Tribes of Omo Valley: OZZO Photography

Here's a behind the scenes video of a trip to Southern Ethiopia by Icelandic photographer Oli Haukur and other team mates who visited a number of tribes in the lower Omo Valley. The video was made with a Sony RX100, a Canon 5D Mark III and an iPhone 5, while the real behind the scenes portion is shown around half way through.

I was reminded of the brutality of the traditional whipping of Hamar women preceding the jumping of the bulls ceremony, and of the sound of the switches landing on bare flesh and at seeing the wounds and bloody welts on the backs of these women. I've written a post explaining this custom in The Whipping of the Hamar.

Photo © Oli Haukur/OZZO Photography

The lower valley of the Omo is believed to have been a crossroads for thousands of years as various cultures and ethnic groups migrated around the region. The people of the Lower Valley of the Omo include the Mursi, Suri, Karo and Hamer.

Kiliii Fish: Native

I stumbled on the lovely NATIVE project; sepia portraits of modern indigenous people photographed by Kiliii Fish in Alaska, Oregon and elsewhere around the North Pacific rim.

Kiliii Fish is a photographer with ancestry spanning from China to Siberia, who grew up in the United States. His work consists of still photography and cinematography for portraits and for the sports/adventure. He also works with non-profits on issues from indigenous rights to environmental justice.

Photo © Kiliii Fish-All Rights Reserved

Captain Tristram Speedy: Travel Photography At Bonhams

Why would I mention Bonhams, an auction house, on The Travel Photographer's blog?

Well, it's because Bonhams is holding an auction of a rare photographic album of 180 Ethiopian images by Julia Margaret Cameron, Felice Beato and others. These images include a number of self portraits of Captain Tristram Charles Sawyer Speedy(1836-1910), a well-known English explorer and adventurer during the Victorian era, who was also known by his Amharic name 'Báshá Félíka'.

He was a fascinating character who was an Indiana Jones of his time, with a long association with India, Ethiopia and Sudan.

Born in Meerut (India), Captain Speedy was a red-haired bearded man 6'5" tall, who learned to speak Amharic, adopted Ethiopian native dress, and was photographed by Cameron in various guises such as a Bedouin chief, a Nubian chief, a Nubian warrior and much more. He was the inspiration for a number of popular books.

I am enormously interested in news like that because it merges history, Africa, Asia, adventurism, exploration and photography. Despite my abhorrence of colonialism, I consider men such as Richard Francis Burton and now, Tristram, as quintessential eccentric explorers, as orientalists and ethnologists, and as remarkable linguists with an extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures.

They just don't make men that way anymore.

For those who don't know Julia Margaret Cameron: she was a British photographer born in Calcutta, known for her portraits of celebrities of the time. Her photographic career was short, spanning eleven years of her life (1864–1875), and got her first camera when she was 48 as a gift from her daughter.

As for Felice Beato (1832-1909), he was an Italian–British photographer, and one of the first people to take photographs in East Asia and one of the first war photographers. His work provides images of such events as the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the Second Opium War.

POV: The Facebook © Kerfuffle

I'm not a lawyer, but in my previous career incarnation I had to peruse, study and negotiate many complex legal documents...so the recent kerfuffle with many photographers posting some legalese jargon on their Facebook pages prompted me to reread its Terms of Service.

But first, here's what the photographers in my network of friends posted on their walls. Simply stated, this means that everything on their pages is copyrighted and cannot be used by Facebook et al.

In response to the new Facebook guidelines I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details, writing - published and unpublished, personal/professional photos and videos, etc. (as a result of the Berne Convention). For commercial use of the above my written consent is needed at all times! (Anyone reading this can copy this text and paste it on their Facebook Wall. This will place them under protection of copyright laws. By the present communiqué, I notify Facebook that it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, disseminate, or take any other action against me on the basis of this profile and/or its contents. The aforementioned prohibited actions also apply to employees, students, agents and/or any staff under Facebook's direction or control. The content of this profile is private and confidential information. The violation of my privacy is punished by law (UCC 1 1-308-308 1-103 and the Rome Statute). Facebook is now an open capital entity. All members are recommended to publish a notice like this, or if you prefer, you may copy and paste this version. If you do not publish a statement at least once, you will be tacitly allowing the use of elements such as your photos as well as the information contained in your profile status updates...

Well, while it may look impressive, it's utterly useless. 

First and foremost, creators always own their intellectual property and posting it on Facebook won't change that. What is at stake is that Facebook, according to its terms of service, is granted a license by users to use it and display it. If you use Facebook, that's what you agreed to upfront...but it doesn't mean your copyright is at risk.

Facebook is very specific about this:

You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. In addition: For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.

However, if posting some legal mishmash on your Facebook gives you comfort, go ahead cut and paste it.

Facebook users must realize there are no free lunches. The social network is a business and seeks to generate profits for its shareholders. People who are serious about privacy issues, their name and brand ought to be careful and choosy about what they post on Facebook, while others go further and use their walls on their own terms; only sharing information they want to share for good and valid reasons.

Antonio Gibotta: Holi

Photo © Antonio Gibotta-All Rights Reserved

In contrast with the currently underway Pushkar fair whose authenticity is marred by its popularity amongst foreign tourists; a topic I posted about a few days ago, Holi festival is one event I encourage most photographers to attend despite the potential damage to one's cameras from the dyed water and powder that is thrown during it. It's one of the events still outstanding on my list of Indian religious festivals, and it's one I blogged about repeatedly.

Today I add another Holi photo gallery by Italian photographer Antonio Gibotta.

Like his father, Antonio became a photographer and specializes in human and social issues. His international photo galleries include work from India, China, and Africa. Browse through his website, and don't miss his lovely black & white work from Kashmir. He won a number of recognitions and awards from international publications and contests.

New! Unique! The Sufi Saints Of Rajasthan & Kashmir

I earned the reputation of planning, organizing and leading unusual "off the beaten path" photographic experiences, so I am particularly pleased to announce my forthcoming The Sufi Saints of Rajasthan & Kashmir Photo Expedition-Workshop in early May 2013, which promises to be another unique photographic expedition, rivaling in intensity those that preceded it.

This is a unique photo expedition delving into the esoteric traditions of Sufism in Srinagar (Kashmir) as well as to attend the Urs Ajmer Sharif, an annual commemoration of Sufi saints in Ajmer (Rajasthan). It is the largest commemoration of Sufi saints in India, attended by many thousands of South Asian Muslims. The Ajmer event attracts the pious and the not-so-pious...the religious and the charlatans, the fakirs and the storytellers.

In common with my photo expeditions-workshops, the aim of this one is to assist participants produce multimedia bodies of work by merging their still photography and audio recordings to create compelling narratives.

For a taste of my work with Indian Sufism, interested readers can view The Possessed of Mira Datar, an article and photos that offer insight into sufism in the subcontinent, the multimedia photo essay on The Possessed of Hazrat Mira Datar, and a gallery of still photographs on In Search of the Sufis of Gujarat.

Details are on The Sufi Saints of Rajasthan & Kashmir Photo Expedition-Workshop website.

Piers Calvert: Amazonian Body Paint

Photo © Piers Calvert-All Rights Reserved

"To realise the project I travelled solo with 45 kilos of camera equipment. All photos are shot on location with natural light."

Piers Calvert visited a photo exhibition in Bogota, Colombia, where he saw a photo of girls from the Okaina tribe wearing body paint, taken by an explorer in 1908. The beauty of this art form inspired Piers,  and he found the Okaina had long stopped the practice, and that the tribe was nearly extinct.

Nevertheless, Piers set out to learn if body-painting still existed in Colombia at all, and if so, if he could document it. His research revealed that Colombia has over 100 different indigenous tribes, but not all of them practice (or practiced) body-painting.

Piers' message to the indigenous tribes he visited was that their culture was disappearing, and offering a chance to record some of it. Most communities weren’t interested, but some of them were and allowed him to record their practices.

Most of the body paint is made using "jagua". This is a tropical fruit whose juice is used for traditional body art. It's painted (or rather stained) on the skin making elaborate designs, and only lasts for a few weeks, similar to henna.

The Way We Are Now is the Piers Calvert photographs of these indigenous tribes.

The Frame's Pushkar Fair

Photo © AP / Rajesh Kumar Singh-All Rights Reserved

The Sacramento Bee's photo blog The Frame is featuring some 27 images of the Pushkar Fair, which started Wednesday, November 21 2012.

According to The Times of India, it kicked off "amid colorful celebrations and enthusiastic participation of foreign tourists"  and its first day highlight was a soccer match between local and tourists. This annual five-day camel and livestock fair is supposedly one of the world's largest camel fairs and has become an important tourist attraction.

You can see where I'm going with this. The Pushkar Fair, once a visually compelling event for photographers, has become a tourist attraction with all the negatives that such a description entails.

I've written up a post about the demise of the fair from a photographer's perspective in February 2007 (almost 6 years ago) saying this:

"It's absolute nonsense for serious photographers to time their stay in the town of Pushkar at the peak of the fair because it'll be full of tourists, the real camel trading occurs almost a week before the fair's announced schedule, hotels are more expensive at the height of the fair, and so on. If the idea of photographing a solitary dopey camel trader left with his final unsold scrawny camel (not to mention the gaggle of tourist-photographers who invariably will intrude in your viewfinder) excites you, go right ahead."

It seems it's gotten even worse. I haven't researched if there are any serious photo tours to Pushkar this year, but I suspect if there are any, they are very few.

Carlos Duarte: Mali

Photo © Carlos Duarte-All Rights Reserved

It's been a while I haven't featured photographic work of Mali, and Carlos Duarte's work is the perfect excuse to do so.

A self-professed newcomer to photography, and one who never owned a film camera, and jumping straight into digital photography, Carlos started his craft about 6 years ago and gravitated towards social photography, portraiture and landscapes. Starting in 2007, he traveled to India then to Scotland, followed by Mali, then Iceland, Ecuador. This variety of locations resulted in diverse galleries which can be seen on his website.

Carlos added a wonderful West African song to his gallery of Mali...so you'll be well accompanied when you peruse his photographs, mostly environmental portraiture.

Mali is, of course, another country in the throes of civil unrest following a military coup and a rebellion from the Tuareg, and Islamist radicals controlling its north.  

Sheila Rock: Sera, The Way Of The Tibetan Monk

Photo © Sheila Rock-All Rights Reserved

The Sera monastery is near Mysore (India) and houses 5,000 Buddhist monks living in exile.  It's one of the best locations to witness the monk debates on the teachings of Buddha and the philosophy of Buddhism. It developed over the centuries as a famous place of scholarly learning, training hundreds of Buddhist scholars.

Sheila Rock is based in London, and her photographs were published in TIME, Elle, Glamour, Rolling Stone, Architectural Digest and the Sunday Times. Her photographs were shown in various exhibitions in New York City, London and Turin. Her portraits form part of the public collection at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

The Way of The Tibetan Monks' gallery of duotone photographs depicts the way of life in this Buddhist community, and shows a fraction of the photographs published in the photographer's book of the same title.

Writing of monk debates reminded me that I photographed and audio recorded the lively monk debates in a monastery in Bhutan, titled Sangha Debates.

Incredible India (Director Cut)

I saw this a few days ago on Facebook. It's guaranteed to bring a smile to your faces, especially if you're an Indophile.

 It's a commercial for the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India's 'Incredible India 2013' campaign directed by Prakash Varma and produced by Nirvana Films.

Lots of humor, some tongue in cheek, incredible color (of course) and a very cute main character who tries the Indian head "wobble", but (in my opinion) fails.

The Travel Photographer's Sufi Saints Expedition-Workshop

I know...the wait is excruciating...but it'll be worth it. It's only a matter of days and details will be announced to my newsletter subscribers and on this blog.

This, as with my previous photo expeditions-workshops, is photo-journalism and travel-documentary oriented, will largely focus on story-telling, and on how to produce audio slideshows rivaling in quality and content more elaborate multimedia productions.

In the meantime, click the image for a larger poster image. I think it's really cool.

PS. I just realized that the last 3 posts are titled 'The Travel Photographer's...'. Self-centered or building anticipation?

The Travel Photographer's Blog Gets A Facelift

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Yes, The Travel Photographer's Blog does seem different today.

Following a coding issue that prevented some external links in some of my posts from opening, I amended its original template to what you see here.

I hope the new font provides better legibility, and that the color combination of red, white and grey along with wider margins makes for an improved layout aesthetic. I've tested it in various browsers; Opera, Firefox, Safari and Chrome...and they all behaved well. It works particularly well on large displays, but perhaps looks a bit cramped on smaller laptop screens. It works well on the iPad and with iOS6.

Well, maybe facelift is a bit much to describe what I've done...the British have a better expression for it. Let's just say I've just tarted up the blog a bit.

I hope you like it.

The Travel Photographer's Hanoi iPhoneography

Stephen Mayes, a director at the VII photo agency, recently made a splash in the blogosphere with an interesting interview featured on WIRED's Raw File blog, in which he expressed his view that mobile phone photography is a "pure implementation of the digital phenomenon", and that images made with these devices were not documents as such but rather a stream, or waves of visuals.

He also raised the point that the popularity of these images and the apps that make them are about a nostalgia for the past.

Although I am on Instagram, and use it and other apps quite frequently with my iPhone, I have yet to join the streaming aspect of it, preferring to take my time in sharing the images when I choose to, rather than joining the torrent. This will probably change once I figure out how to have two accounts on Instagram; one for my personal stuff and the other for my travel documentary photography.

That said, one needs to be careful with wily-nilly streaming, because the quality (or lack thereof) of the mobile images affects one's branding and reputation.

Whilst I grapple with this thought, you may want to sit back and get a feel of Hanoi's street life via my iPhone photography. 

American Tintype

American Tintype from Matt Morris Films on Vimeo.

Checking in my Vimeo channel, I noticed this wonderful short documentary picked by its staff about Harry Taylor who discovered a passion for the 150-year-old craft of tintype photography.

There are also remarkable samples of his craft on his tintype gallery, which I urge you to visit.

The ICP website describes tintype as: "One of the most intriguing and little studied forms of nineteenth-century photography. Introduced in 1856 as a low-cost alternative to the daguerreotype and the albumen print, the tintype was widely marketed from the 1860s through the first decades of the twentieth century as the cheapest and most popular photographic medium."

And Wikipedia defines it as a photograph made by creating a direct positive on a sheet of iron metal that is blackened by painting, lacquering or enamelling and is used as a support for a collodion photographic emulsion.

For those of you who don't have that deep passion and investment, you may want to make faux tintypes as described on Instagram's blog.

Yes, digital tintypes on your mobile devices! Enough to drive the purists bonkers.

Chiaroscuro: The Power Of Light-Dark

On my Facebook page, I have already posted a few examples of chiaroscuro photographs that I made some time ago in Siem Reap and thought I'd write a post about them. Chiaroscuro photographs are a natural for the temples of Angkor Wat; an ideal place to apply this technique with its dark-light ambiance.

Chiaroscuro is an Italian coinage word which literally means 'light-dark', and is a way to enhance a scene by placing light and darkness next to each other. I don't want to be wordy, but penumbra can also be present in chiaroscuro scenes, as in the lower folds of the monk's robes in the top photograph.

Provided the right lighting situation presents itself, or is set up (as most of these accompanying photographs are) with one source of light , one can achieve the effect by exposing for the absolute highest tones in the image. I generally do it by using spot metering and opting for manual exposure.

I was also interested to know that there is a technique called tenebrism, (also from the Italian tenebroso or dark/unclear, which is a style of painting using very pronounced chiaroscuro. Meedo Taha, a photographer, film maker and architect (and a Facebook friend) reminded me of Caravaggio, who is credited with the invention of the style.

Muhammad Fadli: The Wa People

Photo © Muhammad Fadli-All Rights Reserved

I stumbled on the website of Muhammad Fadli, an Indonesian travel and documentary photographer, whose various galleries include photographs made in Taiwan, China, India, Singapore, and his native country.

I favored his work from Wengding, a Wa minority village in Yunnan which he titled Wa Frontier. Wengding is about 20 miles from Cangyuan county seat. The village is made up of 98 families who've kept primitive Wa residential architectures and ethnic culture. It has been the best-conserved primitive ethnic community and the must-see tourist site in Lincang Municipality.

You'll see images of buffalo skulls in the gallery, and that's because the Was used human skulls in their religious rituals, which included sacrifice to the God of Rice. These have been replaced by buffalo heads which are a symbol of wealth.

As for the woman with blackened teeth in the above photograph; blackened teeth is relatively common amongst ethnic minorities and tribes in Vietnam, China, Laos and Cambodia. Most of us have noticed that some Asian women cover their mouths when talking or laughing. This is a remnant of a superstition that exposing teeth is uncivilized savagery, and that's the reason behind blackened teeth. In Vietnam for example, the original rationale for blackening of teeth at puberty was the assurance that one would not be mistaken for an evil spirit!

Kuba Kaminski: The Whisperers

Photo © Kuba Kaminski-All Rights Reserved

In remote northeastern Poland there lives a group of elderly Orthodox devotees who are said to possess special powers. They are called “Whisperers.”

The work of Kuba Kaminski was recently featured in LENS, the photo blog of The New York Times, and it got my attention, not only because of its subject matter, but also because of the back stories that are told by Mr Kaminski about this photo essay.

"The Whisperers" are people in northeastern Poland who believe they have the power to heal diseases and physical pain, and that they are able to throw bad spells and exorcise possessed people from evil. It seems that they, mostly elderly women, treat their 'patients' by whispering special prayers.

I initially shrugged off this as being a way to con people out of their money, but it appears that the "whisperers" take no money for their services. After all, I've come across shamans in Bhutan, balians on Bali, the Zar women in Egypt, and the charlatans in the Sufi shrines of South Asia....but reading the text on the LENS blog, and Mr Kaminsky introduction of his web site makes me wonder.

Do read the article on the LENS blog with the back stories recounted by the photographer, and of his initial incredulity.

As he's quoted in the article...“It’s this type of situation when if you believe in something, maybe it’s true or maybe it’s the power of suggestion. Maybe it’s real spirits, and you don’t know that, and you cannot know that because, how can you?”

Kuba Kaminski was born in Poland, and hold a degree in photography from Lodz Film School. He worked as a photographer for the "Zycie" daily and a staff photographer for "Rzeczpospolita" daily newspaper till 2012. He's currently part of reportage. by Getty Images Emerging Talent.

POV: Is It Time For The Mamiya 645 (Again?)

I've been thinking about my Mamiya 645 film camera and its 80mm f2.8 Sekkor for some time. It's been stored in my closet for some 20 years...virtually untouched. I had bought it at the start of my photography hobby (which it was then), and used it to learn the craft, thinking that I would continue using it...but with the technological advances in the SLRs and later on, the DSLRs...it was forgotten and sat forlornly in the closet ever since.

I believe cameras are tools; nothing more and nothing less. And I just couldn't think of a specific use for this tool. Although some photographers use it very successfully while traveling, travel photography generally doesn't lend itself to medium format cameras, whether digital or film. They're bulky, heavy and impractical in non-studio settings (or so I think).

However, the quality of its images is superlative.

It needs a bit of a professional cleaning, but before I do that, I'll try it out for a while on local mini personal projects. So I looked around and found that B&H stocks Kodak Tri-X 120 and other brands, and The Darkroom, an outfit in California processes film, and can also digitally scan the film on a CD.

We'll see if this impulse survives the coming few weeks, especially as I've embarked on a minimalistic panoply of tools, or is it just a flash in the pan.

The 8th Angkor Photo Festival

This wonderful Angkor Photo Festival will be held from December 1– 8, 2012 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. I know from first hand experience that it's a festival that's well worth participating in, and attending because of the quality of the photography exhibited during its evenings and galleries. The quality of the curating, and the gracious hospitality of Francoise Callier and Jean-Yves Navel is instrumental in making a success of the event, along with the assistance of Camille Plante and Jessica Lim.

Since its inception in 2005, more than 180 young photographers from all over Asia have been selected to participate in the annual free Angkor Photo Workshops. Conducted by renowned international photographers who volunteer their time, the Angkor Photo Workshops provide participants with firsthand training, invaluable exposure and a chance to perfect their art.

I was privileged to attend the Angkor Photo Festival in November 2011 and one of my photo essays The Possessed of Mira Datar was featured at the festival. 

This is a phenomenal opportunity for all photographers, emerging and established. If you haven't submitted your work, go and attend it. You'll never regret it.

POV: Chutzpah or Clueless?

Photo © Tewfic el-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

"Hi Tewfic,  As a photojournalist who specializes in the distinct cultures of Asia, Latin America and Africa, and someone who has led photography expeditions in the past, I am curious if a new photography tour from XXXXXXXXXXX is something you would share with your blog readers." 

This is the first paragraph of an email I received a few days ago. The rest of the email is essentially describing the photography tour led by a "renowned" travel photographer.

Now this wouldn't be worth a post on this blog, as I get similar solicitations every now and then. However, this solicitation comes from a firm that describes itself as specializing in public relations representing some of the world’s best resorts, destinations and brands. More importantly, the photography tour it refers to is offered by one of the top adventure travel companies in the United States.  

Let me rewrite this: one of the top US based adventure travel companies is asking me to publicize one of its photography tours on this blog...knowing full well that I offer such photography tours and workshops myself. Flattering perhaps, but why would I publicize and endorse a competitor...and one that I know nothing about?

So it's either chutzpah, or the sender of the email is clueless. It also means that The Travel Photographer blog is considered as a must-go-to blog for travel photography and photojournalism professionals, enthusiasts and anyone in between...and its readership is valuable to tap into.

So here's what I'll do;

1. I will reply to the email offering to write a post with all the details of the company's tour against payment of $1500. Since the land cost for the trip is over $10,000, it can surely afford to pay for sharing its details on this blog.

2. The alternative would be for this adventure travel company to advertise my photo expeditions-workshops. I have one planned for the first half of 2013 and have the details ready.

If I get a reply, I'll share it with you.

And what does an Instagram photo of Jimi have to do with this post? Nothing.

The Travel Photographer's Hà Nội Streets (X Pro-1)

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

If there’s anywhere that lives life on the street, it’s Hanoi. 

So here is a gallery of 12 monochrome photographs made in its streets. For these I used my Fuji X Pro-1 and the Fujinon 18mm f2.0 lens and most were shot from the hip.

I didn't know this while on my last month's photo expedition-workshop, but it's said that Hanoi's Old Quarter consists of 36 streets (in reality, there's almost twice that number), each originally named for a traditional trade, and those eventually forming guilds. For instance, Hàng Muối (salt) Street was where the salt traders converged to sell their ware. Not surprising, since Hanoi's Old Quarter has a history that spans 2,000 years. 


This has now changed to a great extent, with some exceptions such as Hang Bac street (which I walked up and down many times) and that was and still is where goldsmiths and silversmiths plied their craft/trade. Most street names in the Old Quarter start with the word Hàng. Hàng means merchandise or shop.

In Vietnamese, the formal term for street is đường phố; the latter word not be confused with its delicious signature soup, but which is a staple of its streets. 

Election Day

"Vote For Obama" chalk graffiti on a sidewalk in SoHo.  

POV: I Just Couldn't Do It....

Photo Iwan Baan for New York Magazine

I tried but my heart wasn't in it. It's that simple. It might surprise many of my readers and peers...but that's the truth.

I didn't want to photograph "my" New York City neighborhood suffering in the aftermath of Sandy...I'm not that kind of photographer. I never photograph the homeless...the down and out...the infirm...who frequently walk the streets of New York City...or  anywhere else in the world.

I don't have that type of photography in me. It doesn't appeal to me. I recall going to lower Manhattan two or three days after 9.11, and returning home not having made a single frame. I just couldn't do it.

Sebastiao Salgado is quoted as having said "If you take a picture of a human that does not make him noble, there is no reason to take this picture. That is my way of seeing things." Perhaps the word 'noble' in his statement is a little too much, but documenting misery, human misfortunes and other disasters, just doesn't appeal to me.

And I felt that photographing my neighborhood, its restaurants, its stores and its people in the storm's immediate aftermath was an intrusion...why would I document its pain and discomfort? That's not what I do.

Now that it is recovering, and there's a smile on the faces of its residents, I might return to my neighborhood's streets.

I did photograph in the past few days, but I looked for the quotidien, the commonplace...and I found it north of 30th Street.

Of course, no such thing as quotidien exists in New York City...but you know what I mean.

POV: Much Ado About An Instagram Cover Photo?

"If there was still any debate about whether serious photojournalism can take place in the context of camera phones and cutesy retro filters, it’s over now." - Jeff Bercovici, Forbes

Er, no. Not really. Mr Bercovici's pontification notwithstanding, the debate will still go on....simply because there always will be some photojournalists (plus photo editors and their ilk) who will remain wedded to their ways.

I occasionally use my iPhone's Instagram and Hipstamatic for my travel photography, as well as for my street photography efforts in New York City...and I enjoy snapping (and that's what it really is...snapping) a few pictures here and there using these apps, and having fun applying its various filters to the resultant images. I have Snapseed and Camera+ as well, and use these to apply further filters.

In my opinion TIME magazine used a photographer's Instagram snap for one of its covers not because of its particular aesthetics or its compositional values, but because of expediency. Apert from being a crop, the image itself is mundane and nondescript. The Forbes article refers to the expediency factor in very explicit terms, saying that the magazine's director of photography chose to use the Instagram was motivated by the necessity for speed. After all, Instagram has 'insta" in its name, as did Kodak's Instamatic...both implying simplicity, speed and ease.

Oh, did I mention that it's also cheap? No post processing software to buy...no fiddling with levels and layers...nothing.

And that's the reason why Google has bought Nik Software, and Twitter will introduce photo filters in an effort to bypass Instagram.

As I'm fond of saying to anyone who'll half-listen...what you use to make a photograph is really irrelevant. It could be a DSLR, a medium format Hasselblad,a rangefinder or an iPhone...it doesn't matter. They're just tools. And if the photo buyers/editors accept the images...that's all that matters.

Cheap Vandor 64051 The Beatles Ceramic Travel Mug

I bought this for my husband for Christmas and he doesn't get to use it that often because I always have it. It is cool looking and because it's ceramic there is no aftertaste with your coffee or whatever else you use it for. I have had several compliments on it and it will be a collector's piece in our family - we are a Beatles fan forever. I recently received this mug as a christmas gift from one of my very close friends. I am ONE of the biggest Beatles fans that I know. I hope to have a house full of nothing but Beatles collectibles, but never the less, I have received some pretty amazing presents in my day, but this by far was the best EVER! I recommend anyone who loves the Beatles and Coffee to buy this mug. I am currently purchasing 3 more of them so I can have a set collection! Very good quality of mug, sterdy, and keeps coffee hot for a long period of time! Very groovy gift idea for Beatles lovers! haha.... :) I was delighted when my mug arrived! The colors are vivid and the design is unique. As far the quality the mug is heavy and well made. While the lid does not create an extremely tight seal, it does the job. Would recommend to any Beatles fan!

Best Deal Vandor 75251 Wonder Ceramic 16 Ounce

This is a great travel mug, detailed art work, great colors dishwasher safe and you can use it in the microwaive, merchant did a great job with packaging and speedy delivery service, will by from this merchant again!! The artwork is beautiful, better than the pics! i got this for christmas and love it! my hubby got it for me, a big wonder woman fan! its durable ceramic, nice plastic top that fits well not hard to put it on, holds plenty of liquid and keeps it very warm. i've only hand washed it so far, i'm particular, but did put in the micro for a bit and it worked fine. i LoVe it! This mug is so awesome that when it fell off the roof of my car (the first time I took it out of the house) my sweet hubby bought me a second mug. Keeps my tea nice and hot and is a nice big size. The top works well - stays on and doesn't let liquid seep out of the sides. It makes me happy to see such an awesome illustration of Wonder Woman on my mug - it is inspiring when I have to pull an all-nighter for school. Just don't be foolish and put it on the roof of your car like I did.

Best Buy Contigo Thermo Ceramic 14 Ounce White

I all ready own the 10oz version of this mug and loved it, the 14oz is even better. Keeps coffee hot for quite a while and tastes so much better coming out of the ceramic then plastic or steel. I'm thinking of buying 2 more to put in our RV so I can enjoy campfire coffee from it. I do like this ceramic coated stainless steel insulated coffee mug for my morning coffee. As far as the lid I tried drinking out of the cup with it on and found that without a vent the coffee flow was restricted. I drilled a 1/8" hole on the opposite side of the lid as I had noted in a previously written review and that helped but my lips can only take so much of the heat that is transmitted to the plastic lid. Personally I don't trust a lid that just slips on top of a mug. So my next action I took was to remove the plastic lid and use the mug without the lip-burner. I find that the Contigo Thermo Ceramic 14-Ounce Desk Mug works best for me if I add hot water to the cup and let it set while brewing my coffee to get the cup heated up. The coffee stays fairly hot to my last sip. I also find that the handle is user friendly and cool to the touch. I find that the base of the cup is also user friendly with the furniture as it is cushioned with a rubberized material and protects against heat transfer although I still use a coaster from habit (wife enforced). I am pleased with this coffee mug and would recommend it to anyone looking for a coffee cup.

Cedric Arnold: Yangon Awakening

Photo © Cedric Arnold-All Rights Reserved

I'm really delighted to have stumbled on Newsweek's Picture Dept which features the lovely new work by Cedric Arnold in Myanmar's capital. More photographs are featured on The Daily Beast. I'm a fan of this type of photography, and of Cedric's work which I featured on this blog earlier this year.

The much better laid out gallery on Cedric Arnold's own website is titled Yangon's Awakening, and consists of large format Polaroids of an artist, a poet, a teacher, a student, an office worker, a punk rocker, a forest monk (above)... photographed in front the old and neglected walls of this city, showing the diversity of people, and juxtaposing the traditional and modern Burmese against the peeling paint and masonry of these old walls.

I chose to feature the Polaroid of this forest monk because I came across some of these monks when I walked up and down the path to Kyaiktiyo Pagoda during a photo excursion to Myanmar some 10 years ago, and I recall that they were very reserved, and shy when photographed...perhaps because they were in the midst of a pilgrimage to that sacred site.

These are real Polaroids...not Instagrams and not digital images processed with Alien Skin software and the like.

Lovely work.

PerPower EZBoost

With lower Manhattan losing power, most of its residents had to walk north for at least 20 blocks from to recharge cell phones and laptops at mid-town bank branches, hotel lobbies and cafes, I thought I'd feature the availability of the PerfPower EZBoost.

The PerfPower EZBoost claims that it's "the most powerful portable mobile charger" small enough to fit in one's pocket, but powerful enough to charge a mobile device nearly 4 times from fully drained to completely charged. It's powered by standard alkaline batteries or rechargeable batteries, and can be used anywhere and anytime.

It's very inexpensive, and available from Adorama. I have no idea if it lives up to its claims, but it might be a useful option to have around.

By the way, both B&H (420 9th Ave. at 34th St. ) and Adorama (42 W 18 St) have set up charging stations for cell phones et al in front of their respective stores. These are free of charge.

James Whitlow Delano: Pattaya

Photo © James Whitlow Delano-All Rights Reserved

"Why, if Thailand is so prosperous now, doesn’t sex tourism fade away?" -James Whitlow Delano

To say that James Whitlow Delano's resume is impressive would be an understatement. He lived in and documented Asia for over a decade and a half. His work has been awarded internationally, and his photo essays and books have been recognized with prestigious awards and prizes. It has been published  in New York Times Magazine, National Geographic Books, GEO, Newsweek, Mother Jones, Time Asia, Internazionale, Le Monde 2, Vanity Fair Italia, and others. His "The Mercy Project / Inochi" charity photo book for hospice has been cited with a PX3 Gold Award and the Award of Excellence from Communication Arts. He also was an instructor at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Chiang Mai, where I met him.

The question he asks is a thoughtful one, and resonates with me after my own experience in Chiang Mai documenting the bar girls on Loi Kroh Road. I always considered the sex tourism in Thailand (and certainly elsewhere) as exploitation, and viewed the Western men who indulged in it, and anything associated with it, with much revulsion. I still do, but understand the circumstances that drive these women to it. It's poverty, plain and simple....so James' question is spot on. It's a macro economics issue rather than a micro one...and it's facile to criticize its protagonists, but it goes much beyond that.

The level of intimacy and connection that James achieved with his subjects in this photo essay is stunning...so here's Pattaya, Sex Tourism.

(Note: I avoided mentioning the full name of the photo essay in the post's title to avoid getting viewers that are looking for something else)