John Quintero | Monochromes

Photo © John Quintero - All Rights Reserved

Rather than feature a specific photo gallery or photo story of a culture or area, this post is about the lovely monochrome portraits by John Quintero.

As my readers probably know by now, I'm soon to lead The Sacred Cities Photo Expedition-Workshop to Varanasi and Vrindavan, where I hope some of my own personal photography will be in black and white. On the workshop's schedule are photo shoots documenting the ancient tradition of Indian wrestling, known as kushti, in various gyms (akaharas) that are sprinkled in the old city of Varanasi.

The monochrome portraits by Mr Quintero weren't only of traditional wrestlers, but of Ethiopian tribes people in the Omo Valley, of Ethiopian Tigray people, of Ladakhis, of Cambodians, of Chinese Opera performers, of Burmese, of Lao Akha women and many more.

Incidentally, the photograph of the wrestlers above is a Finalist entry in the Sony World Photography Awards 2014 in the Professional Sports category.

John Quintero is a freelance photographer based in London, specializing in portraiture and travel photography. Apart from assignments, he also spends part of his time traveling the world documenting remote and unique cultures and their traditional ways of life.

His work has been published in national and international newspapers and magazines including The Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, National Geographic Travel UK, Photo Pro Magazine and Digital Camera Magazine. His work has also featured on a TV commercial in the UK and in several books in a number of languages. He is also a contributor to Getty for editorial and creative images, and has won numerous awards for his work.

Krister Halvars | Laos

Photo © Krister Halvars. All Rights Reserved

Laos is another country which I haven't featured often on the pages of The Travel Photographer Blog. I've traveled to Laos a few years ago, but it hasn't clicked with me photographically-speaking...despite its many attributes. Over the two weeks of my visit, I managed to photograph in Vientiane, Luang Prabang, and Vang Vieng but my favorite experience were the few days I spent on Khone Island.

So I was glad to encounter Krister Halvars' website which showcases Laotian photographs. The Laos gallery (you have to wait a few seconds for the galleries to appear) has 17 images of which, in my view, the one above of the Mekong fisherman is the most striking.

In his sparse biography, Krister tells us he was a fighter pilot in the Swedish Air Force, then a commercial pilot on SAS.

Laos is a single-party socialist republic, and its mainstay export is by generating electricity from its rivers and selling the power to its neighbors  namely Thailand, China, and Vietnam. That said, both Vietnam and Cambodia urged it to halt construction of a $3.5 billion dam on the Mekong because it threatens the livelihood of millions who live downstream.

Christina Feldt: Travel Photography

Photo © Christina Feldt-All Rights Reserved

"As far back as I can remember, I have been fascinated by other cultures, faces, customs and ways of living."

And this is in essence how Christina Feldt started her photographic career. She was not joking...she writes me that she's just back from a 9 months trip through Mongolia, Myanmar, SE Asia and Ethiopia; a trip that generated enough galleries to occupy its viewers for quite some time. She has also established a Photoshelter website which you can view here.

I've gone through most of them...starting with Ethiopia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Mongolia, Bangkok and Singapore, and when I got to Vietnam...I paused at Christina's lovely photographs made against the yellow walls of Hoi An.

That done, I read the compelling blog post she wrote about Mai, a 31-year old Hmong woman from Sapa, who told her that her dream was to see the ocean and to be able to read and write, so she could read the text messages on her cellphone.

It's no surprise that I stopped at her Vietnam gallery...after all, this is my forthcoming destination where I'm holding a 15-days photo-expedition/workshop, and her photographs serve to reinforce the 'visuality' of Vietnam and its people.

Global Post: Ali Sanderson's Mekong River

Photo © Ali Sanderson- Courtesy Global Post-All Rights Reserved

Global Post periodically publishes a photo feature called Full Frame, which showcases some interesting work by emerging photographers. This one is on the Mekong River and is by Ali Sanderson, an Australian photographer from Australia who was based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. She worked on productions with leading broadcasters such as National Geographic TV and Radio Free Asia.

In Phnom Penh, Ali, with three other Australian filmmakers, formed a film production company focusing on documentary films dealing with environmental and human rights issues. This led to projects commissioned by Radio Free Asia.

The Mekong is the 10th-longest river in the world, and the 7th-longest in Asia. Its estimated length is 4,909 km (3,050 mi) and runs from the Tibetan Plateau through China's Yunnan province, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Jeffrey Chapman: Cambodia

Currently based in New York State, Jeffrey Chapman describes himself quite well by saying that he is a freelance cultural, humanitarian and world photographer. He also worked as a director for a World Bank project in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of western China, as an adviser to the Japanese government's JETRO office in Italy, and as an internationalization and strategy consultant working with corporate clients, presidents and prime ministers in Europe, Asia and North America.

Jeffrey is currently a member of the senior staff at the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees in Utica, NY, working as an advocate for refugees (primarily Burmese/Karen, Somali and Iraqi) who are resettling in the United States.

Most of Jeffrey's photographs are of Cambodia, although his second and third galleries feature portraits and scenes of Laos and Vietnam.

Greg Cohen: Laos

Photograph © Greg Cohen-All Rights Reserved
Greg Cohen is originally from the East Coast, and is now living in Los Angeles. His biography tells us that he first picked up the camera in Tennessee in 1993, while living in the Smoky Mountain region. He has lived throughout the United States photographing along the way, and is now developing projects in central Africa and Southeast Asia.

I've chosen a photograph from Greg's portfolio of Laos to illustrate this post, but I urge you to explore the rest of his galleries...I stopped at one of his photographs in his India gallery of a young person (probably a girl because of the henna markings) with the most wonderful of expressions. It's #12 and was photographed in Cochin. In my view, an award winning candid photograph!

Greg Cohen

Albertina D'Urso: Laos, Along The Mekong

Photograph © Albertina d'Urso-All Rights Reserved
Albertina d'Urso is an Italian documentary photographer. She published two books, "Bombay Slum" and "Lifezoom", and two collections "Respiro del Mondo 5, Afghanistan" and "Km 5072, Milano-Kabul No Stop," which received the Canon Young Photographers Award in 2007.

She traveled to over 70 countries and has a special interest in Tibetan culture. She has been photographing Tibetan refugees around the world since 2004. While her work on Tibetan refugees is certainly topical at a time when world's attention is on China and its treatment of Tibet, I chose her photo gallery titled "Laos: Along the Mekong" to highlight on the pages of TTP.

Luang Prabang: A Zoo?!

Photograph © David Longstreath/Associated Press-All Rights Reserved
This photograph appeared in the New York Times this morning with the article "Tourism Saves a Laotian City but Saps Its Buddhist Spirit", and is of tourists jostling each other to take photographs of Buddhist monks during their alms gathering in Luang Prabang. What a disgraceful spectacle!!! I realize that Laos is in dire need of the jobs and money that such tourism brings, but the damage that this does to its traditions and ways of life is irreversible. Many other South East Asian cities have degenerated into touristic zoos...Siem Reap and its fabulous Angkor temples is one of them.

I visited Luang Prabang 3 years ago, and I recall seeing tourists photographing the monks early morning, but they were not as aggressive and so 'in-their-face". In fact, they stood at a respectful distance from the monks, some even standing on the other side of the road (as I did), to show respect for this age-old ritual.

This is from the article: “Now we see the safari,” said Nithakhong Somsanith, an artist and embroiderer who works to preserve traditional arts. “They come in buses. They look at the monks the same as a monkey, a buffalo. It is theater.”

How would these tourists feel if the roles were reversed? Haven't these monks the same feelings and sensitivities we all do?

I see this shameful behavior time and time again wherever I go from tourists who are clueless -or are uncaring- as to their reprehensible behavior. Some nationalities are worse than others, and I (as participants in my photo expeditions only know too well) have no second thoughts in directly confronting such tactless people.

Beat Presser: Oasis of Silence

Photograph © Beat Presser-All Rights Reserved
When Beat Presser was in late teens, he traveled through Southeast Asia, and met with a car accident in Thailand. Healed from a serious spine injury by monks in a Buddhist monastery, he vowed to do something in return, should he become the photographer he intended to be.

Between 2000 and 2004, he returned to live in Theravada Buddhism monasteries in Thailand, Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Sri Lanka, and photographed the essence of Buddhism. Oasis of Silence is the resulting photographic exhibition and book.

Presser also produced an accompanying website My Oasis of Silence allows participants to post their profile and photographs, and to interact among each other and with Beat Presser, thus creating a growing community and allowing a permanent exchange.

Beat Presser's Buddhism Oasis of Silence is well produced and its background music is haunting, but the B&W photographs are too small to fully appreciate Presser's artistry.

Barbara Paul: Timeless Laos Exhibit

Barbara Paul photographs people of remote regions of Asia and Africa, where few travelers visit. Timeless Laos: Monks, Festivals, Village Life captures the ethnic dress, tribal and religious customs, festivals and daily life that make Laos unique. From villages to ancient ruins, from daily market life to holiday festivals, Ms. Paul's photographs provide a rare glimpse into a land that seems timeless even as the modern age encroaches.

Timeless Laos: Monks, Festivals, Village Life , an exhibit by the Westport photographer Barbara Paul, will be on display at the Rye Free Reading Room in Rye, NY from November 20 through January 3, 2008 , with a reception on Sunday, November 25, from 1-3PM.

Ms. Paul's previous exhibits have featured Eastern Tibet, Ethiopia, Papua New Guinea, Mali and other countries.

For further information, contact the Rye Library 1061 Boston Post Road,Rye, New York 10580 on (914) 967-0480 or via its website.

NY Times: Mekong Fishermen

Image Copyright © Suthep Kristsanavarin-OnAsia-All Rights Reserved

The New York Times Travel editors have been busy this past week, and now bring us a photo slideshow of the Lao fishermen who work on the Mekong River as it flows into Cambodia.

The area is called Si Phan Don, and its largest island is Don Khong. I visited the area, and saw Khone Phapheng which is considered the largest waterfall (by volume) in Southeast Asia. The area is also home to the rare Irrawaddy dolphins, which can be seen at the southern tip of the island. There are many comfortable (but simple) lodgings available on the banks of the river, so spend some time there if Laos is on your itinerary. Time moves very slowly in Don Khong and it's an idyllic place.

I am surprised that Suthep of the OnAsia photo agency decided to use flash in so many of the photographs. I recall the light to be exquisite in the early morning and late afternoon...more like the golden light seen in the photograph above.

Fishermen of the Mekong (Registration may be required)

John McDermott: Images of Asia

Image Copyright John McDermott
John McDermott has been photographing Southeast Asia since the early 1990s, and traveled extensively throughout the region. During these travels, he developed a strong interest in the many cultural heritage sites and ancient historical ruins spread across the continent.

He witnessed the total eclipse of the sun at Angkor in Cambodia in October of 1995, and seeing the monuments in the eerie surreal light of the eclipse, inspired him to use infrared film to render the subjects most closely to what he saw then. His superb prints combine the impressionistic, moody effects of infrared film with a subtle sepia tone to achieve this effect.

McDermott's gallery in Siem Reap is a must for anyone visiting Angkor Wat, who has an interest in beautiful imagery.

From his simple-to-navigate website, I've chosen his excellent Indochina gallery which showcases images from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia.

Here's Images of Asia; Indochina