Brent Foster: Varanasi

Varanasi, India : Holy Waters - Images by Brent Foster

Brent Foster is a photojournalist producing still, video, and multimedia content who is based in Delhi, India since January 2009. He was a staff visual journalist for the Los Angeles Times before deciding to give freelancing a try.

Not content in being an accomplished photographer and multimedia producer, Brent also authors an interesting bog titled Visual Journalist. The above slideshow is of his photographs made during a few days spent in Varanasi. You may want to view the photographs in the large screen format.

I wish it'd had some audio!

My own gallery of Varanasi photographs is City of Shiva

The Travel Photographer's Face-Lift

Many of my readers will have noticed that The Travel Photographer blog has undergone somewhat of a face-lift. Its original anthracite background with a lighter grey logo was over 2 years old, and I felt it was time for a freshening up. After all, I started this anthracite/grey color scheme in January 2007!

Over the past few months, I stealthily increased the size of the photographs appearing in my posts, and while I'm a proponent of the "larger is good" concept, I don't want to increase them further...at least for now.

I hope this white background works well...as well as the anthracite color did for so long.

My Work: Theyyams, Incarnate Deities

One of the most personally rewarding photo~expeditions I organized and led was the Theyyams of Malabar this last February. There are many reasons for this; the synergy between the 9 photographers in the group worked exceptionally well, the pace of the photo expedition was just right, and I fulfilled the ambition of photographing the Theyyam ceremonies over the 5 days we spent in northern Kerala.

To the people of northern Kerala, rituals are enormously important. Theyyam, a word that derives from daivam, meaning "god," is practiced mostly within the so-called "lower" castes of that region. To call it a ceremony would not quite be the word for it, and to name it ritual would only be half right. It is 2000-year-old theatrical performance in which an artist becomes divine and is in incarnated with that deity’s power. The gods and goddesses of Theyyam are not inanimate idols; they are incarnated in the bodies of the artists/performers.

The preliminary ritual is called Thottam, and takes place in the temple's shrine. It is then and only then that the artist receives the deity’s spirit. The deity’s makeup is called "body writing" and is said to have magical and medicinal properties. During the Theyyam the deity converses directly with the devotees, giving blessings, receiving homage and donations, and dispensing advice.

For my new gallery, visit Theyyams: Incarnate Deities

For another interesting post on the background of Theyyam on my blog, go here.

If you missed the verdict on the Theyyam of Malabar photo~expedition, go here and here.

Taylor Davidson: India, Close & Afar

©Taylor Davidson-All Rights Reserved
Taylor Davidson is a documentary photographer focused on the role of business and people in their environment, and according to the map of India on Taylor Davidson's website, he visited about 25 cities in the subcontinent; from Dharmasala in Himachal Pradesh at the foothills of the Himalayas to Trivandrum in Kerala at its southernmost tip. He traveled across India over two months, and writes this about his experience:

"And, it's nearly impossible to keep your senses closed off. Life invades you, crashes into you, ignores and welcomes you, eventually permeating into your skin, your head, your heart."

What more is there to say about India? Not much...Taylor summarized it pretty well.

Taylor divided his images of India into two sections: the Afar gallery and the Close gallery. He judiciously chose to show off his images in a large (and satisfying) format, and you won't regret exploring his website for more of his galleries.

He recently published a book of 90 of his best photographs of India that is avaialble from the Blurb Bookstore here.

Alex Espinosa: Criancas de Nordeste

©Alex Espinosa-All Rights Reserved
Alex Espinosa is a Mexican photographer and photojournalist, who traveled in Latin America from 2000-2006 to document daily life and the humanitarian efforts made to improve lives of children. The documentary project was sponsored by CETYS University, San Diego State University and the University of Baja California.

His work was exhibited in Mexico, Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and the United States, and was published in Obras, Expansion, Ambientes, Escala, Vinum and International GEO.

Alex is also an alum of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Mexico City.

Criancas de Nordeste is a photo essay dealing with poverty in Brazil, where official statistics show that about 32 million people live under the poverty line. Particulalry in the northeast of the country, this statistic is exacerbated by the fact that many poor families have 7 children or more, and depend on a monthly salary equivalent to $14.

Alex Espinosa's website also has galleries of La Santa Muerte, Migrants and Patagonia, among others.

Marantz-PMD 620

I just published an article on Photocrati providing my impressions of the Marantz-PMD 620, a small hand-held audio recorder, which I needed badly to replace my aging M-Audio MicroTrack I that was beginning to act erratically.

I’m not an audio engineer, so my take on the quality of my various recordings should be viewed as that of a photographer who records ambient sound to accompany slideshows...no more and no less. There’s no question in my mind that the PMD620 is an excellent “point and shoot” audio recorder, small enough to be carried as an accessory, and well capable of capturing sounds in sufficient quality to provide lovely sound tracks for my multimedia productions.

For the rest of my impressions, drop by Photocrati.

Farzana Wahidy: Burqa

At the age of 24, Farzana Wahidy has been a photographer for Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press. She was born in Afghanistan but now resides in the United States. The National Geographic All Roads Film Festival recently recognized her work by awarding her seed money and equipment to assist in her field work.

In an interview, she said:

" I wasn’t at all interested in photography before. I wanted to be a journalist. I thought I could travel around as a journalist. I wanted to tell the world about the situation in Afghanistan. Above all, I wanted to be free and independent. I always had to work to support my family. One day, I found out about these film and photojournalism courses and I applied. I was 17 -- I thought they wouldn’t accept me because I was too young. So I changed the date of birth in my passport. Two weeks later I found out I had been accepted."

Farzana was initially trained at Aina Photo Agency (founded by Reza), and her work in Afghanistan is remarkable. It underscores how many indigenous photographers and photojournalists are often better storytellers than non-indigenous professionals, and gives the photographs an imprimatur of authenticity..

Ad For Canon 5D II Video

Here is a 200-second promotional video from Canon for the 5D Mark II that essentially showcases the various Canon lenses that can be used to produce such a video. The ad's soundtrack is annoying, but what is most annoying is that I have yet to be able to produce a half decent video with mine.

Video-making is not as easy as one would think, especially when engrossed in making still photographs, then switching to video mode as an afterthought, or just to record a few moments of video. It takes a different mindset, focus, training and resolve...and a tripod would be useful.

Minimalist Photo Gear

I'm planning to travel to Cairo for around 10 days, and finally took the plunge in reducing the load of photographic gear I normally take with me. Since the trip is not one of my group photo~expeditions nor a workshop, but will involve a couple of self-assignments, I can afford to pare it down.

Here's my list:

1. Acer Aspire One 8.9-inch Mini Laptop (1.6 GHz Intel Atom, 1gb RAM, Windows XP) on which I downloaded Soundslides (my favorite slideshow maker), Audacity (free audio editor) and GIMP (instead of power-hungry CS). I may add Lightroom but download it on a memory stick. I'm a hard-core Mac user, so I'm still very uncomfortable using XP, but the netbook's feather-like weight is incredible. The display while small, is magnificent and I look at it as a souped-up Epson P7000 at less than half its price.

I read on the internets that hardy souls install OSX on it, but that's above my tech pay grade, so I'll keep using the XP for a while.

2. A 250gb G-Tech Mini G-Drive External Hard Drive with both FireWire and USB 2.0 for increased portability. I formatted it be used for both Mac and Win, and it works like a charm. It's a tiny little thing, that weighs less than 9 oz.

3. My new Domke F3-X will take the above gear, plus my Canon 5D2 and two lenses (I'll leave the 70-200mm 2.8 behind), and my Marantz PMD620 audio recorder. It has other pockets in which I can put mt CF cards, and whatever other whatsits I carry with me. All I need to do is to put it in a washing machine and dryer, and it'll be broken in just fine. Maybe cover the Domke logo with gaffer tape, and I'm set to go.

I just read this in the New York Times:

Apple’s COO Tim Cook :“They have cramped keyboards, terrible software, junky hardware, very small screens, and just not a consumer experience, and not something that we would put the Mac brand on, quite frankly. And so, it’s not a space as it exists today that we are interested in, nor do we believe that customers in the long term would be interested in. It’s a segment we would choose not to play in."

Damn!

Are You Doing Audio Slideshows Yet?

©Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
I've published an article asking this very question on Photocrati.com, a pro photographers' blog, gear review site, and community, which includes this:

"Multimedia is not a panacea for ill thought out or badly produced projects. It still needs good stories, great photographs and certainly, audio that is part of the story and part of the photographs. Adding a song downloaded from an online music store to a set of unrelated photographs is not what I’m taking about."

If you're interested in producing your own audio slideshows, I encourage you to read it here, and by having a look at an earlier POV post of mine here on TTP.

Stefano Torrione: The Rituals of the Gnawa

This is a post that'll be particularly appreciated by participants in my forthcoming Gnawa Photo~Expedition as photojournalist Stefano Torrione has documented the Gnawa in Essaouira and Marrakech in one of his many interesting galleries titled The Rituals of the Gnawas.

Stefano is a photojournalist who started his career at the magazine Epoca in the early nineties, and that led him to be awarded the Panorama European Kodak Award in 1993 in Arles for his reportage on the street children of Bucharest. He is particularly interested in geographical and ethnographical reportage, and traveled and worked in many countries for magazines like Geo, Panorama Travel, In Viaggio and others.

In 2005 he participated in Obiettivo Uomo Ambiente, the first International Biennial Photography Exhibition in Viterbo, with a reportage on the Gnawas rituals in Morocco.

Exploring his many galleries, I wished his photographs had been larger to better appreciate his reportage and photo work on Nubian Women, Kham, Kolkata, and Kyrgyz faces.

The Travel Photographer's FPW Awards

©Jyotika Jain (L)- ©Martyn Aim (R)-All Rights Reserved
In February 2009, I offered two scholarships to the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop, and both Eric Beecroft and I (as jurors) had the difficult task to choose the recipients of the scholarships, which were announced on April 15th.

The above are photographs by Jyotika Jain and Martyn Aim, both winners of the two scholarships.

Jyotika Jain is a Mumbai-based freelance photographer, who recently started her photographic career. One of her documentary projects is on the ladies compartment of the local trains in Mumbai and Zaveri bazaar (old and traditional jeweller’s market). She exhibited her series on the local trains "Ladies Special: Myriad Moments" at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in Mumbai, in February 2009.

Martyn Aim's background is that of an anthropologist. He has a MA Visual Anthropology from the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology, University of Manchester. His education is in fieldwork methods and documentary/stills photography and film. As an ethnographer, he spent a year documenting the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations peoples of western Canada, living in isolated reserve communities. The above photograph is from his series of Balinese cock-fighters.

Felice Willat: The Spirit of Burma

©Felice Willat-All Rights Reserved
Felice Willat is founder and president of Tools With Heart, a company that develops products to enhance personal discovery and well being. A successful entrepreneur, and with a strong background in network television production, Felice is also an accomplished photographer, as evidenced by the recent publication of her photographs of Burma on the pages of Matador, an online international travel magazine, in a feature titled In Focus: The Spirit of Burma.

From Felice's many lovely photographs, I chose the one above of evening traffic over the famed U-Bein bridge in Amarapura.

Her photographs are on display in an exhibit titled ALMS - "Offerings" at the Topanga Canyon Gallery (Los Angeles) from April 7th - May 3rd, 2009. Further details on the venue are here. The photographs also inspired her new book, "The Quiet Between - Song Of Burma".

Felice is one of the photographers joining my Gnawa Photo~Expedition due to start on June 19, and I look forward to see her work from this Moroccan extravaganza!

Her website with more photographs is here.

Joyce Birkenstock: Kathakali Paintings

©Joyce Birkenstock-All Rights Reserved

Joyce Birkenstock is a remarkable artist and photographer, and a peripatetic international traveler who visited most countries of the world. She received her training at the University of Dallas, the University of Iowa, the Norton Art School, the Art Students League, and the Vermont Studio Center, and her awards, achievements and professional affiliations are too many to list here.

She traveled on most of my photo expeditions, and I take much pleasure in featuring three of her superb paintings of Kathakali actors. The paintings are inspired by, and based on, her own photographs made during our private photo-shoot in Thrissur, during the Theyyams of Malabar photo-expedition which I organized and led in February.

I can still hear Joyce's exclamations of wonder as she photographed these actors while they were dressing up for the performance. She must have been visualizing her paintings as she clicked the shutter!

More of Joyce's work can be seen on Artistic Journeys