On completion of every photo expedition I undertake, I publish a verdict on what worked and what didn't. I'm probably the only travel photographer and photo expedition leader who does that so publicly, but it's a transparency ritual in which I believe very strongly. It's designed to assist those who intend to visit (in this case) Bhutan, and provides an insight at how and what my photo expeditions are all about.
Bhutan: The Land of the Druk Yul photo expedition was designed to provide its 8 participants with photo opportunities during the early fall festivals, or tsechus, which required us to travel from Paro to the west to the Bumthang region, its central heartland over a time frame of about 15 days.
Festivals: We attended and photographed a number of these festivals. Here I have to stress that I designed the itinerary of the photo expedition to include local and regional festivals only, bypassing the largest tsechu in Thimpu, which is held in a stadium-like area. The smaller tsechus offered us an enormous amount of photo opportunities, as I made sure we were in the very heart of the activities as well as behind the scenes.
The Wangdue tsechu was spectacular as always, and we were perfectly placed to photograph the dancers and performers coming out of their dressing areas. We also photographed them in these areas. I also consider the smaller Tamshingphala festival in Bumthang to be the most accessible in terms of photographing behind the scenes, and it has virtually no restrictions on what and where we could photograph.
While the Gangtey Goempa (temple) was on our itinerary, it was pure serendipity that our visit coincided with its annual consecration. This involved hundreds pilgrims streaming into the courtyard, seeking to be blessed by the presiding young lama. One of the rituals performed by the lama was breathing into small jars proffered by some of the pilgrims, who then sealed these jars to preserve the breaths.
Due to a mix-up in the Buddhist calendar (even Druk Air magazine got it wrong!), the Thangbi Mani tsechu actually took place a day later than we expected. This error confused many travel agents who had set their itineraries accordingly. We nevertheless managed to attend about an hour, after I delayed our departure from Jakar for a while. Here again, just like last year, we photographed the dancers' preparations and had total access to whatever we wanted to photograph. However, we missed the main dances of the Thangbi Mani tsechu due this Buddhist calendar anomaly, and because our itinerary called for us to depart the area on that very day.
Monasteries: Many monasteries were included on the itinerary I set for this photo expedition. Some of them involved uphill treks such as the obligatory Taktshang Goenpa in Paro (strenuous), the Thimpu Tango Goenpa founded by Lama Gyalwa Lhanangpa (strenuous), the Chimi Lakhang (easy) and the Ugyencholing palace (strenuous). Apart for brilliant landscapes, the latter trek is not worth it.
Other: We attended and photographed various other events; some of which were serendipitous and others planned.
1. Buddhist monks debates. We spent many hours photographing (photo-journalist style) two Buddhist monks' debates at the Kharchhu monastery in Chamkar. Apart from us, there was no other visitors and we had unfettered access to photograph the debates that are held in Sanskrit, and are accompanied by hand-clapping to punctuate the points made. None of us had seen such debates before, and we were thrilled to crouch and stoop to capture the action as it unfolded. Around 300 monks meet in the Kharchhu monastery's main courtyard and heatedly debate philosophical issues of the Buddhist tradition.
2. The Sacred Thread ceremony. By pure chance, we attended a funerary ritual at the Ura monastery. It appears that a prominent judge in the Ura valley region had died, and funerary rites were being held at the ancient monastery and goempa, as we arrived. Having secured the permission from the head monk of the temple, we trooped in the main chamber along with around 30 monks, who started chanting. The ritual was the first of its kind that I've witnessed in Bhutan. It involved monks stretching a sacred string from the altar where the holy statutes are kept to the seat of the head monk. This string is designed to facilitate the transmission of the deceased soul to the heavens.
We were told that we were the first photographers to document this ritual, but I take this with a grain of salt.
3. The pow (or traditional exorcist). In the general area of Thimpu, we had arranged to photograph during a traditional exorcism held in a farmhouse. The pow was called in to exorcise evil spirits out of a child and a middle-aged woman, and we were within a few yards from where that happened. Trances, shaking and incense-burning were all part of the traditional exorcism. Here again, we were told by the on-lookers than they had never seen non-Bhutanese attending such ceremonies.
Photography Gear: I used all of my lenses except for the 17-40mm on this photo-expedition. I used my 24mm 1.4L quite a bit, especially during the exorcism and other interior shoots, whether in monasteries or dancers' changing rooms. I used my flash sparingly, and only during the Wangdue tsechu as fill flash on the pirouetting dancers.
One of my favorite photo shoots was at the Jambhey Lakhang where I was able to spend a few unhurried hours photographing the pilgrims circumbulating the temple.
Hotels: It was gratifying and a testament to the efficiency of our land agent Adventure Travel Bhutan that we were never bumped from our hotel rooms. We were never asked to share our rooms, nor were we split over two or more hotels. Our guide Ugen, and Norbu our driver, always had their rooms as well.
Group Synergy: Similar to the cast of a successful sitcom, the 8 photographers' disparate personalities meshed well and created a truly enjoyable and, on many occasions, a hilarious environment especially during the long bus rides, and at meal times. Invariably, there were some moments of friction during photo shoots when one photographer intruded on another's line of vision...but these were quickly diffused or resolved. There's no question that this was one of the best groups I've led over the past 10 years.
Favorite Non-Photographic Event: I bet if I conducted a poll amongst the 8 photographers, our favorite moment was when the staff at the Kingaling Hotel invited us to a disco evening at its premises. Kingley Yangden (the manager) and her all-female staff of Tsering, Lekden and Kumari taught some of us traditional Bhutanese dancing to the tunes of local hip-hop.
Conclusion: Except for missing out on the full Thangbi Mani festival due to this Buddhist calendar mix-up, and for Druk Air's cancellation of our outward flight for 24 hours due to thunderstorms (but putting us up at no expense), the photo-expedition exceeded our expectations. Our travel agents Samdrup of Jachung Travel in San Francisco, and Pema (along with Sonam) of Adventure Travel Bhutan in Thimpu, closely monitored our progress and made available everything we asked for at a moment's notice. Naturally, special thanks are due to Ugen, our fixer-guide, and to Norbu, a knowledgeable and careful driver, who were our baby-sitters for more than 15 days.
Bottom Line: I returned with about 180gb of raw (unedited) images.
Larry Louie is a Canadian optometrist and a photographer, who is using his photography as a platform to highlight the work of an eye care charity, as well as other issues and challenges in a world facing rapid urbanization and globalization.
I'm glad that black & white photographs have won this contest...as I think color imagery is seen as a "sexier" form for travel photography contests. Readers of this blog will know that I'm going through my own black & white phase, so I'm indeed glad.
Having also seen the remaining entrants, I have to say another photographer considerably impressed me (and certainly the competition's judges) with his lovely work...and that is Richard Murai of the United States who won the World In Motion category.
Richard Murai teaches creative photography in Northern California, and is interested in documenting sacred sites of the world. He traveled to locations within India, Peru, Turkey, Egypt, Russia and across Asia and Western Europe. His sepia-like images of Bhuddist tsechu dancers are just ethereal.
I suggest you drop by the TPOTY website...there's quite a number of excellent work by travel photographers.
Following yesterday's post, here are the second 5 of the 10 travel and/or documentary photographers (listed in no particular order) whose work was posted on this blog, and whose photographs were my favorites during 2010.
As I said, deciding which is a visual favorite amongst the hundreds of photographers I've shown here in this blog is a highly subjective and personal choice...nothing more or less. Every single photographer whose work was featured on my blog is worthy of praise and admiration.
This photograph is one of the latest of Diego's projects which are featured on his website. I featured Diego's work in a number of posts...this particular one is here.
Although I posted Jørgen's work on Tibet, I also encourage you to visit the rest of his galleries, including the one of Ethiopia, where I've seen the above photograph.
The New York Times' LENS blog brings us the work of photojournalist Dominic Nahr in a series of photographs titled Uneasy Congo. Though he is only 26 years old, Dominic’s photographs of Congo’s brutal conflict are being exhibited in Perpignan at Visa pour l’Image, one of the most important international photojournalism festival.
The article explains the reasons as to why Dominic's photographs were chosen for the venue, but what is the most poignant of his statments is this one as he recalls viewing the results of a massacre:
"At first, you feel like a scavenger because you’re hanging over these bodies, but you have to document it. This had to be remembered. Laws were broken. There had to be evidence and this had to be remembered."
While this is another example of "bearing witness" to the atrocities committed in Africa, there are others who bemoan the fact that not enough photography and coverage are dedicated to show Africa's success stories...perhaps these are also right.
For more photographs, Dominic Nahr's website is here.
In this video interview, Marc Silber discusses photography techniques with Deanne Fitzmaurice, a Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist.
Deanne talks about how to approach your subject, and how to “layer” (a perceptive term) one's photographs and of multimedia, among other things. While not really new, there is sensible advice in this video, and it's given in an attractive low-key non patronizing conversational tone. Highly recommended interview for its content and for its style.
I set up The Travel Photographer's Motion as a parallel portal (using the F8 Graph Paper Press theme) for my audio slideshows, which are originally produced in the SoundSlides format, and subsequently converted to mp4s, then uploaded to Vimeo. I have no real preference between Vimeo or YouTube, and I'll eventually have these mp4s uploaded on both.
The current line-up consists of Baneshwar: Pind Daan (the annual rite of remembrance for Rajasthan tribals), White Shadows (my favorite! The sad life of the widows of Vrindavan), Debates at the Sangha (Buddhist debates in a Bhutanese monastery...much more animated than those in our Senate), Gnawa (the rhythmic Sufis of Morocco), The Street Chinese Opera (intense musical cacophony in NYC's Chinatown) and Cham! (the tsechus of Bhutan).
More of my audio-slideshows converted to mp4s are in the works.
Both Vimeo and YouTube’s have adopted the HTML5 video element (although the former is restricted and the latter is in beta), which permits most browsers (not Firefox, I think) to bypass the Flash plug-in and use video native to the browser’s player. That will prove useful for such movies to be seen on the iPad.
Trevor Snapp is a self-taught photographer with degrees in anthropology and African studies, and his work is syndicated with Corbis and Millennium Images. His clients include Stern, National Geographic Traveler, BBC, Time.com, Chicago Tribune, Marie Calire and others. He has also worked for a variety of NGOs such as Heifer International, Gates Foundation, and Intrahealth in Africa.
Now based in Kampala, Trevor photographed La Santa Muerte in Mexico, among other galleries of Central Amercia
The cult of Santa Muerte is unusual because it's the cult of the drug lords, the dispossessed, and criminals. There are many shrines to Santa Muerte in the capital city, but Tepito is where the most popular shrines are. Tepito is an infamous barrio and its tough reputation dates back to pre-Hispanic times. The neighborhood is a warren of mean streets and alleys, lined with auto-body shops and small stores. It's here that the prostitutes, drug dealers and petty thieves come to pay their respect to the saint. It's also where the common folk; housewives, cab drivers and street vendors come to make their offerings...tequila bottles, candles, money and flowers.
The gallery strikes a chord with me since I photographed in Tepito in 2008, along with two other photographers, when we were within a hair's breadth of being mugged.
Boston Globe's The Big Picture Blog is featuring the first part of three sets of photographs, which define 2010. The first set consists of 40 photographs...with some gems from Emilio Morenatti, Finbarr O'Reilly, while this one from Reuters' Goran Tomasevic is probably my favorite so far.
It shows U.S. Marines from Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, protecting an Afghan and his child after Taliban fighters opened fire in the town of Marjah, in Nad Ali district, Helmand province on February 13, 2010.
The New York Times's LENS blog reported that Emilio Morenatti, a 40-year-old photographer for The Associated Press was badly wounded Tuesday in southern Afghanistan when the vehicle in which he was riding was struck by a roadside bomb. Morenatti's work from the Middle East has been likened to artwork. He currently is on his way to world class treatment in a hospital in the UAE.
All media (mainstream and blogs) reporting these news are unanimous in their praise for Morenatti's remarkable talent, his sensitivity and commitment to photojournalism. May he be well soon.
The Rubin Museum of Art in New York City is showing the photographs of Tom Wool in an exhibition In The Shadow of Everest, which runs until July 26, 2010.
Coming from a fashion photography background, Tom Wool has devoted himself to work for humanitarian organizations. Using a medium format Hasselblad, he photographed Tibet's Rongbuk Valley and its inhabitants in May 2001.
The valley stretches about 30 miles from the base of Mount Everest on the north side, and is home to some 3,000 Tibetans. It's considered sacred, with deep religious connotations to the Tibetans. The valley is home to the Rongbuk Monastery, the highest of any in the world at 17,000 feet above sea level.
Here's an interesting story reported by The Daily Mail (a UK newspaper) which tells us that Greg du Toit, a wildlife photographer living in south Kenya's Great Rift Valley, spent 3 months submerged in a wild lions watering hole for three months, just to get what he deemed to be the perfect photograph of these lions drinking.
The photographer had tried to get the right photograph for a year, but failed to get "it", so he waded into the murky pool with his camera where he spent 270 hours and ended up contracting several tropical diseases, including the potentially deadly Bilharzia.
There are some inconsistencies in this story as the Daily Mail's article mentions that the photographer spent 3 months in the watering hole, and then mentions 270 hours. Obviously, the hours (or days) he spent in there were not consecutive, but notwithstanding, it's a testament to Greg's single mindedness. Why he didn't wear a wet suit to protect him from waterborne diseases is another question which is not addressed in the article.
Yes, photography is a waiting game. I think travel photography, in particular, requires infinite patience, certainly not to the extreme lengths this photographer seems to have gone to, but nevertheless persistence and tenacity are needed. "Parachuting" in a remote Indian village hoping to capture a bunch of wonderful images in an hour or two is -unless one is very lucky- an overly ambitious goal...a holy grail kind of thing. For that, one has to spend the time, establish the requisite connections and know how to engage people honestly, respectfully and with kindness.
I thought I'd post these two photographs of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop for posterity. The top photograph is of the instructors, assistants and staff who all donated their time, talent and knowledge to make Istanbul such a success. (I'm in the back as usual).
The bottom photograph is of some of the instructors, staff and students during the final beer bash at Kadikoy's Zurich beer bar. This was probably at around 1:00 am on Sunday June 27, if I'm not mistaken. (I'm sitting in the front center, for a change).
I'm on my way back to New York from teaching a multimedia class at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Istanbul, and thought it opportune to announce that my first photo~expedition in 2011 will be to Gujarat, India. I have yet to pinpoint the dates, but I am leaning towards January 23 to February 6, 2011.
The Travel Photographer's In Search of Sufis photo~expedition will focus on the visual exploration of the syncretism which exists between Islam (especially Sufism) and Hinduism. Syncretism is the combination of disparate or contrary beliefs, often fusing practices of various traditional philosophies.
This expedition will travel in the southern peninsula of Gujarat, and photograph at the various Sufi shrines/darghas as well as Hindu temples, where a multitude of pilgrims arrive to supplicate. It will also include a foray in the tribal belt of Kutch to document the unaltered ways of life of the area, to include religious rituals exclusive to Gujarat.
The maximum number of participants is 5 (excluding myself), and participation will be based on a brief portfolio review. This photo~expedition is not for first-timers to India, is for self-starters and requires an interest in Indian religious traditions. It will include coaching in multimedia techniques and story-telling.
The photo~expedition will commence and end in Ahmedabad, which is well served by flights from Delhi and Mumbai. Hotel accommodations will range from 4-star hotels in the larger cities/towns to whatever is available in the more remote areas.
Details of the photo~expedition and its itinerary will initially be announced to my newsletter recipients in a few days, and then to the general public via this blog.
This photo~expedition is inspired by the remarkable work of my friend Asim Rafiqui as per his The Idea of India project.
While in Dasada (in the Little Rann of Kutch) during the The Tribes of Rajasthan & Gujarat Photo~Expedition ™, we stopped by a small Rabari village to photograph. We fanned out to photograph whatever caught our eye, and whoever was willing to cooperate.
The previous evening at the Rann Riders Resort, we were shown a wonderful book of Olivier Follmi's photographs; some of which were of the area. One photograph in particular caught our attention, and it was of a Rabari shepherd asleep on a traditional rope bed called "charpoy". It was a photograph that I (and others in the group) was determined to imitate, provided I found the necessary rope-bed and a willing and able photogenic Rabari.
I easily found the charpoy, but to convince one of the Rabaris to lay or sit on it taxed my very limited Hindi and my rudimentary sign language. After some insistence (as well as having to literally drag him by the hand) on my part, the chosen Rebari cooperated and played his part...however, feeling self-conscious being watched by some of his fellow villagers, it didn't last very long at all.
Sharon Johnson-Tennant, one of the group members who was also photographing this recalcitrant Rabari, captured the moment as I showed him the various photographs.
The Rabari tribals live throughout Gujarat, Punjab, Harayana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan states in India. Some also live in Pakistan, especially in the Sindh. Their principal occupation is raising cattle, camels and goats.
Here's a 6 minutes trailer from a multimedia documentary "Forgotten on the Roof of the World" by photographer Matthieu Paley and anthropologist Ted Callahan that tells the story of a little-known tribe of Kirghiz nomads in one of earth’s most remote regions - Afghanistan’s High Pamirs mountains.
The full documentary will be screened by Matthieu at the Royal Geographical Society (Hong Kong) on Tuesday 22nd of June.
Matthieu Paley is an Asia-based (currently based in Hong Kong) photographer specializing in editorial and documentary photography. His work appeared in Geo, National Geographic, Newsweek, Time, Outside, Discovery and various others.
One of the most recent slideshows by Chico Sanchez is The Way North, which documents the plight of the hundreds of people from South and Central America as well as Mexico's poorest regions who pass through La Lecheria, a small factory town just outside Mexico City, on their way to the borders of the United States.
Chico Sanchez is a freelance photographer based in Mexico City. Chico worked in Venezuela, collaborating with Reuters, European Pressphoto Agency, Agencia EFE, and freelances for various newspapers and magazines.
Many of Chico Sanchez's documentary/travel photography slideshows have been featured on The Travel Photographer blog and can be found here.
A number of photographers, some of whom attended the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Mexico City in 2008, have documented La Lecheria. In fact, a project produced by one of the participants in my Multimedia class was on the same subject.
You can see my own slideshow Los Migrantes about the migrants who pass through La Lecheria.
If you haven't checked the updated website for the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop recently, do yourself a favor, and do so. Not only has it been totally revamped (I believe it's the work of the talented Chilean photojournalist and webmaster Gabriel Morty Ortega Berger), but it also showcases work by FPW's astoundingly creative alum such as Monte Swann, Dhiraj Singh (who attended my multimedia class in Manali), Tristan Wheelock and Mansi Midha.
Wait...there's more! Not only are many of the FPW instructors(such as Andrea Bruce, Ron Haviv, Guy Calaf, Adriana Zehbrauskas to name only four) returning for an encore, but their ranks will be augmented in Istanbul by absolutely brilliant photojournalists such as Tyler Hicks, David Bathgate, Lynsey Addario and Adam Ferguson!
The registration details are up, so if you're up to it...go for it. I don't really know what you're waiting for. Do I need to mention that FPW is held in Istanbul...an incomparable city?
Alfredo Bini has always taken photographs, and found his own personal form of expression in reportage photography. He concentrates on documenting stories of social relevance, and hopes that his images increases public awareness on these issues.
I thought of featuring Alfredo's work of the Monlan festival at the time when China is publicly positioning the Panchen Lama as the legitimate representative of Tibetan Buddhism, and to undermine the popularity of Tibet's exiled leader, the Dalai Lama.
Monlam is also known as The Great Prayer Festival, falls on 4th-11th day of the 1st Tibetan month. It is greatest religious festival in Tibet, when thousands of monks gather to perform religious rituals at the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa.
Alfredo's reportage "Water and Land in Sahel the case of Burkina Faso", won the title of "Runner-Up" in the "Travel Photo Of The Year", run by The Independent and Wanderlust, and has won 2nd place in the IPA Awards (NYC) for the Political category as well as 2 mentions of honor in the Environmental and Feature Story categories.
His Transmigrations reportage has been published as cover story by the Corriere della Sera Magazine and Alias (Il Manifesto), and has also been published by the BBC and Avvenire.
Here's an audio slideshow of black & white photographs of the Tibetan community in Manali by Paulette Waltz.
There are 3 Tibetan monasteries in Manali; two of which are located in the main downtown area of Manali, while the third monastery is on the opposite bank of the Beas river. In common with other Tibetan communities, there are a number of handicraft stores and restaurants. The two I frequented -while teaching at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop- was Chopsticks (not much imagination in the name, but decent and cheap food) and the delightful Peace Cafe which served a wonderful granola and yogurt breakfast, as well as noodle soup and other staples.
Paulette Waltz lives and works in Tokyo, but was born and raised near Washington, DC. She pursued Psychology at Emory University, studying in Europe and Africa. Post-graduation, she traveled Asia and lived in northeast China as well as Japan. She developed her interest in photography in Namibia, where coming across photogenic Himba women.
