challenging the legality...

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One Shot: Sandra Chandler: Carnavale

Photo ©Sandra Chandler-All Rights ReservedAs Venice Carnavale will be celebrated in less than two weeks (mid-February 2009); essentially starting two weeks before Ash Wednesday and ending on Mardi Gras or Fat Tuedsay, here's a lovely (and an award-winning) photograph of a masked reveler by photographer Sandra Chandler.Sandra is a photographer and interior designer based in San Francisco. She tells...

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WSJ Photo Journal: Magh Mela

Photo ©Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP-All Rights ReservedThe WSJ's Photo Journal published this photograph of Hindu devotees offering prayers on Mauni Amavasya, or new moon day, the third and the most auspicious date of bathing during the annual month long Hindu religious event of Magh Mela in Allahabad, India which begins begins on January 11 and ends on February 23, 2009.The Magh Mela is held on the banks...

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