NYT: Paolo Pellegrin's The Exodus From Libya

Photo © Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum-Courtesy The New York Times

The New York Times just featured a photo essay titled Scenes From The Libyan Exodus of Paolo Pellegrin's splendid black & white photographs made in Ras Ajdir of immigrant workers fleeing the erupting violence in Libya, and streaming into Tunisia. This is one the best photo essays I've seen out of Libya.

It reports that some 75,000 migrant workers, mostly male Egyptians, were trying to pass through the checkpoints that separate Libya and Tunisia, overwhelming the latter country's meager infrastructure.

I chose Pellegrin's above photograph to feature along this post because, in my view, it's the most powerful of the lot. Perhaps it's the sight of the Egyptian passport in the hand of the migrant that influenced me. After all, I had one just like that years ago.

Pellegrin's is quoted as saying that while Ras Ajdir is desperate, it “isn’t a panic in the terms of what we saw in Kosovo or the scenes of Congo, with women and children. These are all able men.”

Thankfully for these men, that's entirely true, but let's not lose sight that each of these migrants supports an extended family in Egypt where the current situation is difficult...and returning home to a long period of non-existent employment will cause significant difficulties for them and for their country.

Eric Beecroft: Sufis & Saints

Photo © Eric Beecroft-All Rights Reserved

Photo © Eric Beecroft-All Rights Reserved

Eric Beecroft is the visionary co-founder of the hugely successful Foundry Photojournalism Workshop which is entering its fourth year, after being held in Mexico City, Manali (India), Istanbul and which will be held in Buenos Aires this coming July.

Eric teaches photography, photojournalism/documentary photography, history, geo-politics and anthropology at the Walden School, a public charter school in Utah. He spends a few months a year traveling and leading photo expeditions of high school students and adults. His photography is mostly documentary work, photojournalism, and adventure/outdoors photography.

He recently updated his website with photographs of Delhi's Nizzam Uddin Dargah in Delhi; an area which we share an interest in, and of Rishikesh in the Indian Himalayas.

The top photograph is of a Muslim woman in the throes of "hajri" or trance at the shrine of the Sufi saint, while the lower photograph is from Eric's Ganga Ma: Rishikesh, and which I particularly like.

Frances Schwabenland: "The Photographer of Jaipur"

Frances Schwabenland is a photographer and a videographer whose work was featured on The Travel Channel, The Discovery Channel, The History Channel and in Popular Photography Magazine. She's a multifaceted professional involved in travel, architectural, documentary, landscape and portrait photography.

Currently in the process of updating her website, Frances nevertheless featured a lovely video story of her special encounter with Mr Chand, a street photographer in Jaipur, who uses an ancient wooden camera weighing no less than 50 lbs to make photographs of passer-bys. She tells us in her blog that "he recreated for me that magic that drew me in years ago when I first started with a darkroom in my basement."

The tripod-mounted wooden box camera may well be a 1860 Carl Zeiss, which I've also seen in use in Pushkar and Havana. Photographers who still use these cameras are in a sense choreographers...perhaps even magicians, since they have to expose the negative by uncovering the lens cap for a fraction of a second with a deft flip of the wrist, then develop the sensitive paper to produce the negative...then the process is repeated to photograph the negative to produce the final positive image!

A far cry from all the digital hoopla we are now accustomed to!

FujiFilm FinePix X100: New Promotional Clip

As many of us may already know, Fujifilm has started shipping the FinePix X100 in Japan, and it should begin arriving elsewhere soon. The X100 is a large-sensor compact camera aimed at most photographers, whether professionals or otherwise.

Its sensor is based on a 12Mp APS-C CMOS sensor, Fuji EXR processor and 23mm F2 Fujinon lens, and the body features traditional analogue controls for shutter speed, aperture and exposure compensation. The buzz is around its new 'hybrid' viewfinder system which allows the user to switch between an optical and electronic viewfinder.

Its price point in the US is $1,199, and is available for pre-order from Adorama, as an example. B&H Photo doesn't seem to do pre-orders, and will only list it when it's in stock.

It's certainly a beautiful camera, but I've lost interest in the FujiFilm FinePix X100 for a bunch of reasons; the first is that I am very satisfied with the capability of my Panasonic GF1 and its 20mm f1.7 lens, the second is that I am not impressed by the X100's price which I think is too high, the third is that it's a fixed lens camera (in contrast to the GF1), and the fourth (intentionally cryptic) is because of a dot.

POV: Egypt's Iconic Revolutionaries

Photos © Kim Badawi-Courtesy The Independent

The Independent newspaper has featured the photographs of some of the young Egyptian revolutionaries who, against all odds, overturned a despised regime in a matter of days. It is these young people who made history, not only their own country's, but of the world's.

These are the young men and women who led a populist uprising against Mubarak and his repulsive henchmen and sycophants...these are the young men and women who took the West's proclaimed democratic values as their own, and fought for them...not only paying lip service, not mouthing bromides...but with real action, risking their lives and futures. These are the young men and women who are the future of Egypt, and who'll take it to where it deserves to be...these are the young men and women who will accept no foreign influences...these are the young men and women who scoffed at the naysayers who described them as nothing more than errant juveniles, and who give the finger to the sclerotic and biased Western pundits who see Islamist bogeymen everywhere...these are the young men and women who have shown us that the people of the Middle East want democracy...their own democracy, not one imposed by others...these are the young people who must be immensely proud to be Egyptians.

I was also amazed by reading this, from The New York Times (March 6, 2011):

Egypt’s popular revolution was the work of men and women, bringing together housewives and fruit sellers, businesswomen and students. At its height, roughly one quarter of the million protesters who poured into the square each day were women. Veiled and unveiled women shouted, fought and slept in the streets alongside men, upending traditional expectations of their behavior.

Jonathan Owen's in his accompanying article calls these photographs "Portraits of Courage", and indeed they are.

Finally, about the photographer. Kim Badawi, a 30-year-old documentary photographer of French-Egyptian descent, endured beatings, bullets and tear gas to find out what these young revolutionaries went through, and these portraits are his work.

My Work: Chandrika, A Hijra of Becharaji

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy - All Rights Reserved

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy - All Rights Reserved

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy - All Rights Reserved

One of our photo-shoots on the itinerary of the In Search of the Sufis of Gujarat Photo Expedition™ involved the eunuchs of Becharaji. This required one of the longest pre-photo shoot negotiations of the trip, since eunuchs (or hijras, as they're known in the sub-continent) are usually reticent about being photographed.

The history of the hijras is rooted both in ancient Hinduism, where eunuchs are mentioned in a variety of texts, including the epic Mahabharata, and in Islam, where eunuchs served in the harems of the Mogul rulers. Hijra is considered a derogatory term, and I was told by Rehman, our fixer, that they preferred being addressed as 'masi'. Be it what it may, the word "hijra" is an Arabic word which found its way into Urdu, and it means "migrant"...for someone who has left his or her tribe.

I chose Becharaji as a photo shoot site because of its Hindu temple, devoted to the mother goddess Bahuchara Mata. Hijras are usually devotees of Bahuchara Mata. She is considered as a patroness of their community, and is devoutly worshiped. In fact, I witnessed many Hindu pilgrims arriving to the temple, and asking for the blessings of a group of hijras, almost as if they were recognized as being especially close to the goddess.

There are many books that deal with the culture of hijras, and apart from The Invisibles by Zia Jaffrey, I found many pages about them in City of Djinns by my favorite author William Dalrymple. He writes:

"Yet despite their frequent appearances in public, very little is actually known about the Indian eunuchs. They are fiercely secretive and of their own choice inhabit a dim world of ambiguity and half-truths. They trust no one, and hate being questioned about their lives."

We were allowed to visit Chandrika at her home (which she shares with other hijras), not far from the temple itself, and where the bottom two photographs were made (the top one was made at the temple), and the house was spotless, comfortable and well-tended to. An older transgender, introduced as her guru, was there, who gave permission before we could come in. Hearing and seeing the commotion, many neighbors eventually dropped by for some tea, and it ended up being a sort of a social event.

Chandrika is an extrovert, and she reveled in the attention from this handful of foreign photographers. It was difficult to photograph her in the setting of our choice, especially as she also wanted her friends and neighbors to be in the pictures. She also seemed to have a short attention span, and a mercurial temperament...so we had to make do with what we had.

Human Planet: Trailer

Photo © Tim Allen-All Rights Reserved

I've featured Tim Allen's Human Planet quite a number of times, but the BBC's latest trailer is a a treat and a must see. Narrated by Tim, it features a number of his phenomenal still photographs made during the production of the series.

As the BBC describes it: "From the icy Arctic to Africa's dense jungles - and the mountain tops of Mongolia to the deep waters of the Pacific - the BBC series Human Planet has explored mankind's incredible relationship with nature."

One photographer, 4 teams and 40 countries...and almost 2 years for Tim to shadow BBC film crews during the production of the landmark television series. This is what it took to produce this stunning series. Human Planet was featured on BBC One on Thursday 3 March and is viewable on its BBC iViewer, but this is not available in the United States.

I'm very pleased to be listed on Tim's favorite links. He describes my blog as "Not much from the culture of traveling photographers slips past the watchful eye of Tewfic El-Sawy in this, his highly informative blog for those of us who travel and photograph." Nice.

My thanks to readers Jonny of www.shimmerimages.co.uk and Jonas Bendik for letting me know of this trailer.