Jonathan Torgovnik: Bollywood

Image Copyright © Jonathan Torgovnik-All Rights Reserved

Jonathan Torgovnik began his photographic career as a combat photographer in the Israeli army. During that period, he was assigned to photograph a wide range of military activities and operations in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon. In 1992, after traveling in the Far East, he arrived in New York and entered the photography department at the School of Visual Arts, graduated with a BFA degree and received an award for outstanding achievement in photography at graduation.

Torgovnik is now a New York based photographer, working for various American and European magazines. His images from diverse projects and assignments have appeared in numerous U.S. and international publications.

For TTP, I chose his Bollywood gallery, which propelled him into the limelight. Bollywood of course, is the informal name given to the popular Mumbai-based Hindi language film industry in India.

Jonathan Togovnik's website

Beyond The Frame: Balian Tenung

From A Balinese Canang-Copyright Tewfic El-Sawy
One of my assignments in Bali was documenting balians, the traditional healers. Before resorting to Western medicine, the Balinese consult a balian, a traditional healer. These men and women work in different ways: some mix herbal remedies; some create drawings of magical symbols to protect the wearer; and some, while in trance, communicate messages from the Balinese Hindu deities and ancestors. The best known balians heal by limb manipulation and massage, while others request the help of divinities.

One such healer is Betty Jan-Paul, who is a balian tenung, or a diviner faith healer. I met her at her modest home near Denpasar, at the suggestion of my fixer. Betty was amenable to being photographed and interviewed, provided that I had a pack or two of Marlboro cigarettes for her. Local cigarettes or any other brand would not do, my fixer assured me. She only accepted Marlboros.

The daughter of a Dutch soldier and a Balinese woman, Betty was a nondescript housewife until she had a life-altering dream in which Moses, Jesus, Muhammad and Ghandi came by her bedside and commanded her to become a healer. Her husband being ill at the time, she took this dream to mean that she could heal him...which she did. She's well-known in the Denpasar area, and she had quite a number of patients waiting for her. One of these patients was an Indian gentleman who worked in the hotel industry in Rajasthan, and who had come here on vacation and was waiting for her advice.

Betty graciously allowed me to stay while she administered her craft to her patients, including this woman with her young child. I couldn't tell what was the particular ailment or affliction, but Betty eventually gave the woman a small plastic bag filled with water, in which she had puffed smoke.

During all her sessions, she went into a trance for a few moments, presumably to communicate with the spirits as to the condition of her patients. She used an altar (to the left of the above photograph) where she placed small offerings of fruit and water.

Before we dismiss these rituals offhand, here's something which may change our minds. A photographer, staying at the same hotel as I did, suffered considerable trauma to his shoulder in a motorcycle accident during his stay in Bali. He had gone to the hospital for treatment, and was all bandaged...and in considerable pain. He visited a nearby well-known balian for massages and manipulation, and was amazed at the resulting improvement.

American Photo: NGOs To The Rescue

Is American Photography magazine finally getting serious and useful? I don't know if that's really the case but its website published another interesting article this month (yes, two in the same issue!) on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and their growing influence and relationship with photographers. A similar article was published by PDN a year or so ago, but it was only available to subscribers.

My experience working for NGOs has been limited to a joint effort in Vietnam, and a handful of times photographing eye-clinics in India, so this article has given me a lot of information and guidance should I ever want to re-enter the field of NGO photography.

Social-documentary photographers interested in having a career working with NGOs will find this article a good starting point. As the article says, new opportunities have recently opened up, allowing photographers to make, exhibit, and publish work that has little chance of being seen in magazines. NGOs have increased in numbers during the past 20 years, and the internet enables NGOs to form coalitions easily and cheaply, enhancing their reach and providing photographers with a potentially vast audience.

Here's something I wasn't clued in to...the article advises photographers to explore the viability of establishing their own NGO: "Rather than partnering with an already existing NGO, many photographers create their own, which they target to a specific cause such as empowering poor communities through photography. When you create your own not-for-profit, you keep all the money you raise -- and it's tax-free."

Here's another interesting tidbit in the article: Phil Borges has found generosity within the photo industry: Getty Images donates office space to Borges's NGO Bridges to Understanding, while Hewlett Packard has printed an entire UN exhibition of his work for free. HP printing Phil's work for free makes a lot of commercial sense, since it probably gained publicity from the UN exhibition.

Click on NGOs To The Rescue for the full article.

Dana Romaroff: Wife of the God

Image Copyright © Dana Romaroff - All Rights Reserved
Since starting TTP blog, I've researched many photographers' projects and as a result, have learnt of new and intriguing practices, cultures and rituals. This is one of such projects.

Dana Romanoff's background in cultural studies is evident in her work. Her recent series, "Wife of the God", addresses a controversial religious practice among the Ewe people in West Africa. Families suffering misfortune bring their young girls to traditional shrines to "marry the god" in order to reconcile for crimes committed by ancestors. The women are called "Fiashidi," which means "wife of the god", The shrine serves as a moral and educational institution in the town that helps prevent premarital sex and crime.

These women are also known as Trokosi, and this religious practice involves a period of servitude lasting up to 3 years. A virgin girl, sometimes under the age of 10, but often in her teens, is given by her family to work and be trained in traditional religion at a fetish shrine for a period lasting between several weeks and 3 years as a means of atonement for an allegedly heinous crime committed by a member of the girl's family. The girl becomes the property of the shrine god, and undergoes instruction in the traditional indigenous religion. She helps with the upkeep of the shrine. The practice explicitly forbids a Trokosi or Fiashidi to engage in sexual activity or contact during her atonement period. In the past, there were reports that the priests subjected the girls to sexual abuse; however, while instances of abuse may occur on a case-by-case basis, there is no evidence that sexual or physical abuse is an ingrained or systematic part of the practice.

Although the "Wife of the God" project has the most riveting photographs, Dana's website has other interesting projects, which I encourage you to visit.

Here's Dana Romaroff website.

The Palaces of Calcutta

Image Copyright Stuart Isett/New York Times-All Rights Reserved
Here's an interesting feature from the New York Times on the decaying palaces of Kolkata by the Seattle-based photographer Stuart Isett, who also narrates.

Many of these palaces and regal mansions have been built at the zenith of Calcutta's (now Kolkata) golden age in the second half of the 1700s, when it became the administrative center of the famed East India Company, and was subsequently named the capital of Bengal. During Queen Victoria's reign as Empress of India, it became its imperial capital. It evolved in the following years into a beautiful city of palaces, with an accompanying period of wealth and culture. Once the opium trade (the center of Calcutta's economy) ended, the city went into an irreversible slow decline especially when the capital of India was moved to Delhi.

Most of the Calcutta's palaces are decaying and crumbling beyond repair. With countless of heirs quarreling over these properties, it's virtually impossible to save these structures. Others are sub-let to a variety of tenants, who resist being moved elsewhere by all means. With the chaotic state of the Calcutta's legal system and procedures, they are successful in remaining in these palaces over many generations.

Here's The Palaces of Calcutta. (you may need to resize your browser window.)

More of Stuart's photographs of Calcutta's palaces are here.

American Photo: Heroes of Photography

American Photography has just published its Heroes of Photography feature on its website (link below). I was never a fan of this magazine, since it tries to imitate the French photography magazines (probably because it's owned by Hachette Filpacchi) in its features and layout, however on this occasion it attracted my attention.

This feature (which includes a mini-gallery of each photographer's work) is what American Photo subtitled " a tribute to ten photographers who inspire us", and I agree with that. Among the ten photographers are the incomparable Phil Borges, Fazal Sheikh (who inspired me with his work on Indian widows to work on my own project: White Shadows), Chris Hondros, and others. Surprisingly, James Nachtwey, John Stanmeyer and Gary Knight for example are not included in this list...and by the way, the list is mostly made up of American photographers.

Here's an excerpt of the accompanying article which explains why the American Photo staff chose them to be 'heroes':

Some photographers are heroes simply because they show us how to overcome obstacles that would seem to be insurmountable. Fine-art photographer John Dugdale has continued to work at the highest level despite progressively losing his eyesight due to an HIV-related illness. Joseph Rodriguez, who rebuilt his life after getting into drugs and being arrested at a young age, is documenting the lives shattered by Hurricane Katrina. Phil Borges has been unshakable in his conviction that his fine-art portraiture can be a vital force for good in the world.

These ten photographers have and are still creating outstanding work, and certainly are among many leaders in the field of photography, but I wouldn't describe them as 'heroes'. Perhaps semantics but to me, heroism is more than being a trailblazer in the photography industry, or even for overcoming an adversity. Yes, these ten photographers are leaders, perhaps even role models to some, and to me (in the case of Phil Borges and Fazal Sheikh) inspirations...but I just wouldn't call them heroes.

Notwithstanding semantics and my strong antipathy for 'lists', the American Photo magazine's Heroes of Photography is a worthwhile feature.

What The Duck