The Art of Photography Show 2009

The Art of Photography Show 2009 is an international exhibition featuring all forms of photographic art -- images shot on film, shot digitally, unaltered shots, alternative process, mixed media, digital manipulations, montages, photograms, etc. The Art of Photography Show will be exhibited at the two-level Lyceum Theatre Gallery, in San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter.

The exhibition's dates are August 29 – November 1, 2009 and entry deadline is May 22.

As with any such event, all interested photographers are advised to carefully read the rules and regulations, especially those pertaining to copyright issues, and use of images.

Read more »

New York Times: Myanmar (Burma)

Photo ©International Herald Tribune-All Rights Reserved.
The New York Times has launched its new Global Edition on its website, announcing that it combined its international reporting and that of the International Herald Tribune, to provide readers with a continuous flow of geopolitical, business, sports and fashion coverage from a global perspective.

One of its slideshows featured is a powerful photo essay titled "Dying and Alone in Myanmar", a collection of black & white photographs (only credited to the International Herald Tribune).

It covers the work of 23 clinics operated by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) that are the primary dispensers in Myanmar of the anti retroviral drugs that can prolong the lives of those infected with H.I.V.

The accompanying article is by Seth Mydans.

Addendum: I just realized that the NYT's Global Edition is the new home on the Web for the International Herald Tribune...is this another cost-cutting measure or is there more to it than that?

Read more »

Innovative Stuff: DIY Magazines!

With daily "surround-sound" news that magazines (and photo magazines) are going out of business, or are looking for buyers as in the case of American Photo and its siblings, I thought this article as published in the New York Times is timely.

The giant Hewlett-Packard is hoping to make publishing a magazine easier and more accessible to everyone with a new on-line service called MagCloud. HP hopes that it'll be as simple and as common as "running photocopies at the local copy shop".

MagCloud is said to cost 20 cents a page, paid only when a customer orders a copy, and its HP parent seeks to turn it into a publishing’s equivalent of YouTube. I'm seeing it more a magazine equivalent to Blurb and the other on-demand book publishers.

Whether this service will pick up real big-time steam in this economic environment or not is open to question, but if anyone is keen to publish a photography magazine, and perhaps even sell some issues, here's your chance.

Read more »

Brazza In Congo

Photo ©James Estrin/The New York Times-All Rights Reserved.
The New York Times just featured a review of the exhibits "Brazza in Congo" and “Brazza: A Symbol for Humanity” that are being held in Manhattan. These are the kind of exhibits that capture my imagination, particularly since one of my favorite historical figures is Sir Richard Burton, the British scholar and explorer.

The exhibits revolve around Pietro Paolo Savorgnan di Brazzà, (1852-1905), who was a Franco-Italian explorer. With the backing of the Société de Géographique de Paris, he opened up for France entry along the right bank of the Congo, eventually leading to the French colonization of Central Africa. His easy manner and great physical charm, as well as his pacific approach among Africans, were his trademarks. Under French colonial rule, Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, was named in his honor.

I'm truly conflicted by men like Burton and Brazza. Were they heroic explorers or crass exploiters? They certainly were precursors to the colonization of Africa, and to the ensuing imperialism in this continent. As the New York Times article remarks:

Imperialism is widely seen as the original sin of the modern West, whose ramifications can still be felt in the aftershocks of warfare and corruption that continue to plague so much of the African continent.

Despite my abhorrence of colonialism, I prefer to think of Burton as a genius, as the quintessential explorer, as a talented writer, as a brave soldier, as an orientalist and ethnologist, and as a remarkable linguist with an extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures who was reputed to have spoken 29 European, Asian, and African languages. Perhaps Brazza was of the same caliber? I'll find out.

Addendum: My verdict? Seemingly a well-intentioned man with lofty and commendable ideals...but he was not Richard Burton's caliber.

Read more »

The Guardian's Greensdale: Circumcision Photos Outrage

Roy Greensalde is Professor of Journalism at London’s City University and has been a media commentator since 1992, most notably for The Guardian newspaper.

In his column Outrage at Circumcision Pictures appearing this morning on the Guardian newspaper's website, Mr Greenslade has endorsed the position I've taken on the issue of publishing photographs of a child's (female) circumcision in the Washington Post and other publications.

My posts have appeared here, here and here.

My thanks to Benjamin Chesterton of Duckrabbit Multimedia who shared my revulsion, and who posted the absolutely brilliant post Smile for the camera please - whilst I cut off your clitoris … Not funny is it.

And thank you Mr Greensdale.

Addendum: And to all of those who've commented as having no objection to the shameful publication of this child's face and name in the photo essay, here's what you ought to reflect on: what if the child was your daughter, niece or relative? Would you still have the same opinion? Hypocritical comments are easy to spot.

Addendum II: Larry Hayden of Making Photos just added his opinion. He writes: "In this case, Andrea Bruce might have been exposing an abhorrent practice that provides that voice. But when she took images of the seven-year-old girl's face, submitted them for publishing and then took an award for the photographs, she became part of the hypocritical nature of this country in particular."

Addendum III: Kayla Keenan's riposte to a revolting comment and her opinion in the commentary section of the Guardian's columns needs to be read carefully by all concerned. Here's an excerpt:

No one involved has said that this practice is not an atrocity nor that it should not be brought to the attention of the world public. They simply have not reduced themselves to believing that the only way to do that is at the expense of a child. They refuse to shout "Show us the bloody bits." If your morality has plunged to so little as to care for that girl as an individual and human being first and foremost, you cease to be able to care for all the others to whom this will befall. And the end of your concern only "illuminates" the situation to those who already abhor it with no change to the end result (helping that child)... That alone makes this exactly the kind of hypocrisy which perpetuates the violence rather than ends it.

Addendum IV: Another voice..this time from Charukesi Ramadurai in the Bring On The Misery on CounterCurrents.org, from which this excerpt is taken::

The question here is, would the publications and the organizations have allowed an American or Western European girl to be featured in the same way, name, face and all? I googled out of curiosity and came upon a report in the Daily Mail UK that talks about the plight of young British-African women who are forced to go through the procedure. This, of a victim being interviewed - "promise you won't print my name or anything?" she implores repeatedly. And they don’t.

Read more »

POV: Why Aren't You Shooting Multimedia?

Photo ©Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved.
Over at Black Star Rising, Stanley Leary, to the understandable chagrin of many videographers, has posted his opinion that still images to which audio has been added can be more effective than video. His opinion is summarized by his following points:

* Nearly 70 percent of the audience learns visually;
* Multimedia packages are easier and less expensive to produce;
* Multimedia packages are easier for the audience to access; and
* Multimedia packages offer a more enjoyable, nuanced visual experience.

I agree, and used the same arguments (well, except for the first one which I didn't know) when explaining the advantages of multimedia to student photographers as I did during the Mexico City Foundry Photojournalism Workshop, and will do so again at the forthcoming workshop in Manali, India.

I ought to also stress that real multimedia is what is being discussed here. There's a huge difference between real multimedia features which consist of still photography accompanied by ambient sound and narrative, and still photographs accompanied by random musical tracks....added because they sound good or because the photographer likes them. Given the choice producing a "silent" slideshow or a slideshow with random tracks downloaded via iTunes (notwithstanding copyright issues), I'd always go with the former.

Following the photojournalism workshop in Mexico City, I expounded my multimedia evangelism in a previous post on TTP.

A word of caution though. Multimedia is not a panacea for ill thought out or badly produced projects. It still needs good stories, great photographs and certainly, audio that is part of the story and part of the photographs.

Addendum: I just saw Alan Chin's post on the RESOLVE blog with his take on the "multimedia insanity".

Read more »

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.

Read more »

My Work: Katha'kali

Photo ©Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved.
Here's my Katha'kali gallery...images from a private photo-shoot at a Kathakali school in Thirssur during the Theyyam of Malabar Photo~Expedition. I plan to create a multimedia slideshow of these and other Katha'kali images shortly.

I scheduled the private photo-shoot because I'd had the experience of photographing a Katha'kali troupe in Kochi a few years ago just before they performed their art, and the room was overcrowded with tourists. I didn't want to experience the same difficulties and restrictions during the photo-expedition. As a consequence. we had complete access to the actors while they were applying make-up, wearing their fabulous costumes and to their performance, all to ourselves!

Katha'kali is the dance-drama of Kerala, in which its performers (all men) wear fantastic make-up, billowing costumes and enormous crowns. Katha'kali has been described as "The Passion Play of Hinduism" and while its origins are unclear, its current format is traced to the 16th century. It's based on the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Gita of Jayadeva and other religious narratives and poems. The actors themselves do not utter a word...singers and musicians provide the narrative and musical backdrop.

The actors endure a long and difficult training period. They are taught to project emotions with distinctive facial expressions and hand gestures. Some of the actors insert a seed in their lower eyelid in order to redden their eyes, as part of the 'look'. The application of the make-up is an art form, and requires several hours to complete. This is done by artists who've spent a decade or more of training.

Read more »

POV: And The Outrage Continues

The onward march of the tone-deaf myopic lemmings continues!

The National Press Photographers Association has announced that Andrea Bruce of the Washington Post has been awarded second place in the International News Story with her photo essay on a young girl in Kurdistan being circumcised.

Readers of this blog will recall reading the reasons for my revulsion at this photo essay, which I expressed here and here.

The NPAA's contest judges now join The Washington Post editors (who published the photo essay on December 28, 2008), and the White House News Photographers Association (who awarded it a prize), in publishing Andrea Bruce’s photographs of a Kurdish girl having part of her clitoris cut off. The moral myopia of these organizations is just breathtaking. Sheelan's right to privacy and her dignity have been cavalierly shrugged off by a bunch of provincial editors, judges and their assistants....or does Sheelan and her mother have no right to privacy because they are impoverished Kurds and don't know better? Isn't the right to privacy and dignity a basic human right deserved by the wealthy and the poor, irrespective of creed, race, national origin and age?

I realize Andrea Bruce needs to earn a living, but she's a talented and experienced photographer and could've used simple photographic techniques to preserve Sheelan's privacy, while still conveying the atrocity of this ignoble practice. The editors of the Washington Post didn't even think of hiding the poor girl's name...they published it in full. They would have never published these photographs if the girl lived in Kansas, or Ohio, or California...or Europe, or wherever else there was a legal system capable of redressing this obscene trespassing of privacy. This child is only 7 years old and her image and name are made public...on the web?

In the (unlikely, in my opinion) event that the Washington Post had written permission from the girl's family to publicly show these photographs, it should mention this at the start of the feature...but it hasn't. By all means, publish this photo essay in an effort to publicize the abhorrent practice, and to arouse the public's awareness of it...but do it in such a way that protects the dignity of the innocent victim, and ensures her privacy.

I'm far from being alone in being revolted by this photo essay. Benjamin Chesterton, who worked for the BBC, has written an eloquent and powerful post on his blog also criticizing it, and it can be read here. I also received numerous emails (mostly from women) supporting my stance, and the posts linked to above receive the most traffic of any of my posts.

We naively wonder why we are disliked by so many. Let us treat and respect others as we treat and respect ourselves...that'll help.

Update: The APhotoADay blog has picked on Benjamin Chesterton's post, and posted its Furthering The Abuse.

Read more »

New EOS Rebel T1i DSLT

Canon U.S.A. has introduced a new addition to its Rebel lineup, the EOS Rebel T1i Digital SLR camera, the first in the Rebel line to feature full HD video capture.

The new Canon Rebel T1i SLR incorporates some of the technologies from the EOS 50D and EOS 5D Mark II models. With a 15.1 megapixel CMOS sensor and HD video capture, along with the DIGIC 4 Imaging Processor, the Rebel T1i provides entry-level photographers some of the features in more expensive camera models.

The Canon EOS Rebel T1i Digital SLR Camera is scheduled for delivery by early May and will be sold in a body-only configuration which includes a rechargeable battery pack and charger, USB and video cables, a neckstrap, an EOS Solutions Disk CD and a 1-year Canon U.S.A., Inc. limited warranty at an estimated retail price of $799.99. It will additionally be offered in a kit version with Canon’s EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS zoom lens at an estimated retail price of $899.99.

Read more »