Jehad Nga: Turkana

Photo © Jehad Nga -All Rights Reserved
What a way to start the week!

I've described Jehad Nga as being a master of chiaroscuro and his new work Turkana just reaffirms and even compounds this well-deserved appellation. His new work is just beautiful and details of each photograph must be slowly absorbed. In Jehad's photography, I guess less is more...and his play of light against the colorful garments is just exquisite.

To view Turkana, log on to Jehad's website, and click on From Here On-In Galleries.

The gallery's overview starts with this:

"Forgotten by a government that hardly felt as their own, Kenya's Turkana tribe is withering in number as a drought devastates the Horn of Africa."

The Turkana are a Nilotic people of Kenya, numbering about 340,000, who live in the Turkana District in northwest Kenya, a dry and hot region bordering three countries, Uganda, Sudan and Ethiopia.

It's expected that an exibition of the Turkana photographs will soon be shown at the Bonni Benrubi gallery in New York City.

Jehad was born in Kansas, but moved to London, where he was raised. In his early 20s and living in Los Angeles, he discovered a book by photographer Natasha Merritt. The book convinced him that he could use his own digital compact during a backpacking trip to southeast Asia. By 2002 he was traveling through the Middle East, and by the following year, Jehad made his way to Baghdad photographing for the New York Times.

Over the recent years, Jehad covered Somalia, Kenya, Iraq, Liberia, Libya, Darfur, Ethiopia and Iran, providing stories for major publications such as The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Time, Fortune and Forbes magazines. He also won several honors, including American Photo magazine's Emerging Artists 2007 issue and for World Press Master Class 2008.

I featured Jehad Nga many times on TTP. You can catch all the posts here.

Jehad Nga: Master of Chiaroscuro

Photograph © Jehad Nga/All Rights Reserved
One of my favorite photographers, Jehad Nga, has just launched his website...in my estimation a master of the chiaroscuro (the contrast between light and dark), Jehad Nga was born in Kansas, but moved when young to Libya and then to London, where he was raised. In his early 20s and living in Los Angeles, he discovered a book by photographer Natasha Merritt. The book convinced him that he could use his own digital compact during a backpacking trip to southeast Asia. By 2002 he was traveling through the Middle East, and by the following year, Jehad made his way to Baghdad photographing for the New York Times.

Over the recent years, Jehad covered Somalia, Kenya, Iraq, Liberia, Libya, Darfur, Ethiopia and Iran, providing stories for major publications such as The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Time, Fortune and Forbes magazines. He also won several honors, including American Photo magazine's Emerging Artists 2007 issue and for World Press Master Class 2008.

His website showcases his talent in the shadow and light play, and while all of his galleries have wonderful images that simply befuddles the mind as how he managed to capture them, my favorite is titled Shadowed By The Sun...a visual treat.

Jehad's work has appeared on many occasions on The Travel Photographer. Here are some of the links:

Somalia Through A Lens
Somalia On The Brink
Ethiopia's Stone Churches

Jehad Nga: Cairo Corners

Photo © Jehad Nga-All Rights Reserved

One of my favorite photographers is Jehad Nga, and I've featured his work on many occasions on The Travel Photographer blog for his superb chiaroscuro work, for his distinctive photographic and visual style and for his choice of subject matter.

In recent interviews, Jehad shared that he was no longer interested in editorial work, but I'm glad he decided to feature recent work on Cairo on his website. Those who know his work will realize that the Cairo work is, in a way, more art than documentary-editorial.

There are two galleries relating to Cairo; one of which is Cairo Corners, in which his trademark unabashed shadow-play is clearly evident.

"I respond more to fashion and fine-art, carrying these fields and variables in photojournalism." -Jehad Nga

On a personal note...I've been urged by a number of Egyptians to photograph my homeland, and even to lead photo workshops there...not necessarily in Cairo, but to outer regions such as Siwa for example, which boasts a distinct culture. Such a workshop may well occur in the near future, especially as I pore over Jehad's beautifully crafted images. Is my hesitancy to photograph in Egypt caused by what I call the "native's blind eye"? I don't know....but Jehad's work certainly inspires me to see Cairo in a different light.

Jehad Nga: Ethiopia's Stone Churches

Image Copyright Jehad Nga/Courtesy The NY Times
Continuing on the theme of Ethiopia as an incredible destination for travel photographers, here's a slideshow of Jehad Nga's work in Lalibela, and recently published in the New York Times. These were photographed during the Feast of Transfiguration, which occurs in early August in the Orthodox Christian calendar.

Jehad is a Corbis photographer, and you'll see that his images are often made in the dark, only a single source of light highlighting the individuals themselves. As an example, see the image of deacons during the church sermon at Beta Medeanlam which is lit by candles. How he manages that so effectively is a testament to his creativity and talent. Over the past four years, Jehad Nga's assignments have found him covering stories in Somalia, Kenya, Iraq, Liberia, Libya, Darfur, Ethiopia and Iran.

A bit of background on these images from the NY Times' Joshua Hammer: "I had arrived in Lalibela, fortuitously, just before the Feast of the Transfiguration that commemorates Jesus’ appearance in divine form before three of his apostles on Mount Tabor. Within a few minutes, my guide had whisked me to the grandest of King Lalibela’s 11 monolithic churches, chiseled out of a single mass of reddish limestone by royal craftsmen at the end of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th centuries."

Here's Jehad Nga's Ethiopian images through the NY Times:
Ethiopia's Ancient Christian Churches

Jehad Nga's Turkana in NYC

Photo © Jehad Nga -All Rights Reserved
The beautiful work of Jehad Nga, one of my favorite photographers, is on show at the Bonni Benrubi Gallery on the Upper East Side in New York. The exhibition runs from May 13 to June 16, 2010, and is timed to coincide with the New York Photo Festival. Limited edition prints are priced from $2,800-$10,000.

The UK's Daily Telegraph also featured Jehad's Turkana work. I scratch my head in puzzlement that a UK daily would feature news of a photographic event (and images), while our own newspapers have not. Perhaps I've missed it...?

For background on Jehad Nga and the Turkana images, check my earlier post here.

Jehad Nga Talks to BJP

Photo © Jehad Nga-All Rights Reserved

"I respond more to fashion and fine-art, carrying these fields and variables in photojournalism." -Jehad Nga

The British Journal of Photography (which revamped its website) published an interview with Jehad Nga, one of my favorite photographers. This blog featured many posts on Nga, and his distinctive chiaroscuro style.

Titled From Kansas To Nairobi, the recent interview sheds a light on Nga's decision to join the Institute for Artist Management instead of VII and Magnum.

Nga first visited the Middle East in 2001 spending months in different medical volunteering positions in Gaza. When he interned at Magnum Photos in 2002, he was also training to become an Emergency Medical Technician. But since 2004, when he moved to East Africa, he's been dedicating most of his time to photography, working regularly for the New York Times.

Via photojournalism links

The Travel Photographer's 2010 Favorite Image Makers (Part 1)

First, let me render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s...this post was suggested by travel photographer Paolo Evangelista. He suggested I ought to post some of my favorite photographers whose work I've featured on this blog over the year....great idea!

So here's the first 5 of the 10 travel and/or documentary photographers (listed in no particular order) whose work was posted on this blog, and whose photographs were my favorites during 2010. The remainder (Part 2) will be posted tomorrow.

As I always say to whoever is interested; deciding which is a visual favorite amongst the hundreds of photographers I've shown here in this blog is a highly subjective and personal choice...nothing more or less. Every single photographer whose work was featured on my blog is worthy of praise and admiration.

I decided against grouping these photographs in a slideshow, so this is going to be a rather vertically long post:

1. Matjaz Krivic:

Photo © Matjaz Krivic-All Rights Reserved

This photograph is part of Matjaz's gallery of the Pir-e Shaliar festival in the Kurdish area of Iran. I posted Matjaz's work here.

2. Raphael Nguyen:

Photo © Raphael Nguyen-All Rights Reserved

This photograph is part of Raphael's gallery of super saturated photographs of Hoi An. I posted Raphael's work here.

3. Chico Sanchez:

Photo © Chico Sanchez-All Rights Reserved

This photograph is part of Chico Sanchez's audio-slideshow of Flamenco dancers. I posed Chico's work here.

4. Jehad Nga:

Photo © Jehad Nga-All Rights Reserved

This photograph is part of Jehad's Turkana exhibit at the Bonni Benrubi Gallery in NYC, and was also included in the Daily Telegraph article on his photographs. I had posted Jehad's work a number of times here.

5. Richard Murai:

Photo © Richard Murai-All Rights Reserved

This photograph is by Richard Murai, who recently won the Travel Photographer of the Year contest in the World in Motion category. I had posted an image by Richard Murai here.

Jehad Nga: Silk Road

Jehad Nga for The New York Times-All Rights Reserved
The New York Times features an audio slideshow by Jehad Nga, one of my favorite photographers. However, I found his photographs of Tajikistan, Kyrgystan and Uzbekistan in this feature did not have his wonderful characteristic style; his use of shadows and dark spaces (as in his masterful work out of Ethiopia, for example) is not in evidence here.

As we know, the Silk Road is the popular name for a system of caravan trade routes that dates back more than 2,000 years, an important economic artery that stretched roughly 7,000 miles, from the Mediterranean to China’s Yellow River Valley. Earlier this year, Jehad Nga, on assignment for the New York Times' Travel section, spent three weeks retracing part of the historic route in central Asia, driving from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

I expected Nga's photographic mastery in this slideshow, so I was rather disappointed by the photographs in the Silk Road: Ancient Road, Timeless Trip feature as they are shot in a basic photojournalistic style. Notwithstanding, I enjoyed it because of Nga's calm and sensitive narration....but after it was done, I admit I had to go back to my earlier posts here and here to re-savor his images of Ethiopia and Africa.

The New York Times' Silk Road slideshow. (Registration may be required by New York Times).

Jehad Nga: The Faces of Africa

Image Copyright © 2006 Jehad Nga
I have recently admired and commented on Jehad Nga's fabulous work which appeared on the pages of the New York Times. I posted in early February about his work on Ethiopia's Stone Churches, and today I bring his latest multimedia gallery Faces of Africa, in which you'll see images of Somali and Kenyan café patrons made in the dark, only a single ray of sun highlighting the individuals themselves; an arresting collection of images by a master photographer.

Here's Jehad Nga's New York Times gallery: The Faces of Africa. (you'll probably need to adjust the size of the window).

Jehad Nga: Somalia Through A Lens

Brightcove posted a 5th of September interview with Jehad Nga at the Frontline Club in London. Jehad is a talented emerging photographer who, for the last 3 years, worked in and around Mogadishu, Somalia.

In this video, he presents a selection of his images, and is interviewed by a rather verbose Rob Walker of the BBC World Service.

For more on Jehad Nga on TTP: (here) and (here)

Daylight Magazine: Jehad Nga

I just received Daylight Magazine's May newsletter, which features Jehad Nga's wonderful photo essay titled "My Shadow My Opponent" which deals with boxers and boxing clubs in Kenya. It explores the scarcely-known boxing subculture of Nairobi's largest slum.

I'm sure many of you will agree with me that the title of the photo essay fits Jehad's trademark chiaroscuro photographs like a glove. It's excellent work by an extremely talented photojournalist/photographer, however it's a shame that there's very little ambient audio of the grunts, exertions, sound of glove on flesh, and other sounds normally associated with boxing (think Rocky Balboa!), nor do we hear the voices of the boxers.

American Photo: Emerging Artists 2007

Image Copyright © Jehad Nga-All Rights Reserved
American Photo magazine recently published its Emerging Artists: A New Generation of Photo Pioneers, a feature showcasing the work of 15 imagemakers.

From an initial list of approximately 100 nominees, judges for American Photo magazine chose 28 finalists, each of whom was asked to submit 15 images. The five judges were Michelle Bogre, chair of the photography department at Parsons The New School for Design; Brian Paul Clamp, owner of the ClampArt gallery in New York; David Maloney, a representative at the Art Department agency; Deborah Mauro, American Photo's art director; and commercial and editorial photographer Platon.

From their selections came the 15 photographers featured in Emerging Artists 2007.

There's no question that for me it is the work of Jehad Nga that is the most impressive. His beautiful work is full of shadows, with areas of brightness contrasting with areas of darkness. I posted his work a few times on TTP, and I'm pleased that American Photo has chosen him as one of the top 15.

American Photo magazine's Emerging Artists 2007

NY Times: Somalia On The Brink

Photograph © Jehad Nga-All Rights Reserved
An infrequently-covered country is in the New York Times today, along with photographs by Jehad Nga, whose work is characterized by deep shadows and sparsely illuminated subjects.

To bring you up to speed on the political background: Late last year, Ethiopian troops, with the help of US intelligence, removed the Islamist administration that briefly controlled Mogadishu, bringing the transitional government to the city for the first time. Naturally, this anointed total illegitimacy to the government and it has been going downhill ever since.

The NY Times' Somalia On The Brink

Timothy Allen: Nagaland

Image © Timothy Allen-All Rights Reserved
Timothy Allen's bio page of his website tells us that he spent 3 years in Indonesia where his interest in photography began. Upon returning to England he spent 2 years traveling the British Isles until, in the late nineties, he joined an aid convoy to Bosnia in order to work on his first year reportage project. Six months later he had left college, moved to London and begun working for the Sunday Telegraph which lead to commissions from all the British broadsheet publications and finally to a 6 year position at The Independent, working predominantly on features and portraits for the newspaper and magazine titles. Timothy now devotes his time to documenting the diversity of our world's cultures.

His photographs have appeared in many editorial publications, and his work has been included in books and exhibitions. He was also announced as the winner of TPOTY's "One Planet Many Lives" category for his photographs of Bhutan and North Eastern India.

I have just voiced the need for travel photographers to "connect" with their subjects in a recent post, so I'm glad that many of Timothy's photographs show how well he bonded with his subjects. His photographs are largely ethno-photographic in style, and those I like the best are those composed in the shadows and darkness, reminiscent of Jehad Nga's beautiful work.

Timothy Allen's Nagaland, Tripura, Majuli Island

NYT: 2009 The Year in Pictures

Photo © Tyler Hicks/New York Times -All Rights Reserved
The newspaper version of the New York Times's Week In Review yesterday was a real fillip for photojournalism. The totality of the first page was of Tyler Hicks' superb blurry photograph of a US soldier in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley, and much of the section was filled with the remarkable photographs by Emilio Morenatti, Moises Saman, Jehad Nga and Rita Castelnuovo.

On the section's second page, I paused at the editor's decision to publish two photographs by Tyler Hicks of the utter devastation of the Gaza Strip and the terrific loss of innocent lives, and the nearby positioning of a third photograph by Rita Castelnuovo showing a group of Israeli soldiers grieving over the loss of a colleague. I imagined the editor's cerebral gymnastics as to how to present a "balanced" view of the Gaza atrocity with a couple of photographs. Ah well...

As I said, the Week In Review section this week is a job well done. You can see it as a slideshow on the NYT's website.

Battlespace Exhibition

From the introduction of Battlespace:

These photographs were made in Afghanistan and Iraq, but they depict neither country. They are glimpses of an alternate reality built upon them. The images do not provide a comprehensive account of these wars, or an understanding of these nations or their peoples. They are fragments, seen in off-moments behind the walls of concrete superbases—or outside them, through nightvision goggles and ballistic eye shields.

Battlespace is produced by November Eleven, a 501(c)(3) public charity dedicated to independent journalism. The exhibition was made possible with support and cooperation of Aurora Select, Fastback Creative Books, and Print Space.

Some of the photographers are Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, Christoph Bangert, Guy Calaf,Jason Howe, Teru Kuwayama, Jehad Nga and Stephanie Sinclair.

Until April 30th 2008, the Battlespace exhibition can be viewed at Gallery FCB in New York City:

Gallery FCB
16 West 23rd Street
New York City

Pete Muller: TIME's Best Wires' Photographer

Photo © Pete Muller-All Rights Reserved

It's no surprise to me that the editors of TIME magazine have chosen Pete Muller as the best photographer on the "wires".

Why do I say that? Well, let's go back to my post of Wednesday, 18 May 2011 in which I described his photography as terrific and excellent....and reminiscent of Jehad Nga's chiaroscuro style.

TIME magazine tells us that of the millions of photographs being sent through the news services (“the wires”) in 2011, the work of Associated Press freelancer Pete Muller, 29, stood out. It continues to say " His exceptional photographs—focused on Africa and particularly Sudan—take an individual approach to storytelling, one that combines a distinctive aesthetic with journalistic integrity."

Other wire photographers who were recognized by TIME are Finbarr O’Reilly,  Kevin Frayer,  David Guttenfelder’s, and Rodrigo Abd, as well as John Moore.

Tomas Munita: Egypt's Discontent

Photo © Tomas Munita-Courtesy The New York Times

Tomas Munita's photographs of Cairo are dark, saturated, brooding and shadowy. One of them shows a couple of policemen peering through the rear window of a bus parked near a mosque in a Cairo tourist area...and to my mind, an analogy of the current situation in Egypt. Shadowy powers, whether military or otherwise, incapable or unwilling to act.

The accompanying article by Neil MacFarquhar paints a bleak picture of a revolution that, after having taken the world by storm, has now stagnated...and is seemingly going nowhere.

Paralyzed by the weakness of a caretaker government that takes its marching orders from the shadowy military rulers known as the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Egypt's economy is heading nowhere...and that's a charitable way of saying it. Stuck in an outdated autocratic mindset, the civilian and military authorities are both unwilling and incapable of instituting any meaningful societal and economical change.

The article quotes Emad Shahin,a professor at Notre Dame University as saying “Egyptians said they had a leaderless revolution, and they were so happy about it then. They are now paying a price for that.” In theory, perhaps that's true.

I watch the unfolding events in Egypt as most others do...with dismay and sadness. All I see for the time being for Egypt is what we witnessed in Myanmar. A subservient "civilian" government controlled by a shadowy military institution, or an outright military take-over of the government. As the fable goes, a wolf in sheep's clothing is still a wolf.

Egypt deserves an infinitely better future.

But back to photography. Compare Tomas Munita's photographs to Jehad Nga's work (mentioned earlier on this blog).

Pete Muller: The Cattle Keepers of Southern Sudan

Photo © Pete Muller-Courtesy Time Lightbox

I wasn't planning to feature the work of Pete Muller today (the sequence of my posts are often pre-decided a week in advance), but seeing his terrific work The Violent Cattle Keepers of Southern Sudan on the wonderful Time Lightbox blog convinced me otherwise, and I rejigged the sequence.

Pete writes that these cattle keepers are members of the Dinka Rek sub-tribe, who describe themselves as a “brigade.” In this remote area of southern Sudan, there are no signs of the army or the police, and no government as such. Consequently, these men form a militia to protect themselves from marauders of other equally well-armed pastoralist groups in the area.

The moment I saw the first photograph in Pete Muller's slideshow, I thought "oh, Jehad Nga's chiaroscuro style!", and true enough, Pete graciously ends his write up by giving credit to Nga for inspiring the aesthetic of these photos.  A statement that reflects well as to Pete's character.

Pete Muller is a photographer and multimedia reporter based in Juba, Sudan. He uses images, words, audio & video to tell under reported stories. He maintains an excellent blog which also features many of these portraits.

A really excellent photographer.

Travel: The Year In Pictures 2006

Image from Sacred Faces of Angkor Wat-Copyright 2006 Tewfic El-Sawy
Lonnie Schlein is the picture editor of the Travel section of the New York Times, and in this interactive feature he shares how he personally chose the best photographs for the newspaper's Travel: The Year In Pictures 2006.

While I agree with some of his choices (such as Jehad Nga's photograph of an Ethiopian woman coming out of church), I still don't understand how picture editors narrow down images. It must be a talent acquired after years of experience, a sort of gut feel...but this multimedia presentation did little to shed light on the thinking process.

Travel Pictures 2006