Christopher Thomas: Venice In Solitude

Photo © Christopher Thomas-All Rights Reserved

Today's post is at 180 degrees divergence from the one yesterday, as it features the beauty of the La Serenissima or the Most Serene; term that was applied to the Republic of Venice. I believe its Carnavale (its most internationally known festival) will be celebrated in less than two weeks, and is a perfect time to feature the phenomenally beautiful photography of Christopher Thomas.

Christopher Thomas is based in Munich, and graduated from the Bavarian State Teaching Institute for Photography. He works internationally as a renowned advertising photographer., while his photojournalism for Geo, Stern, Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, Merian, and other magazines received many international prizes.

His atmospheric photographs of Venice are currently on show at the Hamiltons Gallery in London, which I walk past often when I'm there. Unfortunately, I will not be in London during the exhibition which ends on February 27, so I have to content myself with viewing these online.

It appears that Christopher would set at the crack of dawn with a large format camera, lenses, a tripod and boxes of Polaroid Type 55 to make his photographs.

Christopher has also photographed in Nepal and Ethiopia, amongst other places, so visit his website.

Other websites with his work is the BBC In Pictures and Ira Stehmann.

It's Thaipusam Time...

"The Hindu festival of Thaipusam is about faith, endurance and penance."

Thaipusam is to occur today 13 kilometres outside the Malaysian capital city, Kuala Lumpur in a sacred Hindu shrine called the Batu Caves...and if my network intelligence is accurate, a group of Asian photographers, such as Mervyn Leong, Maika Elan and Hai Thanh (to mention only a few) are already in place to document it..

The festival of Thaipusam was brought to Malaysia in the 1800s, when Indian immigrants started to work on the Malaysian rubber estates and the government offices. The festival is celebrated mostly by the Tamil community, and commemorates the occasion when Parvati gave Murugan a spear to vanquish the evil demon Soorapadam.

On the day of the festival, devotees shave their heads and undertake a pilgrimage along a set route while engaging in various acts of devotion, notably carrying various types of heavy burdens, while others may carry out acts of self mortification by piercing the skin, tongue or cheeks with skewers and sharp hooks. Not for the faint of heart.

This Thaipusam trailer's direction, cinematography and editing is by Dick Chua, the production coordinator is Kah Hooi Lai, the production assistants are Gary Chuah and CH Tan.

5 Weeks To 'The Oracles of Kerala' Photo Workshop

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Only 5 weeks to the start of The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition & Workshop™!!!

All participants flights and arrival times in Kochi (where the workshop starts) have been set, hotels rooms are booked, itinerary rejigged, and my multimedia presentations are currently being updated...

The participants in this photo expedition/workshop (7 in all, which is my ideal group size for such a workshop) are from the United States, Ireland, Bahrain and Australia...an international mix I am certain will prove to be quite interesting, since each will probably bring a varying point of view.

I am eager to start the workshop off with a couple of days of intense street photography amongst the spice godowns and alleys of old Mattencherry...The street activity of the area is a virtual live theater, with bazaar-like alleys, traditional godowns and stores stocked with all types of rice, dark brown nutmeg, red and green chillies, earthy ginger, black pepper and other spices. Not only people photography of traders, merchants, porters, but also we'll photograph details, age-old textures, peeling wall colors (or discolored) of indigo blue and ochre...etc.

I am eager to return to Mattencherry, especially after I revisit my Traders of Kochi gallery.

I mentioned Holy War before on this blog, and I am pleased it turned out to be well suited for this forthcoming adventure. It's a chronicle of Vasco Da Gama's voyages to reach the Indies; and seize its markets in spices, silks and gems from Muslim traders in Calicut and Kochi. Perfect!

Asia Society: Princes And Painters In Muhgal India

The Asia Society Museum in New York City is to show Princes and Painters in Mughal Delhi, 1707-1857, an exhibition showcasing Delhi's rich rich history of art, artists and patrons who flourished during this critical period.

The exhibition will focus on the reigns of the last four Mughal emperors — Muhammad Shah, Shah Alam II, Akbar Shah II and Bahadur Shah II Zafar. The latter emperor is the subject of William Dalrymple "The Last Mughal"...a captivating biography of Bahadur Shah Zafar, a descendant of both Genghis Khan and Timur the Great, and of the city of Delhi around the time of the Sepoy Rebellion.

The Sepoy Rebellion was eventually put down with great brutality by the British in a series of bloody battles, and Old Delhi was virtually ransacked. For those of us who know it, the Red Fort and the Jami Masjid were within a hair's breath of being razed, but were saved through the intercession of a high ranking British military commander. Imagine Old Delhi without these two architectural and historical gems?!

Bahadur Shah Zafar was sent into exile in Burma, where he died. He was banished not so much for what he did during the Rebellion, but because the Victorian Evangelicals were determined to replace his influence with that of Christianity. Zafar, having a Hindu mother, and an observant Muslim, appealed to India's major two religions and that couldn't be tolerated.

Researching the subject for this post, I read in a 2009 issue of the Telegraph that efforts were made to trace Zafar's descendants. It seems many have fled to Kolkata and Aurangabad, while others live in Burma and Pakistan.

Note to Publishers and Agents: I do not feature book reviews unless I read and like the books I write about or mention. So do not waste your time emailing me to publicize your book(s) on this blog. I will not.

Jana Asenbrennerova: Shipbreakers of Chittagong

Photo © Jana Asenbrennerova-All Rights Reserved

“The workers look like little ants next to these gigantic ships, and they are just as vulnerable.”

Jana Asenbrennerova's work on the ship breakers in Chittagong was recently featured on the CNN Photo blog....however her photographs are better viewed on her own website.

The CNN essay also informs us that about 80% of the world's out-of-service ships are recycled in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, according to NGO Shipbreaking Platform.  The largest ship breaking yards at Gadani in Pakistan, Alang in India, Chittagong in Bangladesh and Aliağa in Turkey.

The majority of the ship breaking workers come from the poverty stricken northern region of Bangladesh where there are limited employment opportunities, with the larger proportion of the labor (40.75%) are between the ages of 18-22 years old, and children (under the age of 18) represented about 11% of the workforce.

Jana Asenbrennerova visited Chittagong’s ship-breaking yards in summer 2010 to document what life was like for the people who work there. The ship breaking yards are notoriously difficult to access, but Jana was helped by a local photojournalist.

Jana is an award-winning Czech photojournalist based in the United States. Her work focuses on Southeast Asia. After studying directing and screenwriting at Film Academy, she worked in Prague’s film and theater industry for several years, then studied photography at City College of San Francisco, and photojournalism at San Francisco State University.

The Frame: The Magh Mela

Photo © AP / Rajesh Kumar Singh- All Rights Reserved 

The Sacramento Bee's The Frame brings us more than 30 large sized photographs of the Magh Mela.

The Magh Mela is one of the greatest annual religious pilgrimages for Hindus. In Hindu mythology, the Magh Mela's origin is said to be the beginning of the universe. It's held every year on the banks of Triveni Sangam (the confluence of the three great rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati) in Allahabad (UP).

The holy pilgrimage and festival is organized every year during the Hindu month of Magh (mid January - mid February), and is a smaller version of Kumbh Mela.

One of the photographs featured by The Frame is of the pontoon bridges that allow the pilgrims to cross to the area of the Sangam, and it reminds me (so very vividly) of my pre-dawn walks on these very same bridges during the Maha Kumbh Mela of 2001. I can still feel the sensation of being in the midst of a moving "caterpillar" of thousands of people. It was an indescribable thrill of being in such an environment with a multitude of opportunities to photograph the spectacular characters who attend such religious gatherings, that I described as "ascetics, mendicants, mystics, beggars and charlatans".

Stop a moment in sympathy at the photograph in The Frame's series in which a woman weeping as she searches for her son in the massive crowd gathering of the Magh Mela. I witnessed such scenes in 2001, and they're heart-rending. However, I was told that the majority of lost children are reunited with their families.

The Gizmon iCA For iPhone

From the sublime (yesterday's post) to the (almost) ridiculous, but I just couldn't resist this!!!

An iPhone case made to look like a vintage camera...almost a Leica look-alike, and since I own an iPhone and an M9, this could make a delightful Xmas present...well, if whoever is interested in it can wait for another 11 months. The Gizmon website even has its logo that's a red dot a la Leica!!!

To be honest, this is not a totally zany idea. iPhone photography is growing by leaps and bounds, and this case would convert it to the feel of a real point and shoot.

The case is made of polycarbonate, comes in three colors ; white, black and orange. It sports an optical viewfinder, holes for straps and a functional shutter button that connects to the iPhone's volume buttons.

It costs $65, and is available via Gizmon's website.