Stephen Alvarez: Maya Underworld

Photo © Stephen Alvarez -All Rights Reserved
As readers of this blog know, I'm a proselytizer of large photographs for websites portfolios, and have made this preference very obvious through various postings and with my own photographic galleries. I cannot understand photographers who still exhibit dinky small photographs on their websites...in my view, they're not taking proper advantage of the medium.

So it's with pleasure that I feature Stephen Alvarez's Maya Underworld, a gallery of 22 large photographs for a story originally published by the National Geographic Magazine, and which showcases the religious rituals and ceremonies of today’s Mayan peoples in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. This is but one of Alvarez's of sensational galleries, so take a tour of his website as well.

Stephen Alvarez is a photojournalist who produces global stories about exploration, culture, religion, and the aftermath of conflict. He has been a National Geographic photographer since 1995. His work won awards in Pictures of the Year International, Communications Arts and was exhibited at Visa Pour L’Image International Photojournalism Festival.

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Pablo Corral Vega: Andes

Pablo Corral Vega is a photojournalist from Ecuador whose work is published in National Geographic, National Geographic Traveler, the Smithsonian Magazine, the New York Times Sunday magazine, Audubon, the French, German, Spanish, and Russian editions of Geo, and other international magazines.

His work has been exhibited in Perpignan, Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca, Tokyo, Seville, Washington, D.C., and Houston, and he has published six books of photography: Tierra Desnuda, Paisajes del Silencio, Ecuador: De la Magia al Espanto, Ecuador, Andes and Twenty Five. For the book Andes, published by the National Geographic Society, famed Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa wrote twenty short stories inspired by the photos.

It is Andes that I choose to feature today on the pages of TTP.

Kent Kobersteen, former Director of Photography for the National Geographic Magazine wrote the following text about Corral for his book "Twenty Five":

"Pablo Corral Vega brings to his photography great passion, an unparalleled aesthetic, and a high degree of concern for both his work and his subjects. (He) is a world-class photojournalist, and in my opinion one of the finest Latin American photographers working today." "

There's no question that Pablo Corral Vega's work is incredibly beautiful, and his imagery of the various cultures depicted in Andes is passionate, emphatic and in many cases, superb. The photograph of the man and the shadows is certainly one of those.

I also greatly enjoyed Pablo's video work showing the same places he photographed for the National Geographic. Yes, I recommend viewing Pablo's personal view of this musical genre and its associated sensuous dance form. But be careful...after viewing the video, you will want to book your flight to Buenos Aires, and spend the rest of your life in these cafes and restaurants, immersed in tango atmosphere.

My thanks to Eric Beecroft for the heads-up.

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Julie Aucoin: Travelography

Photo ©Julie Aucoin-All Rights Reserved.
Following the unpleasantness of the subject matter of my POV: And The Outrage post of two days ago, it's a relief to feature Julie Aucoin's travel photography on The Travel Photographer blog.

Julie who's based in Nevada, describes herself as a passionate photographer, an adventurous traveler and experienced stage manager. She's one of those photographers who, as a child, perused the pages of the National Geographic magazine and this implanted peripatetic seeds in her.

When not managing jugglers and trapezists, Julie travels the world and recently returned from trips in Central America. The above photograph is of a vendor in Guatemala.

Julie also has another website here.

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Bruno Morandi: Guatemala

Here's a two for one post; I already featured Bruno Morandi on TTP about a year ago with a post on his work with the Hijras of Pakistan. Bruno is a globe trotting French photographer blessed with an excellent 'eye', and who relies on all-inclusive framing and the power of colors.

I also posted about Issuu, an online conversion system that converts PDF files so that they can be read on the internet via web browsers. One can create a digital magazine or book with its pages flipped just like the real thing.

Bruno has published his colorful Guatemala: A Symphony of Colours photographs as an Issuu digital book, and it's really lovely. I don't know what it is, but having one's photographs in digital book form seems aesthetically more pleasing to the eye than a regular ho-hum photo gallery on the web....is it because we are used to seeing photographs in book format?

If you're tempted to use Issuu service, make sure you read its terms and conditions, and consider downloading Combine PDFs 3.0. It's a Mac-only shareware that allows you to convert and put all your photographs unto one document, which is then easily uploaded to Issuu. There must be similar shareware for PCs.

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Semana Santa Holy Week

Photograph © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
With Good Friday and Easter upon us, I attended Semana Santa in Antigua (Guatemala) a few years ago. Antigua is a magnificent city declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. It is also famous for its Catholic celebration of Holy Week, which commemorates the Passion, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ.

All of Antigua participates in the annual event, and the entire week is replete with religious activities. These rituals arrived with the missionaries from Spain, who brought Catholic fervor to the local indigenous population during colonial times. The famed colorful sawdust designs that carpet the cobblestoned processional routes of Antigua are called alfombras, and are one of the traditions that date back to the 1500s.

For more of my gallery of photographs during Semana Santa, visit Los Hombres de Popul Vuh

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