A Dos Pasos Del Corazón: The Photographer Of Seville

I was impressed by this short documentary of Juan, who is a photographer in Seville (or Sevilla) who at the age of 85 years is still taking pictures at weddings, baptisms and communions. He has been practicing this profession since 1944.

The videography is by Sergio Caro  and Ernesto Villalba, and is a tribute to simplicity. I always advise simplicity in my multimedia classes, and to let the story be carried by the narrative. This video has all the ingredients of successul storytelling via narrative...it even includes faded old photographs as a way to introduce Juan's personal history. Unfortunately, there's no translation but I guess it's not too difficult to understand what is being said...more or less.

With that minor exception (seen through an English-speaking prism), this is a very well produced documentary.

It brings back my childhood memories of Monsieur Phillipe who walked the beaches in Alexandria, Egypt making pictures of families, children and friends. He used a twin-lens reflex camera, probably a Rolleiflex and would have the prints back in about 2 days.  Possibly Greek or Armenian, Monsieur Phillipe always wore a sweat stained Panama hat, leather sandals and knee-length white shorts. I recall he had extremely hairy legs, and his sandals threw sand whenever he walked on the beaches. He probably remained in Egypt until the late 60s.

What an interesting subject Monsieur Phillipe would make...in the same vein as Juan! I'd be interested to hear from anyone who may have know what happened to him.

Andrés Lofiego: Con La Tierra

Andrés Lofiego attended Maggie Steber's class at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Buenos Aires, and chose me to view his portfolio of black & white stills. He also showed its multimedia version of these stark images, with a throbbing sound track. The multimedia is co-produced with Martin Cossarini.

Con La Tierra, Andrés' photo essay examines the injustice committed by various industries and corporations such as the oil & gas industry, the farming and mining industries against the natives peasants who, for generations, were born, lived and worked in, and died on their ancestral lands. The photographs are of the Mapuches who were evicted from their their lands in Neuquen (Southern province of Argentina), the farmers of Santiago del Estero (Northeastern province) and the people in Quebrada de Humahuaca.

"But these people, the men and women of the land, work to get informed, peacefully resist and build a world wide enough to embrace all cultures."

Photo © Andrés Lofiego-All Rights Reserved

Andrés Lofiego is a photographer/photojournalist who lives in Buenos Aires. He began studying  photography about a decade ago, focusing on reality and social issues. He worked of visual projects covering the recovery of factories in Argentina after the crisis of December 2001, and published a book titled "No Trespassing, A Look from the Self-Managed Work" in cooperation with the workers of the print shop "Chilavert". He is currently documenting land disputes between farmers and corporations in Argentina.

Milongas: The Seduction of Tango

I'm pleased to feature an audio slideshow titled "Milongas! The Seduction of Tango" of my still black & white photographs made in various tango halls and milongas of Buenos Aires during the week I spent there  teaching with the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop.

Note: You have two viewing options: either to view it as a Vimeo movie (above) or as a SoundSlides, which has better resolution images.

I am equally pleased in having broken many of my self-imposed rules which I religiously followed when producing such multimedia pieces. For this piece, I applied panning (Ken Burns effect) on a few occasions to give the semblance of motion, and to bring the eyes of the viewers to a specific part of the still. Rules are made to be broken, and I hope the photographers who attended my class do not take me too much to task for that.

"the silent and imperceptible gesture by men inviting women to dance..."

I chose to photograph the milongas and the tango at these venues for many reasons. Perhaps it was mainly because of my appreciation for international music, but as I observed the people who were at the milongas...I call them 'actors' because they were, wittingly or unwittingly, acting a part in a pre-ordained old fashioned ritual of almost courtship...the silent and imperceptible gesture by men inviting women to dance...I was reminded that their actions mirrored what occurs between men and women in their quotidian life.

I've also used only two audio tracks...one is by the legendary Carlos Gardel singing the beautiful A Media Luz, and a short poetic narration by Paula Acunzo, a Buenos Aires based photographer who attended my class, and is also a terrific tango dancer. She deserves much credit, not only for writing this evocative poem, but also for suffering some of us at the tango halls and milongas.

But back to A Media Luz....which means 'half-light'. I decided I'd use it as main soundtrack for the slideshow because I was humming it in Buenos Aires almost all the time...and because I photographed these images in the penumbra of the tango halls, and accentuated their darkness even further by vignetting some....so it seemed eminently appropriate.

So turn your speakers on...full volume...and enjoy the seduction of tango.

Indu Antony: It's A Beautiful World Outside

Indu Antony attended the Buenos Aires Foundry Photojournalism Workshop which just ended a few days ago, and chose the incomparable Maggie Steber as her instructor. A wise decision...and one which speaks volumes about Indu's passion for photojournalism.

She also chose me to review her phenomenal portfolio...which I did, spending a very long time doing so, forgetting I had other photographers waiting for me. Her multimedia photo essay on the destitute and the homeless in a Bangalore shelter is so compelling and sensitive that I watched it twice...slowly. You will too.

"Indu, you should marry a dentist and open a dentist clinic and have two boys who will be successful dentists too!". I decided to disobey her and follow my dream of being a photographer. I have been chasing colour purple ever since through my images."

Indu hails from Bangalore and is drawn to documenting the unprivileged, the homeless and those who lack a voice.  Her It's A Beautiful World Outside was photographed in a Bangalore shelter which mainly houses psychologically ill people who, like us, have dreams and wishes.

From the sight-impaired to the physically handicapped, all believe they will one day walk out from that shelter into that beautiful world "Outside". In her multimedia piece, Indu fused their portraits to photographs of their dreams, and recorded their voices telling us of their hopes and wishes.

Powerful...emotional...and sensitive.

Foundry Photojournalism Workshop: Multimedia Class

I'm caffeinated at flying to Buenos Aires tomorrow evening to teach at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop (which this year is in Buenos Aires) in just a few days. I will be teaching, along with Rodrigo Cruz (and with Jessica Pons' assistance), a multimedia class that allows its participants to concentrate on the story, rather than on the application. It's structured to show photojournalists how to make quick work of slide show production, using their own images and audio generated in the field, to produce a cogent photo story under the simulation of publishing deadlines.

The Foundry Photojournalism Workshop is designed photography and emerging photojournalists hone their skills, have a chance to work with some of the world’s best shooters in the field, on real reportage projects, to create multimedia, to see some of the best work being done today, to collaborate, to make contact, plan future projects, develop your own vision and leave the workshop energized, exhausted, and more committed then ever to concerned photography, storytelling and to documenting the world through the lens.

If you're in Buenos Aires, interested in photojournalism and haven't enrolled yet...you'll be missing a unique opportunity! So get going!

Oskar Barnack Award 2011: The Winners

Leica announced the 2011 winners of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award, and produced an 18 minute movie of their work. The movie was presented at the Arles Photo festival of 2011.

Jan Grarup received the Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2011 for his “Haiti Aftermath” series and Jing Huang won the Newcomer Award 2011 for his photo set titled “Pure of Sight.”

"Regular readers of The Travel Photographer's blog won't be surprised. I am not moved by most of the photo essays that won the Oskar Barnack Award 2011."

I've watched this movie three times, and readily confess that the majority of the photo essays left me indifferent, and even puzzled. I found that the exceptions were the two projects by Jan Garup; the Haiti Aftermath and Darfur (at the end of the clip) and a poignant photo essay by Carsten Stormer titled The Acid Survivors. I just wasn't moved by the remainder of the photo essays....largely because I just didn't understand what the photographs meant to convey.

That being said,  I generally liked the multimedia production of this movie. I found the varying sound tracks (although none were ambient) to be appropriate, slow and deliberate, and in keeping the theme of the photo essays. I also like the sobriety of the typography and the titles of each photo essay....with the technique of underlining the names of the photographers to accentuate their importance to the viewers.

The transitions were mostly simple, and the dissolves were kept to a minimum. The other effects kept to a minimum were the Ken Burns effect and the panning, but only for the first half of the movie. Subsequently, there was more reliance on the zoom in-zoom out effect, and it was unnecessarily  heavy handed. I also noted that the producer(s) used alternating of verticals on a single frame.

Theyyam: The Living Gods

Here's a trailer of The Living Gods, a film by Rupesh Tillu, which depicts the story of a father and a 6 year old son, and their hope to find new opportunities for the survival of a form of art. The young boy wants to become a Theyyam artist just like his father Rajesh, who performs a thousand year old ritual from Kerala, India.

"Theyyam is on the verge of extinction, since very few children are learning it."

Theyyam is a unique ritual which is performed only in Northern Kerala. After a complex preparatory ritual involving elaborate make-up and meditation, the performers are incarnated as deities, and dispense advice and counseling to the throngs of devotees who attend these rituals. It's a living cult of several thousand-year-old traditions, rituals and customs, and is observed by all the castes and classes in this region.

I have used the Theyyam tradition as the core focus of my Theyyam of Malabar photo~expedition in 2009, and I (and its participants) was rewarded with incredible proximity to these living deities, and their traditional religious practices. The resulting photographs are possibly some of the most colorful of religious rituals I've made so far.

The gallery Theyyam: Incarnate Deities is one of my favorites.

Carl Valiquet: Blood & Incense

Carl Valiquet is a photographer and a movie-maker who lives in Montreal and Bali, and has produced Blood And Incense, a movie whose trailer shown here is a spectacular fusion of still photography with motion from video, and a remarkable back and forth segue from cock fighting to Balinese religious rituals.

In Bali, certain religious ceremonies require that blood be spilled to pacify the evil spirits, and cockfighting (known as Tajen) is a tradition that is mixed with such religious rituals. Cockfights are required at temple and purification ceremonies.

“In Bali, during certain ceremonies, blood must be spilt to pacify the bhutas, the evil spirits that live underground. A cockfighting arena is built next to the temple. The judge strikes a gong; the fighting starts."

Although Indonesia has legally banned cockfighting because of gambling, some temples in Bali still hold tajen or cockfighting bouts. The local police is loath to prevent such bouts since the prevailing belief is that these are protected by the deities of the temples. There are ancient texts proving that the cockfighting ritual has existed for centuries, so Balinese police can legitimately look the other way.

I have photographed a tajen, a cockfight, in Bali last August and produced Tajen, Bali Cockfights, an audio slideshow, which is also on Vimeo.

Via Steve Huff's Blog

Matthew Goddard-Jones: Way of Sorrow

I don't know much about Matthew Goddard-Jones, except that he's from Perth, Australia and that he's a damn good photographer/photojournalist. And there are many reasons why I say that, but the one that especially worked for me is because he managed to capture a unique expression on a woman in NYC's Chinatown. You'll have to visit his Chinatown gallery to see it though, since this post is not about his street photography but about his recent photo essay on the Way of Sorrow...made during Holy Easter Week in Jerusalem.

The Way of Sorrow or The Via Dolorosa is a street, in two parts, within the Old City of Jerusalem, which is believed to be the path that Jesus walked, carrying his cross, on the way to his crucifixion.

Matthew's Way of Sorrow is well paced, and the audio soundtrack is sober and appropriate. You'll see some lovely images of Ethiopian pilgrims, shafts of light in churches as well as motion blurs (my favorites). You can also watch it on Vimeo instead.

Very nice slideshow.

Tom Bourdon: Dayakan Dance

Tom Bourdon was recently in Java, Indonesia where he photographed a traditional Dayak dance near Borobodur. He captured the ambient sound with the new and popular Zoom H1, and put together this audio slideshow. You can also view it here.

The Dayak are the native people of Borneo, who live principally in the interior of Borneo, each with its own dialect, customs, laws, territory and culture. Dayaks also live in Indonesia, and have their distinct culture as Tom Bourdon documented.

The Dayak were animist in belief, however many converted to Christianity, and more recently to Islam. Estimates for the Dayak population range from 2 to 4 million.

Tom is a documentary travel photographer specializing in recording cultural festivals & celebrations across the globe. His work has been published in the national & international press as well as guide books & numerous online locations.

I thought I'd add this review of the Zoom H1. It's by B&H, and while it's short and to the point, it gives a reasonable appraisal of the device.

Alex Webb/Rebecca Webb: Violet Isle

Few people interested in photography don't know who Alex Webb is, so I'll keep this introduction brief.

He began working as a professional photojournalist in 1974, and joined Magnum Photos as an associate member in 1976, and a full member in 1979. He photographed extensively in the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa, and in Turkey. His photographs have appeared in such publications as The New York Times Magazine, Life, Geo, Stern, and National Geographic, and has published many books.

Rebecca Norris-Webb is an international photographer and poet.

Violet Isle is featured by Magnum In Motion, and showcases Alex’s exploration of the streets of Cuba and Rebecca’s discovery of unique and sometimes mysterious animals. While the photography styles of this husband-wife team is distinctly different, they decided decided to weave their images together to create a multi-layered portrait Cuba.

While you watch the audio slideshow, you'll see this combination of the two styles...the typical street scenes, color saturated with lots of shadows, reflections, sun-drenched walls...and more ethereally, many caged birds, a metaphor for Cubans. The soulful soundtrack is Silencio by the Buena Vista Social Club.

Would I have preferred to hear a soundtrack of ambient audio and music recorded in the streets of Havana instead? Yes, of course...no question about it. That being said, anything by the Buena Vista Social Club is great.

WTF! The NYPD Hates Chinese Opera?

Photo Courtesy The Gothamist

One of my favorite photographic destinations in NYC's Chinatown is Columbus Park, where large number of Chinese residents and non-residents congregate during the weekends to play xiangqi, a board game similar to Western chess, mah-jong, and cards while listening to cacophonous Chinese opera performed by two groups of amateurs (most of whom are senior citizens).

But now I'm seriously pissed off. Here's why:

The Gothamist recently had an article with a video featuring the NYPD arresting an elderly man at the park on May 8 when they tried to stop a group of senior citizens from playing Chinese music...presumably he was a member of the bands that accompany the singers.

It may have been caused by a noise complaint by a resident, but it's more likely that it was that these bands of amateurs did not have the requisite permits that all street NYC performers need to have before playing in the streets.

Having said that, there's no doubt the NYPD crossed the line in how its officers dealt with this. On The Gothamist site, there's a short video that shows how the Chinese and others were brutally dispersed...the use of mace and batons was threatened, and the man arrested was thrown to the ground, then handcuffed.

These amateur Chinese opera singers (more like classical Chinese karaoke in my view) were certainly cacophonous, and perhaps even discordant to Western ears, but they brought in a lot of tourists and residents alike, and didn't harm anyone...quite the opposite.

So it's either that the NYPD has no ear for Chinese opera, or they really have nothing else to do. Since Osama Ben Laden was killed last week or so, I suppose they can now focus their efforts on arresting harmless senior citizens who speak no or little English.

The NYPD ought to nab the marijuana peddlars in Washington Square Park instead...or the vendors of counterfeit Louis Vuitton bags on Canal Street...and leave me the Chinese opera singers to photograph.

I wrote a number of posts on the Columbus Park Chinese opera, but this one describes the setting, while this following audio slideshow I produced is of one of the bands.

Simon Norfolk: Afghanistan

"This current war is tragedy, is an imperial game, is a folly...

Following the welcome demise of Bin Laden, I thought it timely to feature photographs or a multimedia essay on Afghanistan. I didn't want it to be of the conflict, or some other cliches, so this short movie on Simon Norfolk's Afghanistan project seemed much more appropriate.

In October 2010, Simon Norfolk began a photo series of Afghanistan, influenced by the work of 19th-century British photographer John Burke. Norfolk’s photographs of "modern" Kabul is presented along with Burke’s original portfolios.

Norfolk is critical of the Afghanistan war and of journalists who report from the safety of armored compounds, and especially of photographers who travel around Kabul with a security details. He was told on his arrival that he couldn't photograph freely in Kabul except with bodyguards, but he did.

The accompanying audio is really wonderful. The Afghan music and songs are hauntingly beautiful, and the call to prayer (towards the end of the piece) accompanied by pictures of Kabul at dawn may give you goosebumps.

A welcome change from the depressingly unimaginative photojournalism work we see out of Afghanistan.

Matthieu Paley: Prisoners of the Himalaya

I've featured the extraordinary work of Matthieu Paley a number of times on The Travel Photographer blog already, and while my favorite is still his work on a Sufi festival honoring Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Pakistan, it's also this recent ongoing film project "Prisoners of the Himalaya" that is equally remarkable. It's a documentary film aimed at capturing the life of the last Kyrgyz nomads of Afghanistan.

Matthieu returned to the Afghanistan's Pamir mountains to cooperate in the production of his first movie, along with Louis Meunier (as Director of the project) and others.

When you finish viewing the above trailer, drop by the movie's main website The Roof of the World which gives you more background to the project, and lists the team members that were involved in its making. Also spend time exploring Matthieu's website, and his unique galleries. You certainly will not regret it.

Currently based in Istanbul, Matthieu photographs explore themes of remoteness and isolation in geopolitically sensitive areas, and his work has appeared in Géo, National Geographic Adventure, Newsweek, Time, Outside, Discovery, Vanity Fair and Figaro among others. He has collaborated on numerous books. Since 1999, he travels extensively throughout the mountainous regions of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Northern India and Central Asia.

His photographs have been exhibited in galleries in New York, Hong Kong and Munich, and his multimedia presentations were projected at festival such as the Perpignan Photojournalism festival, the Banff Mountain Festival, and MountainFilm in Colorado. He has lectured at the Royal Geographical Society and the Asia Society in Hong Kong, at the Grand Bivouac Festival in France as well as at the Vancouver Mountain Festival.

Magnum In Motion/Abbas: Children Of The Lotus

Magnum In Motion has produced Children Of The Lotus, a multimedia slideshow of Abbas' photographs made during the photographer's travels in 12 Buddhist countries spanning the better part of three years.

Abbas' inspiration was the photograph (it's really a poignant mug shot) of a young Khmer girl who was executed by a genocidal regime. He wonders how a Buddhist society, presumably full of compassion, be able to countenance the massacre and starvation of a quarter of its population?

Most of the images in the slideshow are in black & white, with a few at the end that are in color. Abbas chose to photograph in black & white because, as he tells us, he doesn't describe reality but aims to transcend it. I would have much preferred if the slideshow was either in black & white or color...I suppose the producers had a reason to do otherwise.

I also found the use of the zooming in for close ups and Ken Burns effect somewhat overdone and heavy-handed...and to use throat singing (more of the Mongolian genre) to be the wrong choice to accompany this production. It seems the producers obtained the audio from freesound.org. With the majority of the countries covered in the slideshow being of the Theravada branch of Buddhism, I'm quite sure they could've easily found more appropriate chants.

In multimedia, bad audio kills great photographs. In this project, it's not that it's bad...but it's not relevant. If all the photos had been of Tibetan (although I'm not sure if the chanting are indeed Tibetan...it could be Mongolian) Buddhism, it would've been fine.

Having said that, work by Abbas is still work by Abbas and the mute button is within reach.

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.

My Work: The Possessed of Hazrat Mira Datar

The most powerful and challenging traditional rituals I've experienced in India are the exorcisms and trances that frequently occur in its Sufi shrines. This is by far the most emotionally draining project I've undertaken so far...photographing it, editing it and producing it.

The Possessed of Hazrat Mira Datar is an audio slideshow of stills, movie clips and audio made during my during my recently completed In Search of the Sufis of Gujarat Photo Expedition™ when I visited this Sufi saint's shrine near Unawa in Gujarat.

I've always been interested in, and drawn to, India's multi-layered religious-cultural identities. Sufism "walked" into the sub-continent from Iran and Afghanistan, and wherever the Sufi acetic teachers lived and died, shrines were built to commemorate their teachings, deeds and legacy. They eventually became saints, or pirs as they're called in the subcontinent. It is at one of these shrines that The Possessed of Hazrat Mira Datar was made.

For those who don't mind reading, a journal/blog accompanies the audio slideshow and has more photographs (in color this time). It was a difficult decision as to whether color or black & white would be more appropriate for this project, and in the end I decided to use both, but separately. I think I was right.

My Work: The Jains of Palitana

The Jains of Palitana is an audio-slideshow on the Svetambara nuns who walk the 3800 steps to the Jain temples on top of the Shetrunjaya hills in Gujarat, as well as scenes of a Jain puja at the topmost temple.

The still photographs were made during my recently completed In Search of Sufis of Gujarat photo~expedition, during an overnight stop in Palitana. There's a cluster of over 1000 Jain temples densely packed together on the hillside overlooking the town. These temples date back to the 11th and 12th centuries, and are the focus of Jains' pilgrimage or tirtha. From the foot of the hill to the top there are about 3,800 stone steps, and it is these steps that Jains have to climb to reach the main temple on top of the hill.

Some Jain nuns and monks walk up and down these 3800 steps continually for at least three days while abstaining from drinking and eating. The Jain temples of Mount Satrunjaya are considered to be the holiest of all pilgrimage places by the white robed Svetambara community.

I posted on my experience walking up and down these steps here.

Asia Society: Hutongs

Click Link Below For Movie

I always have the highest of hopes for the Asia Society's web site, but it always manages to underwhelm me. Its web site seems somehow anchored in the nineties, with timid multimedia features, and its navigation is confusing. It almost seems to me as if I ventured in a government web site, with dry, clinical and unimaginative display of its many events.

Having said that, it has featured an interesting collection of videos on the Hutongs, the traditional narrow streets or alleys, most commonly associated with Beijing. Hutongs are alleys formed by lines of traditional courtyard residences. Many have been demolished to make way for high rise buildings, and the few remaining are threatened.

Hutongs were created during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) when Kublai Khan founded Beijing as the capital. All closed courtyards were built in a neat layout, and the hutongs were originally all 30 feet in width, allowing plenty of sunshine. During the dynasties, small hutongs were formed within the existing ones, making them overly crowded.

Don't miss the still photographs slideshow of old hutongs!

Leica & Magnum Announce Photo Essays Series!

Two names, well-known to all photographers and photojournalists, Leica and Magnum are collaborating to produce a series of multimedia essays that will take a deeper look into the stories behind the photographs.

The first installment in the series is “Leica & Magnum: Past Present Future”, and examines the legacy of Magnum photographers and Leica users from the Spanish Civil War to the present including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Bruce Davidson, Elliot Erwitt, Constantine Manos, Susan Meiselas, Alex Webb, Gueorgui Pinkhassov and also features photos from Inge Morath, Gilles Peress, Stuart Franklin, David Alan Harvey, Rene Burri, Dennis Stock, Burt Glinn, Paul Fusco, Alex Majoli, Paolo Pellegrin, Alec Soth, Jonas Bendiksen and George Rodger.