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.

Fourth Of July....

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

In observance of the Fourth of July, I thought I'd feature a photograph of the barker at the Coney Island Circus Sideshow. After all, the fellow stands under the American flag and has the gift of the gab; a valued talent in the land of the free.

He's probably even busier today...the 2011 International Hot Dog Eating Contest is scheduled in Coney Island, Brooklyn, for the 4th of July. And its thousands of spectators will surely gravitate towards the Sideshow sooner or later.

Happy Fourth of July!!!

The Dancer & Name Branding

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

As I've posted a few days ago, I've been fiddling with the trial version of Flare, an app that describes itself as "a fast, easy, and beautiful darkroom for your desktop".

With Flare, one can apply interesting photographic effects to photographs, and it comes with more than 20 presets. It's a matter of drag and drop...mere seconds to get the preset look one likes. The above photograph (click to enlarge) of a traditional dancer I made in Bali last year got a Flare preset treatment, which includes a grungy border.

In all candor, I am beginning to like Flare a lot. I also happen to be a fan of Lightroom's presets...and a fan of anything that reduces the time I spend in post processing images to a minimum. And if this 'anything' is simple enough for a 2 year old to master, it's a hit as far I'm concerned.

In any event, it's fun to be able to use applications such as Flare and others, accepting that these degrade the quality of the images.

But wait, didn't I title this post to include Name Branding? This is important...If you ask any marketer how to set yourself apart from the rest, they’ll all tell you to the same thing, establish and secure your brand.

"I now have a lock on The Travel Photographer as a brand name on most popular blogs...this includes my domain brand name, my Twitter account and my Facebook page."

Keep reading and you'll see what I mean. For a couple of more examples of my photographs fiddled about with the Flare app, drop by The Travel Photographer on Tumblr. Yes, I have various blog platforms such as Posterous, Wordpress and Tumblr with The Travel Photographer brand name....and here's some useful advice: if you have a brand name (your name can be a brand name), you ought to do the same. I now have a lock on The Travel Photographer as a brand name on most popular blogs...this includes my domain brand name, my Twitter account and my Facebook page...and I'm keeping an eye out for any new ones.

As a footnote: I have no relationship whatsoever with Flare. It's just a fun application.