Egypt's Revolutionaries: Platon Style

Photo © Platon-Courtesy The New Yorker

The month of Ramadan has dawned on the Islamic world, and I thought I'd mark the event by posting Platon's images of the Egyptian revolutionaries, and in so doing wishing the Egyptian people a future they want and certainly deserve.

Be sure to view the accompanying short videos. You'll first have to suffer Goldman Sachs adverts, but just close your eyes while they play.

According to the news, Hosni Mubarak, his two sons, former interior minister Habib el-Adli, six of his aides and businessman Hussein Salem, are all charged with being involved in the killing of protesters during the 18-day revolt.

I'm not optimistic that the trial will be a speedy one, nor thorough. I wouldn't be surprised at all if it's postponed for a myriad of reasons...but the Egyptian people will eventually get justice. They must.

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.

WTF?! Be A Sucker And Publicize A Book...For Free.

 

The pre-ordained order of my posts was upended!

It's been a while I haven't ranted, and I was a little worried I had lost my acerbity. But the gods of mean answered my prayers, and the provocation for ranting appeared in the form of an email...perhaps not as good as a live real event, but close enough.

And since nothing turns me on as much as an opportunity for a juicy rant, here's the story in some detail...

A few days ago, I got an email from a book publisher (its website claims it's the world’s leading publisher of books on visual arts) asking me to feature a just published book of images by a photographer, enclosing a bunch of pictures of the book, and some background material.

Now, I occasionally receive such requests from book publishers who inquire whether I'd like to receive a book, review it and then post comments. This time...nothing of the sort....no book to review, no freebie of any type...just do it because it would make the corporate publisher and photographer happy. Truth be told, I've seen the work of the photographer ad nauseam, and if I had been sent the book, it would end up being a door stop...or prop a rickety desk...if not worse.

That being said, I figured that it was perhaps an opportunity to make money....and with whatever paid, I'd sponsor a deserving photographer to attend the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop. So I drafted a sweet short email that went like this...

"thank you for the email. i'd be glad to consider it against payment for ad space. you can choose either a post about the book, or a side bar advert. Let me know if you want me to send you my rates."

The response came in rather promptly, and it said that the world’s leading publisher of books on the visual arts didn't have any budget for advertising at the moment. 

Funny, huh? No, not funny at all. They ought to be ashamed of themselves....because they do and must have the budget. If not, they wouldn't be the world’s leading publisher of books on the visual arts.

For those who love analogies as I do, here's one that seems perfectly suited for the situation. I own a small modest building, and a large for profit conglomerate asks me to stick an enormous billboard for one of its products on the side of my building, and wants me to tell my tenants what a great product it is...and wants me to do it for free....and perhaps because they think I'm a sucker,  or because they believe they're entitled to exploit others, they won't pay for the privilege of using this space and for my time. An apt analogy, I think.

I should have suggested an alternative to the world’s leading publisher of books on the visual arts. In consideration of my hyping its book on my blog, it could market my own books, and peddle them on its own website and online stores. You see, it's because The Travel Photographer has no budget for advertising...just like you.

For all other buyers who are interested, my two books Bali: Island of Gods and Darshan can be found here. By the way, sales of these two books have exceeded my expectations (and were achieved without the support of the world’s leading publisher of books on the visual arts).

Aaron Joel Santos: Ha Giang (Vietnam)

Photo © Aaron Joel Santos-All Rights Reserved

Aaron Joel Santos is a freelance travel and documentary photographer based in Hanoi, Vietnam. He is represented by Wonderful Machine in the United States and by Invision Images in Europe and Japan. His clients include The Wall Street Journal, Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia, The Daily Telegraph and The Boston Globe. He is available for assignments across Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

Most of Aaron's galleries are of projects in South East Asia, and include documentary travel, as well as commercial work such as photographs of hotels and resorts. I particularly liked his Ha Giang black & white gallery. Ha Giang is a province is in the northernmost part of the country, and it shares a long border with China's Yunnan province. It has many cultural festivals due to the presence of more than 20 ethnic minority groups.

Aaron also uses PhotoShelter to host his image archives, and you can see his collection of images of Laos, from the World Heritage town of Luang Prabang to the waters of Vang Vien and the capital of Vientiane.

Khalil Shah: The Sufi Singer

Photo © Khalil Shah-All Rights Reserved

I don't post much from Flickr unless it virtually hits me in the face...and this magnificent portrait of a Pakistani Sufi singer (or minstrel) by Khalil Shah did exactly that.

I was perusing Sobia Ali's article Voices of Pakistan in the Huffington Post, and one of the photographs included in the article was the one of this Sufi singer.

"...many so-called "non professional" photographers (some with little experience) can give well known photographers a run for their money."

There's no doubt in my mind that this portrait is as good, if not better, than those I've seen published so many times by well established photographers in the National Geographic or GEO, to name but two magazines. It also reinforces my long held opinion that many so-called "non professional" photographers (some with little experience) can give well known photographers a run for their money...and sometimes more. And let's not forget that many do not have the resources that the professionals have in terms of photographic tools, fixers and research assistance.

Khalil Shah is an art professional with experience in conventional and contemporary forms of art including web and graphic designing. He started photography in 2005 at a digital photography workshop at the National College of Arts, Lahore, Pakistan.

Brandon Stanton: Humans of New York

Photo © Brandon Stanton-All Rights Reserved

Here's a really great project!

As many of us who follow photography and photojournalism remember, and still frequently refer to, The New York Times' series of One In 8 Million were superb multimedia visual narratives about interesting New Yorkers...and photographer Brandon Stanton has followed with his compelling Humans of New York; portraits of New Yorkers of all stripes, shapes and background.

Brandon's goal is to gather 10,000 street portraits and plot them on an interactive map. More than 2000 portraits have been gathered so far, and even include stories about some of the fascinating people photographed.

One of the stories I especially liked was the one about The Poet. I have seen this guy a few times...and saw his sign.

Ah, if only these stories were also captured by using a handheld sound recorder!!! The audio could then be added to the portraits, and we'd be in incredible multimedia paradise!

According to Brandon Stanton's biography, he has had a colorful background. He currently lives in New York, where he’s on a mission to find every interesting person in the city, and take their photograph.

Alinka Echeverria: The Pilgrims Of Tepeyac

Photo © Alinka Echeverria-All Rights Reserved

Alinka Echeverria is a Mexican visual artist who was recently named 2011 winner of the HSBC Prize for Photography given by the HSBC Cultural Foundation of France. Her work for this prize showed 300 of the 6 million pilgrims that make their way to the Guadalupe Basilica, near Mexico City, bearing statues of the Virgin.

Her website has two interconnected galleries: the first is the black & white The Pilgrims, of portraits made in the Temple of Tepeyac, La Basilica de la Virgen de Guadalupe in Mexico City on the anniversary of the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe to the indigenous Mexican Juan Diego.

The second gallery is of color photographs, titled Road To Tepeyac, and is of backs of 300 Mexican Catholic pilgrims on their journey to the Basilica de Guadalupe in Mexico City. The photographs of the pilgrims are cut out from the rest of the scene, leaving us their backs and their religious images and icons.

The hill of Tepeyac is the site where the saint Juan Diego met the Virgin of Guadalupe in December of 1531, and received the iconic image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Li Wei: The Earth (Mongolia)

Photo © Li Wei-All Rights Reserved

Li Wei is a freelance photographer based in Beijing, who was born in Hohhot,Inner Mongolia, and who graduated from the Communication University of China.

His photographs of Inner Mongolia are those of an insider...no tourist stuff here, nor are the photographs the type one sees in glossy magazines advertising Mongolian lifestyle.

Inner Mongolia (distinct from the country of Mongolia) is an autonomous region of China, located in the northern region of the country. It shares an international border with the country of Mongolia and the Russian Federation. Han Chinese are the largest ethnic group, constituting about 80% of the population, followed by Mongols.

New Sponsor: PhotoShelter

Regular readers of The Travel Photographer blog may have noticed the small PhotoShelter ad on the right sidebar. Yes, PhotoShelter has become a sponsor of this blog because I believe its products are tremendously useful to photographers and photojournalists and this is reflected by its impressive list of clients....some of who are friends and acquaintances.

I, too, have now joined PhotoShelter not because I needed another website, but because I wanted an online archive and lightboxing system, and a sales mechanism for my images. I know that the many photographers and photojournalists who constitute the bulk of my readership will benefit by joining and using PhotoShelter if they haven't already.

The PhotoShelter ad will appear in the sidebar of this site, any paid signups that occur through links on The Travel Photographer will generate a commission**, and I will occasionally write a post about how and when PhotoShelter has worked for me.  The site will remain editorially and fiercely independent as always.

If you’ve ever considered signing up for online archive and purchasing system, click on the link on the sidebar. It only costs $1 to get started on PhotoShelter on a 2-week trial.  You will be doing your photography business a favor.

** All commissions will be donated to the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop, and aimed right back at helping emerging and aspiring photojournalists.

Luis Fabini: Horsemen of the Americas

Photo © Luis Fabini- All Rights Reserved

Born in Uruguay and currently based in New York city, Luis Fabini is a photographer who spends his time between South America, the United States and Europe.

Having had a camera thrust in his hands as a child, Luis hasn't felt the need formal training in photography, and initially worked as a travel guide/photographer in South America. He produced documentary films and is now a fashion and travel photographer.

He has been working on his project "Horsemen of the Americas" since 2004, which is on his website.

In the United States and Canada, these horsemen are known as cowboys; in Mexico they are called charros, in Ecuador as chagras, in Colombia and Venezuela as llaneros, in Peru as chalanes and qorilazos, in Chile they are called the huasos, Brazil has its pantaneiros and vaqueiros, and Uruguay and Argentina’s they're known as gauchos.

The above photograph is of Brazilian vaqueiros dressed in handmade protective leather clothing. Such clothing is necessary for roping cows amidst the bush's sharp thorns.

via PDN Photo of the Day.

Magdalena Sole: Burma

Photo © Magdalena Sole- All Rights Reserved

Magdalena Sole is a Spanish photographer based in New York City, with a MFA from Columbia University and a 20-year background in visual arts. Her work spans graphic design, film and photography, and a client base ranging from Fortune 500 corporates to private collectors.

Her biography tells us she prefers to work with a Leica, and works in color because it expresses culture best.

Her travel portfolio has galleries from Brazil, Kamagasaki, Japan, Mexico and Vencie, however I chose to feature her photographs from Burma. Her photographs are mostly street and urban scenes...tableaux as I prefer to call them.

Frances Schwabenland: "The Photographer of Jaipur"

Frances Schwabenland is a photographer and a videographer whose work was featured on The Travel Channel, The Discovery Channel, The History Channel and in Popular Photography Magazine. She's a multifaceted professional involved in travel, architectural, documentary, landscape and portrait photography.

Currently in the process of updating her website, Frances nevertheless featured a lovely video story of her special encounter with Mr Chand, a street photographer in Jaipur, who uses an ancient wooden camera weighing no less than 50 lbs to make photographs of passer-bys. She tells us in her blog that "he recreated for me that magic that drew me in years ago when I first started with a darkroom in my basement."

The tripod-mounted wooden box camera may well be a 1860 Carl Zeiss, which I've also seen in use in Pushkar and Havana. Photographers who still use these cameras are in a sense choreographers...perhaps even magicians, since they have to expose the negative by uncovering the lens cap for a fraction of a second with a deft flip of the wrist, then develop the sensitive paper to produce the negative...then the process is repeated to photograph the negative to produce the final positive image!

A far cry from all the digital hoopla we are now accustomed to!

Rahgu Rai: Interview With The Guardian

Photo © Raghu Rai- All Rights Reserved

"Most people don't see, they just glance. When we take a picture, we have to be aware of every inch of space we're dealing with" -Raghu Rai

An interview with Raghu Rai in The Guardian newspaper was published to coincide with his work being featured in a retrospective at the Aicon Gallery in central London and in a landmark exhibition at the Whitechapel gallery.

A gallery of his work is also featured on The Guardian's website.

Raghu Rai is a Magnum photographer who spent 40 years photographing India. Born in a small Pakistani village and moving to India during Partition, he was witness to some of the most significant events in his country's recent history. He was one of the first photographers on the scene after the 1984 Bhopal industrial disaster and has produced acclaimed documentary series on Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama and the late Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi.

Via Wendy Marijnissen's Twitter feed.

Jackie Alpers: Food Photographer

Photo © Jackie Alpers-All Rights Reserved

What is a food photographer doing on the blog of The Travel Photographer, you ask?

Well, it's a case of mistaken identity from Jackie's side. You see, I saw a message yesterday in my tweet feed from Jackie Alpers saying that she was thrilled to have been featured on The Travel Photographer's blog. Since I was flying over the Atlantic at the time, and unaware that I had posted any new posts since leaving New York City earlier that day, I was puzzled.

Not for long though. I clicked on the link on her tweet and saw that it led to a "travel photographer"...a generic kind of blog giving no photographer name, no personal identity and seemingly just a sort of website to sell stuff....or something.

I was initially excited to see that someone may have had the silly idea to ape my blog and risk legal headaches...but it soon waned when I realized what it was.

Jackie sounded so thrilled in her tweet that I decided to feature her work on the REAL The Travel Photographer blog. May it bring her luck and exposure.

Jackie Alpers is a food, culture & cuisine photographer based in Tucson, Arizona who specializes in photography for cookbooks and magazines, among others. Her biography is quite interestingly illustrated, and I recommend you drop her website.

Human Rights Watch: Burma Defenders

The Human Rights Watch feature Burma Defenders is timed to coincide with the first elections to be held in the repressed country in more than 20 years. Burma has been run by a junta of army generals who have silenced any opposition to their brutal regime with human rights abuses and by silencing any dissent.

Political observers are awaiting the elections and wondering if civil unrest flare up after what is widely perceived as a sham election on November 7, and whether Burma's pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, be released when her sentence ends on November 13.

Human Rights Watch and photographer Platon have teamed up to photograph opposition members, former political prisoners, and journalists who have sought political refuge in neighboring Thailand.

Platon is a photographer who attended London's St. Martin's School of Art, holds a BA in Graphic Design and a MA in Photography and Fine Art from the Royal College of Art. Now living in New York, he continues to shoot portrait, and documentary work for a range of international publications, including The New Yorker, Time Magazine, Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ, and The Sunday Times Magazine.

Jimmy Williams: Music Makers

Photo © Jimmy Williams - All Rights Reserved

I couldn't find much in the way of background on Jimmy Williams except the brief biography on his website which tells us that he's a narrative storyteller. That is true, but to me he also captured the essence of the remarkably talented southern music makers.

The series began with an assignment and led to an organization named the Music Makers Relief Foundation which supports musicians who are the true representations of southern music, whether blues, bluegrass, gospel and so forth.

A wonderful section of Jimmy's website groups all the musical genres, and is narrated by him. It will thrill all of us who love authentic blues and its derivatives.

I've promised myself that I would fly down one day to Clarksdale, Mississippi and spend time with blues musicians, and document their music making...yes, an item on my bucket list, if you will.