Sebastião Salgado: The Nenets of Siberia

Photo © Sebastião Salgado/Amazonas/nbpictures

The new work by my very favorite photographer Sebastião Salgado was featured by The Guardian newspaper in the UK. It's been trending very heavily on Facebook and on Twitter, which is not surprising since so many people admire him and his work.

I not only admire his work, but his way of seeing....as he describes it by saying " If you take a picture of a human that does not make him noble, there is no reason to take this picture. That is my way of seeing things."

But back to his new work.

Mr Salgado's Genesis project is now complete after 30 trips made over 8 years. The project portrays the beauty and the majesty of regions still in a pristine condition, areas where landscapes and wildlife are still unspoiled, places where human communities continue to live according to their ancient culture and traditions.

From The Guardian's very interesting accompanying article,   Mr Salgado's latest trip was to the nomadic Nenets of northern Siberia. The Nenets are also known as Samoyeds, and are an indigenous people in northern arctic Russia. There are 40,000 Nenets in the Russian Federation, most of them living in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

The Nenets' lives are defined by reindeer, which are the source of their food, clothing and transport. Every spring, the Nenets move large herds of reindeer from winter pastures on the Russian mainland, travelling more than 1,000 kilometers north to summer pastures in the Arctic Circle.

I ought to also mention that London's Natural History Museum is scheduling an exhibition of Genesis on 11 April - 8 September 2013. There is no way that I will miss it...no way.

Reuters Full Focus' Best of 2012

Photo © Reuters/Rupak de Chowdhuri-All Rights Reserved

Yes, like you I did a double take when I saw this photograph on Reuters Full Focus blog as one of the photographs that made it in its Best of 2012. And yes, once again it's that time of year when every news outlet in the world decides to feature its "best" images made during the past 12 months.

Its caption tells us that it's of a Hindu devotee attending the "Chadak" ritual at Krishanadevpur village, which is north of Kolkata earlier this year, when hundreds of devotees attend the ritual to worship the Hindu deity Lord Shiva, on the last day of the Bengali calendar year. The Chadak ritual includes a number of self-mortification acts performed by devotees.

The caption also tells us the photographer was unable to check the veracity of the action of this man.

I find it very hard to believe that this is for real. The red turban is suspiciously too low on the man's neck, and there are various tricks that magicians mimic such a horrifying thing.

I've attended various rituals (such the one of the Kali workshippers in Kodungallur where they beat their forefronts with swords until blood gushes out), and I know that I'd certainly circle this devotee to photograph him back and front, and ascertain the trickery (or not). I also find it surprising that there are no other photograph of this fellow other than this one. There are photographs of other people with hooks in their backs, but none of this one.

The photographer, Rupak de Chowdhuri, a photographer with Reuters, Corbis, etc. tells us that he started taking his pictures from different angles, and tried talking to this man to get more information but he didn’t utter a word.

In any case, this is what is called a "monumental pain in the neck".

Whatever it is, the rest of the photographs are also worth a look. Some are really very good...others not so much.

Sheila Rock: Sera, The Way Of The Tibetan Monk

Photo © Sheila Rock-All Rights Reserved

The Sera monastery is near Mysore (India) and houses 5,000 Buddhist monks living in exile.  It's one of the best locations to witness the monk debates on the teachings of Buddha and the philosophy of Buddhism. It developed over the centuries as a famous place of scholarly learning, training hundreds of Buddhist scholars.

Sheila Rock is based in London, and her photographs were published in TIME, Elle, Glamour, Rolling Stone, Architectural Digest and the Sunday Times. Her photographs were shown in various exhibitions in New York City, London and Turin. Her portraits form part of the public collection at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

The Way of The Tibetan Monks' gallery of duotone photographs depicts the way of life in this Buddhist community, and shows a fraction of the photographs published in the photographer's book of the same title.

Writing of monk debates reminded me that I photographed and audio recorded the lively monk debates in a monastery in Bhutan, titled Sangha Debates.

Kuba Kaminski: The Whisperers

Photo © Kuba Kaminski-All Rights Reserved

In remote northeastern Poland there lives a group of elderly Orthodox devotees who are said to possess special powers. They are called “Whisperers.”

The work of Kuba Kaminski was recently featured in LENS, the photo blog of The New York Times, and it got my attention, not only because of its subject matter, but also because of the back stories that are told by Mr Kaminski about this photo essay.

"The Whisperers" are people in northeastern Poland who believe they have the power to heal diseases and physical pain, and that they are able to throw bad spells and exorcise possessed people from evil. It seems that they, mostly elderly women, treat their 'patients' by whispering special prayers.

I initially shrugged off this as being a way to con people out of their money, but it appears that the "whisperers" take no money for their services. After all, I've come across shamans in Bhutan, balians on Bali, the Zar women in Egypt, and the charlatans in the Sufi shrines of South Asia....but reading the text on the LENS blog, and Mr Kaminsky introduction of his web site makes me wonder.

Do read the article on the LENS blog with the back stories recounted by the photographer, and of his initial incredulity.

As he's quoted in the article...“It’s this type of situation when if you believe in something, maybe it’s true or maybe it’s the power of suggestion. Maybe it’s real spirits, and you don’t know that, and you cannot know that because, how can you?”

Kuba Kaminski was born in Poland, and hold a degree in photography from Lodz Film School. He worked as a photographer for the "Zycie" daily and a staff photographer for "Rzeczpospolita" daily newspaper till 2012. He's currently part of reportage. by Getty Images Emerging Talent.

Elijah Solomon Hurwitz: Kashmir

Photo © Elijah Hurwitz-All Rights Reserved

Illegal transmigration through neighborhoods with unusual names such as Kumpkapi and Shapira, a doomed neighborhood called Tarlabasi, the Roma people, unfamiliar countries such as Romania, Moldova and the region Transnistria, as well as Kashmir and a drive through South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia, are all subjects and issues that Elijah Solomon Hurwitz captured with his photography.

I especially liked Eli's Kashmir gallery...an eclectic mix of documentary, landscape and travel photography.

Elijah Solomon Hurwitz is an NYC based photographer with special interest on documentary and street photography, and social and cultural issues. He has traveled in over 40 countries. 

Maika Elan: The Pink Choice

"I want to show simply how they care and love each other in daily activities."-Maika Elan

According to the web edition of Thanh Nien, an influential newspaper in Vietnam, Maika has changed Vietnam’s entire conception of what it means to be gay and in love with her seminal work The Pink Choice.

Sensitive and compelling...that's The Pink Choice in two words.

I'm not going to rewrite what has already been written on Maika and her various projects, but I have to mention a couple of things: first off I had written a post on her work two years ago, much before I met her at subsequent photo events, and I ended that post with this:

"In my view, Maika has an extremely bright future in photography."

I was right.

I subsequently met her in Siem Reap where we were both attending the Angkor Photo Festival, and invited her to work with me in planning and setting up my Vietnam Photo Expedition-Workshop, which she did. She helped me during the 15 days of its duration and earned the heartfelt appreciation of all involved.

The Pink Choice will be exhibited from the 15th of November to the 2nd of December at the Goethe Institut, 56 – 58 Nguyen Thai Hoc, in Hanoi.

Do go see it if you're there!

Ehrin Macksey: Hanoi, Calm After The Storm

As my readers know, I was in Hanoi about two weeks ago, and one of my favorite street photography haunts was the Hoan Kiem district, especially in the streets where vendors sold toys, lanterns, masks, and other gaudy decorations in anticipation of the mid-Autumn festival in early October.  The crowds were simply overwhelming in the late evening when young people congregated there to have fun.

Ehrin Macksey, a photojournalist/photographer and filmaker living in Hanoi, decided to photograph the streets of Hanoi the first morning of Tet, another huge festival in Vietnam...after the chaos and bustle at the end of each January or beginning of February that characterize the period leading to Tet.

As you'll see from Ehrin's video of his stills, the calm that replaces the preceding chaos is eerie. He describes Hanoi as being in a Valium induced state. The streets are empty and one can hear birds clearly while walking down some of the larger streets in the city like Dai Co Viet.

I recommend a visit to Ehrin Macksey's website; especially his South East Asia Travel Photography gallery...a lot of gems!

AikBeng Chia: Mobile Photography

Photo ©AikBeng Chia-All Rights Reserved

Having used my iPhone as a mobile camera quite a lot in Hanoi during the past few weeks, I'd like to feature the work of AikBeng Chia, who describes himself as a mobile photographer.

His photography was exhibited internationally in New York, Berlin, Italy and in the Apple Store in Sydney and San Francisco, along with other venues. He has also been featured as a mobile photographer in many online publications from the United States, Europe and across Asia, and became a member of the Mobile Photo Group with 11 of some of the world's most creative mobile photographers.

Along with many, I used to pooh-pooh the notion that an iPhone (or whatever other mobile phone) could make images that would fulfill my own aesthetic values, but I slowly evolved into joining the other camp...the camp that considers the iPhone as another image-making tool.  I downloaded a bunch of apps, including Instagram and Hipstamatic et al, and enjoyed myself tremendously in the Hanoi streets doing just that...clicking, snapping, and filtering.

I agree with John Stanmeyer who tells us that mobile photography and its accompanying image-modifying apps us are all about communication. He also says this: "Mark these words deep into your conscious — within the next five to tens years (likely less), most professional photographers will be primarily using a camera which is indeed located within something as portable and ubiquitous in our purses/pockets as an iPhone.

Cedric Arnold: Sacred Ink

Photo © Cedric Arnold-All Rights Reserved

Having just spent some 10 days in Chiang Mai, I'm glad to have found Sacred Ink, the impressive work of photographer Cedric Arnold featuring the tattooing culture in Thailand.

The sacred tattoos in Thailand are much more than just an art form, and with a culture deeply rooted in superstition and spirituality, such tattoos are believed to have magical and healing powers. Thai men and also women have their sacred tattoos done at Buddhist temples, for protection against evil spirits, and as good luck charms.

Cedric Arnold's website tells us that these sacred tattoos can be scripts based on ancient Khmer, and the original Buddhist Pali, along with figures and mythical creatures. Using large-format and Polaroid cameras, formal black-and-white portraits were made of boxers, monks, construction workers, policemen, soldiers, taxi drivers, shipyards workers, a shaman, and tattoo masters.

A few years ago, I photographed at Wat Bang Phra, a Buddhist temple about half an hour's drive from Bangkok. It is here that every March 30 thousands of Thais and foreigners gather to watch or participate in the 'Sak Yant' festival. Sak means "tap tattoo" while Yant translates into "sacred design". 

After being granted permission by a head monk, I photographed during a non-festival day, a couple of Buddhist monks were already busy tattooing Thais. The 'sak yant' is done with a 'mai sak'- a long bamboo stick sharpened to a point. The ink is said to be made from various ingredients including snake venom, herbs and cigarette ash. I was told these was no payment made nor expected, but that gifts of cigarettes and food were accepted by the tattooing monks.






The above short clip is also by Cedric Arnold and I believe must have been filmed during the annual Sak Yant festival at the Wat Bang Phra temple.

KL Photo.BOM: Asia By Asians

One of The Travel Photographer blog's objectives has always been to provide a modest platform to further the exposure of emerging travel and documentary photographers from all over the world, so it's a distinct pleasure to feature a slideshow of photographs by KL Foto.BOM, a collective of documentary photographers from Asia/Malaysia. The actual slideshow presentation was held at The Leica Store Malaysia, Avenue K on 2 September 2012.

The photographs/photo essays are by Andri Tambunan,  Adli Ghazali,  Maika Elan, Edward Khoo,  Lim Paik Yin, Binh Dang, Azahari Salleh, Ahsan Qureishi, Ridzki Noviansyah, Mervyn Leong, Azreen Madzlan, Izzat Yahaya, Khairil Safwan, Vignes Balasingam, Rahman Roslan, Javad Tizmaghz, and Hanif Maidin. 

Some of these photographers are alums of The Foundry Photojournalism Workshop and others of the Angkor Photo Festival...and some of both. Accomplished photographers and photojournalists, they have varying styles and different visions...but all of them are united by the common thread of creativity and dedication to their craft.

The slideshow can also be viewed directly on YouTube

Ed Peters: Beyond The Indus

Photo © Ed Peters-All Rights Reserved

"It’s the challenge of capturing the texture of life, created by these contradictory elements, which draws me to India’s streets." -Ed Peters

And so writes Ed Peters prefacing his Beyond The Indus photo gallery... and what a photo gallery of captured moments of life! Just take a look at the photograph above...a man asleep, horizontally inert..and sort of Hindu angel floating above him, next to an askew small painting of the Taj Mahal, and a sliver of a woman staring at the photographer...

I was torn between featuring Beyond The Indus or Mexican Proximity (many of the photographs are from Oaxaca, my favorite Mexican town), but I decided to feature Ed's work from India because I was so taken by the above image.

A New York-based retired photojournalist, Ed is a Leica M9 user, as well as a Canon 5D Mark II for his photographic work. Possibly influenced by the work of Costa Manos and Alex Webb, Ed is obviously drawn to color...to the interplay of contrasts between shadow and light...and to the streets.

In an interview with Leica Liker, this is what he says about why he does street photography:

I find it enjoyable. Otherwise why bother? I like the process of walking, the challenge of making successful images, and the element of gamesmanship involved.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Ed Peters worked as a freelance photographer, before joining the staff of The Star Ledger in Newark, New Jersey. He subsequently relocated to Asia where he photographed the plight of Burmese refugees, and the pro democracy movement in Nepal. Returning to the United States, he joined a photo agency and photographed a wide variety of stories. These include the famine in Somalia, war in the former Yugoslavia, traditional wrestling in India, and the continuing AIDS crisis. He is now focusing on his personal work, especially street photography.

Mark Carey: Muay Thai In Black & White

Photo © Mark Carey-All Rights Reserved

Here's a gallery of monochrome photographs of Muay Thai training made in Bangkok by the talented Mark Carey. These appealed to me as they were photographed away from the glitzy lights of the top Muay Thai arenas in Bangkok, but show the rather edgy side of the sport...as I tried to do in my recent photo essay of the Muay Thai ring in Loi Kroh Road in Chiang Mai. 

Mark Carey is a London-based documentary photographer, who tells us he never had an interest in photographing posed or set-up shots, whether for his wedding photography or during his travels. I think he somewhat bent his rule with some of the frames of the non Thai fighter in the Muay Thai series, but these are the exception and are well worth adding to the gallery...the fellow looks absolutely fierce.

Muay Thai is a combat fight practiced in Thailand, and referred to as the "Art of Eight Limbs" because it makes use of punches, kicks, elbows and knee strikes, thus using eight "points of contact".

By the way, I credit Mark's Vietnam gallery (which I posted about earlier this year) as being one of the catalysts for my forthcoming/imminent Vietnam Photo Expedition-Workshop.

Roger Anis: The First Stone

"He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." 

Roger Anis is a photojournalist at the Egyptian daily newspaper Al Shorouk, and is based in Cairo. He graduated with a degree in Fine Arts, and was awarded a scholarship for the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop, during whch he attended Hemrik Kastenkov's Storytelling For An Online Audience class.

His project is titled The First Stone, inspired by the passage in the Bible in which Jesus confronts the Pharisees over whether an adulterous woman ought to be stoned. 

The project was filmed and photographed in Loi Kroh Road, a well known area in Chiang Mai where bar girls can be seen plying their occupation, providing company (and more) to Western tourists. The story is of Un, a 36 year old bar girl, who agrees to be featured in Roger's project and opens up about her life and her future.

I find it remarkable that Roger was able to gain the trust of Un and others to make this project in such a short time. Filming, photographing and editing this 5 minute movie was made over less than a week...in less than ideal conditions, and under constant pressure. It's a testament to the dedication and perseverance that Roger, and the rest of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop attendees, bring to it...and succeed.

Roger is thinking of smoothing some of the frames in The First Stone, and even translating it to Egyptian Arabic. That would be interesting! I think the title of the project is particularly smart...the perfect title. 

Miguel Candela: Living In Darkness

Photo © Miguel Candela-All Rights Reserved

“If I could go to another place, marry someone who would know nothing about my past, maybe I could escape this shame that I feel”

In Bangladesh, on the banks of the Padma River, is Faridpur. It is here that the largest brothels in the country thrive. The sex workers have usually been kidnapped by gangs, sold by their families or step families or tricked with promises of good jobs. It's estimated that there are 100,000 women selling sex in Bangladesh despite Muslim strictures on sex outside marriage.

Brothels: Living In Darkness is a photo essay by Miguel Candela, a Spanish documentary photographer currently based in Hong Kong.

One of the most touching captions underneath an equally compelling image of a sad young woman is this "Society has forced them to live in darkness while men love them and hate them in equal measure, demanding their services while trying to get rid of them permanently."

Miguel Candela is interested in documenting the human drama of life, and to that end has traveled extensively to various countries in order to photo-document the people and their community way of life in Mali, Kenya, the Philippines, Bangladesh and across China, and in his current base of operations in Hong Kong.

His photographs have been published in CNN, CNNGo, South China Morning Post (SCMP), Grupo Vocento, Piel de Foto, La Voz de Galicia among others.

Ian Terry: Bangkok Offerings

Here's Bangkok Offerings, a short movie (with very nice time lapses) by Ian Terry, a Seattle-based documentary photographer and journalist, as well as an alum of Henrik Kastenkov's multimedia class at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop*.

Alms giving ceremonies around Bangkok involving thousands of monks are held to celebrate certain auspicious dates in the Buddhist calendar. However, on regular days monks take to walk along the streets of towns and villages on their alms round. This is done throughout the year whatever the weather.

You may also want to view Ian's photographs of a cockfight in Mae Khue, a small town in rural Thailand. According to his entry, the fights he witnessed were not to the finish, and ended when one of the roosters either lost interest or was too exhausted to continue the fight. This is different from those I've seen in India or Bali...where cockfights end with the death of one of the combatant birds.

* Bangkok Offerings wasn't produced for that class.

Sasson Haviv: The Jewish World

Photo © Sasson Haviv-All Rights Reserved

Sasson Haviv is an Israeli photographer, currently living in New York. He is passionate about people and their life stories, and delves into rarely seen cultures and religions through his lens.

His website galleries include photographs made in the bars of New York, of the Occupy Wall Street movement, A Sikh community kitchen, an Orthodox Jewish family, and The Jewish World; a collection of images which Sasson describes as documenting the unique Jewish Orthodox world.

In this gallery, he sought to capture the intense spirituality and beliefs of the Orthodox people, and using a mix of fine art and documentary styles, these photographs depict the traditions of an extremely devout and spiritual community. The images were taken both in Israel and New York.

NB: It's pure coincidence that my recent posts were of monochrome photography. Color will shortly return!

Chico Sanchez: La Guelaguetza

Photo © Chico Sanchez- All Rights Reserved

As part of the celebrations in honor of the Virgin of Carmen, residents from Oaxaca state's eight regions travel every year to the capital to offer traditional dances, while the residents from Carmen Alto and Carmen Bajo neighborhoods participate in banquets, offerings and processions throughout the city....and this is how Chico Sanchez describes his latest audio-slideshow Deep Friendship.

The Guelaguetza is an annual indigenous cultural event in Mexico that takes place in the city of Oaxaca as well as in nearby villages. The word Guelaguetza means "offering" in the Zapotec language, but its means much more. In traditional Oaxacan villages, people attending the festivities bring food, alcoholic beverages, etc. Each person's offering, or "guelaguetza" triggers a reciprocal exchange, and enables the reinforcement of social ties.

Chico Sanchez is far from being a stranger to The Travel Photographer's blog. His audio-slideshow work has been featured on it on many occasions.

He 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.

Budi N.D. Dharmawan: Ketoprak (Javanese Theatre)

Photo © Budi N.D. Dharmawan-All Rights Reserved

Ketoprak is a theatrical genre of Java in Indonesia which features actors and performers who sing to the accompaniment of the gamelan. It draws its stories from Javanese history and romances, and in that respect is different from the wayang kulit (shadow puppets) which are based on stories from the Hindu epics.

Ketoprak was created by a Surakarta court official in 1914, evolved into a spoken drama of Javanese and Islamic history but with the modernisation brought along with television and videos, it has lost much of its popularity, and the younger generation has lost interest in traditional folk/cultural arts.

Budi N.D. Dharmawan is is an Indonesian documentary photographer, with interest in social, humanitarian, and cultural issues. His Staged Life gallery documents a ketroprak troupe which he followed.

He describes this experience very eloquently: 

"It is a story of poverty, which is widespread across Indonesia, a country that has been celebrating economic growth in the past decade. It is unimaginable that these people can live on less than USD 10 a month, but yet it is very real. It is a story of people practicing a form of art that younger generation no longer cares about, not necessarily in order to preserve it, but because it is their way to make ends meet. It is a story of life, both on-stage and also off-stage, which somehow feels like it is just another stage to perform."

I haven't attended a ketoprak performance, but i did photograph an Arja performance in Bali. Arja enacts old stories mainly based on the Panji Romances (11-14th centuries) and uses dialogue understood only by Balinese-speaking audiences. Many of the stories derived from Balinese tales, Chinese and Arabic, and from the Mahabharata and Ramayana.

Dan Kitwood: Benin Voodoo

Photo Dan Kitwood/Getty Images-Courtesy The Guardian

Can anything dispel the auguries of a Friday 13th better than a Benin Voodoo festival?

Being fascinated by such religious festivals and rituals (the more obscure the better), I was glad to have seen Dan Kitwood's gallery of a Benin Voodoo festival in The Guardian, which also led me to his website/blog on which he lays out further captivating photographs (with better resolution) of Voodoo which also has a slideshow at the bottom of the post.

As seen in the above photograph, the costumes are incredibly colorful...perhaps rivaling the Bhutanese dancers at tsechus in their elaborateness and intricacy of their embroidered designs .

In the tiny West African nation of Benin, Voodoo is and remains the state religion. Incredibly, voodoo has officially been a national religion of Benin since 1996, where more than 60% of the people are said to follow its traditions. Slaves from this corner of Africa brought the religion to the New World, most notably to Haiti.

And while Christianity and Islam in Benin are also practiced, voodoo still influences them. In the voodoo tradition, there's a supreme god, Mahu, and a number of smaller gods or spirits, with whom humans can interact.

Dan Kitwood is a UK photojournalist who, after completing a degree in Fine Art, traveled around South East Asia, Australasia and South America, which triggered a passion for photography. After two years working for the South West News he joined Getty Images in London.

Oded Balilty: The Stone Throwers of Palestine

Photo © Oded Balilty-Courtesy TIME Lightbox

“On the weekend, they are in those protests, but other than that, they are totally normal people..."

"But other than that...? Is the implication in this qualifiying sentence that these Palestinians are not normal because they protest against the Israeli illegal occupation? I hope not.

But let's stray from politics for a while, and just focus on Oded Balilty's excellent photographs of seven Palestinian protestors as featured by TIME Lightbox a couple of weeks ago.

I featured Balilty's work on other occasions on this blog, and admire his work, especially his photographs of Jewish ultra orthodox communities, traditional Hasidic Jewish weddings, and preparations for Passover.  He is based in Tel Aviv as an Associated Press photographer and frequently photographs the ongoing "friction" between Israelis and Palestinians.
For these posed portraits, Balilty enlisted the help of his colleague, Nasser Shiyoukhi, the AP’s Palestinian photographer from the West Bank.

Perhaps it would've been even better had both Balilty and Shiyoukhi collaborated on this project...we may have seen a difference perspective in the setting up of the photographs.