Dhiraj Singh is a photojournalist and editorial photographer in Mumbai, whose work has appeared in various international publications including Newsweek, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC among others.
He recently won the third place in the ‘war and disaster’ category at the China International Press Photo Award-2009 and third place in Spot News at “The Asia Media Award” which was held in conjunction with IFRA’s Publish Asia 2008. His pictures of the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008 were also part of a group exhibition titled, ‘Bearing Witness’ held in that city in 2009.
One of Dhiraj's non-audio SoundSlides photo essay is on the Nagas. The Naga Sadhus are part of a mysterious society, and are worshipers of Shiva. The term Naga means ‘naked’, and they're also known as Naga Babas. They mainly appear in public during the annual Kumbh Mela.
Dhiraj Sigh and his work were also profiled on Verve Photo.
My own work on the Sadhus of the Kumbh Mela is featured here.
Thursday, 16 July 2009
Dhiraj Singh: Nagas
Lens Culture Photo Contest
Lens Culture International Exposure Awards seeks to discover, recognize, reward and promote talented, new and emerging photographers from around the world, so it's looking for exciting images from every continent, and from diverse points of view: documentary, fine art, photojournalism, street photography, poetic, personal, abstract and human.
An international jury of photography experts will review and judge every photo submitted. Four winning photographers will each earn cash prizes — plus photo features in Lens Culture, giving them access and broad exposure to an enthusiastic, influential worldwide audience.
Additionally, 25 photographers will win Honorable Mentions, including the display of one single image each in the Winners' Gallery in Lens Culture, and a link to their personal or professional web pages.
As in all and every photography contests, I strongly encourage all interested photographers to make sure they carefully read the contests' terms and conditions, especially since misunderstandings between organizers and contestants over terms, prizes and other issues sometimes occur.
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
Andrew Sullivan; Samba da Bahia
Sometimes I stumble on a photograph that just stops me in my tracks. I can't really explain the reason, but all I know is that it has that effect on me...and Andrew Sullivan's sublime photograph made me stop. The caption reads that a delivery man called the waitress on the right "belleza pura", and he's right, but it's not only her that makes the photograph. All of its elements work...the positioning of the people, the shadows, the look, the colors...it all works just so perfectly.
Andrew Sullivan's photo essay Samba da Bahia is on the wonderful Burn magazine, which is amongst of the best photo websites I've seen in a while. Burn is curated by the legendary David Alan Harvey, one of the heroes of photography for his superlative work, and for his unstinting generosity in mentoring emerging photographers.
Andrew describes himself as a reformed newspaper photographer, but it's best to read his biography in his own words, as well as about his essay on the Samba da Bahia link above.
As a multimedia and samba aficionado, I must confess I literally ached to hear the sound that could have accompanied this photo essay. If only...but I can always look at them and play Jobim at the same time.
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Bhutan: Land of Druk Yul Photo Expedition
Due to a last minute cancellation caused by a personal change in circumstances, the Bhutan: Land of Druk Yul Photo Expedition currently has room for only one participant. The dates of the photo~expedition are from September 23 to October 7, 2009.
If you're interested, click on the photo~expedition link, review the terms and itinerary and register at the earliest if it works for you. This opportunity will only be available until July 16.
Toni Greaves: Samburu Rites
I know...readers are thinking "enough already with this Gnawa work you've been hammering us with for the past weeks"...so I listened, and what better way of proving that I listened than by featuring Toni Greaves on the page of The Travel Photographer?
Toni Greaves is a documentary, editorial and portrait photographer with a passion for storytelling. She has an extensive background in design, having worked for over a decade as an Art Director & Creative Director in both the USA and Europe. Toni was recently named one of the "30 Emerging Photographers to Watch" by PDN magazine, an impressive tribute to her deserving photographic work.
She was awarded a New York Times Scholarship for her photojournalism work, was a finalist at the New York Photo Awards, and was the recipient of a fellowship by the Johnson & Johnson Foundation, among many other national and international awards. Her clients include The New York Times, TIME Magazine, The FADER, Sports Illustrated, and The New Jersey Star Ledger.
Since this is a travel photography blog after all, I chose to showcase her Samburu Rites of Passage photo gallery, despite her lovely work on the nuns of the monastery of Our Lady of The Rosary in New Jersey.
The Samburu are an ethnic group in northern Kenya that are related to the Maasai. They are semi-nomadic pastoralists, who herd cattle, sheep, goats and camels. They are extremely dependent on their animals for survival, and their diet consists mostly of milk and sometimes blood from their cows.
Toni Greaves' website demonstrates the wide range of her photographic interests, which range from essays on pediatric cardiac surgeries to cheerleaders.
Monday, 13 July 2009
My Work: Multimedia GNAWA!
At long last, here's the multimedia photo essay on the Gnawa (or Gnaoua) Festival in Essaouira, which includes photographs made in situ during performances and processions. It includes audio clips of live recordings, as well as a short interview with a master "maalem".
Just click on the above photograph or here. This will open a new window and automatically start the multimedia slideshow, so if at work, you'll need to turn down the volume of your speakers.
I originally planned to have this posted in a few days, but the multimedia slideshow was recently "leaked" on Twitter...so as it's out there already, it also ought to be on TTP blog!
Felice Willat: Gnawa Photo~Expedition
I organized the Gnawa (or Ganoua) Photo Expedition in late June, which was joined by a number of talented full-time and part time photographers, whose principal objective was to photograph the legendary Gnawa musicians during the 12th Essaouira Music Festival.
This is the third of a series of posts which showcase a sample of the participating photographers' work, and is by Felice Willat, founder and president of Tools With Heart, a company that develops products to enhance personal discovery and well being. A successful entrepreneur, it's clear that her photography is influenced by her background in network television production.
As obvious from her website (link follows), Felice's photographic style is more artistic than documentary, and she is happy to march to the beat of her own drum. My favorite from those I've chosen for this post is the one showing the exuberant embrace of the Gnawa musicians. Her photographic vision of Morocco can be seen in its totality on her website, along with her many other portfolios.
I've featured Felice's work on a number of occasions on this blog; once on the occasion of her new book The Spirit of Burma, and earlier on, when she returned with photographs of Burma.
Sunday, 12 July 2009
Sunday Break: Gansevoort Street Fair
New York City's Meatpacking District is alive this weekend for the Target High Line Street Festival, a free celebration of the opening of the High Line, New York's newest and most innovative green space. Aside from the gigantic lemonade stand, there's performances by various musical bands such Hungry March Band, Zona Del Barrio, and Michael Arenella and his Dreamland Orchestra, among others.
Naturally, crowd-pleasers such as pretty girls and magicians were also on hand to entertain the crowds.
The High Line is a 1.5-mile-long historic elevated rail structure on the West Side of Manhattan, and is the newest addition to New York City's parks.
Here are some of the photographs:
My Work: A Gnawa Smile
One the highlights of the Gnawa Photo-Expedition was the procession of Gnawa troupes through the streets and alleys of Essaouira, which started at Bab Doukkala and ended at Mohammed El Qorry near Bab Marrakesh. The procession signaled the start of the 12th Festival of Gnawa Music.
The procession started off by a Gnawa carrying a tray of incense, and was followed by the troupes, possibly in a certain order of hierarchy. There was quite a presence of administrators and police, but I wasn't prevented from photographing as I wished. I suppose they took me for an accredited photojournalist.
The most prominent Gnawa troupes were the Houara de Taroudant, Ganga de Zagora, Ganga de Tamanar, and Gnaoua Agadir. Each of the troupes wore distinctive costumes, ranging from a flamingo pink to black, while others such as the Ganga de Zagora only wear the traditional white.
The Gnawa in the above photograph wears a multicolored tunic, probably based on a traditional belief that there are seven colors which represent 7 jinns (spirits) in Islamic numerology. Click on it for a larger version.
A multimedia feature including my photographs of various Gnawas and ambient recordings of their music and performances will shortly be posted on this blog.
ViewBook Photostory Contest
Viewbook PhotoStory 2009 seeks to challenge conceptual and documentary photographers around the world to create compelling stories with a linear series of photographs in an online gallery.
The annual online competition seeks to find inspiring, high-quality photo stories within the photography community and bring them to a broad audience, and by so doing will provide a platform for emerging talents. There are already a number of submitted essays, which are quite interesting to look at.
Viewbook PhotoStory is initiated and organized by Viewbook.com in association with GUP magazine, backed by Blurb, Workbook and others.
As in all and every photography contests, I strongly encourage all interested photographers to make sure they carefully read the contests' terms and conditions, especially since misunderstandings between organizers and contestants over terms, prizes and other issues sometimes occur.
Saturday, 11 July 2009
One of Top Ten Blogs is TTP!
Tripbase Blog Awards 2009
I checked into Bob Krist's wonderfully informative and entertaining Photo Traveler blog this morning as I do everyday, and to my surprise read that The Travel Photographer was amongst the top ten in the Travel Photography Blog division of the Tripbase.com competition! Actually, The Travel Photographer came in Fourth place. Way to go, me!
Checking the Tripbase website, I read that its Travel award is only given to the blogs that are the top of their respective class and are some of the best in the field. These are selected based on how informative the blog is, the overall writing style, the actual blog appearance and how well that blog performs in its given category when compared and contrasted to other, similar blogs.
Among the top ten travel photography blogs are Chase Jarvis in First Place, My Marrakech in Third, Bob Krist's Photo Traveler, and the beautiful Stuck In Customs.
I'm gratified that The Travel Photographer blog has earned such recognition, and it encourages me to do even better in the weeks, months and years ahead...and Bob, thank you so much for the generous comments.
Friday, 10 July 2009
POV: Afghanistan's "Holy" War?
The Denver Post's Captured Photo Collection has featured a bunch of photographs led by the above image of a U.S. Marine of the 2nd Marine Exhibitionary Brigade, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines holding a bible during a Protestant church service on June 28, 2009 in Delaram, Afghanistan.
The rest of the photographs are of U.S. Marines in action.
I never quite understood (and never will) why similar photographs have appeared, and continue to appear, in the media. Is there a link between Christianity and our war machinery? Is it a conscious effort by myopic news editors to paint our wars as Crusades... sanctioned and even blessed by a Christian faith?? Is it to justify the inevitable loss of life, and give those who kill for our "freedoms" some sort of religious cover? Isn't that what religious extremists do? Haven't we had enough of this neo-conservative perfidious and hypocritical jingoistic claptrap of the past 8 years?
My antipathy at this rubbish dates back to the early days of this blog, when I wrote a short post titled Crusades.
But no one addresses it better than photojournalist Asim Rafiqui in his The Spinning Head blog, and I urge everyone to read his latest post on this and other issues.
He titled it Fighting Ghosts And Selling The Good War Or Why Are The Toy Soldiers On The Front Lines!, and it's his incisive opinion on the selling of war in our main newspapers. Here's a paragraph from Asim's blog post:
"The glory of war is being sold on the front pages of our newspapers, none of which have the courage to ask what they know is in fact a fake war, aimed at a poor and defenseless people, fueled by the ‘intelligence’ and advice of a group of venal, corrupt, blood thirsty and power hungry clique of Afghani warlords, drug barons and oil hucksters!"
And a thought-provoking quote from Chris Hedges, also from Asim's post:
"The vanquished know the essence of war—death. They grasp that war is necrophilia. They see that war is a state of almost pure sin with its goals of hatred and destruction. They know how war fosters alienation, leads inevitably to nihilism, and is a turning away from the sanctity and preservation of life."
Sanctity and preservation of life. These words meant nothing to the Crusaders. They're often bandied about, but still seem to be meaningless.
Gnawa Festival: What Worked/What Didn't
To end the recent string of post-expedition navel-gazings, here's what I think worked and didn't in terms of gear during the Gnawa Festival photo-expedition. As readers of this blog know, I opted for a minimalist equipment load, and stuffed my Domke F-3X with the following:
* Canon EOS 5D Mark II
* Canon G10
* Canon 17-40mm f4.0
* Canon 28-70mm f 2.8
* Canon 24mm f1.4
* Marantz PMD 620 Audio Recorder
* Acer Aspire One 8.9-inch Mini Laptop (w/LR2 and SoundSlides)
* A 250gb G-Tech Mini G-Drive External Hard Drive
I used my 5D Mark II fitted with the Canon 28-70mm f2.8 about 70% of the time, the 70-200 f2.8 about 20% of the time and the 17-40mm f4.0 the balance. The 24mm f1.4 never left the bag this time. Wherever I went, I felt I needed the flexibility of zooms, and a prime wouldn't be useful in the situations where I photographed. I experienced initial difficulty in focusing on moving subjects, and blamed my 70-200 lens until I realized that I hadn't turned on my camera's AI Servo AF mode!
I have to say that my beloved 70-200 f2.8 is on its last legs. I guess it dropped too many times in Orissa, on Angkor Wat's stone slabs, in Bali's rice paddies and elsewhere. It now wobbles and rattles and, while it still works, it also earned a well deserved retirement...maybe as door stop.
My experience with the G10 was an unhappy one, and I left it aside after a few tries. I had high hopes that it would be a perfect street camera for the alleys of the medinas, but it frustrated me and I gave up after a while. Larry Larsen, a member of the photo-expedition, used his as a point & shoot and seemed reasonably content with its images. Perhaps he managed his expectations better than I did. I have no doubt that in the right hands and used in the appropriate conditions, it's a fine little point & shoot. However, in my case I expected something more...but I didn't have the time nor patience to work at it.
I thought the PMD 620 recorder performed quite well in the rather extreme situations I put it through. Since most of the Gnawa performances were held in small zaouias, the din of the iron querqab (castanets) used by the Gnawa caused significant distortion in the recordings. Moving around to better positions was impractical, so I had to choose a spot where to stand or sit, record and photograph...not exactly an easy thing to do. I tried using Audacity's filters, but the distortion on some of the sound tracks is still too harsh. As one expert told me when I complained, distortion happens and we have to live with it (or not) sometimes.
Both the Acer and the G-Tech Mini G-Drive performed flawlessly. No complaints there.
Thursday, 9 July 2009
Li Lu-Porter: Gnawa Photo~Expedition
I organized the Gnawa (or Ganoua) Photo Expedition in late June, which was joined by a number of talented full-time and part time photographers, whose principal objective was to photograph the legendary Gnawa musicians during the 12th Essaouira Music Festival.
This is the second of a series of posts which showcase a sample of the participating photographers' work, and is by Li Lu-Porter, a Senior Program Manager with Microsoft in Seattle. While Li frequently travels the world on business and pleasure, including to South Africa on a learning tour for a NGO, this was her first photographic trip. As demonstrated by her photographs, she is passionately embracing photography. She uses a Canon 30D with EF 28-135 IS lens.
One of the highlights of the expedition was attending the various "lilas" (nightly performances) at the zaouia of Sidi Billal, and participate in the clapping and even dancing. During one of the performances, Li and I were told that if we continued to photograph, our cameras would be "confiscated" by an administrator since we had no press passes. Taking umbrage at the rather harsh tone, we opted to leave (after getting our money back), and headed for the concerts in Bab Marrakesh...a more than adequate consolation prize!
Sandra Chandler: Gnawa Photo Expedition
I organized the Gnawa (or Ganoua) Photo Expedition in late June, which was joined by a number of talented full-time and part time photographers, whose principal objective was to photograph the legendary Gnawa musicians during the 12th Essaouira Music Festival.
This is the first of a series of posts which showcase a sample of the participating photographers' work, and is by Sandra Chandler, a photographer and interior designer from San Francisco. Sandy uses a Nikon D300 usually fitted with a 24-70mm 2.8 lens.
Despite the difficulty of street photography in Morocco, I'm glad that Sandy managed to capture wonderful human expressions in one of the above photograph. She is drawn to world travel because of the the cornucopia of colors, smells and sounds, and I think these requirements were more than met in Morocco.
Sandy recently published a wonderful book ‘Carnevale, Fantasy of Venice' of her beautiful photographs of Venice and its magical Carnevale, and I sense she may well follow suit with a book on Morocco. We'll have to wait and see.
Wednesday, 8 July 2009
Global Post: The Desert Festival
GlobalPost's mission statment is to redefine redefine international news for the digital age and states that it is relying on the enduring values of great journalism: integrity, accuracy, independence and powerful storytelling.
Here's one of its many international articles, which features a movie on the Festival du Desert held every year in Essakane, two hours from Timbuktu in Mali.
Peter DiCampo takes us there with his filming and his article, in which he writes:
"The Desert Festival is billed as one of West Africa’s greatest cultural events, featuring the haunting chants of Tuareg music wafting across the dunes in a remote spot near Timbuktu."
Editor & Publisher Magazine: Photo Contest
Editor & Publisher Magazine, in association with Photo District News and IPNStock.com, is now accepting entries for the 10th Annual News Photos of the Year Contest.
The grand prize winner gets $1,000, and other prizes include one-year subscriptions to PhotoServe.com, an $800 value. Winning entries appear in E&P's November issue and/or a special online gallery.
The deadline for entries is Sept. 14, 2009.
Lat year's Grand Prize winner was Shiho Fukada, a personal favorite photographer of mine, for her coverage of the Juyuan Middle School that collapsed during the earthquake in Sichuan province.
As in all and every photography contests, I strongly encourage all interested photographers to make sure they carefully read the contests' terms and conditions, especially since misunderstandings between organizers and contestants over terms, prizes and other issues sometimes occur.
WSJ: Dalai Lama's Birthday
Another photograph from the must-see WSJ Photo Journal, in which performers wearing traditional ornaments waited to greet the Dalai Lama at a meeting held to celebrate his birthday in New Delhi earlier this week.
The Dalai Lama turned 74, remarking lightheartedly that the prayers being said for him by his followers might help him live at least 100 year. The photograph is by Saurabh Das.
Tuesday, 7 July 2009
Wendy Connett: Images of the World
I "meet" Wendy Connett daily through her interesting and entertaining Escape From New York blog which is on my Google Reader whatsit. Although she lives in New York City, her website also tells us that she considers the UK and India as her second homes....and I thought I was the only one who felt that way!
Wendy is a journalist and photographer, who travels the world to photograph its people, its places and its unique celebrations. Her photographs are licensed around the globe for commercial and editorial use, and are published in over 25 countries. Her work appears on a regular basis in magazines, newspapers, brochures, textbooks and travel guidebooks. Travel & Leisure, The Guardian, The Times, Rough Guides, Fodor's, Frommers are some of the publications where to see her work.
She has just announced a major redesign of her website Wendy Connett Travel Photography, which I urge you to visit. Her opening images of her Morocco portfolio are of Essaouira famous blue fishing boats. This a favorite spot for photographers to capture the very essence of Essaouira which, despite its recent fame as a tourist destination, is still a fishing village. In fact, for fans of grilled sardines, drop by Chez Sam, a lovely restaurant a few steps further into the harbor area.
Lens Culture: Munem Wasif
Munem Wasif is a Bangladeshi documentary photographer, who started his photographic career as a feature photographer for the Daily Star, a leading English daily of Bangladesh. In 2007, he was selected for the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass in the Netherlands, and subsequently won International Award "F25" of the Fabrica and "City of Perpignan Young Reporter’s Award". His work is exhibited at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, at the International Photography Biennial of the Islamic World in Iran, at Fotofreo, the festival of photography in Australia and at Visa Pour l’Image in Perpignan. He is represented through Agency VU in Paris.
The superb Lens Culture blog brings us exclusive audio interviews with Munem, who spoke of the ecological and personal disasters in Bangladesh caused by a vast influx of shrimp farming.
Another interview with Munem appeared on TTP here.
via The Click
