Viviana Peretti | Camargue Gypsy Pilgrimage

Photo © Viviana Peretti-All Rights Reserved

I sometimes discover a photographer's work that is so interesting that I hurry to post about it as soon as possible, upending the predetermined order of future posts on my blog.

The work of Viviana Peretti is one of those.

So I'm glad to feature Viviana's Gypsy Pilgrimage in La Camargue which she covered so well using her iPhone and the Hispstamatic's Tintype Tinto 1884 lens and the D-Type film pack...which is by far my favorite.

The Gypsy Pilgrimage celebrate the saints Mary-Jacobé and Mary-Salomé, and it is held in Saintes Maries de la Mer, a small village in the heart of the Camargue, South of France. The legend is that a boat landed near the village's site from Palestine, carrying Mary Magdalene, Marie-Jacobé, and Salomé, as well as Lazarus. With them was Sara, whose identity is unclear. There are some who believe that she was the daughter of Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ...while others believe she was the personal maid of Marie-Jacobé. As the only dark-skinned woman on the boat, she was embraced by the Romani as their patron saint.

Romani (aka gypsies) from the region carry the the saints' effigies in a long procession to the beach to be blessed in the sea. The procession is not only made of Romani, but of the region's Arlesiennes in their distinctive costume, as well are the Gardians (Camargue's cowboys) and pilgrims.

This ritual's concept reminds me of the Hindu Durga Puja and the Balinese odalan, where effigies are carried to the river or sea to be blessed.

Viviana Peretti is an Italian freelance photographer currently based in Europe. After earning a BA in Anthropology from the University of Rome, she moved to Colombia where she specialized in photojournalism and worked as a freelance photographer for 9 years. In 2010, she graduated in Documentary Photography and Photojournalism from the International Center of Photography, and worked in NYC as a freelance photographer until her recent move to Europe.

She received fellowships and awards from the International Center of Photography, the Joannie M. Chen Fund in New York, the University of Salamanca, the Spanish Embassy in Colombia, the Photo Museum in Bogotá, and the Colombian Ministry of Culture. In 2010, she was selected for the Eddie Adams Workshop (Barnstorm XXIII), and has been published in a number of international newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, the New York Magazine, BBC, CNN, Le Journal de la Photographie and L'Espresso.

Javad Tizmaghz | Tajen

Photo © Javad Tizmaghz-All Rights Reserved

It's been a while I haven't featured the work of a photojournalist, and here's the work of Javad Tizmaghz, an Iranian photographer specializing in documentary photography, and currently based in Malaysia. His work was published in a number of publications, including the Guardian. He is also an alum of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop 2011 which was held in Chiang Mai.

I was attracted to Javad's photo story on the cock fighting in Indonesia, and chose the above photograph for this post because of the similarity in man's eyes and that of his rooster...and to me, this made the picture.

Javad's Tajen documents the Balinese tradition of cockfighting (which is known locally as Tajen) is mixed with religious rituals. Cockfights, while technically illegal, are required at temple and purification ceremonies. The local police is loath to prevent such bouts since the prevailing belief is that these are protected by the deities of the temples. There are ancient texts proving that the cockfighting ritual has existed for centuries, so Balinese police can legitimately look the other way.

 I have featured a number of cockfighting photo essays on my blog, including my own. It's usually a male-only spectator/participant kind of venue, and when I walked in the site during one of the fights, followed by a number of female photographers who were in my photo workshop group, there was a noticeable silence amongst the crowd.  However, the excitement of the bouts soon seduced the onlookers back to the action, and away from us.

Cockfighting is common in South and South East Asia; and is a gambling event in countries such as The Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia (Bali), Southern India and even Japan. 

Subrata Biswas | Chhau, Behind The Mask

Photo © Subrata Biswas-All Rights Reserved

India, black and white* photography, storytelling, cultural-religious tradition....what's not to make my pulse race?

This is about the ancient traditional dance form named Chhau. It's a type of Indian tribal martial dance which is popular in the Indian states of Orissa (now called Odisha), Jharkhand and West Bengal. There are three subgenres of the dance, based on its places of origin and development, and these are Seraikella Chhau, Mayurbhanj Chhau and Purulia Chhau.

The Chhau blends dance and martial practices employing mock combat techniques, stylized gaits of birds and animals and movements based on the chores of village housewives. The dance is performed by male dancers from families of traditional artists or from local communities and is performed at night in an open space.

As is often the case with such traditional dance forms, the future doesn't look bright for the Chhau despite it being inscribed in the UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Fewer young people are interested in joining the art form due to the uncertainty of its financial future.

Behind The Mask is a photo essay by Subrata Biswas, a talented visual storyteller and painter from Kolkata. Despite being an IT software engineer by training, he decided to embrace a life as a self-taught painter/artist and photographer/photojournalist. His paintings have been exhibited in various venues India, while his photographs were published in a number of print and online media.

*I don't know why pure black & white images now automatically appear as sepia on Blogger. 

Jason Florio | The Vodun Trail

Photo © Jason Florio-All Rights Reserved

I had a hard time choosing a photo essay out of Jason Florio's interesting and compelling work, but thought that his Benin: The Vodun Trail would suit this blog the best due to my own interest in featuring and documenting religious rituals.

The other photo essays that competed for my attention are The Ring (a photo essay on Muay Thai boxing in Chiang Mai) and Blackout Portraits-Mogadishu.

Benin is considered the cradle of vodun (one of its adaptations is voodoo) which is one of the ancient belief system essentially based on animism. Despite concerted efforts of Christian missionaries, this ancient belief system still has millions of adherents along West Africa’s former Slave Coast, from Ghana to parts of Nigeria, and especially in Benin. In 1996, Benin’s democratic government officially decreed vodun a religion, and ever since, thousands have openly practiced it. A significant percentage of Benin practice pure vodun. For more information, an article from the New York Times (with Jason's photographs) can be viewed here.

Jason Florio is a New York City based photographer and writer from London. He worked as a freelance photojournalist around the globe for publications including The New Yorker, New York Times, Outside, Liberation and The Times of London, working on stories that attempt to reveal the unseen and to provide an alternative point of view on people and places.

He spent the last 3 months of 2009 making a 930 km expedition by foot of The Gambia, West Africa to produce a series of portraits of African chiefs for which in part he was given fellowship of the Royal Geographical Society in London. His work on Afghanistan is in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York, as well as a number of private collections.

Charles Meacham | Calcutta's Taxi

Photo © Charles Meacham-All Rights Reserved

I just read in the India Times that the color of the iconic taxis in Kolkata is to be shortly changed from yellow to blue and white.

Imagine! Although there are new models in the taxi business, most of Kolkata's taxis are antiquated yellow painted Hindustan Ambassadors and I wager their owners and drivers are raising hue and cry at the government's decision. To add further insult to injury, the West Bengal government is reported to be planning to introduce a new fleet of 2,000 cabs in the city which could never refuse passengers, citing late hours, inclement weather or whatever pretext.

So perhaps as a swan's song to these venerable workhorses and for the 'fiddled-with' meters, here's Charles Meacham's Calcutta's Taxi, a photo essay on the yellow taxis that crawl around this teeming metropolis.

I often used these yellow taxis to travel from one end of Kolkata to the other during my Durga Puja Photo Expedition-Workshop in October 2011, and I recall an occasion when seated in the front seat alongside the driver, I almost passed out from the heat spewed out by the motor's heat of the old and ill-maintained Ambassador. Obviously there was no air conditioning, nor were the open windows any help whatsoever in Kolkata's heat and humidity.

Charles Meacham was born outside of Philadelphia, and started traveling immediately after high school. Having spent the last ten years photographing, he has received over 30 international photography awards, and attended the 25th annual Eddie Adams workshop. He co-founded the Walk With Pride project which aimed to bring social awareness to LGBT Rights by photographing pride marches around the world.  After 10 years of living in Asia, Charles calls Brooklyn his home. 

Bereaved | Rina Castelnuovo | New York Times

Photo © Rina Castelnuovo -All Rights Reserved

For a while now, I had taken the decision not to feature work by conflict photographers.

The banality and superficiality of what was published led to a sort of tediousness...an intellectual and visual fatigue for such work. Comparing the conflict photographers of today with titans such as Don McCullin led me to abandon any interest in this type of photography.

But suddenly there appears work of such empathy...of such depth and of such impact, that I regained a bit faith again. No, it's not conflict photography per se... quite the opposite. However, it's photographed in a conflict area...and is of people involved in a 65+ years confrontation...often, violent and dehumanizing.

This compelling work was published by The New York Times (yes, the very same newspaper that sold us the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction lie, and now tries hard to convince us that the popular uprising in Egypt is a "coup", amongst other journalistic pearls), and is titled Bereaved by Rina Castelnuovo.

While I could easily distinguish the Palestinian women from the Israeli because of their dress, it was impossible to distinguish the men from each other....in line with many studies proving that Arabs and Jews are genetically a single population.

Rina Castelnuovo is an Israeli photographer, who has been documenting the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis for more than 30 years, 17 of them as a contract photographer for The New York Times based in Jerusalem.

You can read more about Bereaved here.

Jodi Champagne | Myanmar Monks & Nuns

Photo © Jodi Champagne -All Rights Reserved

I noticed that I hadn't posted the work of a woman photographer since June 11...a rather long and unusual interval  for The Travel Photographer blog.

So to redress this accidental slipup, I feature Myanmar Monks & Nuns, a gallery of 29 large photographs by Jodi Champagne. With a couple of exceptions, these are in color and are carefully posed. Although the colors are lovely, my favorite is the one above of a Burmese nun in black & white.

Additionally, you shouldn't miss Jodi's photo gallery Choices They Make documenting a Shinbyu ceremony which marks the ordination of young boys as novice monks, as well as girls as nuns.

Her website also has galleries of Cuban streets, of the Karen Padaung women, and other documentary work.

Jodi Champagne is a photographer based in California, and has worked as a portrait, wedding, family and sports photographer and quickly discovered her true passion was in documentary and street photography. Her work has been featured in group exhibitions in the U.S., Europe and Latin America. Her photographs have been widely published in books, magazines, and used for editorial and commercial work. She received the Worldwide Gala Street Photography and the NYCFA Portrait Awards in 2012. 

Palani Mohan | The Kazakh Eagle Hunters

Photo © Palani Mohan-All Right Reserved

The practice of eagle hunting in Kazakhstan was almost eradicated during the Soviet era, however the ancient tradition is coming back with a vengeance.

Kazakhstan is the world's largest landlocked country by land area, and the ninth largest country in the world with a territory larger than Western Europe. Hunting with eagles is unique to the country and Kyrgyzstan, and there are now more than 50 eagle handlers in Kazakhstan. Most of those make a living posing for tourist photographs, but a handful still ride the steppes to hunt live prey.

Falconry developed in Central Asia and for many centuries, Kazakh men have hunted from horseback with trained golden eagles, the largest and most powerful of raptors. Rabbits, fox and sometimes wolves are hunted for their fur by the Berkutchi (Kazakh for eagle hunter).

Documenting this hunting tradition, Palani Mohan has featured two wonderful monochrome photo essays on his website. I've featured his photographic work at least three times on this blog.

Born in Chennai, India, Palani moved to Australia as a child. His photographic career started at the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, and he's now based in Hong Kong.

His work has been published by many of the world's leading magazines and newspapers including National Geographic, Stern, Time, Newsweek, and The New York Times. He also published three photographic books. His work has been recognized with awards from World Press Photo, Picture of the Year, National Press Photographers Association, American Photo and Communication Arts. He is represented by Getty Images' Reportage Group in New York.

Miguel Ángel Sánchez | Palestine Portraits

Photo © Miguel Ángel Sánchez-All Rights Reserved

Here's another series of wonderful photographs by the talented Miguel Ángel Sánchez.

Not only are they wonderful, but they depict one of the most oppressed people in the world, living under a dreadful occupation for over 60 years, as beautiful human beings by borrowing the techniques of the Old Masters....perhaps Caravaggio.

Miguel Ángel Sánchez is a Spanish photographer based in Cairo since 2009, where he opened his own photography studio. Cairo is the base where he works and prepares projects developed in Egypt during the past 5 years.

He is also an itinerant photographer who takes his workspace to many corners of the world: Asia, Middle East or black Africa. He covered the war against Gaddafi in Libya, documented the Ulu Pamir in Turkish Kurdistan, the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.

His work has been published in media such as El País, The New York Times, Le Monde, New Yorker, Photo Raw, La Lettre de la Photographie, and many others.

While this post features Miguel's portraits of Palestinians, don't miss his gorgeous portraits of the Ulu Pamir people in Turkey.

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.

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.

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.

Justin Mott | Travel

Photo © Justin Mott -All Rights Reserved

" I hate and love taking pictures of conical hats; it really depends on the day." -Justin Mott

I was challenged (well, sort of) by Justin Mott if I could tell the difference between the photographs he shot for Conde Nast Traveler and those for The New York Times. I think I could tell, but it's now up the readers of The Travel Photographer to take up the challenge. 

A hint: if it looks too perfect and not too documentary-looking, then it's probably Conde Nast. In any event, you'll be certain to enjoy Justin's work which mostly spans 45 photographs of South East Asia (Viet Nam, Myanmar, Cambodia, etc) as well as Tanzania.

Justin Mott grew up in Rhode Island, and studied photojournalism at San Francisco State University but a year before graduating traveled to Southeast Asia, and eventually settled in Vietnam since 2006. He's been photographing regularly for The New York Times, among many others.

He is living in Hanoi, Vietnam and working throughout Southeast Asia on personal projects and assignments since 2006. In 2008, his work on Agent Orange Orphans was recognized in the PDN Annual and was awarded in the Marty Forscher Fellowship for humanistic photography given out by the Parsons School of Design in NYC. Justin is a frequent contributor to The New York Times and various other international publications such as Time, Newsweek, Business Week, Geo, L’Express, GEO, Bloomberg News Service, The Independent, UNESCO, Medecins Sans Frontieres, and the Discovery Channel. He won The Marty Forscher Fellowship Humanistic Photography Award. 

The Frame | Holi |The Widows

Photo © AP / Manish Swarup-All Rights Reserved

Here's another installment of photographs from the Lathmar Holi and Holi festivals in Nandgaon and Vrindavan; the colors of which ought to sate anyone's color appetite for weeks to come. 

This time, these photographs are featured by the always impressive The Frame, the photo blog of The Sacramento Bee. It's quite an extensive gallery of photographs by Manish Swarup, Bikas Das, and Altaf Qadri.

Photo © AP/Manish Swarup-All Rights Reserved

I find the above photograph just hilarious! Even the woman's teeth have been colored by the dye and colored water, while the one next to her has preemptively and judiciously covered her face with a veil.

Photo © Vivek Prakash-All Rights Reserved

However, more important than color is the fact that this year for the first time, the festival of Holi was celebrated by the widows and other abandoned women living in Vrindavan. In a departure from an horrific tradition (in some parts of India) which deems Hindu widows as pariahs, hundreds of widows gathered to observe Holi and to cover each other with flower petals and colored powder.

More of the widows enjoying their first Holi can be seen in WSJ India.

For my own work on the plight of the Vrindavan widows, see White Shadows.

Holi | Altaf Qadri | LA Times

Photo © Altaf Qadri- All Rights Reserved

The colorful Holi festival is about to officially start in India on Wednesday, March 27 and I expect we'll be seeing more coverage from Indian and foreign photographers in the coming few days and weeks.

To kick off this event, I start with Altaf Qadri's photographs as they appeared in Framework, the photo blog of The Los Angeles Times yesterday. The photograph that appealed to me the most is the one of Hindu priests loading up their water pumps with colored water to spray the devotees.

Holi is known as the Hindu festival of colors, and is celebrated in Spring by people throwing colored powder and colored water at each other. The tradition is based on the legend of Radha and the Hindu God Krishna. The latter was envious of Radha's fair complexion and in a mischievous mood, he applied color to his beloved Radha's face.

In Vrindavan (which is the place to be during Holi), the festival is celebrated for 16 days in commemoration of the divine love of Radha for Krishna. Many of Altaf's photographs were made at Krishna's Bankey Bihari Temple in Vrindavan. It's the most popular Hindu temple of Krishna in the city.

Altaf Qadri is a photojournalist based in Kashmir, who has been covering the conflict in Kashmir for several years.. His photographs and stories from events in Kashmir have appeared all around the globe including Time, The Guardian, New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Washington Post and The Times among others. 

As I did last year, here's Jim Shannon's Guide To Photographing Holi for those of you who are considering photographing there this year. It's invaluable.

Alex Potter | Ashura

Photo © Alex Potter-All Rights Reserved

For a complete change of pace, I am featuring Ashura, a powerful photo essay by Alex Potter, a photojournalist from Minneapolis.

Ashura is the commemoration by Shi'a Muslims of the martyrdom of Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of the prophet Muhammad at the Battle of Karbala on October 10, 680. It's observed on the 10th day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar, and marks the climax of the Mourning of Muharram.

It is of particular significance to Shi'a Muslims and Alawites, who consider Hussein (the grandson of Muhamad) to be his rightful successor.

Although self-harm or self mortification is largely prohibited by the religious leaders in Iran, some Shi'a males slash themselves with chains or swords to allow their blood to flow. Also included is a type of traditional flagellation using a sword or a chain with blades. These rituals are performed to show solidarity with Hussein and his family, with the flagellants mourning that they were resent during the battle to save their Imam.

Sunnis do not observe Ashura in that fashion at all. Some fast to follow the example of the prophet Muhammad, whilst others customarily eat a pudding (also known as Ashura) after dinner on the Day of Ashura. The wheat pudding is made with nuts, raisins, and rose water.

Alex Kay Potter is an emerging photojournalist with particular interest in people and nations in transition.  In 2011, Alex completed a Master Class with Ron Haviv, followed several Occupy movements, and later, set out for the Middle East. She ended up in Yemen just before the presidential elections and stayed to document the country’s transition for two months. She's also a 2013 Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar and was shortlisted for the Lucie Foundation Emerging Photographer Award. She hopes to return to Yemen and continue living and working in the Middle East.

Adnan Abidi | Widows Refuge

Photo © Adnan Abidi-Courtesy Reuters

Reuters' The Photographers Blog featured an article and and a photo slideshow of Adnan Abidi's images made in Vrindavan of windows.

It is here, in the sacred and holy city of Vrindavan, that a segment of impoverished Indian widows find refuge after the death of their husbands. Being destitute, these women are often cast out of their family homes by her children and in-laws, unable or unwilling to feed an extra mouth.

The widows earn a meager keep by chanting devotional chants on behalf of pious families, and congregate in various ashrams in the city. Hindu widows, mostly from West Bengal, are viewed as being inauspicious by a segment of India's society, and are disallowed from wearing saris other than white.

I don't normally piggyback my own work on that of a photographer I feature on this blog, but I thought I'd supplement Adnan's work with my own White Shadows; an early multimedia production, which feature stills made when I visited Vrindavan. The project was promoted by the Women's United Nations Report.

I also wrote this:

"I am not a polemicist, nor an activist nor am I sufficiently knowledgeable of Indian social issues and culture, but I sense that religious tradition (in this case, Hinduism) is used to justify the dreadful treatment of widows, and that it is really poverty that lies behind the decision to force them out from their families."

Helen Rimell | The Houseboats of Srinagar

Photo © Helen Rimell-All Rights Reserved

As my forthcoming photo expedition-workshop will include a few days in Srinagar, what better way to whet my appetite (and that of my fellow photographers who are joining me on this two week long adventure) than to feature a lovely photo essay on The Forgotten Houseboats of Kashmir by photographer Helen Rimell?

"The houseboats are the heritage of Kashmir, without heritage, what will the people come to see?"

The photo essay was produced a few years ago, at a time when the Indian Government was making it difficult for houseboat owners to obtain permits to repair or rebuild their boats. The houseboat industry in Srinagar at that time was suffering from a lack of tourists, and a general pessimism was prevalent amongst the houseboat owners.

Although the political climate has considerably improved, there has occurred some instances in the past months that made tourism-reliant activities in Kashmir quite nervous. So far, it appears tourists are returning to Kashmir...especially to escape the heat during the summer months.

Helen Rimell graduated from the University of Wales Newport in 2004 with a BA (Hons) Degree in Documentary Photography, and has worked on projects in a number of countries, including: India, Afghanistan, and the USA. Her work has been exhibited in galleries such as The Frontline Club in London, The Filmhouse Cafe in Edinburgh, and The Mustafa Hotel in Kabul.

Helen's work has been published in newspapers such as The Guardian, and The Observer; and she has undertaken assignments for Warchild and The Salvation Army amongst others. She's also an alum of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop (Manali). 

NPR | Lisa Ross' Sufi Shrines in China

Photo © Lisa Ross-Courtesy NPR

Here's another Sufi-related blog post following the one of yesterday. It features the work of Lisa Ross, which recently appeared in NPR's The Picture Show. These photographs document the shrines created for and during pilgrimages by the Muslims of Western China, many of which have been maintained over several centuries.

Some of my readers will know that this is not a haphazard coincidence, but relates to my forthcoming Sufi Saints of Kashmir & Rajasthan Photo Expedition in May.

An important distinction to note is that orthodox Sunni Islam (as with Saudi Arabia's Wahabism) prohibits the worship or recognition of saints, and the erection of shrines or tombs for anyone is not allowed. This austere version of Islam forbids grave markers or tombs in burial sites and the building of any shrines. However, the burial practices (and the recognition of saints) varies from one Islamic country and sect to the other. Sufism, the more liberal of Islam's doctrines, does recognize saints, and sees no shirk (the sin of idolatry or polytheism) in such a practice.

I recall being in the Muslim area in Ahmedabad (Gujarat), and having been to Hindu temple a few days earlier, had around my wrist the red threads granted to those who make an offering or visit. A Muslim shopkeeper told me that wearing it was shirk. My facial expression in response was one of "get a life, buddy".

Sufi shrines are known as mazar, an Arabic word meaning ‘a place for visit’ or a ‘place of paying homage’. Its equivalent Persian word is ‘dargah’. In India and Pakistan, to name but two in South Asia, shrines are built on the graves of sufi saints.

Lisa Ross is one of the few foreign artists permitted access to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region since it fell under Chinese rule in 1949. Via Ross' relationships with an Uyghur anthropologist and a French historian studying Central Asian Islam, she was allowed to explore the province for the past eight years as it modernizes and transforms.