CPN: Editor's Choice Selection

Canon Professional Newtork (CPN) is featuring Volker Lensch, the photo editor at Stern magazine, who has picked images from the photographs submitted to the fourth edition of Editor’s Choice - an entry that showcased the talents of emerging photojournalists and the power of black and white imagery.

CPN produced an audio-visual presentation, in which Lensch describes his editing approach on a daily basis, and explains in detail his choice of the photographs.

If the above link doesn't work for you, try this one: CPN

It is an interesting insight in how photo editors choose photographs...to me, it sounds more like a personal and instinctive reaction to the submissions.

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Book: Ronald Lake: Madagascar

I was very glad to receive Ronald Lake's beautifully designed book titled "Glimpses of Madagascar" as I knew next to nothing of this intriguing island. All I knew was that it's an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa, and there was an entertaining animated movie with the same name (I exaggerate, but you get the drift...it's just not a country in the news).

I also visited Ronald Lake's website, where one can sample some of the pages of his Madagascar book, and order it directly, as well as view his other galleries.

It's also called the Red Island, The Eighth Continent, Eden on Earth, and a World Out of Time, and is like no other place on earth. One of the world’s poorest nations, it is one of the planet’s richest stores of biodiversity, which was the main reason behind Ronald Lake's decision to join a trip to Madagascar with the Wildlife Conservation Society.

In Ronald's own words:

"Madagascar is one of the poorest countries on earth. It also is one of the richest homes of biodiversity on the planet. The juxtaposition of these two facts is what makes Madagascar so beautiful, so tragic, so compelling and so promising. But very few people in modern consumer societies are aware of Madagascar's unique story - few even know where it is.

I enjoyed shooting pictures in Madagascar because the place and the people were so special. It certainly got the creative juices flowing. But I felt that just taking pictures wasn't good enough. I had to give some meaningful expression to what I saw. Thus the book, which is meant to convey more than images. For me, this is the purpose of photography, or at least the kind of photography that I am interested in pursuing."

An investment adviser in Greenwich, Connecticut with photography as his passion, it's immediately obvious from this book that Ronald Lake fell in love with the island of Madagascar.

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POYi: 67th Annual PJ Competition

Pictures of the Year International (POYi) is to launch its 67th annual competition in documentary photography, multimedia, and visual editing.

POYi plans to release a preview of the 2009 "Call for Entries" on Tuesday, Dec. 8, offering an overview of all the contest categories and guidelines. Online registration and the entry uploading platform will be available at POYi's website on Friday, Dec. 18 and will conclude on Friday, Jan. 15.

The judging period will take place from Feb. 14 through March 5, and in June the POYi Exhibition, Education, and Awards Program will be at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles.

(via The Click)

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POV: Is TTP The New "Nerve"?

Having installed Google Analytics almost since the inception of this blog, I saw that a noticeable cluster of daily hits on specific pages of this blog came from (not listed in any specific order) the following countries:

India
Dubai
Qatar
Kuwait,
Bangladesh,
Saudi Arabia
United Arab Emirates

All the hits from these countries are clustered on these two posts:

Beyond The Frame: Nepali Circus Girls

Q. Sakamaki: Bangladeshi Sex Workers

Now, it doesn't take an agile mind to know why. These visitors have access to Google and are obviously trawling for sex sites, so these terms are just catnip for them. It also explains why the total time they spend on these TTP's posts is just under 2 seconds which, in my reckoning, is about 1.5 seconds too much. These links are obviously not what they seek. I know it's tempting to pass judgment on them, but I won't.

There are millions of South Asian workers in the Gulf, and they are the ones who in essence built Dubai, among others. With Dubai's economic meltdown, possibly affecting all its neighbors, I'll be interested to see if the anticipated eventual repatriation of these workers is felt in The Travel Photographer's statistics.

Man, this blog of mine is not only about travel photography but is also tracking globalization, financial events, porn trends and international employment flows!!!

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Pictory: Innovative Concept?

Pictory is a photo magazine, and claims to be re-imagined for the web. Photojojo describes Pictorymag as one part Boston.com’s Big Picture, one part This American Life, and one part Laura Brunow Miner.

I didn't know who Laura was but I found out she had been the Editor-in-Chief of JPG Magazine, and Pictory is her brainchild.

Pictory's premise is a simple one: it's a showcase for people around the world to document their lives and cultures, and anyone can submit a picture and a story. The best are featured in large sized photo essays.

Is it a commercially viable project? Time will tell.

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Gilles Sabrié: Chinese Traveling Opera

Photo © Gilles Sabrié-All Rights Reserved
It's by pure coincidence that I stumbled on Gilles Sabrié's website, in which he dazzled me with his many documentary galleries ranging from The Traveling Opera and the Kham (Eastern Tibet) to Faiths of Asia, and passing through Calcutta Prostitution. Large sized photographs on the web always make me happy, and these are large!

As I have just photographed street Chinese opera singing in New York's Chinatown, I thought it worthwhile to highlight Gilles' gallery titled The Traveling Opera. It covers a small opera group (or troupe) trying its best to keep alive one of China's oldest traditions, despite the low pay and dismal living conditions.

The website is flash-based, so you'll have to look for the gallery, but I encourage you to look at and study all of his galleries of large sized images.

Gilles Sabrié is a freelance photographer based in Beijing, China. After years spent working in television, he switched careers to embrace his passion — documentary photography. Since then, he has focused on news and social issues in China. In particular, he spent months documenting the life of China’s migrant workers as well as the fate of the inhabitants of the Three Gorges area. Sabrié’s images have been featured in numerous publications including Newsweek, TIME, US News, The New York Times, The Herald Tribune, L’Express, Focus, Le Point and more.

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Condition Critical: Eastern Congo

Bahati's Story - Condition Critical from duckrabbit on Vimeo.

Benjamin Chesterton of the award-winning duckrabbit has done another jaw-dropping job with Condition Critical, a highly commendable and important project for Medecins Sans Frontieres.

As Ben says:

"I've finished four videos on the Congo subtitled into eight languages to run on a website where people can leave messages to be translated and put up in the camps and clinics in Eastern Congo. The strongest thing about this project is that all you hear is the voices of the Congolese affected by the violence."

Here's some background of the Eastern Congo's conflict. It's the world's deadliest conflict since the second world war and yet the majority of people have never heard of it. According to the IRC at least at least 5 million Congolese have died in more than a decade of conflict sparked off by the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda. Most of the deaths are linked to a lack of medical facilities as the ability to access medical care in Eastern Congo has crumbled with the war. The four videos on the Condition Critical website give voice to the pain and trauma of those caught up in the conflict, bearing witness to their dignity and attempts to survive the conflict.

In Ben's own words:

"Told only in their own voices all the website asks you to do is send a message of support. At first that might sound a bit daft. I mean why send a message of support to people I know nothing of? Surely what they need is cash, right? Well first off if you watch the videos you can find out a little about their lives, that they're not that much different to you and me except that they've been caught up in an unforgiving conflict. Secondly messages of support do make a difference. I know this because last year I worked in camps in Kenya and the thing that people were most frightened of was being forgotten, the sense that no-one cared. That's what leads to depression and despair. Worse than that, when no-one cares people get away with murder, literally."

So the fact that MSF will take these messages and share them in the camps and clinics will make a difference. It will also give a huge morale boost to the MSF staff working in Eastern Congo.

People can do four great things:

1. Leave a message of solidarity on the map
2. Twitter about it and link to it on Facebook (for Twitter use #conditioncritical)
3. Embed one of the video's on their blogs.
4. Write something about the project"

It's worthwhile to reiterate what Ben realized from his time in the Kenya camps:

"...the thing that people were most frightened of was being forgotten, the sense that no-one cared. That's what leads to depression and despair. Worse than that, when no-one cares people get away with murder, literally."

So show you care.

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Suzanne Lee: Odissi Dance

Suzanne Lee is a Malaysian photographer who started her career while attending an Angkor Photography Workshop in Siem Reap. Her coverage of a small community of blind masseurs there resulted in her being given second place in the workshop's Paris-Match award.

She's currently based in Delhi, working freelance as a photographer and multimedia journalist. She's working on a collaborative photo book project on Jewish festivals around the world, and also pursues personal projects across Asia.

I particularly liked her gallery of photographs of Odissi dancers getting readied for their performance.

Odissi is one of the eight classical dance forms of India, and originates from the state of Orissa, in eastern India. I traveled in parts of Orissa, and recall photographing various forms of indigenous dances, including the unusual Gotipua dancers which I posted about here.

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AMNH's The Silk Road

As a nice segue from my foray in Chinatown this past Sunday, I ought to mention the interesting exhibition "Traveling the Silk Road: Ancient Pathway to the Modern World" that can currently be seen at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC.

Through the power of interactivity it brings to life one of the greatest trading routes in human history. It features produce, products, cultures, and technologies from four representative cities: Xi'an, China's Tang Dynasty capital; Turfan, a oasis and trading outpost; Samarkand, home of wealthy traders who thrived on the caravan trade; and Baghdad, a cosmopolitan hub of trade and scholarship that became the intellectual center of the era.

I've never traveled to any of the Silk Route cities (yet), but it seems to me that this exhibition would be a good start.

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Sunday Break: Chinatown's Columbus Park

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
I thought New York City's weather on Sunday was just perfect for a few hours of street photography on Chinatown's Mulberry Street, but ended up spending an interesting time at Columbus Park (Mulberry and Bayard). This is the only park in Chinatown, and is built on what was in the 19th century the most dangerous slum area of immigrant New York.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
Now, it's the venue of choice for hundreds of Chinese residents, a few of whom I saw were practicing tai chi, while others (mostly women) were playing mahjong and card games, and groups of men were engaged in numerous games of xiangqi. Many more occupy the benches, socializing with their neighbors or with strangers, listening to the songs of birds in their cages.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
At the corner of Mulberry & Bayard, there was a large band of traditional musicians accompanying a handful of elderly Chinese opera singers, surrounded by an appreciative audience. I had come prepared...and brought my audio recorder to capture its unmistakable sounds. The musicians used a panoply of Chinese traditional musical instruments, such as the yangqin, a sort of dulcimer with a near-squared soundboard, and played with two bamboo sticks, as well as the jinghu, a small two string fiddle, a circular bodied plucked lute called the yueqin and the recognizable gu and ban, a drum and clapper.

I was racking my brains all evening trying to remember the title of the movie that featured Beijing opera characters, and which won the Cannes Palme d'Or. It's Farewell My Concubine, the 1993 Chinese film directed by Chen Kaige, and adapted from the novel by Lilian Lee.

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