Travel Photographer of the Year: June 2012

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SAMSARA

Many are familiar with the breathtaking movie Baraka... but now its film makers have produced Samsara.

Samsara is the new non verbal documentary film by the creators of "Baraka". It took five years to make, and was shot in over 100 locations in 25 countries. It is one of only a handful of films to be shot on 70mm film in the last forty years.

The documentary takes us to sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial sites, and natural wonders. It was photographed entirely in 70mm film utilizing both standard frame rates and with a motion control time-lapse camera designed specifically for this project.

It will be shown on August 23 in New York City at the Landmark Sunshine theater (143 East Houston Street), and subsequently in other major US cities.

Komandoo Maldives Island Resort

Komandoo Island Resort offers the right escape from the pressures of recent life with age-old palms that stand majestically inside the resort's grounds. Komandoo is that the image of an ideal tropical island paradise. a good looking turquoise lagoon goes all round the island and an impressive house reef with excellent snorkeling. an impressive island pleasently secluded from fashionable living, tucked away during a remote corner of the Maldives. a really natural and inexperienced island resort.

The vegetation is tropical with a good looking 40-year previous coconut plantation as highlight. Komandoo is perfectly situated during a channel gap, that makes it terribly fascinating for divers and snorkelers.

Komandoo Island Resort features a full-service spa and a fitness facility. Wireless web access is complimentary in public areas. This beach bed & breakfast offers a restaurant. A complimentary breakfast is accessible. The workers will organize tour help and currency exchange. extra amenities embrace spa services, a concierge desk, and a library.

Komandoo Island Area Types:

Beach Villa, Jacuzzi Beach Villa & Jacuzzi Water Villa.

Komandoo Island Resort has ten Jacuzzi Beach Villas and thirty five Beach Villas manufactured from Finnish Wood within the form of a shell, also as fifteen Romantic Jacuzzi Water Villas. The sixty five air-conditioned guestrooms at Komandoo Island Resort embrace CD players and minibars. Rooms have dial-up web access. Televisions are equipped with cable channels, DVD players, and VCRs. All accommodations offer desks, safes, and direct-dial phones. bogs provide showers, bathrobes, makeup/shaving mirrors, and hair dryers. In-room coffee/tea manufacturers and complimentary bottled water are provided. extra amenities embrace ceiling fans and complimentary toiletries. additionally, amenities out there on request embrace irons/ironing boards, further towels/bedding, and wake-up calls. Turndown service is obtainable nightly and housekeeping is accessible daily.

Charlotte Rush Bailey: The WPGA Portraits Awards

A third-time participant in my photo-expeditions/workshops, Charlotte Rush-Bailey was just short listed on the prestigious Worldwide Photography Gala Awards (WPGA) Portrait Awards for her monochrome portrait of Fatima. Naturally, I wish her the best of luck to win it!

This lovely portrait was made at the Kodungallur medrasa near the Cheraman Juma Masjid, during The Oracles Of Kerala Photo-Expedition-Workshop. I am especially pleased that this environmental portrait is in landscape format...as I consistently encourage participants in my workshops to adopt it as much as possible as it lends itself better to multimedia, and allows a more layered composition. I'm also gratified that participants in my photo expedition-workshops, not only learn new skills on them, but enter serious photographic competitions, and frequently win.

Charlotte is a photographer who migrated to the world of photography from a corporate career that covered three decades of marketing and communications positions in a variety of global industries including energy, financial services, media, conservation, technology and professional services.

The Worldwide Photography Gala Awards (WPGA) provides a juried competitions for professionals and amateur photographers from around the world to compete in the WPGA Annual Award for the WPGA Photographer of the Year Award and the Humanitarian Documentary Grant

Anthony Pond: Kathakali, The Story Dance

Anthony Pond is hardly a stranger to The Travel Photographer blog, as Kathakali, The Story Dance of Kerala is the newest one of his many audio slideshows I've already featured.

In this latest one, Tony has very ably merged stills, ambient audio with video clips to produce a 3 minute multimedia look into the backstage preparations for a Kathakali performance, and then the performance itself.

Tony was a participant in The Oracles Of Kerala Photo Expedition-Workshop during which I had arranged a private photo shoot involving the performers of this ancient art form. The 3 hours make-up session, and the 2-1/2 hours performance took place at the Kalatharangini Kathakali School near Cheruthuruthy. The performers' intensity was incredible, and I recall mentioning that earlier on this blog that it had been the best Kathakali performance I'd ever witnessed...Tony's stills and video have very well captured that intensity.

Anthony Pond worked for more than two decades in the criminal courts in California as an attorney for the Public Defender’s Office. Now pursuing his passion for travel and photography, he travels repeatedly to South East Asia and India, amongst other places, to capture life, the people and the culture.

Luj Moarf: Thaipusam

The Hindu festival of Thaipusam is about faith, endurance, mortification and penance. In Malaysia, it's an intensely devotional event which can stretch for 3 or 4 days, and is attended by about a million and a half people each year. It's a time for Hindus of all castes and cultures to be grateful to Murugan, a son of Shiva.

It was brought to Malaysia in the 1800s by Indian immigrants working on Malaysian rubber estates and in its 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.

Faith-Thaipusam is a 5 minutes video by a photographer called Luj Moarf who describes himself as a traveller, wandering into the world discovering places and people.

Some of the rituals followed during Thaipusam, including the red garments worn by some of the devotees, reminded me of The Oracles of Kodungallur.

Meedhupparu Island Resort In Maldives

Location:

Meedhupparu Island Resort is in RAA atoll that spreads over forty three acres of land base, includes a lush and thick vegetation all around. This island is that the solely resort island in RAA atoll that is concerning 130KM from the airport island in Male' atoll.

Airport Transfer:

Transfer time between the airport and also the resort is concerning forty minutes by seaplane. Night transfer isn't provided.Relish a panoramic read of those islands of paradise as you journey through a forty five minute ocean plane ride from Male.Airport transfer modes available: ocean plane transfer.

Accommodation Overview

This four star deluxe 215 space resort boasts of all fashionable facilities together with AC rooms with mini bar, fan, tea/coffee maker, electronic safe, phonephone with IDD, connected bathroom with indoor and out of doors shower, hair dryer etc.

Beach Bungalow - (214 rooms / units)

The 214 full air-conditioned normal beach rooms at Meedhupparu are in-built blocks of 2 (semi-detached) and every one rooms facing the beach and ocean. The rooms have forty six sq.meters of floor house together with an connected {toilet|rest space|bathroom} and also the terrace house out-side every room. The bedroom finished with the picket floor has fashionable comfy furniture and is 21ft x 14ft giant. the big front door can open the area to look at the beach and also the ocean. The rooms even have tea and occasional creating facilities.

The 7ft x 14ft picket terrace is complete with arm chairs, table and sun loungers. The connected giant rest room has hot and cold water, hair-dryer and equipped with 110/240V sockets. there's additionally an additional open-air shower with alittle garden.

Facilities and Services include:

TV lounge with giant screen tv, Beauty Salon, searching arcade, Laundry service, specialised ayurvedic treatment centre, ancient Chinese Reflexology centre

Recreation

Totally equipped dive college and aquatic centre, Gymnasium, recent water swimming pool with swim up bar, Sauna, steam, and Jacuzzi, Indoor games, Floodlit tennis, Excursions.

Available facilities and amenities:

Air-Conditioned, Complementary toiletries, Mini bar, Balcony, Hair Dryer, Open-air bathtub space Bathrobes, Hot & Cold recent water, Rollaway bed, Beach Front, Housekeeping, Safe, Beach towels, IDD phonephone, Tea / low, Ceiling fan, Inter-connected, Turndown service kids allowed to share, King size bed accessible, Twin beds accessible.

24-hour Front Desk, Hi-speed web, Restaurants, 24-hour security, In-house Doctor, Safe Deposit, Aroma Therapy web desk with computer, Sauna, Baby Cot, Jacuzzi, Security guard, Bar jewellery look searching on web site, Beachwear look, Laundry memento look, Beauty Saloon, Lounge space, Spa Services Conference Facility, Massage Parlor, Speciality Restaurants, Curency Exchange, Meeting (small groups), Steam bathtub, Daily House Keeping, Meeting facilities appropriate for kids 1st Aid, Multilingual workers, Swim-up Bar, Fitness Facility, Photocopy Service, Swimming Pool, Gift look, Porters, Wake-up Service Guest relation officer, Reflexology, Wirlpool Hair Salon / barber.

Ayuverda Spa

A course of Ayurveda treatment at Meedhupparu can assist you attain good, healthful balance between your inner and outer environments.

Meedhupparu's exclusive location guarantees the privacy and tranquillity necessary for those wishing to attain complete wellness. Here, in comfy nonetheless ecologically friendly surroundings of tasteful class, the troubled mind and body is soothed and restored through the traditional medical science of Ayurveda.

LGBT At The Pier (With The Fuji X Pro-1)

Having spent most of the late morning and early afternoon on Fifth Avenue photographing the Gay Pride Parade, I felt rather bored by the commercialization of the parade with the incessant floats carrying some form of corporate logo and, although having found a nice shady spot, being unable to penetrate the phalanxes of barricades, I decided to switch gears...and walk down to the West Village and get some street photography going.

From the West Village, I followed the young crowds along Christopher Street to the Hudson River Park, and once there, started the shoot from the hip.

Within an hour of my return home, I put together an audio slideshow of some of the photographs I made with the Fuji X Pro-1. Most of the photographs were shot from the hip...some were Hail Marys...and a few were composed through the viewfinder. I used the Vivid film simulation setting, and I'm very pleased with the results. None of the photographs were processed beyond a little sharpening.

My Interview on Auto de Fe Is On The Web

"Tewfic El-Sawy is a blogger, travel photographer and champion of increasingly popular photography expeditions. He talked to Auto de Fe about what photography means to him, the much discussed death of photojournalism and what the future holds for lovers of the still image."

I am gratified that Auto de Fe magazine has featured my In Focus interview on its website, after launching its very first issue for the iPad a few days ago.

So have a read to find out what I think of the so-called 'death of photojournalism', the democratization of photography and how I came to set up my photo expeditions-workshops.

Auto de Fe describes itself as a cross-platform magazine of inquisitive journalism and intelligent photography. It showcases compelling writing, investigative reporting and visual documentary projects from around the world.

Note: This is a very quick post as I'm working on my images from yesterday's Coney Island's Mermaid Parade.

BBC: TPOTY & The Royal Geographical Society (London)

The BBC has featured an audio-slideshow of Travel Photographer of the Year 2011 photographs which are on show at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) in London, from 22 June to 19 August 2012.

I found the conversation between one of competition judges, photographer Nick Meers, and RGS Director Rita Gardner to shed a little light as to what goes through the minds of photo competition judges...some of it was interesting and other parts were not, but it reaffirmed my long standing belief that photo competitions of that sort are won by photographs that speak to the judges...or to the majority of judges. In such competitions, a photograph might be technically perfect, but it could well be arbitrarily chucked out of the running because of the judges' subjective values...

I think the criteria for categories in photographic contests and the like are too broad. The image above is a winning entry in the Exotic Portfolio category. For the life of me I can't see what's exotic in it. It's of a man passing a sex shop in Soho in London. It's a colorful, well timed and well composed street photograph, but exotic?

Most of the photographs I saw on the slideshow are really good, but it's a pity that the BBC chose music by Norah Jones and Lenny Kravitz. Good music for sure, but with no logical linkage to the photographs.

Kris Bailey: Red Rivulets (The Oracles of Kodungallur)

Apart from being an attorney in Northern California, Kris Bailey is a photographer who's keenly interested in South and South East Asia, and is particularly attracted to unusual rituals and religious festivals. She joined my The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition/Workshop™, which was her second expedition-workshop with me; the first being Kolkata's Durga Puja.

On her blog and Vimeo page, Kris describes herself as "Inspired by the stories of a young adventurer with a french accent and a cheap wooden guitar, Kris ran home from school one day and announced that she was going to live in Europe. Eight months later, wearing a cowboy hat and white bell-bottom jeans, Kris boarded a DC-10 bound for Brussels. She was 15 years old."

No longer with a hat and white jeans, she has just produced her audio-slideshow Red Rivulets, of her stills and ambient sound recordings made during the festival of the Oracles in Kodungallur. As readers of this blog probably know by now, this was one heck of an intense religious event, and Kris reveled in photographing it.

As background, the festival is called Kodungallur Bharani, and is a wild and unusual localized religious festival near Kochi. It is here that once a year the so-called Oracles of Kodungallur meet to celebrate both Kali and Shiva. By their thousands, these red-clad oracles arrive in this area of Kerala, and perform self mortification acts by banging on their heads with ceremonial swords repeatedly until blood trickle down their foreheads, then daub the wounds with turmeric.

Kieran Doherty: Solstice (Druids & Pagans!)

I really should've posted this yesterday...

Kieran Doherty thought of me as he finished his new gallery Solstice, whose photographs he thought would be suitable for The Travel Photographer blog. He was right...they are.

He has been covering the druids and revelers at Stonehenge during the summer and winter solstices over the past 10 years, and this gallery consists of 31 large sized color photographs of the scenes in that famed site.

Stonehenge is an ancient pre-historic site, and its well known stone monument is believed to have been constructed anywhere from 3000 BC to 2000 BC. It has been a place of worship and celebration at the time of Summer Solstice since time immemorial. In summer, pagans and druids make it a ritual to witness the sunrise on the longest day of the year at the prehistoric site marking the event with unusual rituals and religious ceremonies.

Kieran Doherty is a photojournalist whose career started with the Reuters News Pictures service in London. He remained with Reuters 15 years until resigning his position to undertake commissions in 2008. His photography has taken him to almost every part the world and his work has appeared in all the major international journals and magazines including Time, Newsweek, Der Spiegel, Stern, National Geographic, The New York Times and The Sunday Times magazine.

Auto De Fe & The Travel Photographer On The iPad

I am very pleased to appear as the first photographer for the In Focus feature in Auto de Fe's magazine for the iPad.

The feature carries an interview with me, along with some of my favorite photographs that I made over the course of my 12 years career. The interview was conducted with Jack Laurenson, the magazine's Executive Editor.

What is Auto de Fe? Well, it's a cross-platform magazine of inquisitive journalism and intelligent photography. It showcases compelling writing, investigative reporting and visual documentary projects from around the world. ADF is a unique magazine for the 21st century and is available as a fully interactive digital app on the iPad. Other devices will follow. It'll also be online and in print. Its digital & print format will allow many mediums of storytelling and bring some truly spectacular reportage.

I've downloaded the Auto de Fe's App from the Apple Store, and it's truly magnificent on the iPad. I don't have the new iteration of the iPad with the Retina display, but I know people who have it, and they say it's eye-popping! So get it!!!

I would be remiss if I don't mention the photojournalists/photographers whose work appear on the inaugural issue of Auto de Fe. These are Sean Power with 40 Commando, Meredith Alexander with London's Olympic Shame, Sean Hawkey's reports from the mines of Guatemala and Nicaragua, Carole Alfarah's Waiting For Change and Lisa Wiltse's The Charcoal Kids.

Finally, I urge emerging photojournalists and visual storytellers to view Auto de Fe's raison d'etre, and consider the opportunity that it offers as per its "What Do We Offer Our Contributors".

Matthew Oldfield: Kecak!

"Kecak dance involves a chorus of chanting men dressed in checked cloth, who build a percussive vocal rhythm that has its roots in the Sanghyang trance-inducing exorcism dance."

Matthew Oldfield tells us he attended a unique Kecak performance in Bali led by Pak Reno who has been developing his own version of the Kecak dance over several decades, and his chorus performs a much looser version of the typical, choreographed story. No two performances are alike and guests are never sure what will happen.

The Kecak music performance is not accompanied by any music instruments, but by a chorus of around 50 to 100 men. Kecak has roots in sanghyang, a trance-inducing exorcism dance.

I've been to Bali a handful of times, and attended Kecak performances in different spots on the island, notably in Ubud and Nusa Dua, however these were performances designed for tourists. The one attended by Matthew seemed to have been non commercial, and only 7 spectators attended it.

Kecak is a form of Balinese dance and music drama, originated in Bali and is performed primarily by men, A German painter and musician got interested in the ritual while living in Bali in the 1930s and worked to recreate it into a drama, based on the Hindu Ramayana.

Matthew is a freelance photographer based in South East Asia, specialising in editorial and documentary images. He's been involved in both photography and the environment since 1993. He's had articles published in Asian Geographic, Asian Diver, Scuba Diver Australasia, FiNS Magazine and Scuba Globe, and photo credits in a huge variety of publications.

Tom Bourdon, a fellow travel photographer, referred Matthew's work to me and we both agree that these high quality photographs would have been enhanced had it been accompanied by the incredible music and sounds of the Kecak in a simple multimedia photo essay.

Herathera Island Resort In Maldives

In Dhivehi, the Maldivian language, Herathera suggests that a hideaway or sanctuary. it's here that we discover the unspoiled natural beauty that helps us to forget the hustle and bustle of our daily lives and luxuriate in the peace and relaxation we tend to ask for on a vacation within the Maldives.

Location

Herathera Island Resort, surrounded by a gorgeous lagoon and long stretches of white, sandy beach, is that the solely resort on the island of Herathera, a twenty minute speedboat transfer from Gan International Airport, on the island of Gan.

Gan is a few seventy minute flight south of Hulhule International Airport, the most airport close to Male’.

After concerning fifty five of the seventy minute flight, your flight crosses the equator then continues concerning quarter-hour to Gan.

Accommodation

273 Rooms together with 153 Beach Villas and one hundred twenty Jacuzzi Beach Villas. All rooms options tropical décor, king size bed, wood floor, air-conditioning, ceiling fan, sitting space, stocked mini bar with refrigerator, tea/coffee machine, IDD phonephone, flat screen LCD cable TV, CD/DVD player, personal safe, partially open-air toilet with shower, bathtub accessories and hair dryer, a porch with lounge furniture and nightly turndown service. Electricity is 220VAC, 50HZ. additionally provided is complimentary use of chaise lounges at the pools and beach and beach towels.

Beach Villas

Beach Villas are located on the beach, individual wood bungalows providing a gorgeous read of the lagoon or ocean and with a personal, walled-in backyard lined with white sand, chaise lounges, a shade umbrella and tropical plants

Jacuzzi Beach Villas

Jacuzzi Beach Villas are Beach Villas with a a lot of spacious bedroom, a four poster bed, and a Jacuzzi for 2 “under the stars” on a wood deck within the backyard

Herathera Spa

Herathera Spa provides a tropical spa expertise for girl and men centered on wholeness, simplicity, purity and quality. The therapist’s healing energy combined with Asian massage treatment techniques and recipes using solely chemical free, pure organic compounds follows a natural, holistic, customized approach to caring for every guest’s health, beauty and well being

Entertainment

Weekly nighttime program together with Bodu Beru Cultural Dance Show, DJ Disco, Divers’ Video, Movies, Crab Races, Live Band, Table Tennis Tournament, and more! Nature path and Garden Tours

Activities

Guided Excursions together with Snorkeling, Sunset Cruise, Sightseeing Tours to Gan and nearby islands and more!

Weekly program together with Pool Games, Water Polo, and Sports Tournaments

Board games are on the market from the bars together with Chess, Checkers, Scrabble, Caramboard, and more!

Internet Café for email and internet browsing and a lending Library where you'll take or donate a book

Christina Feldt: Travel Photography

"As far back as I can remember, I have been fascinated by other cultures, faces, customs and ways of living."

And this is in essence how Christina Feldt started her photographic career. She was not joking...she writes me that she's just back from a 9 months trip through Mongolia, Myanmar, SE Asia and Ethiopia; a trip that generated enough galleries to occupy its viewers for quite some time. She has also established a Photoshelter website which you can view here.

I've gone through most of them...starting with Ethiopia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Mongolia, Bangkok and Singapore, and when I got to Vietnam...I paused at Christina's lovely photographs made against the yellow walls of Hoi An.

That done, I read the compelling blog post she wrote about Mai, a 31-year old Hmong woman from Sapa, who told her that her dream was to see the ocean and to be able to read and write, so she could read the text messages on her cellphone.

It's no surprise that I stopped at her Vietnam gallery...after all, this is my forthcoming destination where I'm holding a 15-days photo-expedition/workshop, and her photographs serve to reinforce the 'visuality' of Vietnam and its people.

Rasha Yousif: At The Madrasa

As Rasha Yousif writes on her Vimeo page, Islam is the second-most practiced religion in India following Hinduism, while 24% of Kerala's population is Muslim. Muslims of Kerala believe that their origins in the area started in the 7th century AD when Islam originated in Arabia.

During my The Oracles Of Kerala Photo Expedition-Workshop, Rasha worked on a number of multimedia photo projects and one of her Soundslides (now converted to video) photo films is her At The Madrasa, whose still photographs and audio were taken at the madrasa of Cheraman Perumal Juma Masjid.

The photographs are in monochrome, and Rasha has done very well in merging the various audio tracks that include the students voices, and religious chants. You will see these Muslim children learning the Qur'anic texts and theology probably in the same style as their forefathers/mothers did centuries ago.

She is a photographer from the island nation of Bahrain, and is only the second Middle Eastern participant in my photo expeditions-workshops since I started them 10 years or so ago.

As a historical note, the Cheraman Perumal Juma Masjid in the Kodungallur is the first mosque in India, believed to have been built in 629 AD by Malik Ibn Dinar, who was a Persian slave and a contemporary of the Prophet Muhammad's disciples.

Eric Kruszewski: Cuba

Eric Kruszewski's Cuba gallery made me yearn to revisit Cuba having been there on a week's photo workshop over 10 years ago.

It's heaven for street photographers...Just look at the photograph above, and see how he compartmentalized the scene using the columns and the scaffoldings. You'll see others in the gallery, including nicely composed scenes of youngsters playing street baseball.

An engineering vocation took Eric to perform construction assessments in in former Soviet Union countries such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Georgia. It was there that he started to pick a camera to share what he saw and experienced. In mid-2010, he returned to the USA to evolve his craft, develop personal projects, and discover opportunities to share stories with a larger audience. He began pursuing photography full-time earlier this year.

Don't miss Eric's poignant documentary movie on Courtney Gilmour, whose birth defects are consistent with exposure to pollutants during her mother's pregnancy.

Rebecca Conway: Exorcising The Jinn

Readers of my blog and others in the photography community know that I'm fascinated by the syncreticism, or the combination of conflicting beliefs, in South Asia especially between Sufism and Hinduism. So I was doubly pleased to view Rebecca Conway's Exorcising The Jinn photo gallery of images made at the shrine of a Sufi saint, Hazrat Abdullah Shah Ashabi, in Thatta, in the Sindh province of Pakistan.

Rebecca is a British freelance photojournalist with Global Radio News, Reuters, in Pakistan. She has also photographed for PBS' Frontline.

I also liked her photo essay on the Kailash community who are indigenous people residing in the Chitral District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

Sufis brought their brand of Islam to the Indian subcontinent by walking from the west; from Afghanistan and Iran. These Sufi ascetics walked around India, and eventually settled in towns and villages, counseling and helping people. These ascetics became saints or “pirs” as they’re called. When the ascetics died, their tombs became dargahs, or sacred shrines. It's at one of those shrines that Exorcising The Jinn's photographs were made.

Notwithstanding what our current Western beliefs are, the jinn (or genies) are supernatural creatures mentioned in the Qur'an, and often referred to in Arab folklore and Islamic mythology.

Setting Up The First 2013 Photo Expedition-Workshop!!

I'm already planning and setting up the first Photo Expedition-Workshop for 2013, and it promises to be as intense and exciting as The Oracles of Kerala...if not more so.

Provided the costs, logistics and a plethora of other factors work out, it'll follow the long line of photo expeditions-workshops for which I am known for organizing and leading, and which carry the hallmark of uniqueness because they merge off the beaten path destinations, ancient culture, religious rituals, extreme fervor and color.

And similar to The Oracles of Kerala, I believe no travel photographer has ever dared to lead and conduct a photo expedition/workshop where I am planning it to go.

As I usually do, the details of the photo expedition-workshop will be first announced via my newsletter to those who are subscribers. So if you want to be included, just add your name to the subscription mailing list box on this blog.

New!!! The Travel Photographer's New Website

Well, as it was raining almost all day in New York City, I managed to finish the first phase of my new personal website (www.telsawy.com).

It's flash-based, iPad and iPhone-friendly and I think it looks really cool with a very large image of a Kathakali dancer, whose put-on scowling face is a perfect fit for welcoming viewers!

More seriously; I've started the website with 5 galleries...The Oracles of Kali (my latest photo essay), Canang (Bali), Kolkata, Tsechu (Bhutan), and The Kutch. The images chosen for these galleries are a mix of documentary photography and pure travel photography.

The website's opening spread also has direct links to The Travel Photographer's blog, my Twitter feed, my Facebook page and my Vimeo multimedia page.

I will start the second phase of the website in a couple of weeks.

This new website is separate from The Travel Photographer which features my photo expeditions and workshops, photo essays, multimedia, and books.

So bookmark both if you're interested, and keep an eye open for more galleries in the weeks to come!

Stephen Dupont: A Tale of Two Slums

I really liked these two photographic essays of Polaroids made in the Mumbai slum Dharavi and the Senen slum of Jakarta by Stephen Dupont, an Australian photographer.

Dharavi is one of the world's largest slum and lies on prime real estate in the middle of India's financial capital, Mumbai and has a population estimated to be 1 million. Many businesses flourish in this slum, such as traditional pottery and textiles, a recycling industry, which generate an estimated $650 million turnover a year.

As for the Senen slum, it's a trackside slum in central Jakarta. It's also a center for recycling, and its inhabitants live cheek to jowl with the thundering trains.

Stephen Dupont has produced a photographs of fragile cultures and marginalized peoples, which capture the human dignity of his subjects, and do so with great intimacy and often in some of the world’s most dangerous regions. His work has earned him prestigious prizes, including a Robert Capa Gold Medal citation from the Overseas Press Club of America; a Bayeux War Correspondent’s Prize; and first places in the World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year International, the Australian Walkleys, and Leica/CCP Documentary Award.

His work has been featured in The New Yorker, Aperture, Newsweek, Time, GQ, Esquire, French and German GEO, Le Figaro, Liberation, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Independent, The Guardian, The New York Times Magazine, Stern, The Australian Financial Review Magazine, and Vanity Fair.

He has held major exhibitions in London, Paris, New York, Sydney, Canberra, Tokyo, and Shanghai, and at Perpignan’s Visa Pour L’Image, China’s Ping Yao and Holland’s Noorderlicht festivals.

POV: Have We Gone Over The Top?

Stanley Greene, in my view one of the best photojournalists in the business, just recently said “I honestly believe photography is 75 percent chance, and 25 percent skill. In accidents, we really discover the magic of photography” during the LOOK3 festival in Charlottesville.

I agree wholeheartedly. All of us will agree. We might differ as to the percentages (I'm more in the 85% in favor of serendipity camp), but the concept is right on the money. Whether in photography, photojournalism, medicine, chemistry, technology, biology, etc....accidents have led to fresh discoveries, new approaches and life changing products. No question about that.

But does this really qualify as "magic of photography"? If so, I have a lot of the same in a filing cabinet somewhere...so I must be a magician...and I bet you are too.

There's no question the photographer involved is talented and has produced a lot of laudable work, but is this even remotely serious?!

I agree that serendipitous accidents can produce remarkable results in photography. For example, unintentional double or triple exposures often give us wonderful images...but not everything unintentional works...and ought not to be palmed off as such.

Are our aesthetic values so impaired by Instagram, Hipstamatic, etc filters that accidental so-called "half photos" are raved about? Are we expected to genuflect in agreement to the sacred cows of photography who applaud stuff like that? And imitate other influenceable photographers who inexplicably oooh and aaah about it?

I know I won't. Show me the full frames that follow these half photos, and I'll applaud if they're good.

I realize some won't agree with me. That's fine. They might be right. I may be right. I guess it's a matter of different personal perspectives...but let's keep our feet firmly planted on level ground for a change, and call a spade for what it is...a spade.

"La Farniente" Or The Art Of Doing Nothing

I'm taking the weekend off from blogging, and enjoying the Hudson Valley. By Sunday afternoon, I'll be hankering for New York City...and I'll be back.

No, I don't drink that stuff....it's just for show.

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