Washington Post: Travel Photo Contest 2007

Image Copyright © Eleanor Kaufman-All Rights Reserved
The results of the Washington Post's Travel Photo contest was published on its website, and features about a dozen interesting photographs submitted by its readers and others. I liked the one of a fedora-topped man, riding a bicycle in Baracoa, Cuba. The orange background accentuates the man's image and emanates warmth. I also like the angle...some may view it as an uncomfortable viewpoint, but I think the unusual angle adds a lot to the photograph.

The photograph was made by Eleanor Kaufman of Washington.

The Washington Post's Travel Photo Contest 2007. Registration may be required.

NY Times: Tibetan Festivals & Protests

Image Copyright © Ariana Lindquist/The New York Times-All Rights Reserved
Here's a slideshow from the New York Times titled "Summer Festivals, Quiet Protests" which features the photography of Ariana Lindquist. The coverage is of the the season of Tibetan festivals, when people throughout western China, just north of the Tibetan border, gather to celebrate old traditions, but also grab the occasion to protest the sinofication of their nation.

I think this slidesshow falls way short of the mark. Firstly, the choice of photographs is uninspired, as I'm quite certain that Lindquist must've photographed the Khampa festival with all its phenomenal visual pageantry. Secondly, the absence of ambient sound and narration to this slideshow is a shame, because it would've added another dimension to the topic. Adding narration and/or some form of aural dimension to such a weak slideshow would save it. I don't know if it's the fault of the photographer (I suspect it isn't), of the producer or of the editor.

The New York Times' Summer Festivals, Quiet Protests. Registration may be required.

Tom Carter: China

Image Copyright © Tom Carter-All Rights Reserved
Tom Carter was born and raised in San Francisco, and graduated from the American University in Washington DC. He spent over 18 months backpacking in Mexico, Cuba and Central America, and started his career as freelance photojournalist. He subsequently traveled thoughout all the 33 provinces/regions of China, and documented the diversity of its people and ethnic minorities.

Currently living in Beijng, his work was published by numerous international publications, magazines and newspapers.

All of Tom's galleries of China are worth visiting with no exception. My favorite gallery is of Xinjiang, from which this simple but marvellous photograph of a Chinese Muslim is seen praying.

Tom Carter's website.

Prashant Panjiar: 7 Years In India

Image Copyright © Prashant Panjiar/Time magazine-All Rights Reserved
Well, I've changed ISPs and so far it's working. So let me carpe the diem and post a superb feature by photographer Prashant Panjiar titled "Seven Years In India". The slideshow is elegantly produced by Time Magazine, and is narrated by Simon Robiinson and by Prasant himself.

I generally do not like mixing color photographs with black & white...and this is no exception. In this case however, the B&W photographs surpass those in color....at least in my view. Something about the B&W photographs of India always have a certain texture to them...a tactility that colors don't have. Is it perhaps because the vibrant colors of India just overwhelm the senses?

Seven Years In India's slideshow

ISP Change!!!

I'm changing my ISP... I've had to sever my long relationship (I joined when the "internets" started) with my internet service provider and join another, due to a variety of reasons. I anticipate all sort of problems but hope it'll all end up well. I'm not sure whether my main photography website will survive as it is. Only time will tell...but perhaps this will finally push me in giving it a makeover...

While this blog will be unaffected, I will put my posting on hold for a few days.

Rena Effendi: Azerbaijan

Image Copyright © Rena Effendi-All Rights Reserved
Rena was born in Azerbaijan, and is a social documentary photographer since 2002. In 2004, she was a winner of the "Fifty Crows" International Fund for Documentary Photography competition. In 2005 she participated in the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass and received honourable mention in National Geographic's "All Roads" photography competition. In 2006 Rena was a winner of the Getty Images Editorial Photography Grant and the Giacomelli Memorial Fund award. The same year, her work was selected for personal exhibitions at the 18th "Visa Pour l'Image" Festival of Photojournalism in Perpignan, France and at the "Les Imagiques" Festival of Photography in Bordeaux.

I chose her work from Xinaliq to showcase on TTP. Xinaliq is an ancient Caucasian village high in the mountains of Azerbaijan. It is located two hours from Baku in the middle of the Greater Caucasus mountains that divide Russia and the South Caucasus, and is also the highest, most remote and isolated village in country. Its people mostly speak Azerbaijani, but have their own unique language and are considered to be a different ethnicity.

Incidentally, Rena's surname is of Turkish origin and is a honorific given during the Ottoman era to civil servants.


Rena Effendi's website

Books: Chasing The Monsoon

Chasing the Monsoon by Alexander Frater is a hugely enjoyable travel book, whose intention is to follow the progress of the summer monsoon through India, beginning in the southernmost tip of the subcontinent, and following its progress up the west ghats up to Mumbai, then crossing it India to witness its impact on Calcutta and on Bangladesh. I read it some years ago, and thought that it'd be a great project to photographically retrace Frater's footsteps.

The quirkiest review of the book is by Dilip Dsouza in his blog...he writes:

"Which is why mangoes are invariably the bridge between summer heat and the pounding glory of the monsoon. In his scrumptious "Chasing The Monsoon", Alexander Frater writes of watching the monsoon break on Kovalam beach in Kerala. "Everyone shrieked and grabbed at each other," Frater says. For him, that was the dark-eyed beauty to his right, and this is how he describes the moment:

"Her streaming pink sari left her smooth brown tummy bare. We held hands much more tightly than was necessary and, for a fleeting moment, I understood why Indians traditionally regard the monsoon as a period of torrid sexuality.

Then, as the deluge really begins, she is gone, no doubt trailing drops from streaming pink pallu as she runs through the rain. Admit it: when you eat your May mangoes, you're thinking of moments like that to come."

A momentary romance, the wisp of mystery, that quick flash of magic -- this is the stuff of the monsoon, this May-June season. And from its shape to its smoothness, from how it fits in your hand to how it feels in your mouth: no fruit in the world captures that utterly sensual mood like the mango does.