Thursday, 30 January 2014

Mario Gerth | A Biblical Journey

Photography Mario Gerth-All Rights Reserved
Ancient religious sites, and rites...combined with lush monochrome photography...and you have, in my estimation, a winning combination that feeds one's visual and intellectual senses.

I'm very pleased that photographer Mario Gerth, not only follows my blog, but kindly also sent me his recent work from northern Ethiopia. He trekked more than 350 miles by foot and donkey through the Simien Mountains as well as visiting the old pilgrimage towns of Lalibela and Gondar.

Although Mario has a dedicated website (more of it later on in this post), he has a Flickr account for his wonderful monochrome photographs of his A Biblical Journey.

In the Simien Mountains, Mario encountered lives so ancient and remote that he described the scenes the Old Testament. The Semien Mountains lie in northern Ethiopia, north east of Gondar, and are a World Heritage Site. Mario met monks and deacons praying with ancient Bibles, devotees climbing hours to worship in rock-cut churches, along with farmers and shepherds whose ways of life have not changed in thousands of years.

Mario Gerth is a German travel photographer and a photojournalist who has visited 77 countries. His photographs have been sown in international exhibitions and published in various magazines. He works as a banker - part-time - in Germany and as a photographer / journalist in Africa. He traveled through Africa during the past 24 months biking from Cape Town to Cairo...as well as walking, trekking, by boat or by train.

When you get the chance to set aside enough time, I encourage you to view his main website, and in particular his Sons of the Wind category, which features gorgeous portraits of Omo Valley tribes, of tribes of Angola, of Kenya and Namibia, and of Burkina Faso.

You might also be tempted to view a short video of these portraits in an earlier blog post of Mario's work.

Tuesday, 28 January 2014

Renunciation | Pooja Jain | Galli Magazine

Photo © Pooja Jain-All Rights Reserved- Courtesy Galli Magazine
A few days ago, I viewed Renunciation, a photo essay on the life of Jain nuns by Pooja Jain, a photographer based in Mumbai. It was particularly interesting to me, not only on account of Pooja's intimate photographs but because of the accompanying details that explain the hardship and devotion that's adopted by these Jain nuns.

I photographed Jain rituals at the main Palitana temples on Mount Shatrunjaya (Gujarat) which are considered the most sacred pilgrimage sites by the Jain community, and are the world's largest temple complex. There are more than 3000 temples located on its hills, all exquisitely carved in marble. I walked up and down its steps...approximately two hours to make the 2.2 miles climb, and 3800 steps to the top of Mount Satrunjaya...along with groups of Jain nun and devotees.

But back to Jain's photo essay: she tells us that she was influenced by Dalrymple's Nine Lives and who amongst us photographers hasn't? She introduces us to the hardships chosen by Jain nuns and its incredibly difficult life style, observing abstinence from various worldly basics, all in the name of adhering to a harsh asceticism. 

I was surprised to read that some Jain nuns don't use water to bathe as it should be conserved. They don't bathe all through their lives, and yet those I've come across were spotless and resplendent in their cleanliness.

Pooja Jain is a young photographer based in Mumbai. She studied at Sir JJ School of Arts, and was selected for the Young Asian Photographers Workshops at the 7th Angkor Photography Festival. She exhibited work at the Chobi Mela International Festival of Photography, at the Delhi Photo Festival (2013) and won the 2014 Toto award for Young Photographers.

Although Pooja has no website I could find, I viewed her work through the excellent Galli Magazine.

Sunday, 26 January 2014

Chehlum (40 Days After Ashura) | GrayScale


One of the religious rites I'd like to attend to photograph is Ashura, which is the Shi'a Muslims' commemoration of the martyrdom of Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad in 680. I've been thinking about it for a while, and having featured various posts about it on this blog made the itch worse.

The most logical place to witness and photograph the event is certainly in Iran or Iraq, but with a US passport it may be more advisable for me to attend the event in other countries. One that obviously springs to mind is India, where large swaths of Shias live in the cities of Hyderabad and Lucknow.

There's also the ritual of Arba'een which follows Ashura by 40 days, and is considered as one of the largest pilgrimage gatherings in Karbala in Iraq. Arba'een is the Arabic word for 40, and it's the traditional length of the time of mourning in many Islamic cultures.

Chehlom is the Persian word for the "fortieth" day, which is what the event is called in Pakistan where this brand new short cinematic montage was made.

It was produced by GrayScale, an all service Television & Film Production Company based in Karachi, Pakistan with bureaus and satellite offices in the cities of Peshawar, Islamabad and Lahore.

It can also be viewed on Vimeo.

Thursday, 23 January 2014

POV: Neo-Colonialism vs Commercialism vs Envy?

Photo © Jimmy Nelson-All Rights Reserved

Much as been written, praised, lauded, criticized and bloviated about Jimmy Nelson's Before They Pass Away ethnography photographs and books....and yet, it seems that the photographer, his publisher, his PR machinery and his angel investor are adopting the adage that goes: "les chiens aboient, la caravane passe," which essentially means letting people say what they will...or in this case, means they're laughing all the way to the bank.

Through Facebook, I've read posts from bloggers who are angered by the rhetoric used by the photographer to describe his work, and view it as condescending at best, or as neo-colonialism at worst.

I'm not going to go through the pedantry and mealy-mouthed criticisms, because they may have indeed been caused by a genuine unease with the over-the-top PR promotions, and aggrandizement tactics adopted by Jimmy Nelson and his entourage. I am also made somewhat uneasy, and have some ambivalence with these photographs...because I have yet to read whether or not the photographer has given back some of his material gains from this project to the communities he has depicted...and how they were treated and compensated during or after the photo shoots.

Another point: Jimmy Nelson is a white man...nothing he can do about that. Are the critics throwing stones at this guy because he's white and he photographed indigenous people? What if he had been a black man? What if he had been a woman? Let's think about that for moment.

Is Jimmy Nelson another Sebastiao Salgado (noting that even he was criticized for his corporate associations)? No, he's not. Steve McCurry (a patron saint for some travel photographers) photographed for Louis Vuitton in India and elsewhere and probably made a bundle...Annie Leibowitz (not really a patron saint for travel photographers) makes a ton of money shooting celebrities in exotic places.

But not a peep from the same critics.

What I'd like to know before I pass a final judgement on Before They Pass Away and on the photographer's ethics is whether some of the revenue generated by the books' sale will go the the indigenous communities in the photographed...and were his "models" adequately compensated? That's my beef...no more no less.

In the meantime, I reserve my right to admire the photographs he made...some are very well made, some are over-the-top for my taste, some are awful, and some are said to have been ripped off (idea-wise) from another talented photographer I know.

Would I, given the chance to photograph these communities, have photographed them in the same way? Of course not. Would I have posed the Mursi in the Omo Valley with such fantastical headgear? No...not my style. So would my"un-fantastical" but perhaps politically-correct/non neo-colonialist photographs end up in a limited edition book priced at over $8000? Nope.

Finally, I segue to the question of envy. I wonder how much of the bloviating is directly or indirectly motivated by envy? It seems Jimmy Nelson managed to convince an wealthy investor to fund this project to the tune of $500,000....yes, half a million.

Show me a photographer who would turn down a project like that and with that sort of funding because it could be considered as "neo-colonialism" by some of his/her peers or by some segments of the public, and I'd show you a drunken fool.

As for the price of the books; as I said, the limited edition is priced at $8750, while the pedestrian version is $150. I wager that the decision for such high prices was made to generate some sort of reasonable return for the investor and the photographer. I doubt the investor will recoup his investment at all...but what I hope for is that a portion of whatever revenue is made is channeled back to the indigenous communities in a meaningful and targeted way.

Yes, people...it's a commercial project, aimed at selling the most books as possible, and one that is employing a powerful PR machinery that may even dictate what Jimmy Nelson can say or cannot say, and one that managed to convince CNN, TIME, and a shitload of other international and national dailies and magazines to feature Nelson's work.

Get over it.

And when you do...go find an investor with $500,00 willing to fund your pet project.

Good luck with that.

Wednesday, 22 January 2014

Faith Connections | Pan Nalin



So much has been written, photographed, filmed, spoken of the various Kumbh Melas...to the point that, with a few exceptions, I've become somewhat blasé about this monumental religious event. In fact, when I'm asked if I'd consider leading a photo expedition-workshop to a Kumbh Mela, I can barely stifle a yawn or even worse, an eye-roll.

However, Faith Connections, Pan Nalin's trailer of the Kumbh Mela, re-ignites the spark of interest that is shared by many to document the event.

Pan Nalin is an Indian film director, screenwriter and documentary maker, and is best known for directing award-winning films like Samsara, Valley of Flowers, and Ayurveda: Art of Being. He traveled to the Kumbh Mela, one of the world's most extraordinary religious events. He meets remarkable men of mind and meditation, some facing an inextricable dilemma; to embrace the world or to renounce it. 

The above trailer is also connected to a splendid website Faith Connections, which provides links to a few stories from the Kumbh Mela. You'll view and read the stories of a young runaway kid, a sadhu, a mother desperately looking for her lost son, a yogi who is raising an abandoned baby, and an ascetic who smokes cannabis.

This is highly recommended to those who've never been to a Kumbh, and to those who've been once or more.

Monday, 20 January 2014

The Indigo People On Storehouse For iPad



Perusing my Zite feed the other day, I stumbled on Storehouse, a brand new app and service for the iPad. The app was co-developed by an ex-Apple designer who worked on Aperture and iPhoto, and it really shows.

It describes itself as "the easiest way to create, share and discover beautiful stories...and I took it to task to quickly produce and process The Indigo People, a gallery of my images made in the north of Vietnam, as I recently announced a photo expedition-workshop to the region for September 2014.

It was quite a simple and quick process to upload the gallery of my images, and add a few text paragraphs. Storehouse allows you to import images or video clips from your camera roll, Dropbox, Instagram or Flickr...and I could re-arrange these images at will, by moving them around the "page" and by cropping them to fit the space I wanted for them. Interestingly, the cropped images are cropped only on the layout, but when clicked, they appear in full size. The limit for photographs is 50.

My next step is to try its video uploading feature. There's a time limit for videos, and it is 30 seconds. Hardly enough time to tell a whole story, but enough to grab the attention of viewers. Videos can be used for the cover of the story, and that can be very effective.

It's certainly a gorgeous app, and one that should be popular with storytellers, photographers and such. How it'll be eventually monetized remains to be seen.

I toyed with the idea to use it as a multimedia tool on my photo expeditions-workshops, but it's currently limited to be a simple but gorgeous storytelling tool. There are a number of similar apps available, and whilst I have not used them, I gather that Storehouse's philosophy is different.

Sunday, 19 January 2014

Alessandra Meniconzi | The Cradle of Humanity

Photo © Alessandra Meniconzi-All Rights Reserved
One of my favorite travel photographers is Alessandra Meninconzi who has recently uploaded her new work from Ethiopia, which she titled The Cradle of Humanity. Her photographs were mostly made in Lalibela, and its surrounding region.

Her gallery features Ethiopian Orthodox priests, deacons and scribes who visit or reside in Lalibela, one of Ethiopia's holiest cities, and a center of pilgrimage for much of the country. It's famous for its monolithic rock-cut churches. These religious clergy are required to have knowledge of Ge’ez, the ancient liturgical language of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox churches.

Cradle of humanity as a title for Alessandra's gallery is a little confusing, since Ethiopia is generally known as the cradle of mankind, while the cradle of humankind is a World Heritage Site first named by UNESCO in 1999, not far from Johannesburg.

Alessandra's galleries range from the Arctic Siberia to Ethiopia, from Lapland to the Silk Road, and from Greenland to Tibet and the Himalayas. She worked extensively for more than a decade in the remote areas of Asia, documenting minority people and their traditional cultures. More recently, she focused on the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions that are threatened by climate change, development, and resource extraction.

Alessandra Meniconzi is a Swiss photographer fascinated by the lives and traditions of indigenous people in remote regions of the world.Her photographs have been published widely in magazines, as well as in four books: The Silk Road (2004), Mystic Iceland (2007), Hidden China (2008) and QTI -Alessandra Meniconzi, Il coraggio di esser paesaggio (2011).

I have blogged on many occasions about Alessandra's work, and I'm glad to see she's back in full form.

Thursday, 16 January 2014

Announcing The People of Tây Bắc Photo Expedition-Workshop


Yes, I shall be returning to Vietnam and its Northwest region...including a few days in the photogenic city of Hoi An...and opening participation in a September 2014 photo expedition.

On The People of Tây Bắc Photo Expedition-Workshop, we start by exploring the pulsating street life of bustling Hanoi during the Mid Autumn Festival (known as Tet Trung Thu) celebrations, then we shall be traveling to the country's northwest to document the colorful villages and ethnic minority tribes around Sapa, and the ethnic markets of Bac Ha, Coc Ly, Sin Cheng, and Can Cau, then travel back to Hanoi and fly to Hoi An to photograph the daily life in this ancient port and fishing city.

This photo expedition will have three focal points: the high energy of Hanoi's street life (particularly during the Mid Autumn Festival), the ethnic minorities and their weekly markets of the Northwest (Tây Bắcsuch as the Dao, Tay, White and Red H'Mong and Nung, and the quintessential Vietnamese port city of Hoi An.

More details are available on the photo expedition's website.

Wednesday, 15 January 2014

Ania Blazejewska | MassKara Festival

Photo © Ania Blazejewska-All Rights Reserved
I initially thought that this photograph was made during the Venice Carnival (which is scheduled to start on February 15 this year), but it wasn't. It was made during the MassKara festival by Ania Blazejewska.

Similar to religions which borrow rituals from each other, the MassKara festival is held each year in the town of Bacolod, Philippines, every third weekend of October. It appears that the festival was born out of a period of extreme crisis for the town. It began in 1980 after a precipitous drop of sugar, and the sinking of a vessel carrying many residents.

The word MassKara is a combination of the words mass (a multitude of people), and the Spanish word for face, "cara". The word maskara is also Filipino for "mask", and are influenced by native Filipino indigenous traditions mixed with the influences of the Carnival of Venice and Rio Carnival.

Ania Blazejewska is a freelance travel photographer based in Manila, the Philippines. Mainly interested in exploring cultural and social themes and loves telling stories about lives of ordinary people all over the world, her work was recognized in various Polish and international photo contests, and her freelance photos and articles were featured in a number of Polish-language travel portals. She has photographed in Cuba, India, Ladakh, Laos, Oman, Morocco, Srl Lanka and Nepal...to mention just a few.

Monday, 13 January 2014

Holi By Variable



In anticipation of documenting the exuberant Holi festivities in Vrindavan and Mathura during my forthcoming The Sacred Cities Expedition-Workshop, this short trailer-like movie will captivate you (and my fellow group members) with its splendid videography, colors and slow-motion effects.

The film makers behind the video are Tyler Ginter, Khalid Mohtaseb, Jonathan Bregel, and Nick Midwig using Rule Boston Camera’s Phantom Flex...and they are part of WeAreVariable, a collective and production company based in New York City.

I'm certain that readers of this blog know the Indian festival of Holi which is celebrated on the day after the full moon in early March every year, but here's a summary of what it's all about.

Holi's origins lie in the celebration of plentiful harvests and fertility of the land, but is currently more of a commemoration of a legend from Hindu mythology. The festival is mostly associated with the immortal love of Krishna and Radha, and is accordingly observed with uncommon fervor in Vrindavan and Mathura - the two cities with which Krishna was raised and has affiliations.  Colored powder (known as gulal) and water, festive processions, folk songs, dances mark the celebration of Holi in these cities.

With about two months to go until our group is in Vrindavan/Mathura, discussion are already under way as to how best to protect our photographic gear from the effects of colored water and powder. Various alternatives have been debated, and experimentation with these alternatives has already started.  

Saturday, 11 January 2014

Suan Lin | Open Heart

Photo © Suan Lin-All Rights Reserved
One of the most enjoyable assignments I've come up so far is to document the tango halls in Buenos Aires whilst taking part in the July 2011 Foundry Photojournalism Workshop.

As some of my readers perhaps recall, I resolved to be more active on Google+ in 2014...one of the rewards I got from this increased activity is to connect with Suan Lin, a New York City resident who describes herself as a "ceramic artist who caught a bug called photography".

So what do these two have to do with each other? Well, as you'll see from Suan's Open Heart photo gallery, she also discovered the magnetic musicality and dance movements of the tango in Salon Canning while visiting Buenos Aires...and photographed (mostly monochromes) the milongas and the characters who have a passion for this ageless music/dance.

A keen observer of people, Suan's Open Heart gallery has, in my view, two standouts: that of the elegant elderly man sadly sitting at a table with three empty chairs (#23)...presumably that of companions who've gone dancing or who haven't yet arrived....while dancers on the floor whirl about...and the other (#16) is of a matron fanning herself, anticipating (hoping?) someone to ask her for a dance.

Suan's website is titled Chasing Pavements, and for good reason. Her forte and interest is in exactly that...visually chasing pavements, a term implying street photography. One of her galleries (also titled Chasing Pavements) is of scenes of New York City...also monochromal, and which "high heels on cobblestones" (#17) is made in my neck of the woods.

Apart from these, she also features Kathmandu and Myanmar's Lake Inle galleries.

An interesting photographer....and someone to follow.

Thursday, 9 January 2014

The Travel Photographer-Wotancraft Atelier Contest!

Image courtesy Wotancraft Atelier
Another reason to join The Travel Photographer's Photo Expeditions-Workshops: A contest for participants in my forthcoming The Sacred Cities: Varanasi & Vrindavan Photo Expedition-Workshop!

Wotancraft Atelier, the maker of top quality handmade camera bags will offer a City Explorer Scout camera bag as a prize to the winner in my photo expedition-workshop this coming March.

The contest's rules are as simple as we could make them, and I expect to hold it around mid way during the trip. Participants will submit three of their best photographs (color or monochrome), and through a secret group ballot, the winner of this gorgeous bag will be chosen. 

The winner will be announced on this blog, and his/her photographs will be featured as well. Wotancraft Atelier will ship the prize directly to the winner.

Image courtesy Wotancraft Atelier
We chose the City Explorer Scout camera bag as prize because of its versatility and size, which seem just perfect for travel photographers on the go. The durability of its canvas and leather materials ensures that this camera bag will survive any hardships it's subjected to...whether on my photo expeditions or elsewhere.



Falling in love with the Panerai 6152/1 Luminor antique watch some 5 years ago, WotanCraft started making hand-aged leather watch straps, and began designing camera bags inspired by a WWII Swiss army backpack (and a Leica M6) brought in to its workshop by a staff member.

Vintage aesthetics are the underpinning of WotanCraft, and it's devoted to creating camera bags suitable for outdoors photography. Each product it offers is handmade by artisans, and its camera bags remind me of well-worn vintage leather bomber jackets, faded jeans...and bikers' boots. 

Tuesday, 7 January 2014

James Morgan | Cholita




Cholitas are everywhere in La Paz and throughout Bolivia. They are indigenous women who tend to wear full skirts lined with petticoats, pigtails, colorful shawls draped on their shoulders, and bowler (called "bombin") hats. The wearing of such hats came about in the early 1920s, when it's said that a large shipment arrived from the United Kingdom for railroad construction workers, but they turned out to be too small.  Women liked the hats, and adopted them as a fashion statement of sorts.

However, the above very short documentary by James Morgan is about the wrestling cholitas. Every Sunday afternoon crowds gather at the stadium in El Alto, an immense suburb high above La Paz. The crowds consist of a mixture of indigenous locals and tourists, who've come to see wrestling. It's a Mexican-style lucha libre, during which wrestlers -in this case, women- wear traditional Bolivian bowler hats and flowing multi-layered skirts. It is one of the very rare occasions when a woman has equal status to a man in Bolivia, and these women are exceptionally proud of their achievements.

James Morgan is photojournalist and filmmaker based in London but works mostly across Asia, Africa and South America, shooting in depth features and advocacy campaigns for the WWF, BBC, Sunday Times, New York Times, Guardian, USAID and many others.

His work on Indonesia’s last sea nomads, won numerous awards and continue to be published and exhibited around the world. Recent work has included an investigative report looking at the links between international terrorism and the illegal wildlife trade, a behind the scenes look at an election race in Papua New Guinea and a group of indigenous female wrestlers fighting back against discrimination in Bolivia. 

Sunday, 5 January 2014

Sara O'Brien Callow | The Yangon Loop

Photo © Sara O'Brien Callow-All Rights Reserved

One of my regrets while photographing in Myanmar (twice!) some 10 years ago was missing the Yangon Circular Railway. It's a local commuter rail network that extends for about 30 miles with 39 stations. It has about 200 coaches, runs 20 times and sells 100,000 to 150,000 tickets daily. It takes some three hours to complete, and is a great way to see a cross section of life in Yangon.

The cost of a ticket is the equivalent of $0.09 for the Burmese, and $1.00 for foreigners, regardless of the length of the journey

Like Sara's above photograph and the rest of her photo essay The Yangon Loop, it provides photographers a wonderful opportunity to visually capture the people of Yangon....chatting, sleeping, selling vegetables and tea...etc.

A Foundry Photojournalism Workshop alum, Sara O'Brien Callow started out her photography career in 2011 when working at an Elephant Park in Northern Thailand. It wasn't long before she dedicated herself to documentary photography. Currently based in Melbourne, she has numerous projects in development as well as focusing on the completion of her tertiary studies. 

Also take a look at Sara's Project Grey, which she began during her time at the Elephant Park in 2011 and has been developed further in 2013 with plans to continue in early 2015. It's probably the project closest to her heart.

Sara has taken part in numerous workshops under the guidance of; Andrea Bruce, James Whitlow Delano, Les Walking, Maggie Steber, Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb.

Friday, 3 January 2014

POV: For 2014, Ideas, Thoughts, Ruminations...

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
What looms for me in the horizon for 2014?

Well, I've been around the block enough times to know that I'm not the kind of guy who makes resolutions at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve...I drink with moderation, don't smoke and eat reasonably healthy food...and I exercise.

I have a few decisions, thoughts and ideas trotting around in my mind, and those that relate to photography are as follows:

1. During 2014, I will not buy any new photographic equipment* (with one possible exception: a XF35mm f1.4 for my X Pro1...maybe).

I have a M9 with two fantastic lenses, a X Pro1 with a superb 18mm lens, a Canon 5D Mark II and a 7D with a bunch of lenses...so why would I need anything else? In my view, the DSLRs have begun to lose the usefulness status they once possessed insofar as I'm concerned, and the much lighter rangefinder-like cameras are getting easier as I get used to them, and better at each new iteration.

*What I may do, however, is to upgrade from my iPhone4s.

2. During 2014, I will try to expand my brand (The Travel Photographer) into Google+ and start an Instagram feed. I'm not yet fully committed to these two social-sharing platforms, and while time consuming, I will focus on them a little more.

3. Apart from my March 2013 photo expedition and multimedia workshop, and my teaching gig with the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Guatemala in July...I intend to hold a two weeks photo expedition in Vietnam during early fall. It'll probably focus on the country's northern territories, and I want it to be more of a travel-ethnographic event than my usual photojournalism-documentary. Yes, I led one in 2012, but I want to go a little deeper this time.

4. I've already started on this, but I will experiment with new styles of street photography in NYC. The most recent frames on my sister blog The Leica File are reflective of this 'experimentation'. Not ground breaking by any means, but I seek to add some "spice' to my approach in that field...whether it's by using specific camera settings or new ways of "seeing"...

5. I'd like to experiment with square format photography by using the new technology currently available (see the photograph above). It's certainly the influence of Hipstamatic and Instagram, and since I enjoy both these apps, why not?

6. Monochromatic shooting...or in less aristocratic terms, black and white. This is going to take a larger chunk of my photographic work during 2014 (and beyond).

There. Six very modest thoughts/ideas/plans that I'm thinking of.

Will I do them all or not? We'll see....but I usually do what I set out to do.

Thursday, 2 January 2014

Lourika Reinders | The Himba

Photo © Lourika Reinders-All Rights Reserved

After a holiday hiatus, here is my first post for 2014, in which I chose to feature the African tribe of Himba.

The Himba are indigenous peoples of about 20,000 to 50,000 people mostly living in northern Namibia. Pastoralists and cattle breeders, the Himba wear little clothing, but the women are famous for covering themselves with otjize, a mixture of butter fat and ochre, possibly to protect themselves from the sun.The mixture gives their skins a reddish tinge.

Unfortunately, the Himba people have suffered a great deal over their history. Severe droughts and guerrilla warfare reduced their overall numbers, and in the early 1900s, they barely survived attempted genocide by German colonialists. Atrocities were committed for which the German government apologized in 2004, almost 100 years after the fact.

In the 1980s it appeared the Himba way of life was coming to a close. A severe drought killed 90% of their cattle, and many gave up their herds and became refugees in the town of Opuwo living in slums on international relief. Because they live on the Angolan border, many Himba were also kidnapping victims in the Angolan civil war.

Lourika Reinders was born and raised in Namibia, and studied in South Africa. She is the daughter of a successful safari guide and grew up bushwhacking the African wilderness. She made photography her career in January 2012, and is now concentrating on commercial photography work in Namibia.

CROSBY STREET | 65:24 Aspect Ratio

One of my favorite streets in Soho, NYC, is Crosby Street. Some of its buildings have walls always covered in “illegal” posters and ads, whi...