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.

Kris Bailey's Durga Puja: The Spirit of Kolkata

"Durga Puja is a celebration of the Mother Goddess, and the victory of the revered warrior Goddess Durga over the evil buffalo demon Mahishasura."

Kris Bailey recently sent me her audio slideshow made during my Kolkata's Cult of Durga Photo~Expedition & Workshop™ which took place a little over a year ago (how time flies!!!).

It's Durga Puja time right now in the wonderful city of Kolkata. Kolkata, the city that to my mind epitomizes India more than any other city in India.

You ought to watch it as it encapsulate very well the tradition of this annual religious event and its rituals, especially as it is the most important observance in West Bangal. I had encouraged the participants in this workshop to produce monochrome photo essays, and Kris's work is unquestionably one of the best I've seen so far.

Apart from being an attorney in Northern California, Kris is a photographer who's keenly interested in South and South East Asia, and is particularly attracted to unusual rituals and religious festivals. She's already been on two of my most intense photo expeditions workshops, and that doesn't seem to deter her in the least.

You may want to drop by her Vimeo page where she has 4 videos of her audio slideshows, and by her blog, on which you'll find examples of her still photography in India and elsewhere.

The Travel Photographer's "Cafe Dao (& Love)"

"No one in our village was as beautiful as she was...we liked each other since we were 12 years old..."

A foreign stranger suddenly walks up to you while you're relaxing on your front porch, with cameras dangling off his shoulders, asking to document your daily life. What would your reaction be?

Well, Thai Truang Dao happily said yes. Of course, Maika Elan was there to explain my purpose, but Mr Dao's hospitality went beyond the inherent politeness shown to a foreign guest. Allowing me into his home (and his life)...and at one point, gesturing me to go up the creaky stairs to photograph a now little used second floor, where his family's shrine and portraits were carefully laid out...is a testament to his kindness.

His candor during the lengthy interviews was natural, and brought Maika and I into their life which they shared for over 60 years.

Thai Truang Dao is a 92 years old Vietnamese, living in Hoi An with his wife, Thai Mo Ba. He established Cafe Dao in the mid forties, before the battle of Dien Bien Phu and much before the Vietnam War (known as the American War in Vietnam). He recalls Cafe Dao as being a meeting place for socializing, gossip and friendship, not only for good coffee.

Bao and his wife were school mates but after graduation didn't meet until she was 28 years old. Very unusually for a Vietnamese woman at that time, Ba hadn't married...waiting for Bao whom she loved but had never shown nor expressed. Meeting again by happenstance, they got married.

Bao wasn't drafted by the Vietcong during the American war due to his Chinese ancestry.

Snippets of their lifestory in just over 3 minutes.

You can also watch it in its native Soundslides format below (it's a better resolution).

©Tewfic El-Sawy- Maika with Mr Dao during the photo shoots.

©Maika Elan. Tewfic with Mr Dao at the end of the photo shoots

Initial Draft Story Board For Cafe Dao

The Travel Photographer's "Hilltribes In The Mist"

Following my Vietnam: North of the 16th Parallel Photo-Expedition/Workshop, here's a short audio-slideshow documenting some of the hill tribes of North Western Vietnam in Sa Pa and Bac Ha. Mostly Hmong and Dzao, and a handful from over 10 other tribes, they attend Bac Ha's famous Sunday market to buy, sell, barter and eat.

There are 10 Montagnard groups that live around Bac Ha: the Flower H’mong are the most visible (and seen in the slideshow), but other groups include Dzao, Giay (Nhang), Han (Hoa), Xa Fang, Lachi, Nung, Phula, Thai and Thula.

The still photographs were made with a Leica M9, Canon 5D Mark II and the Fuji X Pro-1. When using the latter, I mostly shot from the hip. The audio was recorded on a Tascam DR-40. The images were post-processed using Alien Skin Software.

The audio-slideshow can also be viewed on my Vimeo site.

Victoria Alexander: The Gurukul Newspaper

"I’m happiest with a camera in my hand, photography keeps me fresh, when creating or making something, anything, a home, cooking or writing."- Victoria Alexander.

Here's The Gurukul Newspaper; an audio slideshow by Victoria Alexander, whose resume is not only lengthy, but extraordinarily varied, multi-layered and complex.

Victoria was a fashion editor for Vogue and Cosmopolitan and a freelance stylist and art director for stills, film and television commercials. She established the television production company, The Film Business, and a small boutique hotel, The Russell, in Sydney, and built The Bathers’ Pavilion restaurant and café in Balmoral. She also completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons) at the National Art School.

She's also the author of three books: The Bathers Pavilion Cookbook, One, and Colour. Colour is due to be released in England, New Zealand and Australia on 1st November. She's a photographer, and a home making consultant, and an inveterate traveler...to India, Bhutan, Cuba, Ethiopia, Syria, Iran, Jordan, Namibia, Vietnam, Laos and Bali to name but a few.

I encourage my readers to log on to Victoria's blog, and explore her multi-faceted talents directly from her posts.

Her lastest (to be released in November) 300+ pages book Colour is described as "Lyrically written and thoughtfully illustrated with photography by Victoria Alexander (stylist, fashion editor and passionate traveller), Colour is interspersed with poignant reminders on how to use colour to transform your mood and brighten your life."

Chico Sanchez: La Guelaguetza

Photo © Chico Sanchez- All Rights Reserved

As part of the celebrations in honor of the Virgin of Carmen, residents from Oaxaca state's eight regions travel every year to the capital to offer traditional dances, while the residents from Carmen Alto and Carmen Bajo neighborhoods participate in banquets, offerings and processions throughout the city....and this is how Chico Sanchez describes his latest audio-slideshow Deep Friendship.

The Guelaguetza is an annual indigenous cultural event in Mexico that takes place in the city of Oaxaca as well as in nearby villages. The word Guelaguetza means "offering" in the Zapotec language, but its means much more. In traditional Oaxacan villages, people attending the festivities bring food, alcoholic beverages, etc. Each person's offering, or "guelaguetza" triggers a reciprocal exchange, and enables the reinforcement of social ties.

Chico Sanchez is far from being a stranger to The Travel Photographer's blog. His audio-slideshow work has been featured on it on many occasions.

He is a freelance photographer based in Mexico City. Chico worked in Venezuela, collaborating with Reuters, European Pressphoto Agency, Agencia EFE, and freelances for various newspapers and magazines.

Rasha Yousif: At The Madrasa

As Rasha Yousif writes on her Vimeo page, Islam is the second-most practiced religion in India following Hinduism, while 24% of Kerala's population is Muslim. Muslims of Kerala believe that their origins in the area started in the 7th century AD when Islam originated in Arabia.

During my The Oracles Of Kerala Photo Expedition-Workshop, Rasha worked on a number of multimedia photo projects and one of her Soundslides (now converted to video) photo films is her At The Madrasa, whose still photographs and audio were taken at the madrasa of Cheraman Perumal Juma Masjid.

The photographs are in monochrome, and Rasha has done very well in merging the various audio tracks that include the students voices, and religious chants. You will see these Muslim children learning the Qur'anic texts and theology probably in the same style as their forefathers/mothers did centuries ago.

She is a photographer from the island nation of Bahrain, and is only the second Middle Eastern participant in my photo expeditions-workshops since I started them 10 years or so ago.

As a historical note, the Cheraman Perumal Juma Masjid in the Kodungallur is the first mosque in India, believed to have been built in 629 AD by Malik Ibn Dinar, who was a Persian slave and a contemporary of the Prophet Muhammad's disciples.

Chico Sanchez: The Dresser

Photo © Chico Sanchez-All Rights Reserved

To break the recent string of India and Asia related posts, here is The Dresser, an audio slideshow by Chico Sanchez, a freelance photographer based in Mexico City.

The Dresser is Cesar Diaz, a professional dresser (el vestidor in Spanish) of religious icons, from Jerez de la Frontera, Cadiz, Spain. In this audio slideshow, Cesar demonstrates how he prepares Our Lady of Sorrows for an Easter Holy Week celebration in the village of Prado del Rey, in Andalusia, Spain.

I've featured the work of Chico Sanchez, a freelance photographer based in Mexico City, on a number of occasions. Chico worked in Venezuela, collaborating with Reuters, European Pressphoto Agency, Agencia EFE, and currently freelances for various newspapers and magazines.

My Work: The Art of Kathakali

One of the highlights of my Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition-Workshop this past March was spending half a day at a Kathakali school near Thrissur, and documenting the preparations and performance of this ancient art. It was totally distinct from the usual superficial performances shown at the various tourist hotels, and the professionalism of the performers was breathtaking. Apart from the talent of the performers, I was especially struck by the singing which you hear on this "photo-film".

Kathakali is one of the oldest theatre forms in the world, and originated in Kerala. It's a group production, in which actors-dancers take various roles in performances based on themes from Hindu mythology, such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

The elaborate make up sessions often take longer than the performances themselves, and follow a certain ritual.

I chose to process the photographs in sepia (DxO Labs), which were made with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Leica M9, with the ambient audio recording on a Tascam DR40.

You can also watch it in HD on Vimeo.

The Rickshaw Wallahs of Kolkata

Following my two weeks Kolkata's Cult of Durga Photo~Expedition & Workshop™, I have now completed two photo essays centering on the rickshaw pullers of that quintessential Indian megapolis. About half of the photographs were made using a Leica M9, while the rest with a Canon 5d Mark II. The audio was recorded with a Marantz 620PMD.

The first photo essay is an audio slideshow of about 30 black & white photographs of rickshaw pullers, supplemented by a soundtrack made up of Kolkata's traffic sounds, short narrative clips by the pullers themselves and live instrumental music played by Satyananda Das, a traditional Baul musician.

It can be seen either as a Vimeo movie (above) or as a regular SoundSlides multimedia, which is recommended because the quality of the photographs are much better, and are much larger.

The second photo essay is a gallery of still photographs... essentially the same as those in the multimedia products above, but the gallery is better suited for those who prefer to view them without any multimedia influence.

Documenting the rickshaw pullers was a secondary objective of the workshop, but was an important one. The government of Bengal had announced plans to completely ban the rickshaws, saying that the grueling work violates the pullers human rights, the argument was rejected by the rickshaw pullers with huge protests. Almost all of the pullers I spoke to were from the state of Bihar, one of India’s poorest states. Mohammed was one of those...an older man, a Muslim from Bihar with a dark bunion on his forehead from genuflecting five times a day. Past his prime, he said that he made about 400 rupees a day...the equivalent of $9 or so.

Having experienced first hand Kolkata's incredible 24-hour traffic jams, I believe those who claim that rickshaws are the only mode of transport who can circulate its narrow streets and alleys. The rickshaws carry business people, live poultry, school children, the sick to the hospitals, fruit to the markets, and even prostitutes. Without them, Kolkata could risk coming to a standstill, especially during the monsoon rains when roads can be impassable...and let's face it, Kolkata without the rickshaw pullers wouldn't be the same.

Many Kolkata intellectuals have said that while we can refuse on moral grounds to be carried by another human being, we have no right to take away their livelihood. There's also the hope that rickshaw pullers can be provided with an alternative employment.

Milongas: The Seduction of Tango

I'm pleased to feature an audio slideshow titled "Milongas! The Seduction of Tango" of my still black & white photographs made in various tango halls and milongas of Buenos Aires during the week I spent there  teaching with the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop.

Note: You have two viewing options: either to view it as a Vimeo movie (above) or as a SoundSlides, which has better resolution images.

I am equally pleased in having broken many of my self-imposed rules which I religiously followed when producing such multimedia pieces. For this piece, I applied panning (Ken Burns effect) on a few occasions to give the semblance of motion, and to bring the eyes of the viewers to a specific part of the still. Rules are made to be broken, and I hope the photographers who attended my class do not take me too much to task for that.

"the silent and imperceptible gesture by men inviting women to dance..."

I chose to photograph the milongas and the tango at these venues for many reasons. Perhaps it was mainly because of my appreciation for international music, but as I observed the people who were at the milongas...I call them 'actors' because they were, wittingly or unwittingly, acting a part in a pre-ordained old fashioned ritual of almost courtship...the silent and imperceptible gesture by men inviting women to dance...I was reminded that their actions mirrored what occurs between men and women in their quotidian life.

I've also used only two audio tracks...one is by the legendary Carlos Gardel singing the beautiful A Media Luz, and a short poetic narration by Paula Acunzo, a Buenos Aires based photographer who attended my class, and is also a terrific tango dancer. She deserves much credit, not only for writing this evocative poem, but also for suffering some of us at the tango halls and milongas.

But back to A Media Luz....which means 'half-light'. I decided I'd use it as main soundtrack for the slideshow because I was humming it in Buenos Aires almost all the time...and because I photographed these images in the penumbra of the tango halls, and accentuated their darkness even further by vignetting some....so it seemed eminently appropriate.

So turn your speakers on...full volume...and enjoy the seduction of tango.

Chico Sanchez: The Way Of St. James

Photo © Chico Sanchez-All Rights Reserved

As readers of this blog probably know by now (on account of the many times I've featured his work), Chico Sanchez is a Spanish photojournalist based in Mexico City. He previously worked in Venezuela for six years with Reuters, EFE, EPA and various newspapers. He's currently a freelancer represented by Aurora Photos.

He recently documented his pilgrimage walk on The Way of St. James in an audio-slideshow. A mix of landscapes and travel photography, with ambient audio of steps, running water, interviews and narration. It's in Spanish but full sub-titles are included.

"I walked 290 kilometers in northern Spain for two weeks from Astorga to Santiago de Compostela. It's a pilgrimage, and one of the best experiences I've ever had." -Chico Sanchez

The Way of St. James or El Camino de Santiago, is the pilgrimage route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tradition has it that the remains of the apostle James are buried. It existed for over a thousand years, and was one of the most important Christian pilgrimages during medieval times, together with Rome and Jerusalem.

For more information of The Way of St. James, Wikipedia has a informative write-up here.

Craig Ferguson: Koa-A-Hi (Taiwan Drama)

Craig Ferguson is a freelance photographer in Taiwan who specializes in travel photography, cultural photography and environmental photography.

He recently produced an audio slideshow of the Taiwanese song drama known as Kao-A-Hi, which was one of the featured events at the Taipei City God festival.

Kao-A-Hi literally means "song-drama", and is the only form of Han traditional drama known to have originated in Taiwan. Taiwanese opera, like other forms of Chinese opera and theater around the world, often uses cross-dressed performers specifically women portraying male roles. The first recorded instance of opera being performed in Taiwan was in 1624. Interestingly, there is no script in Taiwanese opera, since actors in the past were illiterate.

Originally, traditional Taiwanese opera themes involved historical events, tales of gods and spirits, and stories of swordsmen and heroes. However romance stories, and love and hate themes, as well as comedic farces are currently more popular.

Chico Sanchez: The Gastorenian Pipe

Chico Sanchez (who's a regular on The Travel Photographer's blog) has returned from Spain with a new audio-slideshow of the players and makers of the gastoreñian hornpipes. Most of you may be scratching your head as to what these are. I know I did...but after watching the The Gastorenian Pipe, you'll probably recognize it and its sound.

I did some research and learned that the gaita gastoreña is a type of hornpipe native to El Gastor, a region of Andalucia. The instrument consists of a reed, a wooden tube in its upper part, and a resonating bell of horn in its lower part. It's probably a dying tradition, and unless it's revived in some way, its practitioners and makers will eventually disappear.

Traditionally, the gaita gastoreña was played during the last months of the year only.

A Storyboard Template

Following my earlier post on my handwritten storyboard doodles I used for one of my audio-slideshows, I thought I'd prep one that looked a little more sophisticated, and could serve as a template. The templates I found on the internets were not exactly what I wanted, so I basically created one using an existing Excel template.

So here's The Travel Photographer's exclusive storyboard template (PDF) available as a free download to anyone who needs it. I hope you'll find it useful to plan and set up your slideshows.

Is it better than the doodly one?

Storyboard Doodles

Planning a multimedia photo essay or audio slideshow needs a sort of bird's eye view of the project as a whole, and that's what storyboards are essentially supposed to do. Storyboards help to pre-visualizing the photo essay's sequencing, and act as blueprints for the project.

The above photo shows my rather elementary storyboard for one my recent Bali audio slideshow Ngaben: Cremation Ceremony, which has the sequencing of images and audio clips, timing, etc.

Naturally, it would have been more professional/efficient to use a proper storyboard template downloaded from the web, but where's the fun in that!?

My Work: The Bali Trilogy

I'm glad to present Bali: The Trilogy; a three-part audio-slideshow (based on a chaptered SoundSlides platform), which consists of black & white documentaries of Balinese ceremonies.

The Melasti ceremony is an all important Balinese tradition of purifying temple deities in the waters of the ocean, the Ngaben is the Balinese tradition of cremating the dead, while the third is Tajen, the ancient tradition of cockfighting, technically illegal but still practiced on the island (and elsewhere in Indonesia).

This above link will not work on iPads (by the way, about 6-7% of my daily readers view this blog on their iPads, and I think this percentage is growing every day), however the following links will allow iPad owners to watch the individual audio-slideshows on their devices:

Bali: Melasti Purification Ceremony
Bali: Ngaben Cremation Ceremony
Bali: Tajen Cockfighting Event

A word about the choice of black & white;  I'm not sure if I'm entering a sort of black & white phase in my photography work, and this is its manifestation...or whether I've been influenced by the likes of John Stanmeyer and others...or whether it's a contrarian reaction to the surfeit of color I've witnessed when attending these ceremonies last month...or whether it's because the Balinese believe these ceremonies inherently involve spirits and dark forces...I don't know. It just felt better.

Let me know what you think, and I hope you enjoy these audio-slideshows.

SoundSlides Version 1.9.4 Beta

I'm chuffed (as the Brits say) that SoundSlides is now available in Beta with the option to produce the audio slideshow so that it's iPad compatible. In fact, version 1.9.4 has a couple of options related to the iPad. The first option is to have the slideshow only readable on iPads, whilst another is an iPad-auto-detect.

I've tried the auto detect option on three audio-slideshows, and they worked pretty well. However, I haven't been able to remove the Captions and Credits buttons (which I don't want) from showing up on the iPad, and I understand that this will be fixed in a future version.

The other issue which I don't think is fixable relates to transitions. The transitions look somehwhat choppy on the iPad...presumably due to its processor and browser. One of my audio slideshows makes use of the "flip-book" technique which relies on a large number of stills with very short time intervals to give the appearance of motion, and this feature doesn't show well on the iPad at all. It just shows the first and last frame.

My Work: Bali: Ngaben (Cremation Ceremony)

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights Reserved

Here's the first of a number of audio-slideshows of Balinese traditional events which I worked on following my return from my Bali: Island of Odalan Photo~Expedition ™

Ngaben: Cremation Ceremony is a thematic multimedia photo-essay of black and white stills and ambient sound of a cremation ceremony for 6 villagers held on August 11, 2010 in Blahbatuh. The actual cremation was almost a whole day event, and was preceded by a ceremony of remembrance at one of the villagers' homes during which food and drinks were partaken by the families, villagers, friends, neighbors and whoever else wanted to share in the occasion.

While Balinese Brahmins and its wealthier class cremate their dead as soon as death occurs, the poor need to accumulate funds to do the same for their dead...and frequently organize group cremations to spread the costs. This means that years can pass before their dead are finally cremated. The Balinese Hindu tradition calls for bodies to be cremated in order to free the soul from all worldly ties, and as such the cremations are usually bitter-sweet occasions, since it provides closure to families.

During this event, some bodies were exhumed just before the cremation, bones and skeletons were washed...and these remains were put in coffins placed in sarcophagi fashioned in the form of bulls. These are called wadah or lembu that are made of bamboo, papier mache and cotton fabric. The climax of Ngaben is the burning of the structures and the bodies.

During other cremations I've attended, fire accelerants were used to speed up the process. On this occasion, I didn't see any.

The audio slideshow is also iPad-compatible.

Kristian Bertel: India

Photo © Kristian Bertel-All Rights Reserved
Kristian Bertel is a Danish photographer who graduated from Aarhus Tech with a degree in graphic design. His passion for photography began in 2006, and it was exercised in India some years later.

Kristian started out in Delhi and ventured into the Thar desert in Rajasthan, and then to the holy city, Varanasi.

There are 12 sideshows of India on Kristian's website, and are mostly of portraits of Indians in the streets, accompanied by Hindi songs and music. The one titled Vijayawada however, is accompanied by Arabic music....possibly an Egyptian rural song.

Apart from this minor lapse, these galleries will satisfy most Indiaphiles as being accurate representations of Indians going about their daily lives in various cities, towns and villages.