Travel Online Guide

Monday, August 8, 2011

Rick Sammon's Travel Photo Tips

Photograph Rick Sammon-All Rights Reserved
Photographer Rick Sammon offers some travel photography tips for getting those images that are frequently (or not) elusive for some of us. There are quite a number of such tips, ranging from Dressing for Success to Drag the Shutter to Create a Sense of Motion.

Most of the tips are aimed at part-time photographers, and I agree with all of them except the final one...and that's the one in which Rick suggests paying a small fee to adults in exchange for their picture. I seldom pay people for photographs unless they are performers who earn a living from their craft, and expect something in return. Naturally, we all have our personal techniques, and there are no absolutes...however I espouse a somewhat contrary view.

You can also read my POV: The Ten Commandments, which is the most popular post on The Travel Photographer's blog in terms of readership numbers.

(Via Imaging Insider)

Photo © Paula Marina-All Rights Reserved
Born in Recife, Brazil, Paula Marina is a journalist and photographer who currently lives and works in in Sao Paulo. She started photography at the tender age of 18 years old, attending various courses at SENAC, and working with prints and enlargements in a makeshift darkroom in her bathroom.

Her website showcases a broad panoply of photographic interests, ranging from fine art to more travel oriented photography, however what caught my attention was her photo essay on Iemanjá.

Iemanjá is the Goddess of the Water in the Brazilian Candomblé and Umbanda religions, and December 31 is when, in addition to celebrating New Year’s Eve, large crowds of its adherents are celebrating the Festa de Iemanjá near Rio's beaches. The goddess is offered flowers, gifts, perfume and rice which are cast into the water.

Like Santeria, it is basically a possession religion in which adherents assume the form of deities, both for worship and magic.

I've waxed lyrical many times about Alessandra Meniconzi's Hidden China book, and it was with great pleasure that I realized she recently updated (and enhanced) her website with absolutely magnificent photographs of minorities in China, structured along the same chapters in her book.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If there's one travel photography book you ought to have on China, this is the one. If this still doesn't convince you, I believe the imagery you'll find on her Hidden China website will. This is travel photography and ethno-photography at its best.

As background, Alessandra Meniconzi is a Swiss photographer fascinated by the lives and traditions of indigenous people in remote regions of the world. After many years of working in Asia, she traveled in Iceland and became interested in the Arctic. She is the sole photographer for the books Hidden China (2008), Mystic Iceland (2007), and The Silk Road (2004), and she is currently working on the new book about Tibet, Arctic and Himalaya.

Alessandra was featured here on TTP.

"Intro To Multimedia Storytelling" Class

Three participants in my Intro To Multimedia Storytelling class at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop (FPW) produced stunning slideshow photo essays, and I thought it would be interesting to write about their contrasting photographic and personal styles.

I taught my class' participants to concentrate on the story, rather than on the application, and how to make quick work of slideshow production (SoundSlides), using their own images and audio generated in the field, and to produce a cogent photo story under the simulation of publishing deadlines.

Except for Dhiraj's slideshow which is already online (see below for link), the two remaining slideshows will appear on The Travel Photographer when Mohit and Yasin upload them on their own websites/blogs.

Photo © Dhiraj Singh-All Rights Reserved
My Name is Dechen by Dhiraj Singh

Dhiraj Singh is a photojournalist and editorial photographer in Mumbai, whose work has appeared in various international publications including Newsweek, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC among others.

For My Name is Dechen, a gripping tale of Tibetan woman afflicted with psychological problems, Dhiraj received the top student award for photography during the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop's final evening. He worked incredibly hard and creatively to produce this multimedia black & white photo essay. He was already quite comfortable in producing slideshows using SoundSlides, so it was a matter of editing his images, and sync'ing Dechen's audio with the stills.

Dhiraj quickly grasped the flip book technique, and inserted well-paced scenes of Dechen singing and dancing. No one can produce such an intimate photo essay unless he or she possesses the interpersonal skills to gain the confidence of the subject. There's no question that Dhiraj's work with this photo essay underscores his inherent compassion (he confided to me that he teared up more than once while photographing Dechen), patience and kindness.

Here's is the complete multimedia My Name Is Dechen.

Photo © Yasin Dar-All Rights Reserved
Shyam, The Street Barber by Dar Yasin

Yasin is an award winning photojournalist, and stumbled into photography after studying computers in South Indian city of Bangalore. He contributes regularly to the Associated Press and Onasia, an international news agency based in Bangkok. His work appears in leading international publications including Washington Post, New York Times, Time Magazine, and others. He won international and national awards recognizing his work.

He participated in a FPW panel discussing the difficulties of photographing in South Asia, and explained that by living in Srinagar, he was confronted on a daily basis with unimaginable violence and bloodshed. It was therefore very interesting from my standpoint (and presumably, from his) to see him tackle a comparatively sedate and non challenging task as photographing and interviewing a street barber in Manali. Used to dodge bullets, canisters of tear gas, policemen's lathis and demonstrators' abuse, Yasin smilingly told me that this assignment "felt different".

As I wrote in an earlier post, Yasin photographed and recorded his chosen project in an hour or so, basing it on the One in 8 Million series of the New York Times.

Photo © Mohit Gupta-All Rights Reserved

Thankas by Mohit Gupta

Originally hailing from Himachal Pradesh, Mohit Gupta is an independent photographer based in New Delhi, who specializes in travel and documentary photography. He received his tertiary education in one of India’s most prestigious engineering schools – BITS, Pilani, and upon completing his studies in Computer Science in 2001, he joined Adobe Systems. It's a no brainer as who was the man to go to when anyone in our class needed technical assistance!

For Mohit, photography is a serious medium for expression. A self taught photographer, he is mainly interested in documenting culture, traditions, rituals and religion, and has traveled within South East Asia to do just that. He also works with NGOs and helps them documenting their work.

A perfectionist with a keen visual eye for colors and shadows, Mohit spent a number of days improving his presentation. Not easily satisfied, he was constantly refining his audio recordings until he got what he wanted, and then spent hours sync'ing it as precisely as humanly possible.

As I said in my opening remarks at the Foundry Workshop, I learned from the class participants much more than they did from me. I hope it's obvious why.

Poras Chaudhary: Colors of India

Poras Chaudhary is a freelance photojournalist and a documentary photographer, who started photography in earnest in 2005. Influenced by the work of various Magnum photographers, he is self-taught photographer and prefers highly saturated color work.

He won a number of awards including the Digital Camera Magazine’s ‘Photographer of the Year’ award in 2006, National Geographic Traveler’s photo contest Merit Award winner in 2008 as well as being a Runner Up in ‘Epson Color Imaging Contest 2008’.

While the above image is of Poras' gallery "Festival of Colors", I'd suggest you also navigate to his Ladakh gallery, where you'll see one of the best photographs of his collection; the three Bakarwal shepherds.

Holi, also called the Festival of Colors, is a popular Hindu spring festival observed in India, Nepal,Bangladesh, and countries with large Hindu diaspora, and is said to have a medicinal reasons. The spring season is believed to cause viral fever and cold, and the colored powders used during the festival are made of Ayurvedic medicinal herbs.

Perhaps we should try this out to combat H1N1 flu infections?

"posted by TTP robot"

Based in Mumbai, Ajit Patel is an award-winning freelance advertising photographer, with the background of having produced documentary movies in London.

His website reflects his initial passion for black & white, but that has evolved to color. His favorite camera is the Hassleblad X-Pan because, as he puts it, he enjoys the space it provides in composing visual elements.

There are a number of galleries which demonstrate Ajit's careful composition and love of colors. For instance, his photographs in the Indian Colors gallery underscore these very talents. And perhaps influenced by Degas, Ajit shows us a lovely subdued mood in his gallery titled Ballet School.

A versatile photographer, Ajit's galleries is certainly worth your time...I only wish his photographs were shown in a larger size to appreciate them better.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
Alongside a participant (who's somewhat visible in one of the mirrors) in my multimedia class at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Manali, who's presenting a photo story about street barbers, I photographed some of them in one of the main alleys of the small town. It seems that these particular street barbers have been working on the same site for over 35 years, and they (as evidenced by the constant stream of clients) have a thriving business, despite their protestation to the contrary.

The Foundry Photojournalism Workshop is, by all accounts, a terrific success and its finale is today in the evening where some 70 students will present their work, after a face off with their instructors in a "friendly" game of cricket.

Jonas Bendiksen: The Places We Live

Jonas Bendiksen began his photography career as a 19-year-old intern in the London office of Magnum Photos. Eventually leaving office life to travel through Russia and pursue his own work as a photojournalist, he worked on numerous projects throughout the world, including his ongoing project about the world's slums.

The installation for "The Places We Live" project was developed and produced in cooperation with the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway, where it was launched a year ago.

From 2005 to 2007 Jonas Bendiksen documented life in the slums of four different cities: Nairobi, Mumbai, Jakarta and Caracas. The Places We Live is the result.

Due to a last minute cancellation caused by a personal change in circumstances, the Bhutan: Land of Druk Yul Photo Expedition currently has room for only one participant. The dates of the photo~expedition are from September 23 to October 7, 2009.

If you're interested, click on the photo~expedition link, review the terms and itinerary and register at the earliest if it works for you. This opportunity will only be available until July 16.

Carsten Bockermann: India's Ambassador

I expect that the seasoned India travelers bemoan the slow reduction of the beloved Ambassador cars on the country's roads. It's manufactured by Hindustan Motors and in production since 1957. It's based on the Morris Oxford III model first made by the Morris Motor Company in the United Kingdom from 1956 to 1959.

I recall my first road trips in India were in a pristine (and many times, in less so) white Ambassador, with its seats covered with white cotton sheets and a wheezing air-conditioning that spewed tepid breeze, if at all. The drivers were frequently dressed in starched white shirts and white trousers. These days, the vehicles that drive me about are Japanese models, bland and bearing weird model names.

No doubt Carsten Bockermann felt the same way, since he now produced an ode to the Ambassador in his Moving India; a slideshow documenting the Ambassador's assembly line at the Hindustan Motors factory at Uttarpara in the state of West Bengal.

Carsten Bockermann is a German photographer who specializes in photographing everyday life in different cultures around the world using a combination of direct reportage and visually interpretative style. His work appeared on The Travel Photographer blog here.

Here's VIVID, a blast of colors that will surely jolt your senses into overdrive! It's a collection of "color-caffeinated" photographs by Palani Mohan of various (mostly of the Indian Holi festival) scenes of tremendous color.

Palani was born in Chennai, India, and moved to Australia as a child. His 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.

His work has been published by many of the world's leading magazines and newspapers including National Geographic, Stern, Time, Newsweek, and The New York Times. He also published three photographic books. Palani's work has been recognized with awards from World Press Photo, Picture of the Year, National Press Photographers Association, American Photo and Communication Arts. He is represented by Getty Images' Reportage Group in New York.

The Travel Photographer blog previously featured Palani Mohan's work here.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights Reserved
To end the recent string of post-expedition navel-gazings, here's what I think worked and didn't in terms of gear during the Gnawa Festival photo-expedition. As readers of this blog know, I opted for a minimalist equipment load, and stuffed my Domke F-3X with the following:

* Canon EOS 5D Mark II
* Canon G10
* Canon 17-40mm f4.0
* Canon 28-70mm f 2.8
* Canon 24mm f1.4
* Marantz PMD 620 Audio Recorder
* Acer Aspire One 8.9-inch Mini Laptop (w/LR2 and SoundSlides)
* A 250gb G-Tech Mini G-Drive External Hard Drive

I used my 5D Mark II fitted with the Canon 28-70mm f2.8 about 70% of the time, the 70-200 f2.8 about 20% of the time and the 17-40mm f4.0 the balance. The 24mm f1.4 never left the bag this time. Wherever I went, I felt I needed the flexibility of zooms, and a prime wouldn't be useful in the situations where I photographed. I experienced initial difficulty in focusing on moving subjects, and blamed my 70-200 lens until I realized that I hadn't turned on my camera's AI Servo AF mode!

I have to say that my beloved 70-200 f2.8 is on its last legs. I guess it dropped too many times in Orissa, on Angkor Wat's stone slabs, in Bali's rice paddies and elsewhere. It now wobbles and rattles and, while it still works, it also earned a well deserved retirement...maybe as door stop.

My experience with the G10 was an unhappy one, and I left it aside after a few tries. I had high hopes that it would be a perfect street camera for the alleys of the medinas, but it frustrated me and I gave up after a while. Larry Larsen, a member of the photo-expedition, used his as a point & shoot and seemed reasonably content with its images. Perhaps he managed his expectations better than I did. I have no doubt that in the right hands and used in the appropriate conditions, it's a fine little point & shoot. However, in my case I expected something more...but I didn't have the time nor patience to work at it.

I thought the PMD 620 recorder performed quite well in the rather extreme situations I put it through. Since most of the Gnawa performances were held in small zaouias, the din of the iron querqab (castanets) used by the Gnawa caused significant distortion in the recordings. Moving around to better positions was impractical, so I had to choose a spot where to stand or sit, record and photograph...not exactly an easy thing to do. I tried using Audacity's filters, but the distortion on some of the sound tracks is still too harsh. As one expert told me when I complained, distortion happens and we have to live with it (or not) sometimes.

Both the Acer and the G-Tech Mini G-Drive performed flawlessly. No complaints there.

Niki Taxidis: Nepal & Tibet

Here's the work of Niki Taxidis, an Australian-born freelance photographer who worked in remote areas of Australia in health care and forensic sciences for over 12 years. She spent two years as a crime-scene examiner and photographer and has volunteered in health care, education and photographic projects both overseas and within Australia.

Don't skip the entry page of her website, which opens up with a lovely piece of Tibetan music.

Thiago Bahia: Amazonia

Move over Ian Wright (Lonely Planet/Globe Trekker) and Michael Palin...you have a talented competitor who'll run circles around you.

Thiago Bahia is one of the hosts of Amazonia; a travel documentary soon to be aired on PBS that features the natural beauty of Belém, a city on the banks of the Amazon estuary, in the northern part of Brazil and capital of the state of Pará. Wach the 10 minutes documentary to appreciate Thiago's innate abilities to relate to the natural wonder of his birthplace.

Although his employment in a major financial institution is here in New York City, Thiago's heart (and possibly his mind as well) belong in Belém, and he is most comfortable as far away from concrete jungles as possible. Counting this talented young man as a personal friend, I have no doubt that he'll astound us even more.

Boa Sorte Thiago!

On October 22nd-24th, NYCPhotoWorks will be hosting a Portfolio Review event at the newly renovated Sandbox Studios in lower Manhattan that will bring together more than sixty photo editors.

Participating publications include Time, People, Stern, Vanity Fair, Conde Nast, Details, Forbes, ESPN, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, National Geographic Adventurer, Redbook, and many more. Photographers must apply to be accepted into the event in order to ensure quality of work. If accepted, the photographer will be given the chance to meet with 14 photo editors 1-on-1 over two days, plus a third day of workshops taught by the Directors of Photography for Conde Nast Traveler, People and Redbook.

Further details available at NYCPhotoWorks

The New York Times just launched a large-format photo blog called LENS to showcase photojournalism projects. It joins the handful of newspaper blogs that feature photo projects that might not be able to find a home in print, following the model established by the very popular The Big Picture (Boston Globe) and WSJ's Photo Journal.

PDN reports that LENS has no dedicated staff and no budget for photography, and will showcase work shot for the Times’ print edition, personal projects by Times photographers, wire service photographs, and work provided for publication at no cost. I'm not thrilled to read the latter option, but it's a sign of the times (pun intended). The blog will also feature multimedia features...and I'm always happy about that. It will provide inspiration, but may occasionally also provide fodder for my rants, aka opinionated criticism such as overuse of panning, bland narrative, mis-matched audio soundtrack, itty-bitty photographs, etc.

I've quickly visited LENS, and it's interface is quite neat. It'll be bookmarked and referred to often on this blog. The Washington Post will probably follow soon, as its Camera Works needs a major facelift.

My thanks to Ralph Childs who alerted me that LENS was launched as I landed in London!!!

Alessandro Vincenzi: Mumbai Monsoon

Photograph © Alessandro Vincenzi-All Rights Reserved
Alessandro Vincenzi is an Italian photographer living in Madrid. A trained biologist, he joined Medecins Sans Frontieres and traveled the world with the humanitarian organizatio.

He has added new galleries to his website; one on transgenders and the other on the monsoon in Mumbai. The latter is classic street photography, and many of the gallery's photographs are full of humor, and 'decisive moments'.

Alessandro Vincenzi

Albertina D'Urso is an Italian documentary photographer. She published two books, "Bombay Slum" and "Lifezoom", and two collections "Respiro del Mondo 5, Afghanistan" and "Km 5072, Milano-Kabul No Stop," which received the Canon Young Photographers Award in 2007.

She traveled to over 70 countries and has a special interest in Tibetan culture. She has been photographing Tibetan refugees around the world since 2004. One of her newer photo essays is on Mumbai's prostitutes which are estimated to be 150,000. These women are brought in from various areas of India and Nepal.

posted by TTP's robotic assistant

© Bob Krist-All Rights Reserved
Bob Krist is of course an acclaimed photographer, author, educator and writer, who works regularly on assignment for magazines such as National Geographic Traveler, Smithsonian, and Islands. He won the title of "Travel Photographer of the Year" from the Society of American Travel Writers in 1994, 2007, and again this year at the 2008 convention.

Not only does he have an interesting (and highly educational) blog, but Matt Brandon of The Digital Trekker interviewed Bob over the phone, and has this engaging conversation for download on his Depth Of Field post. Two professionals speaking with each other is always a treat...this one in particular.

Bob Krist's Photo Traveler Blog
Matt Brandon's The Digital Trekker Blog

8 Photographers : Access To Life

Photograph © Paolo Pellegrin-All Rights Reserved
The Global Fund is a unique global public-private partnership dedicated to attracting and disbursing additional resources to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.

Here's a truly magnificent multimedia production for The Global Fund, and featuring work by Magnum Photos photographers such as Paolo Pellegrin, Alex Majoli, Larry Towell, Jim Goldberg, Gilles Peress, Jonas Bendiksen, Steve McCurry, and Eli Reed.

In Access to Life, these 8 Magnum photographers traveled to 9 countries, photographing people before and 4 months after they began antiretroviral treatment for AIDS.

This multimedia production must be one of the best I've seen, and ought to be studied by photographers wishing to learn about multimedia, and how to excel at producing them.

Well, after approximately 20 hours of driving from Delhi to Manali, we've reached our destination: the Foundry Photojournalism Workshp (Manali) which is to be held at the Green Cottages Hotel. The view above is from my room's balcony.

Manali is at an altitude of 6,398 ft in the Vyas River valley, and is an important hill station in the mountains of Himachal Pradesh, providing an idyllic scenery and temperate climate even in the months of July and August. I can actually hear the roar of the Vyas river from my balcony from where I'm typing this post.

As for the question as to why it took us 20 hours for a journey that normally should take about 12-13? Ah, well...perhaps the second photograph will explain it better than I can. Our bus had an unfortunate accident (rather minor) with a truck coming down an incline. No one was hurt on our bus, so we were extremely lucky. However, it meant that the bus' dashboard was somewhat bent out of shape making it difficult to steer. So we boarded 5 4x4s ordered by the Foundry team, and we were on our way. Having lost a lot of time, we were hoping to make it up, but the gods of the Kullu valley were not letting enter that easily. Flat tires and over-enthusiastic policemen conspired to impede our progress, but the team of instructors and administrators, tired and bedraggled perhaps, finally made it.

Following her return from our Gnawa Photo Expedition in late June, whose principal objective was to photograph the legendary Gnawa musicians during the 12th Essaouira Music Festival, Sandra immersed herself in working on her Moroccan Impressions, a collection of photographs that are to be shown at Tufenkian on September 3, 2009.

The venue's address is:

Tufenkian Artisan Carpets
515 NW 10th Avenue (in the Pearl District)
Portland, Oregon
503.222.3428 Ext: 105

Sandra is a photographer and interior designer based in San Francisco. She tells us that color, smells and sounds drew her to world travel. Her city's Asian culture first enticed her to China in 1978 when the People’s Republic first opened. She then continued her exploration of Asia by traveling to Bhutan, India, Japan, Singapore, Nepal, Thailand, Tibet, and on to South America and Europe. Her website is here (LINK).

The Travel Photographer blog had a previous post on Sandra here. (LINK)

Dede Pickering: World Photographer

Photo © Dede Pickering-All Rights Reserved
Dede Pickering retired from the corporate world and became a world traveler and photographer...it's just that simple and that complex. She has traveled to Antarctica, Mongolia, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma, China, Cambodia, Peru, Patagonia, Kosovo, Albania, Rwanda, New Zealand, Guatemala, South East Asia and has made multiple trips to Africa and India, but her passion is the Himalayan Region.

Dede is involved with CARE, a global private humanitarian organization, and started the Women’s Initiative, aimed at connecting American women professionals with women in the developing world. She is also a member of the Explorers Club in New York.

Exploring her website with its remarkable photographs of different cultures, I stopped by her statement, of which this is excerpted:

"The lens of my camera allowed me to look inside the lives of others and blur the differences."

Dede's galleries are a delight for those of us who love travel photography at its best. You'll know what I mean when you do.

Frederic Lemalet is a French travel photographer who, evidenced by his focus on Tibet, is in love with that region. He traveled to Alaska, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, China, and Nepal...but it's Tibet that seduced him

Between 2003 and 2009, Frederic spent 3 years in Tibet, documenting its culture which may soon disappear. Distributing his time between his native France and Tibet, he's currently working on publishing books, and displaying his images in exhibitions. The last exhibition was "Himalaya" and held in Montier-en-Der (north-eastern France).

His Tibet gallery has 44 photographs, with a number of lovely portraits like the one I chose above...but don't miss those of the famous Tibetan wide open spaces, and of the Tibetan pilgrim praying in a sort of crude shelter made of stones. The photographs span the four seasons; a testament to Frederic's dedication to the region.

Jashim Salam is a Bangladeshi photographer, who's currently working for Driknews international photo agency. He was recognized with a Jury Special Award in the 6th Humanity Photo Awards 2009 Contest, sponsored by the China Folklore Photographic Association, the Guangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee and UNESCO. He also received awards in the 69th International Photographic Salon of Japan (Asahi Shimbun) in 2008, a honorable mention in the USA Legatum Center Photo Contest in 2009, a special award in the People & Planet photo contest 2009 in Australia, and otjers.

Jashim's atmospheric photo essay Celestial Devotion is featured by the website SocialDocumentary.net, and is about an an orphanage and Islamic school in Chittagong. The orphanage/school claims to have mentored thousands of youngsters to memorize the Qu'ran since it was established in 1970. It currently hosts some 200 orphans who share very basic facilities. According to UN statistics, 6 million students are enrolled in the madrasa system in Bangladesh.

Madrasas have received (some deservedly) a bad reputation in the West, and being synonymous with fundamentalist teachings. Some are just that, but the larger majority seem to be nothing more than institutions providing social assistance to orphans and the poor. This is not a novel concept, but one that is shared by many other religious traditions such as Buddhism, and Hindu Vedic schools as an example.

Voice-Over Artist

Photographers who produce multimedia photo essays are notoriously voice-over calamities...flat, unfunny...you name it. I ought to know...I break into a cold sweat whenever I have to do a voice-over (which is rare).

Audio will make or break a multimedia photo essay, so a lifeless or unattractive voice-over (when needed) will doom one's product.

But here's a natural talent who ought to be employed as a voice-over artist by photographers, in radio or even on television. So here's a chance to do good and employ this man!

Via Duckrabbit.

BBC's Human Planet

The BBC's Human Planet is a landmark series that marvels at mankind's incredible relationship with nature in the world today. Each episode takes you to the extremes of the planet: the arctic, mountains, oceans, jungles, grasslands, deserts, rivers and even the urban jungle.

A word of caution...exploring the Human Planet website will take you a while. I've barely scratched its surface so far.

Human Planet crews have filmed in around 80 locations, bringing us stories that have never been told on television before. The team has trekked with HD cameras and state of the art gear to film from the air, from the ground and underwater.

For more on Human Planet offerings, check Human Planet Explorer Collections

One of the forces behind Human Planet is Timothy Allen. Timothy's work focus is on the remaining indigenous societies, and he devotes his time to documenting the diversity of humanity’s cultural heritage. He writes a blog for the BBC documenting his photographic work around the world for Human Planet.

In case you're interested to see what the cameras used by Timothy look like, here they are:

Photo Courtesy Timothy Allen

Nagore Sessions: Sufi Song

A recent article appearing in The New York Times on music used in some of the city's yoga centers led me to the Nagore Sessions. These are Sufi chants accompanied by percussion from the Middle East and contemporary Western instruments.

While the musicians are from many different nationalities, faiths and backgrounds and came together to produce the Nagore Sessions, the singers (Abdul Ghani, Ajah Maideen and Sabur Maideen Babha Sabeer) are Sufis from India. They usually perform at religious and social ceremonies at the Sufi shrine of Nagore Dargah in coastal Tamil Nadu.

This song follows the qawwali style as it includes verses praising God, but I'm also told that it's sung in Tamil. Traditional Qawwali songs are mostly sung in Urdu and Punjabi, and a few in Persian.

Finding this is timely, as one of the highlights of my forthcoming In Search of the Sufis of Gujarat Photo Expedition™ is to document the Gujarati Siddis who have retained their Sufi heritage.

One of my long-term projects involves the various Sufi traditions in the Middle East and South Asia, and the Nagore Sessions reminds me of my work with the Gnawa (aka Gnaoua) of Morocco. These are also traditional Sufi music performers, albeit with African roots. During the Essaouira Gnawa festival, a number of international performers played fusion music alongside the Gnawa musicians....incredible mind-blowing stuff!!

I've produced a multimedia photomovie Gnawa: The Sufis of Africa of some of the performers at the 2009 festival.

Elizabeth Herman is a photographer and a recent graduate of Tufts University. She's currently residing in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where she is a Fulbright Fellow. At Tufts, Elizabeth intertwined her studies with her passion for photography through "Exposure", the Tufts’ student-led documentary studies group.

Whilst in Dhaka, Elizabeth documented the annual Durga Puja. The annual event is an Hindu festival in South Asia that celebrates worship of the Hindu goddess Durga. As far as Bangladesh is concerned, Durga Puja is its largest religious festival for Bengali Hindus.

As an aside, Durga Puja will be the objective of my Kolkata's Cult of Durga Photo-Expedition/Workshop in early October 2011.It's sold out but a standby/waiting list is available.

While logged on to Elizabeth's website, be sure not to miss her Women Warriors, a visual project focusing on Vietnamese women who fought in the war with the United States.

Sophie Gerrard: The Coal Cycle Wallahs

"I load the bike then push it for 50 kilometers. It takes me 2 days."

Here's The Coal Cycle Wallahs story; the work of Sophie Gerrard, a British freelance documentary photographer in the UK and India who specializes in environmental and social issues.

The Coal Cycle Wallahs documents the impoverished men who haul coal along Jharkhand's steep and twisting forest roads. As the Indian Government owns all the resources under the land, these coal-wallahs are technically stealing the coal from mines...but the authorities turn a blind eye.

Jharkhand is a state in eastern India, carved out of the south Bihar in 2000. It shares its border with Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and West Bengal. It's home to the largest coal belt in Asia, but is been plagued by poverty, lawlessness, bad governance and corruption for over 50 years. It has experienced Naxalite-Maoist insurgency.

Sophie holds a Masters degree in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography from the London College of Communication. Her work was recognized with a Jerwood Photography Award and selected as a UK winner by The Magenta Foundation.

Her clients include The Guardian, Greenpeace International, Geographical Magazine, Foto8 Magazine, The Big Issue, and The Independent on Sunday Magazine. Her photographs are held in private collections including Coutts & Co and The Sir Elton John Collection.

What's on tap for the week starting Monday, January 3? Take a look:

1. The work of a French photographer/photojournalist featuring Tibet and Kilimanjaro.
2. A photomovie by a Scottish photographer...on the Coal Wallahs of India.
3. The work of an emerging photographer on the Durga Puja.
4. An interview with an award-winning photojournalist, along with his tips and techniques.

Plus potential "shooting from the hip" posts....who knows what the first week of 2011 may bring!

As a footnote: a reader wrote me the other day complaining that the Next Week On The Travel Photographer posts were a waste...saying that he would much prefer if I was to post daily, including Sundays!!!

Tough crowd my readers!

Four Photographers Document Cockfights

Here's a feature which groups individual photo essays of cockfighting by four photographers. I thought of grouping these essays, and also mention my own. Two of the cockfights occur in the Philippines, one in Haiti and the fourth occurs in Bali.

The first photo essay is Julie Batula's One Way Out; a photo essay of black & white photographs of cockfighting or sabong as it's called in the Philippines, where it's one of the oldest and most popular sports.

As Julie says: "Roosters continue fighting because they cannot escape, regardless of how exhausted or injured they become. It is a routine where they are forced to fight or die, and where death is the only way out."

Julie Batula is a Manila-based artist and documentary photographer, who is influenced by the works of Sally Mann and Nan Goldin.

The second photo essay (it's more of a multi-photo blog post) is by one of my favorite travel photographers: Mitchell Kanashkevich. He tells us he was riding a motorcycle to the city of Dumaguette in the Philippines and came by an area where cockfights were from morning till midnight everyday for a few days.

Mitchell Kanashkevich is a travel/documentary photographer, and is represented by Getty Images. He's been featured on this blog a number of times.

The third photo essay is by Swoan Parker who features a 16 color photographs in a photo essay titled "Place Your Bets" of cockfights in Haiti.

Swoan Parker is a freelance photojournalist based in New York City available for global assignment. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA TODAY, The Los Angeles Times, Newsday, TIME, and National Geographic Traveler among others.

The final photo essay is mine, and is titled Tajen. It was photographed on the island of Bali last August.

This is my 2116th post since I started The Travel Photographer blog, and with it I'd like to close 2010 with this lovely photograph by the very talented Muhammed Muheisen.

It appeared on the LENS blog of the New York Times a few days ago, and it shows three young refugee girls; two from Afghanistan and the third from Pakistan, attending a Qur'an class in a mosque in Islamabad. You may want to click on it to enlarge it.

The expression of the cute middle one is just sublime...especially that her cloth prayer book is upside down. Not very attentive are we now? And the "I Love NY" hoodie worn by the third girl kept a smile on my face for a while.

I hope it does the same to my readers.

Till next year!

I was glad to see my Google followers have reached the 1000th mark yesterday, auguring well for The Travel Photographer's blog in 2011.

The 1000th Google Follower is Haleh Bryan who publishes her own blog Haleh Bryan Photography which showcases her talented personal work. Apart from her art photography, she has a gallery of Egypt which the above image is from.

Marji Lang: Gujarat

Marji Lang is a French travel and documentary photographer, whose color-full photographs in her India galleries just jump at you.

She's fallen in love with India and has already traveled there four times. Over the past 10 years, Marji traveled in South East Asia, and was influenced by Henri Cartier Bresson and more recently by the work of her compatriot and Indiaphile Claude Renault.

She rarely plans ahead her trips, and just takes it a day at a time. No specific hotel reservations nor fixed itineraries. She prefers making her photographs with a human presence...but is not against making a few that are devoid of people (such as the one above). Marji only uses a 24-70mm lens.

I was interested in her Gujarat gallery as some of her photographs are of Jain female pilgrims (sadhvi) in Palitana, one of our stops during my forthcoming photo expedition In Search of Gujarat's Sufis next month.

Neil Wade: Kham & Amdo

Neil Wade is an editorial and corporate photographer based in Taipei, Taiwan. His photography was featured in varied magazines as National Geographic, Forbes, The Financial Times of London and Skateboarder.

Kham is a region currently split between the Tibetan Autonomous Region and the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan and Qinghai. The people of Kham are reputed warriors. Many Khampas are members of the Bon religion; an esoteric branch of Tibetan Buddhism, and are considered with suspicion by more mainstream Tibetan sects.

The traditional Tibetan region of Amdo is located on the northeast corner of the Tibetan Plateau. Most of Amdo lies in modern day Qinghai province. It is famous for producing some of Tibet's most famous spiritual leaders.

Katharina Hesse: Human Negotiations (& Interview)

Katharina Hesse is a photographer who currently works in China and Asia, and has been based in Beijing for the past 17 years. She graduated in Chinese and Japanese studies from the Institut National des Langues et Civilizations Orientales (INALCO) in Paris.

She has recently uploaded some of her gripping photographs of Bangkok's sex industry unto a 6 minutes-movie which she titled Human Negotiations (above), and during which she also talks about her project in a Skype-interview with Elisabetta Tripodi, and which appeared on the blog e-photoreview.

Human Negotiations is an experimental two-year collaboration between Katharina and writer Lara Day, using images and text to explore the lives of a community of Bangkok sex workers. I cannot begin to fathom how Katharina managed to gain the trust and confidence of her subjects to such a degree...and she says as such in her interview, and that the most important task in her project was to gain the trust of the sex workers and their clients. All serious photographers agree with her advice, since only full and complete mutual trust gained over months and months can make such intimate projects possible.

Katharina's has an impressive background. Not only is she a self-taught photographer (always a huge plus for me), but she initially worked as an assistant for German TV (ZDF) and then freelanced for Newsweek from 1996 to 2002. In 2003 and 2004 she covered China for Getty’s news service. Her images were featured in numerous publications such as Courrier International, Der Spiegel, D della Repubblica, EYEmazing, Zeit Magazin, Glamour (Germany), IO Donna, Die Zeit, Marie-Claire, Le Monde, Le Monde Diplomatique, Neon, Newsweek, 100Eyes.org , Reporters without borders(yearbook 2010, Germany), Stern, Time Asia, Vanity Fair (Italy/Germany), and Wired (Italy) among others.

Katharina's photographs of Xinjiang, Kashgar and Urumqi are probably the best I've seen of that region....so go to her website after you watch the above movie.

POV: Is This The Xmas Spirit?

AP Photo/Hussein Malla/ Courtesy Denver Post PBlog

The human genius in reducing religious and/or social events down to nauseating manifestations of mindless consumerism, bad taste and repulsive glitz is seemingly alive and well in all major cities, minor cities and wherever there's the need for marketing, selling and buying.

However the 2010 award for the most loathsome display of this talent belongs to the Emirates Palace Hotel (Abu Dhabi), whose general manager Hans Olbertz, was quoted as saying the 43-foot (13-meter) fake fir has 131 ornaments that include gold and precious stones including diamonds and sapphires valued at $11,000,000.

Notwithstanding the fellow's subsequent apologies, and his admission that it was "over the top", the tree stands as a symbol of what Christmas (and every other religious observance) should not be.

Eric Kruszewski is a Baltimore-native, who started traveling internationally in 2005. He is drawn to new cultures, faces, practices and daily life. His website features galleries from Tibet, Mongolia, India, Georgia, and closer to home, Alaska and the American West. Spend some time at Eric's Mongolia gallery, which has some nice photographs of the Naadam festival.

The above photograph is of Tibetans prostrating themselves in Lhasa. Prostration is an important expression of Tibetan Buddhism. It's said that Tibetans are expected to prostrate themselves 100,000 times a year. Although they prostrate themselves at temples, some pilgrims cover the entire 33-mile route around Mount Kailas by repeatedly prostrating themselves.

The first time I saw a Buddhist pilgrim prostrating himself in such a way was at the Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu, about 10 years ago. He wore a full-body leather apron, and wooden "clogs" for his hands, and he circumambulated the stupa for as long as I was there.

Merry Xmas & Happy Holidays!

The Travel Photographer's 2010 Favorite Image Makers (Part 2)

Following yesterday's post, here are the second 5 of the 10 travel and/or documentary photographers (listed in no particular order) whose work was posted on this blog, and whose photographs were my favorites during 2010.

As I said, deciding which is a visual favorite amongst the hundreds of photographers I've shown here in this blog is a highly subjective and personal choice...nothing more or less. Every single photographer whose work was featured on my blog is worthy of praise and admiration.

1. Jamie Williams:

This photograph is part of Jamie Williams' Tibet series, and is featured in his gorgeous website. I posted on Jamie Williams here.

2. Kieron Nelson:

This photograph of a Zhuang fisherman is part of Kieron's Guangxi gallery. I posted on Kieron's Vanishing Cultures photographs here.

3. Andrea Pistolesi:

This photograph of a Cambodian dancer is part of Andrea's gallery of Cambodia. I had featured Andrea's reportage work on the Rohingya refugees here.

4. Diego Verges:

This photograph is one of the latest of Diego's projects which are featured on his website. I featured Diego's work in a number of posts...this particular one is here.

5. Jørgen Johanson:

Although I posted Jørgen's work on Tibet, I also encourage you to visit the rest of his galleries, including the one of Ethiopia, where I've seen the above photograph.

Categories

Monday, August 8, 2011

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Friday, August 5, 2011

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Monday, August 1, 2011

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Friday, July 29, 2011

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Popular posts

Blog Archive