The Frame Does Ramadan

Photo © AP/Mohammed Zaatari-All Rights Reserved

The Frame, The Sacramento Bee's photo blog has featured 33 magnificent photographs of Muslims around the world are observing the holy month of Ramadan which runs this year from Aug. 1 to Aug. 30. During that period, observant Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and having sex from dawn to dusk.

It was a tough choice as there are many images from photographers such as Kevin Frayer in India, Altaf Qadri in Srinagar, and Achmad Ibrahim in Jakarta which captured the many facets of Islam during Ramadan all over the globe.

However for the blog, I chose the photograph of Lebanese "dawn awakener" (known as the "mesaharati", holding a lantern and a drum to awaken observant Muslims for a meal before sunrise in the old souk of the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon.

Pamplona, The Drifters & Hemingway

Photo © Eloy Alonso-Reuters/Courtesy In Focus

The Atlantic magazine's wonderful photo blog In Focus is featuring 36 large photographs of The Running of The Bulls during the Festival of San Fermin which attracts thousands of visitors to Pamplona, Spain. Over the course of nine days, the festival hosts bullfights, a carnival, fireworks, and of course, the encierro, or "running of the bulls."

"I was so buzzed up by the adrenaline rush I got by reading of the running to evade the bulls, that I vowed to participate..."

I first heard of the Running of The Bulls through books. Like many of my generation, I came across it while in my late teens reading Hemmingway's The Sun Also Rises. I also recall it described in James Michener's The Drifters, an epic novel about youths who drift to Torremolinos, Pamplona, Southern Africa, Morroco, and Portugal. I was so buzzed up by the adrenaline rush I got by reading of the running to evade the bulls that I vowed to participate...much to the disbelief of my friends and peers in Cairo, who probably looked at each other behind my back and rolled their eyes (or whatever the expression was at that time).

Ah, well. I never ran in Pamplona...and never will.

For those interested, between 200 and 300 people are injured during the run every year, although most of these injuries are contusions.

I think the above photograph is remarkable...it was probably photographed using remote triggers,  strobe slaves and empty soda bottles (see photograph #21).

Delhi Photo Festival: Nazar Foundation

The Nazar Foundation, in partnership with the India Habitat Centre, is organizing the Delhi Photo Festival on 15 to 28 October 2011.

The Delhi Photo Festival is a non-commercial venture, and entry will be free to ensure popular and wide-reaching participation. Through Nazar Foundation, the festival is the brainchild of Prashant Panjiar and Dinesh Khanna, both well known photographers, and for mentoring young photographers and propagating photography. Nazar Foundation was launched with the aim of institutionalizing what these two photographers are already been doing so on an informal basis.

The core attraction of the festival will be exhibitions of photography from India, Asia and other international work.

This promises to be quite an event, and will include workshops and seminars. I am excited to have been asked to teach an Introduction to Multimedia class on the afternoon-evening of October 15.

More details will be available in due course, and a schedule for submissions and the process will be announced soon.

Alexander Martirosov: Venice & Its Carnavale

Photo © Alexander Martirosov-All Rights Reserved

Alexander Martirosov is a photographer from St. Petersburg, Russia, and specializes in portraiture, fashion and fine art photography. He recently staged two exhibitions, opened his own studio, formed a team of associates, and became a finalist in several competitions held under the auspices of the International Federation of Photographic Art, FIAP.

Alexander's background is in fashion retail, and he is the founder and owner of one of the largest retail chains of Italian fashion shoes in St. Petersburg. Previously, he graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Technology, majoring in Radiation Processes in Nuclear Energy. You'll agree that his luminous photographs of masked characters at the Venice's Carnavale betray his fashion background and affinity...they could be featured in all the major international fashion glossies.

The Venice Carnavale is the most internationally known festival celebrated in Venice, Italy, as well as being one of the oldest. This congregation of masked people began in the 15th century, but the tradition can be traced back to the beginning of the 14th Century.

Angkor Photo Workshops 2011

Now in its 7th year, the free 2011 Angkor Photo Workshops is now officially accepting applications from all young Asian photographers.

To get started, photographers can download and read through the application guidelines and the application form below:

• APWS 2011 Application Guidelines
• APWS 2011 Application Form

The guidelines and form contains all the information needed on how to apply for this year’s workshops. However for clarifications and or questions, the Angkor Photo Workshops can be contacted email at angkorworkshop [at] gmail.com .

The workshop will be held from November 17 – 23, 2011 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. As per the previous years’ workshops, 30 participants will be selected from amongst the applications received. The deadline to submit the application is July 15, 2011.

Since its inception in 2005, more than 180 young photographers from all over Asia have been selected to participate in the annual free Angkor Photo Workshops. Conducted by renowned international photographers who volunteer their time, the Angkor Photo Workshops provide participants with firsthand training, invaluable exposure and a chance to perfect their art.

Over the years, the workshop has highlighted emerging talent from the region, and many previous participants go on to embark on successful photography careers both regionally and internationally.

I'll be there!!

Anindya Chakraborty: Charak Puja

Another religious festival comes to The Travel Photographer from Anindya Chakraborty, a self taught photographer from Kolkata. A software engineer in "real" life, Anindya started photography in 2006. He's gravitating towards documentary photography, and on his moving the United States, did a series on Bodie Ghost Town, New Orleans and finally on broken American Dreams. Some of his work was published in Picsean Travel Magazine.

These can be seen on his SmugMug website.

However, I recommend you view Anindya's Charak Puja on The Invisible Photographer website where the photo essay is presented as a flash slideshow.

Charak puja is a traditional festival celebrated mainly in the rural areas of Bengal. It's unique amongst Bengali festivals because it's dedicated strictly to penance. The men and women, seeking to undertake the ritual, have to go through a month-long day fast, subsist only on fruits & perform daily worship.

On the day of the Charak, bamboo poles are erected with height ranging from 10 to 15 feet. The devotees step up to the stages, and are impaled with hooks which are attached to the poles. The devotees are then suspended from these poles.

Reminiscent of the Thaipusam festival, the Hindu devotees of the Charak festival seek penance and self-mortification to achieve salvation.

Paul Patrick: Sabarimala Pilgrimage

Photo © Paul Patrick- All Rights Reserved

Paul Patrick is a Norwegian freelance documentary photographer who started traveling the world alone at very early age. His quest was stories to tell with his camera. Since starting his travels, he has produced stories on Algeria, Burkina Faso, China, Europe, Ghana, India, Nepal and Morocco.

What drew my attention to his website was that one of his galleries is of Sabarimala pilgrimage in Kerala which Paul describes as one of the largest religious festivals in the world, with an estimated 50-60 million pilgrims visiting it every year. It's virtually unknown outside of India.

The Sabarimala pilgrimage is frequently described by the Indian press as the 'Mecca of Hindus'. The temple is dedicated to Ayyappa, who is believed to be Shiva’s third son and brother of Murugan and Ganesha. It is situated on the mountain ranges of the Western Ghats. The temple is accessible only by foot, and the millions of pilgrims to Sabarimala vow to abstain from sex, and other acts, for 41 days before embarking on the pilgrimage. No women over the age of 60 is allowed on this pilgrimage, nor are girls younger than 6. The routes taken by the pilgrims can range in distance between 8 kilometers (the shortest one) and another of more than 60 km across three hills.

Note: I am in the process of scheduling a photo~expedition in March 2012 to document a couple of religious festivals in Kerala (but not Sabarimala though). Details will be forthcoming shortly.

Note: Sreekanth Sivaswamy, a photographer and reader of this blog emailed me a correction. It's women between certain ages (some websites claim it's between 6 and 60, while others it's between 10 and 50) who are not allowed to enter the temple, since the legend attributed to Ayyappa prohibits the entry of the women in the menstrual age group.

Thaipusam: Kevin WY Lee

Here's a well done video of the festival of Thaipusam (some graphic scenes) by Singapore-based Kevin WY Lee. Kevin WY Lee is a street and documentary photographer and founder of Invisible Ph t grapher Asia, which is not only a collective of photographers in Asia specializing in street photography and visual journalism, but is also a platform, blog, showcase and library archive of street photography and visual journalism in that important part of the world.

I have already posted work by one of their photographers, and I'm consistently impressed by IPA's features...so bookmark it.

It was made using a Panasonic GH2 and Pentax 25mm F/1.4 lens.

Thaipusam is an important festival observed by the Hindus of southern India during the Tamil month of Thai (January - February). Outside of India, it is celebrated mainly by the Tamil speaking community settled in Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka and elsewhere.

This short movie was made in Singapore's Thaipusam, where Hindu devotees walk a pilgrimage from the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple in Little India, carrying milk pots as offerings or attaching kavadis (heavy burdens) to their bodies, to the Tank Road Temple, four kilometers away.

Angkor Photo Festival 2011: Submissions Open!

It was just announced that the 7th Angkor Photo Festival will take place from November 19 to November 26, 2011 in Siem Reap (Cambodia). Details on the venue, programs and workshops, invited curators and other details will be shortly announced.

During the 2010 festival, 110 photographers (including 60 Asian photographers) presented their work, which was curated by Francoise Callier (also Program Coordinator), Antoine d'Agata and Yumi Goto.

The call for submission for the 2011 Angkor Photo Festival is now open. There is no imposed theme on the submissions, but single image submissions will not be accepted. Submissions have to be projects, and should also be accompanied by a short biography.

I've heard great feedback on this unique photo festival, and I have marked my calendar to attend it. It's a been a few years I haven't been to Siem Reap, so a photo festival of this caliber in one of the loveliest of Asian cities is impossible to resist.

The Atlantic's In Focus: Holi Too

Photo © Majid Saeed/Getty- All Rights Reserved

Photo © Manish Swarup/AP-All Rights Reserved

I predicted yesterday that there would be more submissions of this colorful festival from travel photographers and photojournalists, and featured by large photo blogs. Today, it's The Atlantic magazine's In Focus that  features 36 remarkable photographs of Holi.

The photographs appearing on the In Focus photo blog are particularly compelling because the blog allows viewers to choose between 1280 or 1024 pixels, depending of their screens.

I was tempted to feature another photograph (#12) by Kevin Frayer, but I already showed one of his yesterday, so I chose others...but as you scroll down, I bet you'll stop at this particular photograph...an  absolute explosion of red!!! And you'll do the same at his #36.

Both of the photographs I feature here are by Indian photographers, and were made at the Krishna's Bankey Bihari Temple in Vrindavan.

SacBee's The Frame: Holi Festival

Photo © Manan Vatsyayana/AFPGetty-All Rights Reserved

Photo © Kevin Frayer/AP-All Rights Reserved

The Sacramento Bee's photo blog The Frame is featuring 45 remarkable photographs of Holi, the colorful (to say the least) festival which is currently being celebrated all over India. I know we'll soon see much more from travel photographers and photojournalists who are covering this annual festival...but The Sacramento Bee's spread is the first I've seen so far.

Holi is known as the Hindu festival of colors, and is celebrated in Spring by people throwing colored powder and colored water at each other. The tradition is based on the legend of Radha and the Hindu God Krishna. The latter was envious of Radha's fair complexion and in a mischievous mood, he applied color to his beloved Radha's face.

In Vrindavan (which is the place to be during Holi), the festival is celebrated for 16 days in commemoration of the divine love of Radha for Krishna. The above photographs were made at Krishna's Bankey Bihari Temple in Vrindavan. It's the most popular Hindu temple of Krishna in the city.

It's quite evident that protection for one's cameras and lenses is mandatory to photograph Holi anywhere. Perhaps an underwater camera housing or a sturdy zip-lock bag...press the shutter and back in bag it goes?

In Focus Does Lantern Festival

Photo © Jason Lee-Courtesy In Focus-All Rights Reserved

The new photo blog In Focus by Alan Taylor for The Atlantic featured about 33 photographs of the festivities on the occasion of the Lunar New Year. The Lantern Festival (known as Yuan Xiao Jie) was observed yesterday in China and wherever there are Chinese communities. It's the last day of the Chinese Lunar New Year festivities.

The blurb accompanying the photographs informs us that it's the most important annual celebration in China, and welcomes the Year of the Rabbit...which is a year of caution and calm.

Calm and caution? I guess the Arab nations revolting for their freedom are unconcerned with the Year of the Rabbit!!

I sense In Focus will soon be one of the favored destinations for those of us who appreciate photojournalism at its best...especially as I just noticed that it offers two choices for its image size: 1024 or 1280 pixels! Nice touch...very nice touch!

Mitchell Kanashkevich: Ati Atihan Festival

Photo © Mitchell Kanashkevich-All Rights Reserved

Mitchell Kanashkevich has just posted to his blog a reportage on the Ati Atihan festival in Kalibo, which is the capital of the province of Aklan, in the northwest of Panay Island, Philippines; about 45 minutes flight from Manila.

This festival is, as Mitchell describes it, a convergence of Catholic and tribal traditions, and dates back more than 700 years. It was originally a pagan festival observed by local tribes who were practicing animism, and Spanish Catholic missionaries gradually added to it Christian elements, culminating into what it now a frenzied religious festivity observed in January honoring the Santo Niño (Infant Jesus), and concludes concluding on the third Sunday of the month.

Ati Atihan was caught in my radar a few weeks ago, and I am putting it (or perhaps another one like it in the Philippines) on the list of possible photo~expeditions for 2012. I'll do some homework to explore the logistics involved, and if all works out, will announce it in due course to my newsletter subscribers, and eventually here on this blog.

Mitchell Kanashkevich is a travel/documentary photographer, and is represented by Getty Images. He's been featured on this blog a number of times.

MSNBC's Does Thaipusam

Photo © Stephen Morrison/EPA-All Rights Reserved

MSNBC's Photo blog featured Thaipusam, which was observed a few days ago by thousands of Hindus in both Malaysia and Singapore, and who subjected themselves to painful rituals. These included rituals involving self-piercing with hooks, skewers and small blades. Some devotees pull chariots and heavy objects using hooks attached to their bodies. Others pierce their tongues and cheek to impede speech, while others enter into a trance during the self-mortification as a result of the incessant drumming and chanting.

The Asia Society in New York is also featuring Thaipusam on its Photo of the Day page on its website. I wonder what's keeping The Asia Society from bringing us the very best photojournalism of the continent...it's taking baby steps, and yet seems to have the resources to really make a splash in visually fulfilling its mission. Maybe I expect too much?

Thaipusam is an important festival observed by the Hindus of southern India during the Tamil month of Thai (January - February). Outside of India, it is celebrated mainly by the Tamil speaking community settled in Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka and elsewhere.

I seldom follow MSNBC's Photo blog....perhaps I should make it a habit to check it every now and then.

Ashura: Photos In "The Big Ones"

Photo © REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl (Courtesy Reuters Photo Blog)

Photographs of the Day of Ashura are carried by a number of the newspaper large picture blogs, largely because of its graphic nature, and while I initially thought it might have been because it reinforces the stereotype of Islamic fervor being violent, I've reconsidered and I'm quite certain that this is not the case. I recall seeing lovely peaceful scenes of Muslims celebrating Ramadan on The Big Picture blog.

Photo © Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images (Courtesy WSJ Photo Journal)

Be it what it may, the photographs are graphic because the acts of self mortification and flagellation carried out by the Shias are just that...extremely graphic. Flagellation is not at all exclusive to Shia Islam, but is also practiced by certain elements of the Christian faith.

Photo © REUTERS/ Ali Hashisho (Courtesy Reuters Photo Blog)

The Day of Ashura falls on the 10th day of the Islamic month of Muharram and for the Shias, commemorates a day of mourning for the death of Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, at the battle of Karbala.  Shias consider Hussein the third Imam and the rightful successor to Muhammad, and the grief for his death is demonstrated by the self-flagellation in parades and other venues.

Photo © Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters (Courtesy WSJ Photo Blog)

For Sunni Muslims, Ashura is observed by fasting as the Prophet Muhammad did, to commemorate the day when Moses and his followers were saved from Pharaoh by God by creating a path in the Red Sea. Surprising, huh?

The top photograph is of a girl with a green headband with the words "Hussein" as she attends the Ashura religious festival in Khorramabad, southwest of Tehran.

The second photograph is of a Shia devotee in New Delhi beating his bloodied chest as part of the ten-day mourning period marking the death of Imam Hussein. 

The third photograph is of a Lebanese Shia whose shaven head bleeds after tapping his forehead with a razor during the Ashura ceremony in Nabatiyeh.

The fourth and last photograph is a Shia walking on hot coals during a Ashura ceremony at a mosque in Yangon, Myanmar.

I ought to plan attending Ashura to photograph its ceremonies...it would be fascinating. Yes, bloody and graphic...but I'd attend it given half the chance. I came close years ago to do so when working in Bahrain, but I was advised not to attend it with a camera. Different times, I suppose.

LATimes' Framework: Chhath Festival

Photo © Narendra Shrestha/EPA

 The Los Angeles ' Times large image photoblog Framework has featured a number of lovely photographs from around the world this past week. I liked this one by EPA photographer Narendra Shrestha of a Nepali woman staring while offering fruits and coconuts to the setting sun during the Chhath festival in Kathmandu.

The Chhath festival is observed by Hindus in India and Nepal, and it's performed in order to thank the Sun god Surya for sustaining life on earth, and to ask for the granting of wishes. The rituals include bathing, fasting and abstaining from drinking water, standing in water for long periods of time, and making offerings to the setting and rising sun.

Angkor Photo Festival 2010

The 2010 Angkor Photo Festival is to be held between November 20 to November 27 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The event is a unique photo festival in South East Asia,  and it's now in its 6th iteration, having had its inaugural gathering in 2005.

In 2010, 110 photographers including 50 Asian photographers are showcasing their work, in keeping with festival’s mission of highlighting emerging Southeast Asian photographers. These works are curated by  well-known figures in photography, Yumi Goto, Antoine d’Agata, and Françoise Callier .

This promises to be a real cornucopia of established and emerging photographic talent, with the participation of Olivia Arthur, Munem Wasif, Paolo Pellegrin, Shiho Fukada, Sohrab Hura, Rony Zakaria, Palani Mohan, Agnes Dherbeys and John Stanmeyer, amongst many others.

To keep up with developments, you can also drop by Angkor Photo Festival's Facebook Page

WSJ Photo Journal: Kapparot

Photo © Ariel Schalit/Associated Press-All Rights Reserved
The Wall Street Photo Journal featured the above photograph of a an ultra-Orthodox Jewish mother holding a hen that was later slaughtered for the Kaparot ritual. Some Jews believe their sins can be transferred to the chicken (or roosters) during the ritual, which comes before Yom Kippur.

Kaparot is performed by grasping the bird (hen for women, roosters for men) and moving it around one's head three times, symbolically transferring one's sins to the object. The bird is then slaughtered or donated to the poor.

Many religious traditions have more or less the same rituals, including Islam with its prescribed animal sacrifice during Eid ul-Adha, when the meat is partially donated to the needy.

Understandably, the little girl doesn't look very pleased at the prospect of the hen being killed.