Sebastião Salgado | Genesis | Natural History Museum

Photo © Sebastião Salgado/Amazonas

"It made me think we are destroying our planet to accumulate things for nothing. To survive and survive well, we don't need all this." -Sebastião Salgado

As I promised myself, I spent an enjoyable hour viewing the 250 magnificent photographs of Sebastião Salgado at the epic exhibition titled Genesis. It was crowded, but not uncomfortably so. The regular entrance price was the equivalent of $15...possibly a pittance what other museums will surely charge (especially those in New York City).

The Natural History Museum has a winner in hosting the global premiere of this incredible photographic project by Sebastião Salgado. It took eight years to complete, and shows us the flora, fauna and indigenous tribes that haven't been touched by modernity.

I'd say there's an equal number of monochromatic photographs of flora/fauna and indigenous tribes, and I naturally and instinctively gravitated towards the latter. There was large sized photographs of scarified Omo Valley tribeswomen (simple, with no demeaning floral arrangements on their heads as I've seen in other photographic work),  of Nambibian Himba people, of Amazonian tribes and of Upper Xingu people...of Papua New Guinea tribesmen and shamans, the Dinka of South Sudan, and so forth.

Under a plexiglass case, there's an enormous book of the Genesis photographs published by TASCHEN. There are two options: the first option is a limited edition (not more than 5 editions will be published) at $10,000 per book...the second option is another edition limited to 2500 at $4,000 per book. If Mr Salgado sells them all, the $ amount is over $10,000,000.

Another much more affordable version is the one below that retails in the museum shop for approximately $67.

POV: And Off I Go....

This ought to be the last blog post written in New York City as I'm flying to London, and on to Delhi to begin my two weeks Sufi Saints of Rajasthan & Kashmir Photo Expedition-Workshop. During this photo expedition, I shall keep my readers in the loop as much as I can.

I'll spend a few days in London where I have to look after some business, and I'm delighted to learn that The Natural History Museum is featuring the world premiere of Sebastião Salgado: Genesis, and which I'm planning to visit no matter whether it rains or the sun shines. He's one of my favorite photographers, not only for the beauty of his work but also because of his photographic philosophy.

Then it's a direct flight to Delhi where I arrive at 11:00 am on Friday May 3rd, and plan to meet with friends. I have much to do for the first few days prior to the arrival of the group of photographers who joined this workshop, and hope all will pan out as planned.

As is frequently the norm with my photo trips, the group members come from various corners of the world; the USA, the UK, Ireland, Bahrain, Denmark and Canada. 

Nine photographers all told...who, with their photographic and audio gear will work in Srinagar for 4-5 days in this unique Kashmiri city known as the land of Sufis Saints,  then to Ajmer in Rajasthan; the holiest of cities for Sufis, and where the shrine of the Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti, equally revered by Hindus and Muslims, will witness the commemoration of the death anniversary of the saint in unparalleled manifestations of Sufi fervor and devotion.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

I can't wait to photograph incredible people such as the Sufi punkhawallah above, and start producing audio-visual stories at these locations. My gear has been cleaned, lenses polished, CF and SD cards checked, and hard drives spun and re-spun.

India, here I come.

Roy Del Vecchio | Rajasthan

Photo © Roy Del Vecchio-All Rights Reserved

As I'm about to travel to India to lead my Sufi Saints of Rajasthan & Kashmir Photo Expedition & Workshop which starts in about a week, I thought I'd feature Roy Del Vecchio's photography of Rajasthan.

Rajasthan is known as "the land of kings" and is the largest state of India by area. In my view, it's the one of the most colorful and photogenic of all the Indian states, with considerable diverse culture and a long history.

Roy's Rajasthan gallery has some lovely photographs; some of which were made in the streets of the blue city, Jodhpur. Others were made in its famous Thar desert.

Oh, and don't miss his Vietnam gallery as well.

Roy Del Vecchio is based in Amsterdam, and travels frequently, especially to Asia. He travels independently and usually wanders around, exploring places, talking to people, who are the main focus of his photographs. He worked in Europe, Surinam, Costa Rica, India, Myanmar, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Mexico, the USA, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Morocco. His client list include Lonely Planet Magazine, Columbus Travel Magazine, D-Zone, FAO, UN-Water, Privé, Travel Sri Lanka, Web Designer Magazine, Publish Magazine, DMO Amsterdam, Grazia, BNO Vormberichten, IRD, Digifoto Pro, Dar Erbe Unserer Welt Magazine and others.

Mario Testino | Alta Moda

Photo © Mario Testino-All Rights Reserved

I had little knowledge of who was Mario Testino, apart from knowing his name from the photo credits in fashion magazines (The New York Times T Magazine, which is really the only fashion publication I look at), but I was amazed at his latest photographic work which is titled Alta Moda.

Let me backtrack for a moment. Yes, I do peruse T Magazine to look at the fashion adverts, and perhaps get influenced by the fashion photographers' aesthetic, how they set up their shoots, and the postures and poses adopted by the models, the color schemes and the lighting. It would be an exaggeration to say that this kind of photography inspires me, but it certainly leaves a visual and subconscious residue which I reach for when I'm photographing in India, Bhutan or Bali, etc.

Now back to Mr Testino. Alta Moda is his most recent exhibition at his cultural institute in Lima, Peru. It comprises series of photographic portraits of Peruvians in traditional and festive dress from Cuzco, one of the highest regions of Peru. It's been described a change in pace for the famous photographer, and it seems he spent a considerable amount of time and effort in setting up each image. Alta Moda will be exhibited in New York in the fall of 2013.

Mario Testino is a Peruvian fashion photographer. His work has been featured in magazines such as Vogue and Vanity Fair. He's one of the world's most well known and celebrated fashion photographers, and his photographs have been featured in magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair and V, and he has crafted and contributed to the imagery of leading fashion houses such as Burberry, Gucci, Versace, Calvin Klein, Dolce & Gabbana, Salvatore Ferragamo, Estee Lauder and Michael Kors, among others. 

Antoine Raab | The Khmer Boxers

Photo © Antoine Raab-All Rights Reserved

Here's a special feature showcasing 22 portraits of Khmer boxers, ranging from 7 years old to 35, photographed by Antoine Raab a few minuted after their bouts. The series was photographed in Phnom Penh and in Battambang, in the spring of 2012.

The Cambodian boxing is called Pradal Serey, which essentially is kick boxing, and has nearly the same rules and style as Muay Thai. It's the national sport, and the Cambodian  national television networks features professional fights weekly.

Most  Cambodian boxers (known as Neak Pradal) are of a poor background, and compete to earn money to feed their families and themselves. Originally, the boxers were paid by the audience. If the crowds appreciated the boxer's efforts, they would reward them with money, food and alcohol. Nowadays, most boxers are paid in cash; from the equivalent of $25 to $100 and more per bout for each boxer.

Antoine Raab is a French photographer, currently based in Phnom Penh. He studied
photography in Paris, and has been an independent photographer for ten years. His work
has been published in several French magazines, notably in the daily newspaper Le Monde.
He also pursues his personal projects—particularly in documenting the current generation of young Cambodians.

Back Story | The Recalcitrant Red Dzao of Sa Pa

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

During my Vietnam: North of the 16th Parallel Photo Expedition, I came across a Red Dzao vendor in a small village not too far from Sa Pa. Having an interesting face, not to mention her keen fashion sense of combining her traditional red head dress with a Burberry scarf, I thought she'd make an excellent model for some of the group's members who sought to have photographs of her standing on a rather rickety rope bridge.

She was sitting on the side of the dirt road which was the village's main street, selling some vegetables or fruits. Through an interpreter, I asked if she was agreeable to pose for us for a few minutes. She had a wide smile on her face all through the rapid to and fro, so I imagined she was about to agree....but I was mistaken.

Her response was that she couldn't leave her spot on the dirt road because she'd lose business. I pointed out that there was not a single soul visible, except for our group and we weren't interested in buying her  vegetables...and that the photo shoot would take a maximum of 5 minutes at most.

The to and fro with the interpreter started again, and I could feel the smiling Red Dzao was either really determined to drive a hard bargain or was just so accustomed to selling her small bunch of vegetables from the same spot, that she would never leave it for a minute until all was sold.

I didn't want to break my rule to pay for photographs, so I offered to buy her whole inventory of vegetables for what they were worth (probably $2 or so), against her acceding to our wishes. She hummed and hawed  for a while, but after I paid her for the vegetables and distributed those to some people in a nearby restaurant, she  finally -but still hesitantly- accompanied us to the bridge a few yards away.

To cut a long story short, we eventually realized that the tiny Red Dzao's reluctance to pose for us wasn't motivated by mercenary reasons at all...she was just scared by the thought of standing on the swaying old bridge.

It wasn't as bad as she thought it would be, and all ending well, she eventually returned home with the proceeds of her vegetable sales much earlier than usual...probably shaking her head at the crazy foreigners's persistence.

My being 6'3" tall meant I had to crouch a lot to be as short as Ms Red Dzao.

Travel Photographer of The Year 2013

It's this time of year when Travel Photographer of The Year (TPOTY) is calling for submission to its 2013 contest.

According to the TPOTY website, the photo contest is run by photographers for photographers, and offers wide exposure for the entrants' photographic work. The awards are judged by leading photography experts, and the judging takes place over three rounds and the judges do not know the identity or nationality of any entrants.

Once again, TPOTY is partnering with the UK's Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), and the winning images will be exhibited in its gallery on the corner of Kensington Gore and Exhibition Road.

The 2013 TPOTY awards are open for entry, and close on October 1st. Its categories are as follows:

Three Portfolio categories - Monochromal, Vanishing & Emerging Cultures and Wild Stories.

Two single image categories, - One Shot and First Shot
New Talent category
HD Video category, Travel Shorts
Young Travel Photographer of the Year award (with two different age groups)
The Cutty Sark Award for the overall winner and Travel Photographer of the Year 2013
10 special single image awards, each with a different theme - 10 For 10

As always, I counsel a careful reading (and wide-eyed acceptance) of the contest's applicable rules.

POV: Missing The Right Moment

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

We all have had these missed moments...and I have a lot of those, especially when I do street photography in the streets of New York City.

This one illustrates one of such missed moments...the choreography of pedestrians which could've  worked perfectly if the gods had been smiling, but they didn't...they frowned.

I estimated the walking pace of these two Hasidim on Avenue A would perfectly frame the woman crossing it, and snapped my iPhone shutter at what I took to be the right moment . But was not to be. The partially obscured man on the left who had been about to cross the street, suddenly stopped at this precise moment behind the second Hasidim. Damn!

Perhaps I was too quick...and should've waited for just a second or so. I might have caught the second Hasidim's shadow on the pavement, and the man might have decided to cross.  Just look at the shadow in the center...it looks like a bird.

But realistically, it would've been too late to catch the woman exactly where I wanted.

I looked at the display and I said...damn!

Egypt's St. Anthony Monastery | Manoocher Deghati

Photo © AP Photo/Manoocher Deghati-All Rights Reserved (MercuryNews.com)

Through Zite, I stumbled on this very interesting photo essay about the Monastery of St Anthony in the Egyptian Eastern Desert. It's a Coptic Orthodox monastery lying deep in the Red Sea mountains, and about 200 miles southeast of Cairo. It is one of the oldest monasteries in the world.

The photo essay was featured by MercuryNews.com, and the photographs are by Manoochar Deghati, a well-known Iranian-French photojournalist, and also the brother of Reza, an Iranian-French photographer.

The monks at the St. Anthony's Monastery follow the saint's ascetic tradition, but even they won't be silenced amid the Islamists' rising power.

I think the MercuyNews.com reportage is quite timely in view of the recent attacks on Egyptian Christians caused by the increase in bigoted religious rhetoric by Islamists. Clerics and others on religious television channels in Egypt spread much of the bigotry and discriminatory rhetoric, and despite claiming to be otherwise, members of the Muslim Brotherhood and its political arm, have stigmatized religious minorities, particularly Copts.

Christians or Copts form more than 10% of Egypt's population of 85 million, and lived largely peacefully alongside Muslims for more than a millennium. Sectarian tensions have steadily risen over the past four decades, and the prominence of the Islamists and the Islamist government raised tensions further, have exacerbated the sectarian frictions.

The Copts are the native Christians of Egypt, and are a major ethno-religious group in Egypt.  Christianity was the majority religion during the 4th to 6th centuries AD and until the Muslim conquest of Egypt.

Sim Chi Yin | The Water Seller

Photo © Sim Chi Yin-All Rights Reserved

Here's an excellent photo story of a water seller in Myanmar by Singaporean photojournalist Sim Chi Yin. The young water seller's name is Chit Min Oo and this photo feature tells us about the hard life he leads in a country just unshackling itself from the chains of military autocracy.

Chit Min Oo lives in a slum about an hour outside of downtown Yangon, in a single-room hut with his mother, two brothers and a sister. At day break, Chit Min Oo and one of his brothers Pyay Sone Aung, head out onto the train tracks, fetch their buckets, fill them with blocks of ice and water from a nearby tank and jump on the Circle Line train, which remains the cheapest mode of public transport around Yangon.

They hop on and off these trains, weaving in and out of carriages offering their cups of water for mere pennies in the equivalent Burmese currency.

I wish the photo essay was accompanied by a soundtrack...imagine viewing the photographs along with ambient sound such as the rattle of the ancient trains on the tracks, the clicking of the mugs against the buckets, the yells of the sellers, the sound of people in the stations...!

Based in Beijing, Sim Chi Yin is a member of VII Photo Agency’s Mentor Program for emerging talents and was selected for the PDN30 – Photo District News’ top 30 “emerging photographers to watch” – in 2013. She photographs regularly for the New York Times. Since going freelance in 2011, she has also photographed for Le Monde, Newsweek, TIME magazine, Vogue USA, Financial Times Weekend Magazine, New York Times Sunday Magazine and Stern.

Delphine Renou | Ethiopian Donga

Photo © Delphine Renou-All Rights Reserved

"After days of car travel, I enter the territory of the Surma tribe...the small village of Turgit in the south east of Ethiopia..."

This is how Delphine Renou, a French photographer and video editor for a number of  television channels (Canal Plus, Arte, etc) starts her photographic essay in southern Ethiopia where she met with members of the Surma tribe.

Her interest in photography was evidenced on her first trip in Africa as part of a humanitarian mission to Benin, after which she decides to get into photojournalism. She travels to southern Ethiopia to meet the people Surmas, to Mongolia, Vietnam, Norway and Afghanistan.

Her photographic essay with the Surma tribe focused on the donga;  the Surma's stick fighting. Generally, the dongas are held so young men can find wives. The fights are held between Surma villages, and the fights have 20-30 people on each side. Many of these fights end within the first couple of hits, but can be dangerous with people dying from being hit. 

Delphine wanted me to feature The Eyes of A People,. a short film of Afghanistan that she and Remy De Vlieger produced. Here it is:

The eyes of a People - AFGHANISTAN - clip from DIGITAL MILL on Vimeo.

Sufi Soul | William Dalrymple

In anticipation of my soon to start The Sufi Saints of Rajasthan & Kashmir Photo Expedition-Workshop, which I described in an earlier post as  the first and only photo expedition-workshop whose objective is to record the commemoration of the death anniversary of a Sufi saint, I thought I'd feature the first part of William Dalrymple's Sufi Soul which appeared on Channel 4 in Britain, and which traces his personal journey into the mystical and musical side of Islam as he describes traditions of Sufi music in Syria, Turkey, Pakistan, India and Morocco.

It starts rather brusquely and clumsily with snippets of Western media reports on radical Islam; presumably to highlight the disparity beween this and the pacifist nature of Sufism.

For the followers of Sufism, music is a way of getting closer to God. The documentary traces the shared roots of Christianity and Islam in the Middle East, and presents Sufism as a peaceful and intellectual offshoot of Islam. It features many acclaimed performers, including the legendary Abida Parveen and Youssou N’Dour. 

Sufism is deeply rooted in Islamic cultures across the globe -- the Middle East, North Africa and the Indian subcontinent particularly -- and in each region has local characteristics.

Islamists ban singing, dance and musical instruments and regard them as diversions from devotion and subservience to Allah. In contrast, Sufi cultures are rich in these traditions, and few are better qualified to present this than writer, historian and longtime resident of New Delhi, William Dalrymple.

My thanks to Stephanie Ravel for having shared this with me.

TRVL for iPad | Timothy Allen Special

I recently received a welcome email from Timothy Allen, the former BBC and Human Planet photographer, who wrote saying that TRVL was celebrating its 100th issue by featuring 40 of his most compelling photographs along with a long interview on his career as a professional photographer.

TRVL is the first iPad-exclusive magazine, and was started in 2010 by Joachim Wijnands and Michel Elings. Wijnands brought travel writing and photography skills honed at the National Geographic and GEO to the game, while Elings' technical knowledge was used to design the app.

Take it from me...TRVL is gorgeous.

I have enormous respect for Timothy Allen and his work, and I'm glad TRVL chose him and his work to celebrate it's 100th issue. 

Regular readers of this blog know I seldom put golden calves on a pedestal, whether in the photography field or otherwise, but Tim is certainly someone who earned my respect (not only for his fantastic photography) but also for having been quoted in the TRVL interview as saying:

"I am certainly not trying to highlight vanishing cultures or 'change the world' as some people have said. One thing I know for sure is that I love it when the people in my pictures like them too. It's a simple personal pleasure that I get through showing people my photographs."

What a refreshing take from a world-class photographer...and a change from the mealy-mouthed platitudes I hear or read from other photographers and photojournalists! Not many have Tim's candor and stand-up attitude.

Finally, I saw with great pleasure that my multimedia piece Milongas: The Seduction of Tango is featured on TRVL's Buenos Aires section, and is described as a beautiful photographic impression of the milonga.

Rohit Chawla | Wanderlust

Photo © Rohit Chawla- All Rights Reserved

I've always thought that photographers with a fashion background most often produce phenomenal ethno-photography, because of their talent and flair in directing and cajoling people how to pose during specific photo shoots.

Rohit Chawla is one of those photographers whose sense in fashion and portraiture produces wonderful photographs of Rabari nomads in Gujarat, of Goa unusual-looking foreign travelers, of seemingly stoned sadhus and much more on his website.

The Rabari live throughout Rajasthan and Gujarat, and are mainly occupied in raising cattle, camels and goats. They have a very rich cultural past and present, and their women are known for their embroidery skills. Rabari women are easily distinguished by their long, black headscarves, which fall loosely to the ground, and the Rabari men commonly wear white dhotis and tunics, golden earrings and walking sticks in hand. Few Rabaris are still nomadic, due to the dearth of pastoral lands.

Rohit Chawla started his career in advertising before eventually moving out to start his own design and film production company. His solo exhibitions include Wanderlust, Tribute to Raja Ravi Verma, Klimt - The Sequel, Free da! - The Homage, Fine Art of Food & the most recent, Wearable Art Collection, which opened at the Volte Gallery in Mumbai. 

His work has been exhibited at various venues across the world and his photographs are a part of major private collections and museums. The central theme of his work is essentially travel, and he lives between Delhi and Goa.

The Sufi Saints of Rajasthan & Kashmir Photo Expedition-Workshop

On the cusp of departure!

All arrangements completed...accommodations set up...fixers lined up...background presentation on Sufism is prepared, and naturally The Travel Photographer's trademark multimedia workshop slideshows are fired up.

Nine photographers...with their photographic and audio gear will soon descend on Srinagar for 4-5 days of intense documentary work in this unique Kashmiri capital known as being the land of Sufis Saints. It is claimed that Hindu thought and religion greatly influenced Kashmiri sufis, and formed its syncretic essence.

Nine photographers...along with their cameras and audio recorders will travel from Srinagar to Ajmer; the holiest of cities for Sufis and others, and where the shrine of the Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti, equally revered by Hindus and Muslims, will witness the commemoration of the death anniversary of the saint in unparalleled manifestations of Sufi fervor and devotion.

This is the largest commemoration of Sufi saints in India, attended by many thousands of South Asian Muslims.

I may be mistaken, but this is the first and only photo expedition-workshop whose objective is to record the commemoration of the death anniversary Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti.

A few days in Delhi will precede the photo expedition-workshop, and I look forward to re-acquaint myself with one of my favorite cities. Plans are afoot to keep me occupied and busy....and I hope to have the time to re-sample the Lucknow specialty of tunde ke kabab in Nizzam Uddin and Karim's seekh kebab!

Dustin Cohen | The Shoemaker

While The Travel Photographer blog usually is travel/documentary centric and focuses on international subject matters, I am also extremely interested in photography and multimedia originating in the United States, and particularly in my city...New York City.

Vimeo recently highlighted the work of the very talented photographer/filmaker Dustin Cohen, who is based in Brooklyn.

There are a number of short documentaries on Dustin's website, and I chose to feature The Shoemaker, which is the story of a 91 year old shoemaker and repairer in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Frank Catalfumo first opened the doors to F&C Shoes in 1945 and continues to work five days a week alongside his son Michael. I also loved the background music which sounds like it's by Sidney Bechet.

Don't miss the typical Italian gesture that Frank uses at some point...he brushes under his chin to show his dismissal of a point he was talking about.

This is one of the many lives that make up the huge mosaic of New York City, and reminds me of The New York Times' terrific One in Eight Million series, which I continuously rave about.

Dustin Cohen is a film director and a photographer, living in Brooklyn and whose client list include RollingStone, Respect, Details, Elle, Inked, XXL, Billboard, AOL Music, Atlantic Records, RCA Records, Warner Music, Kodak, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, Toshiba, Ray Ban, Sperry Top-Siders, Whole Foods, Casio G-Shock Watches, Colgate, Macy's, and others.

Debesh Sharma | City of Ghats

Photo © Debesh Sharma-All Rights Reserved

Mark Twain said of Varanasi, "Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together."

It's certainly one of my favorite cities in India to photograph, and I comfortably guarantee that one could spend a lifetime living in the old city and photograph it every day. For those who share my visual and cultural interest in one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities, I am featuring the work of a very talented Indian photographer who covered Varanasi in his City of Ghats gallery of 64 photographs.

Debesh Sharma is a self-described photographer, writer, traveler and wanderer, and travel photography is his main interest. He's mostly interested in creating portraits of the ordinary people met during his journeys, all of whom have a different story to tell, which he attempts to relay to viewers through his frames.

I recommend that you bookmark Debesh's website. It offers more than two dozen galleries of India which will sate the most committed of Indiaphiles. Take your time in exploring it.

Incidentally, it's estimated that there are 23,000 Hindu temples in Varanasi but you'd be mistaken if you thought that it was a totally Hindu city. It is not. The Muslim population of the city is about 250,000 out of a total of 1 million. Muslims have been living in the most Hindu of cities for more than a thousand years. It is in Varanasi that I came across the shrine of Bahadur Shaheed which introduced me to India's Sufism and the syncretism that exists between these two religions.

Finally don't mistake the "svastika" in Debesh's photograph above as the Nazi symbol. The Sanskrit svastika literally means "to be good", and is a Hindu symbol. The Nazi swastika is reversed.

Back Story | The Banana Seller of Mattencherry

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Another of my favorite location for street photography in India is old Mattencherry (part of Kochi) which was once a bustling centre of trade, particularly in spices. Due to the tolerance of the erstwhile rulers of Kochi, communities such as Jews, Arabs, Konkanis, Gujaratis, Jains and Marathis made it their home and the center of their business. 

The street activity of the area is a virtual live theater, with bazaar-like alleys, traditional godowns and stores stocked with all types of rice, dark brown nutmeg, red and green chillies, earthy ginger, black pepper and other spices. Not only people photography of traders, merchants, porters, but there are details, age-old textures, peeling wall colors (or discolored) of indigo blue and ochre.

Many of the local people I spoke with, and photographed, were Muslims, descendants of the Arab merchants who propagated their faith along the Malabar Coast. A significant community was created through the marriage of local women to these Arab sailors, and are still known as the Mappilas or Moplahs. The Arabs merchants and mariners are believed to come from the Red Sea coastal areas, and from the Hadramaut region of Yemen.

The banana seller was probably one of those. A few words of Arabic greetings were exchanged, and he exhibited the traditional hospitality and generosity of Arabs extended to visitors and guests by offering me some bananas from the many clusters hanging in his modest stall. Small and sweet, these were certainly tastier than any available in Western supermarkets.

Chico Sanchez | La Antigua's Easter Week

Photo © Chico Sanchez- All Rights Reserved

La Antigua is a city with a UNESCO World Heritage Site appellation, and a city in central Guatemala, famous for its Catholic celebration of Holy Week, which commemorates the Passion, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus 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 event begins on Palm Sunday, during which images of Jesus and the Holy Virgin of Sorrow are carried from their churches through the city on the shoulders of devoted followers who carry lanterns while dressed in purple robes with white waistbands. 

On Good Friday, the streets of Antigua are covered with natural, aromatic carpets of flowers, pines, clover, fruits and colored sawdust, which the residents put together and place in front of their homes. 

Chico Sanchez just produced an audio slideshow of the event, with ambient sound and narration/interview.

I've featured the work of Chico Sanchez, a freelance photographer based in Mexico City, on a number of occasions. Chico worked in Venezuela, collaborating with Reuters, European Pressphoto Agency, Agencia EFE, and currently freelances for various newspapers and magazines.

Irene Becker | Durbar Festival

Photo © Irene Becker-All Rights Reserved

I haven't posted much travel/documentary photographic work of Africa (with the exception of Ethiopia) on The Travel Photographer blog, so I'm very glad to redress this shortfall by featuring the very interesting work of Irene Becker.

One of the galleries that caught my eye was of Irene's photographs of the Grand Durbar in Argungu, Nigeria. The Durbar is an annual festival celebrated in several cities of Nigeria at the end of the Muslim festivals Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Its highlight is a parade of the Emir and his entourage on horses, accompanied by music players, and ending at the Emir's palace.

Irene tells us that the Durbar in 2009 involved more than 500 horses, 120 camels, 1760 men and women dressed in traditional indigenous attires with resplendent colors. The Emir of Argungu led a special group of horsemen in a rich and beautiful display.

The slideshow of Irene's Durbar photographs consist of 20 still images, however there are some more on her blog. There are few photographs of this event on the internet, and most of them belong to Irene.

Irene Becker describes herself as a culture, travel and doucumentary freelance photographer, and is based in Budapest, Hungary. She earned a degree at the Academy of Arts, University of Novi Sad at its Department of Music. Her images have appeared in brochures, annual reports, billboards, books, magazines, web sites, exhibit spaces, greeting cards, and have been featured in fine art gallery exhibits, as well as in individual collections of photo lovers worldwide. She also produces stock for Getty Images.

POV: A Problem For Traditional Photography?

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Recently published articles appearing in Poynter and Business Insider raise the point that Instagram can now process images in an instant rather than a lot minutes and hours with Photoshop or in a darkroom, and such images can make it to the front page of The New York Times.

As Megan Rose Dickey writes in her article in Business Insider:

"But the skills needed to make beautiful shots that are worthy of the cover of a newspaper continue to diminish rapidly."

There was a time when writing a letter required the skills of a writer or a calligrapher...and there was a time when making a photographic print required a darkroom expert...and there was a time when....etc. It will always be as such.

As photographers face the realities of an exciting era filled with new innovations, they must embrace them and evolve with them. The above photographs were made a few moments from each other...the top one using my iPhone with Hipstamatic, while the bottom one using a Leica M9. Both are photographs and both are exemplars of different photographic tools...yes, one took a little more thought than the other in terms of clicking the shutter and processing...but both have a place.

A couple of years ago, I wrote a post in this blog comparing photographers or photojournalists clinging to their glorious past as people breathlessly running after a Third World public bus on a pot-holed road, with young and eager passengers hanging like a bunch of grapes from its doors and windows....with no available toe-holds in sight. 

So let's be smart....let's learn multimedia, Final Cut, Adobe Premiere, Soundslides...audio techniques...learn DSLR videography....let's use Twitter & Facebook intelligently...do anything to find a toe-hold...let's use Instagram, Hipstamatic and the rest of them to complement our arsenal of tools, and get our work bought, seen and appreciated.

If not, we'll be left inhaling exhaust fumes from the metaphorical Third World bus. 

Sam Barker | Omo Valley

Photo © Sam Barker-All Rights Reserved

The followers and readers of my blog who are fans of Omo Valley photographs will rejoice in seeing Sam Barker's gorgeous two dozen images of its tribes. 

The Omo Valley has considerable resonance amongst us who've either been to the south of Ethiopia and those who want to go. It is believed that the area has been a crossroads for thousands of years as various cultures and ethnic groups migrated around the region, and it's been said that “If Africa was the mother of all humanity, then the Omo River was its main artery”. Having been there in 2004, I believe that.

The area is home to eight different tribes whose population is about 200,000 and it's been reported that the hydro-electric dam under construction on the Omo river will destroy a fragile environment and the livelihoods of these tribes, which are closely linked to the river and its annual flood.

Sam Barker began his career in photography about 15 years ago while attending the London School of Printing. His work appeared in The Telegraph, Landrover, and GQ Magazine, as well as in worldwide publishing houses and well known advertising agencies. 

In between London and New York, working on commercial assignments, he continues to produce travel stories and personal projects round the globe. He is a regular contributor to the National Portrait Gallery where he has 12 portraits in the permanent collection, and has won the prestigious One Life International Photography prize.

RØDE i16: 360º Surround Recording

I'm fascinated at how the iPhone is (and continues to be) an essential component in most photographers' arsenal of tools with new accessories and apps.

I was recently tempted by RØDE’s iXY microphone for the iPhone, but now the company has produced  the RØDE i16 which consists of sixteen individual gold-sputtered cardioid condenser capsules, allowing the user a high amount of freedom to record in either surround, stereo, mono, or anywhere in between.

The company claims that the software inside the RØDE i16 will allow the cancellation of background noise through phase manipulation of the other channels, working much in the same way as noise-canceling headphones, and may be more effective at recording dialogue than a traditional shotgun microphone.

The i16 is available with both Apple Lightning (iPhone 5, iPad mini) and 30-pin connections. Both are shipping now, with a MSRP of US$399.

For more technical details, take a look at RØDE i16  home page.

Have a good look at the picture above. This looks like the most unwieldy device I've ever seen. So it sounds like an April 1 Fools joke. We'll see.