My Work: Baneshwar Pind Daan

One of the highlights during my Tribes of South Rajasthan & Kutch Photo~Expedition™ was a few days spent photographing in Baneshwar during its annual fair, or mela. The Baneshwar mela is popular tribal gathering held in the Dungarpur district in south Rajasthan. The gathering is followed by a fair held at a small delta formed by the river Soma and Mahi. It's a relatively modest event, without...

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Ryan Pyle: Chinese Turkestan

Here's a feature by photographer Ryan Pyle on Chinese Turkestan, which touches on the Uyghur people and their efforts to preserve their cultural and religious practices in China.Chinese Turkestan is now known as Xinjiang, and is an autonomous region of mainland China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and borders Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, has abundant oil reserves and is...

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The Travel Photographer's 2011 Photo~Expeditions™

I am planning my forthcoming Photo~Expeditions™ for 2011, and thought I'd write a heads-up concerning the direction these will take in the next year.After some deliberation, I've decided to further accentuate the travel-documentary thrust of my photo~expeditions, and reduce the maximum number of participants to only 5 (excluding myself) on each trip. My recent expeditions have become so popular that...

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Jan Sochor: Nukak-Maku

Photo © Jan Sochor-All Rights ReservedJan Sochor has documented the Nukak Maku people, a nomadic indian tribe from the Amazon, who were driven out of the jungle by the Colombian guerrilla and paramilitary squads. More than half of the Nukak population have died of western diseases like flu. In refugee camps, the Nukak are taught from (mainly Christian) aid workers concepts and habits that were never...

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Gloria: Maestra de la Guelaguetza

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights ReservedPhoto © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights ReservedPhoto © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights ReservedDuring the Oaxaca Mini Photo~Expedition™ last week, we attended a Guelaguetza performance at one of the town's old hotels. I managed to get our group in the dancers' dressing room just before the performance, where we were introduced to Gloria, an experienced dancer who...

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Canon 5D Mark II: ATR6250 Microphone

Further to my post on microphones for the Canon 5D Mark II, and having decided to add one to my audio equipment, I walked over to B&H (see note below) today and bought the Audio-Technica ATR6250 Stereo Condenser Video/Recording Microphone. This is an extremely affordable stereo microphone, and I thought it would be ideal for use either on my Canon 5D Mark II or with my Marantz audio recorder....

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CNN: Haridwar Kumbh Mela

CNN brings us this short video, which was produced by Alex Zolbert, who traveled by train north of Delhi to witness and photograph the Dvitya Shahi Snan, or Second Royal Bath, on March 15, at the Ardh Kumbh Mela. Photographs by Palani Mohan are included in the piece. Palani's photographic career started at the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, and since then he has been based in London, Hong Kong, Bangkok, and now Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia.As I wrote...

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POV: Children Should Never Go Hungry

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights ReservedThe Zocalo, with its cultural activities, is the very heart of Oaxaca, and is a daily magnet for locals and tourists alike. It also attracts vendors of various trinkets, as well as poor children (all of them indigenous...possibly Zapotecs) who attempt to make a few pesos by selling chewing gum. Approaching the restaurants' tables occupied by tourists, these...

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The 500th Google Follower

I saw that my list of Google Followers have now grown to 500! This list is distinct from my Twitter and Facebook followers and friends, or from my subscribers to my newsletters.To commemorate this milestone, here's an introduction to the work of Karina Joseph, who is my 500th Google Follower. Karina Joseph is a freelance photographer working in Mumbai, and from what I've seen of her excellent photographs...

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Best Of Photojournalism: Dhiraj Singh

It gives me singular pleasure to learn that Dhiraj Singh was awarded Honorable Mention (Feature Audio Slideshow) in the NPPA's Best of Photojournalism 2010 for his My Name Is Dechen.Dhiraj attended my MultiMedia class at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Manali last summer, and not only received a standing ovation on showing his audio slideshow (Soundslides), but was also awarded Top Award For...

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The Travel Photographer's Pouches

Photo © Some Hot-Shot Photog I Forgot The Name OfHere's the exclusive opportunity that you've all been waiting for! I announce the "availability" of The Travel Photographer's Pouches which are for sale at the incredible price of only $89.99 a piece...or, if you're inclined to save, only $181.00 for two pouches. Yes, please do the math.The pouches are (probably) made in China of rugged black canvas,...

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Asim Rafiqui: The Kerala Journeys

Photo © Asim Rafiqui -All Rights ReservedA few weeks ago, I had just returned from my Tribes of South Rajasthan & Kutch Photo~Expedition™, and felt that I hadn't done enough in terms of street photography in the Kutch area of Gujarat. I, rather ludicrously, expected to photograph non-stop in its small villages that had seen few (if any) foreign tourists and when that didn't happen, I had to content...

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Oaxaca: La Guelaguetza

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights ReservedOur "almost-a-week-long" Oaxaca Mini Photo-Expedition™ was replete with daily serendipitous photo opportunities. Lynn Padwe, Carl Meisel, Li Lu-Porter, Maria Dikeos and I roamed the streets of this wonderful town in search of photographic scenes, and we weren't disappointed. Naturally, it was the Zocalo...the throbbing heart of Oaxaca, that offered the most...

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Ashley Gilbertson: Bedrooms of the Fallen

The New York Times Sunday Magazine has featured The Shrine Down The Hall: Bedrooms of America's Young War Dead, a powerful photo essay in slideshow format by photographer Ashey Gilbertson (VII Network), which looks at some of the empty bedrooms of the over 5000 U.S. military personnel killed in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan. Dexter Filkins starts his accompanying article with the words "Just kids"....

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Foundry Photo Workshop: Scholarships

Eric Beecroft of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop issued a press release announcing the winners of the Workshop 2010 Scholarships.It was difficult to choose amongst the plethora of so many superb and powerful entries from extremely talented photographers, especially from those whose work was somewhat outside the "traditional" photojournalism concept. The Foundry Photojournalism Workshop is amazed...

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Live From Oaxaca

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights ReservedAfter suffering the trauma of temporarily losing my checked-in luggage between Newark, Mexico City and Oaxaca, I was delighted to be reunited with my belongings a mere 4 hours later. Not too bad Mexicana Click!! Of course, I jumped the gun and bought toothpaste/toothbrush and some other essentials (even a t-shirt) just in case, but that story ended well.So...

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On The Road: Oaxaca

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights ReservedAs you read this, I should be on my way to Newark to catch my flight to Mexico, where I'll be conducting a short photo-expedition/workshop on street photography in the always delightful Oaxaca. Our small group will be staying at the Hotel Aitana, which will be our base for these 5 days. Although the hotel has internet facilities, I'll be posting somewhat...

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A Journey Through Asia: Canon 5D II

a journey through asia from ivan vania on Vimeo.Here's a short movie shot with a Canon 5D Mark II titled "A journey through Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The photography/videography (and editing) is by Ivan Vania, a filmmaker from Italy. The lens was a 24 mm-70mm 2.8, while the software was Final Cut Pro. Simple and effective...and an increasingly important component of travel photography. I think that ambient audio (instead of the current soundtrack)...

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Peter Turnley Does Rio's Carnaval

Photo © Peter Turnley -All Rights Reserved..."I became aware of the value of turning my attention away from the main event. So often, the temptation is to look where everyone else is looking. But, time after time, I have chosen to observe what’s going on by looking in the other direction—before, or after, or at the edges of the main attraction." - Peter TurnleyAnd that he did. Turnley's just featured...

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Dog Meets World: A Worthwhile Project

Giving a personal photograph to a stranger is one of the best, easiest and kindest things people can do for one another. It is an incredible vehicle for person-to-person diplomacy. Dog Meets World Founder, Carolyn LaneIn late 2008, Dog Meets World was founded to fulfill a dream to photograph the children of the world. To seek children in their own settings, print their image to keep for a lifetime....

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Chico Sanchez: The Way North

Photo © Chico Sanchez -All Rights ReservedOne of the most recent slideshows by Chico Sanchez is The Way North, which documents the plight of the hundreds of people from South and Central America as well as Mexico's poorest regions who pass through La Lecheria, a small factory town just outside Mexico City, on their way to the borders of the United States.Chico Sanchez is a freelance photographer based...

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Oaxaca Mini-Photo~Expedition

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights ReservedI'm getting my gear ready for my Oaxaca Photo~Expedition, scheduled for March 17-March 21. It's a short trip, a sort of mini photo~expedition...and will concentrate almost exclusively on street photography in this lovely small city in south Mexico. Walking the streets of the old historic center of Oaxaca is always a wonderful experience, and it cannot get...

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Frommer's Rights Grab

Bob Krist is mad...fighting mad.It sems that Frommer's have launched a photography contest calling for photographers to submit images to win the chance of seeing their work gracing the cover of a Frommer's future guide book. The winner will receive $5,000 while 4 runners up will receive Frommer's Prize pack containing three Frommer's Day by Day travel guides and a selection of Frommer's Lug travel...

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Karim Sahai: India

Karim Sahai is a photographer and feature films digital visual effects based in Wellington, New Zealand. Born in Guadeloupe, he worked on blockbusters such as Avatar, The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings, among others.I was hoping that his portfolio would include a wide variety of photographs from his birth country, but unfortunately he has only posted 5 images of Guadeloupe, a magnificent...

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Maynard Switzer: Dogon Mask Dances

Photo © Maynard Switzer -All Rights ReservedMaynard Switzer has recently returned from Mali, where he attended and photographed a Dogon mask dance. These dances are performed at several times during the year, and serve to celebrate the start of the rainy seasons to bring about abundant rainfall, at the end of the harvest seasons to ensure plentiful crops, and also as funerary rituals to commemorate...

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My Work: Wadha Girl

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights ReservedI'm almost done with editing my images made during my Tribes of South Rajasthan & Kutch Photo~Expedition™, and have added some images (including the one above) to the gallery Traversing The Kachchh. So drop by the gallery to see these new additions.This young Wadha girl was determined to be photographed with her pet goat. The Wadha are largely pastorals,...

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Tiana Markova-Gold: Haiti

Photo © Tiana Markova-Gold -All Rights ReservedHere's another post on Haiti.Tiana Markova-Gold is a documentary photographer based in Brooklyn, and graduated from the full-time Photojournalism Program at the ICP, where she was the recipient of a New York Times Scholarship. She traveled extensively in Latin America, Asia and Africa working on social documentary projects.Her work was recognized by New...

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Beken: Haiti's Troubadour

Photo © Todd Heisler/The New York Times -All Rights ReservedHere's a touching piece of multimedia that has Todd Heisler's fingerprints all over it. Heisler is the photographer of the "One in 8 Million" New York Times series that profiled 54 New Yorkers in weekly episodes from January 2009-January 2010.Profiled in the same fashion is Beken, born Jean-Prosper Deauphin, who sings songs about despair...

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Peter Turnley: The Williams Club (NYC)

On March 11th at The Williams Club in New York City, Peter Turnley will step out from behind the camera for a "show and tell" on the images that have made him one of the preeminent photojournalists of our times.The event titled Man With A Camera: An Illustrated Conversation With Peter Turnley is sponsored by the Williams Club and the Jeffrey O. Jones '66 Journalism Fellowship, which was established...

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Sharon Johnson-Tennant: Tribes of Rajasthan & Gujarat

Photo © Sharon Johnson-Tennant -All Rights ReservedHere are three photographs by Sharon Johnson-Tennant, one of the participants in my Tribes of Rajasthan & Gujarat Photo~Expedition, which I think exemplify her distinctive multi-faceted photographic style.Photo © Sharon Johnson-Tennant -All Rights ReservedSharon is a published photographer, who has traveled and trekked to various corners of the...

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NGM's Top Ten Photo of 2009

Photo © John Stanmeyer -All Rights ReservedChris Johns, the National Geographic Magazine's Editor In Chief, has listed the magazine's Top 10 Photos of the Year, which starts off the process by which its best 2009 photograph is picked. The photos cover a broad range of subject matter, from unexplored caves and endangered freshwater dolphins to the global food crisis and vanishing cultures. In 2009,...

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Aaron Huey: Mali's Dogon Country

Photo © Aaron Huey/NY Times -All Rights ReservedThe New York Times features a slideshow of Aaron Huey's photographs of the Dogon area of Mali. The Dogon, one of Africa's most isolated ethnic groups, live in the central plateau region of Mali, south of the Niger bend near the city of Bandiagara in the Mopti region. The population is estimated at between 400,000 to 800,000.The Dogon are best known for...

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8th Annual Smithsonian Photo Contest

Photo © Matty Karp -All Rights ReservedPhoto © Amit Kumar Chatterjee -All Rights ReservedThe 8th Annual Smithsonian Photo Contest is scheduled to begin on March 1, 2010. Contestants can enter photographs in five categories—Altered Images, Americana, The Natural World, People and Travel—that represent subjects of special interest to the magazine. Fifty finalists will be selected, ten for each of the...

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Clive Evans: Morocco

Timeless Morocco - Images by Clive EvansBorn in England, Clive travels the world (especially Europe) from his homes in Southern France and Ireland. His years of traveling and documenting Europe and its people result in images expressing individuals, their cultures, and their environments--often with a visual twist. Clive is also a founder member of Lumen, an international photographer's cooperative with members in Norway, France, Switzerland, Ireland,...

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Aaron Joel Santos: Vietnam

Photo © Aaron Joel Santos -All Rights ReservedAaron Joel Santos is a freelance editorial, travel and documentary photographer based in Hanoi, Vietnam. His photographs have been published in a number of international magazines, as well as galleries in the United States, Vietnam and Malaysia. He was an attendee in the 2009 Eddie Adams Workshop.via The Cli...

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Alfredo Bini: Monlan Festival

Alfredo Bini has always taken photographs, and found his own personal form of expression in reportage photography. He concentrates on documenting stories of social relevance, and hopes that his images increases public awareness on these issues.I thought of featuring Alfredo's work of the Monlan festival at the time when China is publicly positioning the Panchen Lama as the legitimate representative of Tibetan Buddhism, and to undermine the popularity...

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Mark Coughlan: Ardh Kumbh Mela

Photo © Mark Coughlan -All Rights ReservedA number of photographers (and others are still on their way) have attended the Ardh Kumbh Mela in Haridwar, despite the restrictions on those who didn't have a Journalist visa and press credentials. I am told that the restrictions were only applied on the main bathing ghat, and that there were ample opportunities to photograph the spectacular characters who...

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Foreign Policy Magazine: Photo Essays

Photo © Antonin Kratochvil/VII -All Rights ReservedI didn't realize that the website of the venerable Foreign Policy Magazine was following in the footsteps of other media by featuring large sized photographs. These photo essays generally follow FP's international focus, such as The Shooting War, an exclusive collection of work by well-known conflict photographers who explain how they captured the...

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Grenville Charles: Tribes of West Papua

Grenville Charles is a freelance photographer, whose main body of work is in TV and film stills for the BBC and Granada Television amongst others. Passionate about tribal cultures led him to travel to Asia where he photographed the Vietnam Hill Tribes of the central highlands, and to the remote jungles of West Papua to document the Dani, Korowai, Mek, Kombai and Asmat tribes. His portfolio of the...

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Traversing The Kachchh

One of the galleries of photographs made during my Tribes of South Rajasthan & Kutch Photo~Expedition™ is here.The Kutch or Kachchh district is in the Gujarat state of western India. It's the second largest district of India. It is inhabited by various nomadic and semi-nomadic ethnic groups and minorities. Many of these reached this area after centuries of migration from Western Rajasthan, Sindh,...

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