Alfred Weidinger | The Last African Kings

Photo © Alfred Weidinger | All Rights Reserved

"The most important thing is to find one king -- when I have one, he will guide me to the others." - Alfred Weidinger

With a couple of exceptions, African kings are traditional rulers who often derive their titles from the rulers of independent states or communities that existed before the formation of modern African states. Although they do not have formal political power, in many cases they continue to command respect from their people and have considerable influence.  There are only three African countries with constitutional monarchies – Morocco, Swaziland and Lesotho -- but there are several hundred traditional monarchs dispersed across Africa in urban, semi-urban and rural communities in independent countries.

It is estimated that there are about 70 such African monarchs as well as some 500 tribal leaders, whose dynasties and fiefdoms marked the history of Africa until the middle of the twentieth century. 

Austria-based art historian and photographer Alfred Weidinger spent over 5 years searching for the surviving monarchs of Africa's grandest kingdoms and for tribal leaders and important clan chiefs. Traveling from Nigeria to Ghana, Zambia to Cameroon, and from the Ivory Coast to the Democratic Republic of Congo, he photographed these rulers and leaders who are still committed to their old traditions, and are revered and respected by their people.

The biggest threat to Africa's last remaining monarchs isn't local governments, but modernity. The threat of globalization has disturbed the influence and social standing of many of his subjects.

The Last African Kings is a voluminous gallery of -mostly- monochromatic portraits of these rulers which were made over repeated trips to Ghana, Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Benin, Togo, Mali, Sierra Leone, Niger, Ethiopia, and South Sudan.

Alfred Weidinger is an Austrian art historian, museum manager and photographer. He currently is the director of the Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig. Since 1980, he has been touring Africa as a freelance documentary photographer and recording portraits. He photographs both digitally and with film, preferring black and white. From 1985 to 1998 Weidinger studied art history and classical archeology at the University of Salzburg. He wrote his diploma thesis in 1992 on the landscape paintings of Gustav Klimt, his dissertation in 1998 on the early work of the Austrian painter Oskar Kokoschka.

Travel Photographer Society Awards 2017

© Zarni Myo Win-Courtesy Travel Photographer Society

It has been a pleasure and an eye opening experience to be part of the jury that adjudicated the Travel Photographer Society Awards 2017. The entries were incredibly powerful, beautiful, compelling and imaginative. And it's extremely gratifying to have Zarni Myo Win of Myanmar winning the overall prize with his monochromatic photograph of three boys jumping off a mythical lion statue into the Irrawaddy river near Mandalay's Mya Thein Tan Pagoda, .

It is infrequent to see a monochromatic image submitted to travel competitions, and the composition of the scene is "balanced". The sense of timing is perfect. I also liked the toning done to the photograph...it gives the clouds an ominous look, but the waters are dark but calm, and the unmistakable insouciance of the youths gives the overall image a wonderful feeling.

Congratulations to all the winners, and for more of the top 45 TPS Awards, click here.

Some of the other and equally talented category winners are:

Category Winner Landscape/Environment. © Giuseppe Mario (Etna Eruption)

Category Winner Travel/Documentary: © Yen Sin Wong. (Suri)

Category Winner: People/Culture. © Corneliu Cazacu (Girl With Bear Skin)

Category Winner: Street. © Moin Uddin (The Man’s Stare)

As for the Editors' Choice Winners, these are:

Landscape/Environment: © Jan Pusdrowski. Flames of Herostratus

Travel/Documentary: © Nick Ng Yeow Kee (A Day’s Work)

 People/Culture: © Suhaimi Abdullah (Color My World)

Street: © Maria Kassimatis. (British Commonwealth)

Jean-Claude Moschetti | Egunguns | Magic on Earth

Photo © Jean-Claude Moschetti - All Rights Reserved

African spirituality, such as worship of ancestors and protective spirits, also includes traditional secret societies and voodoo, and is a fertile field for unusual ethnographic photography.

Jean-Claude Moschetti's photographs in Magic On Earth is about these African occult traditions where masks are considered to be mediators between the living world and the supernatural world of the dead, ancestors and other entities.

He tells us that in Burkina Faso, these masks represent protective spirits that can take animal forms or can appear as strange beings. These spirits watch over a family, clan or community, and if the rules for their propitiation are followed correctly, provide for the fertility, health, and prosperity.

The word Egungun signifies all types of masquerades or masked, costumed figures worn by the Yoruba people, and which are connected with ancestor reverence, or to the ancestors themselves as a collective force. The Yoruba is an ethnic group of Southwestern and North central Nigeria as well as Southern and Central Benin known as the Yorubaland cultural region of West Africa.

Amongst the Yoruba, the annual ceremonies in honor of the dead serve as a means of assuring their ancestors a place among the living. They believe the ancestors have the responsibility to compel the living to uphold the ethical standards of the past generations of their clan, town or family. The Egungun are celebrated in festivals, known as Odun Egungun, and in family ritual through the masquerade custom.

Jean-Claude Moschetti has photographed his Egungun series in four different countries; Benin, Burkina-Faso, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. He plans to continue this series throughout the African continent.
 

Born in France, he studied at the Institut National Supérieur des Arts du Spectacle et des Techniques de Diffusion, en Belgique, and worked in the movie industry. He worked as a freelance photographer/photojournalist since 1995.

His work appeared in Le Figaro, Libération, Le Monde, GEO, Les Echos, Le Point, L’Express, La Vie, Capital, Challenges, L’Expansion, L’Usine Nouvelle, Moniteur duBTP, Liaisons Sociales, LSA, Que Choisir, Forbes Magazine, Financial Times, among others.

Mario Cruz | Modern Day Talibes

Photo © Mario Cruz | All Rights Reserved

A few posts back, I featured the work of Indonesian photographer Ulet Ifansasti on an Islamic boarding school in East Java, and I follow it up with the powerful monochromatic work of Mario Cruz on a similar subject; an Islamic boarding school in Senegal...however difference abound.

The long tradition of sending boys to study at Islamic boarding schools (also called madrasas) in Islamic countries is often rooted in positive values of religious and moral education, and on teaching classical theological, legal, and Qur'anic texts. However, politics and social exploitation have intruded in some of these institutions.

Over the last decade in Senegal,  the educational purpose of these boarding schools has been used by unscrupulous so-called teachers to exploit thousands of children who are known as "talibes"...the Arabic term for students.. 

Cruz spent months documenting the physical abuse of talibes, although much of it takes place behind the closed doors of these "schools". The teachers also known as "marabout" (A North African term for a learned Islamic teacher), know that their actions of treating these children as slaves, and sending them into the streets to beg and steal are criminal, but it's a slow progress to apprehend them and close down these schools due to Senegal's limited resources.

The number of children exploited by this system of modern-day slavery is estimated to number as many as 30,000 in the Dakar region alone and 50,000 across the country.

Mario Cruz is a Portuguese photojournalist, and studied studied photojournalism at Cenjor - Professional School of Journalism. In 2006 he began working with LUSA – Portuguese News Agency / EPA – European Pressphoto Agency. Since 2012, he has been focused on his personal projects dedicated to social justice and human rights. 

 

Xavier Guardans | Windows

Photo Xavier Guardans-All Rights Reserved

Here's a gallery of monochromatic portraits of individuals belonging to a variety of Kenyan tribes, such as the Turkana, Samburu, Masai, Rendille, Gabra and Pokot, which were all made using the simplest of staging.

All of these were photographed through the window of the photographer's vehicle. The vehicle's window act as a simple picture frame, almost forcing the viewers to focus only on the subjects' expressions, hands and arms.

Over multiple trips to Kenya in 2006, the photographer took 25 black-and-white portraits from the backseat of his vehicle, photographing his subjects, members of Kenyan tribes, through a rear window.

Xavier Guardans was born in Barcelona in 1954 and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from Bournemouth College of Art in England and was included in exhibitions at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Madrid, Museo de Arte Abstracto Español in Cuenca and the Museu d’ Art Espanyol Contemporani in Palma. His work is held in private and public collections, including at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia and the Center of Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona. Guardans has also had an extensive commercial career publishing his work in major magazines and worldwide advertising campaigns. 

Joana Chomali | Resilients

Photo © Joana Chomali-All Rights Reserved

Perhaps because of my work-in-progress documenting the spirit mediums of Vietnam, which involves colorful exotic and ethnic costumery, my appreciation of "ethno-fashion" portraiture has grown exponentially during the past few months of my travel photography path.

This explains my attraction to the portraits made by Joana Chomali, a photographer born and raised in Abidjan (Ivory Coast), of young, professional African women who -like her- were having difficulty to connect with their families' traditional past. According to The New York Times, each portrait session involved research on how the clothes, jewelry, skin and hair needed to be styled based on the specific tribe the models' families were originally from.

Resilients is a gallery of 9 wonderful portraits of women wearing their traditional dresses of colorful silk fabric; some with circular tribal markings on their skins, and wearing layers of beaded jewelry. The backdrop and the studio lights used by Ms Chomali are designed to give an Old Master feel to the portraits.

Joana Choumali is a fine art photographer based in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. She studied Graphic Arts in Casablanca (Morocco) and worked as an Art Director in an advertising agency before embarking on her photography career. Much of her work focuses on Africa, and of the myriad cultures around her.

Vlad Sokhin | The Nyau Brotherhood

Photo © Vlad Sokhin - All Rights Reserved- Courtesy CNN

CNN occasionally features interesting photo essays and photojournalistic works on its website, and has introduced me to the initiation rituals and practices of the Nyau brotherhood, which is a secret society of the Chewa, an ethnic group of the Bantu peoples from Central and Southern Africa.

The Nyau secret society includes coded language, riddles, metaphor, and satire.

Primarily the Nyau perform their masked dances at funerals, memorial services and initiations, but prior to the dances,  the dancers observe a series of secret rituals which are associated with their a secret brotherhood. Each dancer represents a special character relating to the mask or animal constructions worn. The animals are large constructions that cover the entire body while the masks worn over the face are primarily ancestral spirits. 

Nyau masks are constructed of wood and straw. and are divided into three styles; a feathered net mask, a wooden mask and  a large basketry structure that envelops the entire body of the dancer.

CNN's Behind The Scenes of an African Society includes over a dozen photographs by Vlad Sokhin; who actually had to join the Nyau secret society, by going through the initiation rituals and thus infiltrating it.

Vlad lived in Mozambique from 2010-2011, and although the ritualistic dance in recognized by the UNESCO since 2005, it's a largely hidden and feared activity. To gain access and be allowed to photograph it, he had to befriend one of its members and go through a rough initiation ceremony.

Vlad Sokhin is a documentary photographer, videographer and multimedia producer. He covers social, cultural, environmental, health and human rights issues around the world, including post-conflict and natural disaster zones. He worked on photo, video and radio projects, collaborating with various international media and with the United Nations and international NGOs. Vlad’s work has been exhibited and published internationally, including at Visa Pour L’Image and Head On photo festivals and in the International Herald Tribune, BBC World Service, the Guardian, National Geographic Traveler, GEO, ABC, NPR, The Atlantic, Stern, Le Monde, Paris Match, Esquire, Das Magazin, WIRE Amnesty International, Sydney Morning Herald, Marie Claire, The Global Mail, Russian Reporter and others.

He is fluent in English, Russian and Portuguese and also speaks Spanish and Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea). He is currently also learning French and Arabic.

35 Cows And A Kalashnikov | An African Journey

"No boy soldiers. No hunger. No safaris."

Here's a beautifully produced trailer of a movie titled 35 Cows And A Kalshasnikov by Oswald Von Reicththoven.

It's in three parts: a tribute to the stick-fighting Surma tribe of Southern Ethiopia, the dandy movement of Brazzaville and the voodoo wrestlers in Kinshasa.

Stick fighting is a sport and ritual the Surma people take extremely seriously. In most cases, stick fighting is done so young men can find wives, and is a way for young men to prove themselves to the eligible young women.

The "dandy" movement of Brazzaville involves young men who love to wear meticulously in sartorially fashionable dress, and these are known as "sapeurs". Pastel-colored three-piece suits in designer labels are a staple of the Sapeurs' fastidiously assembled ensembles. They stand out among the widespread poverty, strutting the streets like walking works of art.

In the Congo, wrestling is extremely popular, but the main difference between the way it's practiced here is that the Congolese like to introduce a mystical, magical “voodoo” element to the theatrics. So apart from the obvious play-acting, there are also “magical traditions” involving powders, spells and zombie-like transformations of wrestlers.

Oswald von Richthofen is a producer and director, known for 10000 BC (2008), 35 Cows and a Kalashnikov (2014) and Franzmann (1979).

Fabrice Monteiro | Signares

Photo © Fabrice Monteiro-All Rights Reserved

I'm always interested in the intersection of fashion and travel photography. Exotic and beautiful women in exotic dress...what's not to like? One of my modules during my photo expedition to Vietnam will include a model shoot in Hoi An....and I really look forward to it.

In that vein, I feature the lovely fashion-travel-cultural work of Fabrice Monteiro, which showcases gorgeous women taking the roles of Signares. According to Wikipedia, Signares was the name for the French-African women of the island of Gorée in French Senegal during the 18th and 19th centuries.

These women held some power in a patriarchal system throughout the Atlantic Slave Trade, and over time amassed considerable power in trade and wealth. Some owned land as well as slaves. European merchants and traders, such as the Portuguese, settled on the African coastal societies inhabited by Signares and would marry them in order to benefit from their connections and wealth.

Fabrice Monteiro, living and working in Dakar, is a Belgian-Benin photographer who, while an industrial engineer by training, adopts the style of photo-reportage and fashion photography. He specializes in Africa, and being of a cultural mix himself, favors subject matters that provide the same mix.

Cameron Karsten | The Vodou Trail

Photo © Cameron Karsten-All Rights Reserved

"The Engungun spirit enters the body and becomes a direct translation of God".

Readers of this blog will know of my interest in documenting vodou or voodoo for quite a while, and until I'm able to finalize my research, and allocate some time to do so, I have to content myself with the work of others...often magnificent work...about this age-old, and misunderstood,  religious practice.

Both Cameron Karsten and Constantine Savvides produced a multimedia project that documents the origins of this belief system in West Africa to the shores of the New World. Cameron's website has a ton of still images of vodou practitioners in West Africa.

Voodoo, or Orisha, as it is practiced today, originated many hundred years ago among the Yoruba people who live in the region of modern-day Togo, Benin and parts of Nigeria. Followers of voodoo believe in an unapproachable god and an array of spirits who serve as intermediaries. Slaves, forced to leave Benin's sandy shores in their millions, took such beliefs to the U.S. and the islands of the West Indies, where they spread and formed the basis of religions like Candomblé, Macumba, Santería and Umbanda.

The Vodou Trail is the dedicated website for Cameron's and Constantine's documentary work on vodou, exploring the misconceptions about the practice, and about its clandestine aspects.

Masks of Dwo | Aitor Lara

The masks of Dwo from José Bautista on Vimeo.

To start off the week, here's a really unusual dance ritual performed by the Bwa people of Burkino Faso.

According to Wikipedia, the Bwa people are an ethnic group indigenous to central Burkina Faso and Mali. Their population is approximately 300,000 and they are known for their use of elaborate masks, made from leaves or wood, used in rituals.

While 5% of the Bwa are Muslim, and 10% are Christian, the remaining 85% are animists. The latter worship a creator god called Wuro, whose son was Dwo, the god of new life and rebirth. The Bwa use leaf masks more than wooden ones, and these leaf masks frequently represent Dwo in religious ceremonies. The masks also represent the bush spirits including serpents, monkeys, buffalo and hawks. These performances generally take place in the dry season between February and May.

Aitor Lara is a Spanish photographer/videographer who worked in different countries bringing to light the anthropological dimensions of social minorities such as indigenous peoples, and sex workers. He showed his work in international photography fairs such as ARCO and ParisPhoto. He received a number of research grants, including one that allowed him to carry out a project in Uzbekistan. He published a number of books, including Maestranza, a photographic report about the bullring of Seville. He has published in magazines such as NewsWeek, Financial Times, Ojo de Pez orVokrug Sveta. In 2012, he published the book Ronda Goyesca edited by La Fábrica. He was a nominee of the Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund Grant in 2012.

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.

Charlotte Rush-Bailey | Black & White Spider Awards Nominations

Photo © Charlotte Rush-Bailey-All Rights Reserved

Photo © Charlotte Rush-Bailey-All Rights Reserved

Photo © Charlotte Rush-Bailey-All Rights Reserved

Charlotte Rush-Bailey has been on virtually all my recent photo expeditions-workshops, and has recently had two photographs made during these trips nominated in the Black & White Spider Awards' People Category .

The first top photographs was made at a Vedic school during The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition/Workshop, while the lower top photograph was made during the In Search of Sufis of Gujarat Expedition/Workshop at the Mira Datar Sufi shrine.

The lower photograph of the elephant was made in February 2013 and was awarded a Honorable Mention in the Wildlife Category. Charlotte is a keen proponent of protecting elephants, and had dedicated a website Elephants Forever to discourage consumers from buying ivory.

Charlotte is a photographer who migrated to the world of photography from a corporate career that covered three decades of marketing and communications positions in a variety of global industries including energy, financial services, media, conservation, technology and professional services. This gave her opportunities to work with people all over the world, and to learn to appreciate cultural nuances and the influences of socio-political forces.

Irene Becker | Durbar Festival

Photo © Irene Becker-All Rights Reserved

I haven't posted much travel/documentary photographic work of Africa (with the exception of Ethiopia) on The Travel Photographer blog, so I'm very glad to redress this shortfall by featuring the very interesting work of Irene Becker.

One of the galleries that caught my eye was of Irene's photographs of the Grand Durbar in Argungu, Nigeria. The Durbar is an annual festival celebrated in several cities of Nigeria at the end of the Muslim festivals Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Its highlight is a parade of the Emir and his entourage on horses, accompanied by music players, and ending at the Emir's palace.

Irene tells us that the Durbar in 2009 involved more than 500 horses, 120 camels, 1760 men and women dressed in traditional indigenous attires with resplendent colors. The Emir of Argungu led a special group of horsemen in a rich and beautiful display.

The slideshow of Irene's Durbar photographs consist of 20 still images, however there are some more on her blog. There are few photographs of this event on the internet, and most of them belong to Irene.

Irene Becker describes herself as a culture, travel and doucumentary freelance photographer, and is based in Budapest, Hungary. She earned a degree at the Academy of Arts, University of Novi Sad at its Department of Music. Her images have appeared in brochures, annual reports, billboards, books, magazines, web sites, exhibit spaces, greeting cards, and have been featured in fine art gallery exhibits, as well as in individual collections of photo lovers worldwide. She also produces stock for Getty Images.

The Frame | Voodoo Festival

Photo © AP / Jon Gambrell-Courtesy SacBee's The Frame

The Frame, the Sacramento Bee's photo blog, features photographs of the exciting Benin's Voodoo Festival. This is certainly one festival I would have loved to attend, but it completely fell off my radar. Perhaps next year? It appears it's held every January 10th. There are also a number of travel companies that can arrange for tourists (oh, no!!) to attend the festival.

But who knows? Perhaps a future destination for one of The Travel Photographer's Photo Expeditions-Workshops?

Ouidah, on the Atlantic coast of Benin, is where voodoo began, and the launching point for its voyage to the Americas with the boatloads of African slaves. It is also the mecca for the spirits and gods worshipped by practitioners of Voodoo, or Vodun, a recognised religion in this former French colony in West Africa that is home to 9 million people.

According to the accompanying write up on The Frame, local banks and the post office closed as Ouidah celebrated this annual festival,; which is increasingly drawing curious foreigners. With its mix of beliefs and traditions, the Voodoo practiced here shows both a clash of cultures and the ability for ancient traditional beliefs to adapt to modern life.

Voodoo, or Orisha, as it is practiced today, originated many hundred years ago among the Yoruba people who live in the region of modern-day Togo, Benin and parts of Nigeria. Followers of voodoo believe in an unapproachable god and an array of spirits who serve as intermediaries. Slaves, forced to leave Benin's sandy shores in their millions, took such beliefs to the U.S. and the islands of the West Indies, where they spread and formed the basis of religions like Candomblé, Macumba, Santería and Umbanda.

Shannon Jensen | Imbalu

Photo © Shannon Jensen-All Rights Reserved

Here's another compelling photo essay out of Africa, titled Imbalu and is by photographer Shannon Jensen.

The ritual of circumcision amongst the Bagisu tribe of Uganda is called Imbalu, and they believe that one's voyage to manhood begins with ithat ritual, with the whole community participating in it. This involves walking around the circumcision candidates' village, visiting religious sites to appease the gods, singing and dancing to folk songs that praise these gods.

The tribal elders say the origin of the practice is mysterious, even to them. But there are various conflicting legends associated with the necessity of males having to undergo the circumcision.

Circumcision seems to have been common practice in the Arabian peninsula in the 4th millennium BCE, while the earliest historical record of circumcision comes from Egypt, dating to about 2400–2300 BCE. Circumcision was done by the Ancient Egyptians possibly for hygienic reasons, but also was part of their obsession with purity. 

It is a prominent feature in the Hebrew Bible (possibly because of the Ancient Egyptians) with over 90% of Judaism adherents having the procedure performed as a religious obligation. Although not mentioned in the Qur'an, circumcision is considered essential to Islam, and is universally performed among Muslims.

Shannon Jensen is a documentary photographer based between East Africa and Washington DC. She has a B.S. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. She attended the 2009 Eddie Adams Workshop and is currently featured on the Emerging Talent roster of Reportage by Getty Images. Her clients include The New York Times, Die Zeit, German GEO, Newsweek, Monocle, MSF, Oxfam and the National Geographic Society.

Jacquelyn Martin | Tribe of Ghosts

Photo © Jacquelyn Martin-All Rights Reserved

"The genetic condition known as Albinism can be a death sentence in Tanzania."

Jacquelyn Martin, a staff photojournalist with the Associated Press (Washington DC) is featuring a compelling audio slideshow on her website, titled Tribe of Ghosts.

The East African nation of Tanzania is a particularly dangerous region to be an albino. Albinism is a defect of melanin production that results in little or no color (pigment) in the skin, hair, and eyes. And in Tanzania, as in other African countries, albinos are discriminated against, and their murder has been reported. They are hunted for their flesh, a horrific result of superstitions and the desire of witch doctors to make "magic". A common belief is that albinos don't die, but vanish like ghosts.

Tanzania has one of the highest rates of albinism in the world — nearly 1 in every 1400 people as compared to about 1 in 20,000 worldwide.

Jacquelyn Martin's work has been recognized with awards from the White House News Photographers Association, NPPA, and the Women Photojournalists of Washington.

NPR has also featured Ms Martin's photographs along with an article by John Burnett, along with an audio story and her still photographs of Tanzanian albinos on ThePictureShow blog.

Frederic Vanwalleghem | Vodun

"Vodun practitioners worship a pantheon of gods and lesser deities that inhabit objects ranging from stones to waterfalls."

Here's a short video made of moving images and stills by photographer Frederic Vanwalleghem made in Ouidah (Benin)of the ancient belief system of vodun.

Despite concerted efforts of Christian missionaries, this ancient belief system still has millions of adherents along West Africa’s former Slave Coast, from Ghana to parts of Nigeria, and especially in Benin. In 1996, Benin’s democratic government officially decreed vodun a religion, and ever since, thousands have openly practiced it. It's estimated that  20 percent of the population of Benin, or about a million people, practice pure vodun.

The belief system is called vodun in Benin, vodou or voodoo in Haiti and vudu in the Dominican Republic.

Frederic Vanwalleghem is a Belgian photographer; deeply interested in African religious traditions, and especially in vodun, a topic he has researched for years. He became interested in vodun when he first traveled to Cuba and discovered santeria, the Afro-Cuban religious tradition, and was subsequently introduced its secret ceremonies in Trinidad. Later, he traveled to Nigeria and Benin, to look for the roots of diasporic traditions like santeria, condomble and vodun.

An interesting article on vodun was recently featured in The New York Times, and a full interview with Frederic Vanwalleghem was featured in The Leica Camera Blog.

Out of Eden Walk: 30 Million Footsteps

A few posts ago I suggested there were no more explorers in the mold of Richard Francis Burton.

I was wrong.

An incredible exploration trek is being planned by Paul Salopek, a writer for the Chicago Tribune and National Geographic, who will be walking the journey taken by early man tens of thousands of years ago.

The walk, Out of Eden, will take 30 million footsteps, over 21, 000 miles over 7 years to complete. It will start in Great Rift Valley in Ethiopia, and will cross the Red Sea into the Middle East, cross China, into Siberia, cross the Bering Strait into Alaska and then walk all the way down the western coasts of North and South America.

Graphic courtesy The Observer

Salopek will be taking a micro-light laptop, video and audio recording tools, since he intends to record his journey; including landscapes and voices and faces of the people he meets on the walk. He will also be taking a satellite phone through which he will be uploading his journal's recordings to his his website.

He tells The Guardian newspaper that "We will be creating a family portrait of humanity for the next seven years."

That promises to be one damn exciting journey for all of us.

Jan Schlegel: Pain & Beauty Redux

Photo © Jan C. Schlegel-All Rights Reserved

Oh, followers and readers of The Travel Photographer blog will like this!

Ethnophotography, traditional process, photographs made with a 4x5 field camera (Ebony SV45 Ti) on Kodak Tmax 400, and negatives developed in Kodak D76 Developer 1+1 dilution...then selenium toned. What's not to like?

"None of the people photographed wear special make-up or were specially dressed before the photos were taken. They were all captured in their own habitat — at the market, in the village square, or simply on the roadside." Jan Schlegel

Jan C. Schlegel is a German photographer, whose ethno-photographic work is in the tradition of Phil Borges.  In 1998, he began traveling throughout Asia and Africa with the objective of photographing diverse people groups and tribes, and has so far traveled to 61 countries and is still in pursuit of the beauty and diversity of the nations.

The quality of these photographs are just remarkable. His website claims that he succeeds in not only creating artistic photographs, but in documenting the uniqueness of his subjects...the people who posed for him. Absolutely.

And I have a lot of respect for a photographer who doesn't follow the fad of making demeaning portraits of Ethiopian tribal people wearing ridiculous ornaments. Speaking of ornaments, take a look at the magnificent jewelry of the Himba women...and don't miss the beautiful eyes of the Kalash women.

I had posted Jan's work some years ago here, but it seems he changed his website, and added much more work.