My Show-Off: Indian Widow

Photograph © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
Here's one of my weekly Show-Off features of my personal photography on The Travel Photographer's blog. Click on the photograph to view it larger size.

This is probably one of my very favorite photographs. It's of an elderly widow in the Indian city of Vrindavan, walking painfully to her ashram. Afflicted with osteoporosis, she uses her cane to assist her in her journey to the central hall, where she will receive lentils and rice as her main meal.

The photograph is part of my White Shadows multimedia slideshow, which I shall use during my course of Street Photography & Multimedia at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Mexico City.

On The Road: FPW

I'll be flying to Mexico City for the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop early Saturday morning. I'll try to post as frequently as possible on the going-ons on The Travel Photography blog...including photographs and even video snippets.

The workshop has just started its very own blog which is foundryphoto.blogspot.com

New York Times: Mexican Rodeos

Photograph © Jim Wilson/The New York Times-All Rights Reserved
In time to highlight the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop starting in Mexico City this coming Monday, here's a multimedia slideshow from the New York Times of the charreada. These are rodeos and fiestas rolled together, and are one of Mexico’s most popular sporting events, dating to the 17th century.

Similar to the US rodeos, the charreadas involve horse riding, bull riding and team roping. However, riders in the charreadas wear elaborate three-piece suits and women ride sidesaddle in their traditional fineries.

After criticism from animal rights and anti-rodeo activists, the events have been changed to reflect better and safer treatment of animals involved in these rodeos.

Here's The New York Times' Mexican Rodeos

Chico Sanchez: Lady of Guadalupe

Photograph © Chico Sanchez-All Rights Reserved
With the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop starting in Mexico City this coming Monday, I had the good fortune of stumbling on the work of Chico Sanchez, a photojournalist based in Mexico City. He produced a slideshow on the pilgrims visiting the church of the Virgin of Guadalupe, which is one of the projects I intend to work on with some of the students enrolled in my multimedia course.

Chico Sanchez worked in Venezuela, collaborating with Reuters, European Pressphoto Agency, Agencia EFE, and freelancing for various newspapers and magazines.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is known in Mexico as "La Virgen Morena", and her festival day is celebrated on December 12, commemorating her appearances to Saint Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac near Mexico City from December 9 through December 12, 1531. The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City is the second most visited Roman catholic shrine in the world after the Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican.

Michael Kamber: Leica M8

Photograph © Michael Kamber-All Rights Reserved
Michael Kamber is a well-known photojournalist currently attached to the Baghdad Bureau of the New York times. He has been nominated three times for the Pulitzer prize. He has covered conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Liberia, Cote D'Ivoire, Sudan, Somalia, Haiti, Israel, the Congo and various others.

He has written an comprehensive review on the Leica M8, which he used extensively in Iraq. He does not mince his words and concludes that the M8's is unusable for working photojournalists in combat situations.

For Michael Kamber's website, click here

(Thanks to Candace Feit for the link.)

Kate Orne: Pakistan Brothels

Photograph © Kate Orne-All Rights Reserved
To highlight the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop starting in Mexico City this coming Monday, I will focus this week's The Travel Photographer blog posts on various photojournalists and their work. This is the second in the series.

Kate Orne is a New York-based photographer who worked amongst the neediest people in Afghanistan and Pakistan over the past seven years. Her mission was to use her craft to fight against indentured slavery and to support the wellbeing of women, children and animals. She worked on several essays on indentured laborers in South East Asia, on victims of domestic abuse, on Kabul orphanages where children lack basic facilities, maternity wards without basic care and imprisoned women.

Her website has a number of galleries, documenting the brothels in Pakistan, the maternity hospital and orphanage in Kabul, refugee camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the red light district in Mumbai.

I thought her work on the brothels in Pakistan as her most powerful and thought-provoking, as it highlights the paradox that exists between the sex industry and Muslim fundamentalism in this part of the world.

New Canon XS

Canon has announced a new entry-level DSLR. The XS offers 10.1-megapixel resolution, a 2.5 inches rear screen, 7 autofocus points, it will offer Live View on the rear LCD, and supports an unlimited burst rate of 3 frames per second until the memory card is full.

It is estimated that the XS will be priced in the US at approximately $580 for the body only, and $630 with a 35-70mm kit lens. The launch date is July 8.

This is obviously Canon's attempt to solidify its grip on the growing entry-level DSLR market.

(Hey Canon people...where in the &%$$#$ is the Canon 5D II???)

Frederic Courbet: Lamu (Kenya)

Photograph © Frederic Courbet-All Rights Reserved
To highlight the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop starting in Mexico City this coming Monday, I will focus this week's The Travel Photographer blog posts on various photojournalists and their work.

I start off with the work of Frederic Courbet, a Belgian freelance photographer currently based in Nairobi, Kenya. His biography tells us that he started work in Africa 4 years ago, and had had ihis images published in The Guardian, The Mail on Sunday, Der Spiegel, The Observer and other international publications. He has also worked for various NGOs including CARE in Nairobi. Courbet is represented by the London-based Panos Pictures.

I liked Courbet's imagery...and his galleries are well worth spending time on. For instance, look out for the wonderful image in his Somalia gallery of a multi-colored tent and clothes hanging in the wind. However, my favorite are his photographs of Lamu in Kenya.

I didn't know that Lamu is Kenya's oldest living town and port, and was one of the original Swahili settlements along coastal East Africa. It has existed for at least a thousand years, and was an important center of the slave trade. The town's architecture is a mix of African and Islamic styles with inner courtyards, verandas, and elaborately carved wooden doors.

Foundry Photojournalism Workshop

As readers of this blog know, the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop is six intensive days of classes, fieldwork, panel discussions, slideshows, portfolio reviews, multimedia creation, parties, networking and more, aimed especially at emerging and student photojournalists.

The workshop runs from June 16-21, 2008 at the AAVI (Academia de Artes Visuales) inMexico City, and is the brainchild of Eric Beecroft.

As one of the workshop's faculty members, I will be posting from the venue on The Travel Photographer blog as frequently as I can. A more comprehensive Foundry Photoworkshop blog is also in the plans. The diversity of the photo-projects and number of assignments being planned are just phenomenal, and the creativity of the student photojournalists is exciting.

The number of emerging and student photojournalists at the venue is about 140, with 20 faculty members. The faculty members are:

Eric Beecroft, Director
Kael Alford
Paula Bronstein
Andrea Bruce
Renée C. Byer
Guy Calaf
Tewfic El-Sawy
Stanley Greene
Ron Haviv
Eros Hoagland
Hugo Infante
Scott Mc Kiernan
Michael Robinson Chavez
Benjamin Rusnak
Shaul Schwarz
Stephanie Sinclair
Kadir Van Lohuizen
Adam Wiseman
Adriana Zehbrauskas

With special guest:
David Griffin, Director of Photography, National Geographic Society

POV: David Roberts Weeps

One of my very favorite artists is David Roberts. He was a Scottish painter, and was born at Stockbridge, Edinburgh in 1796. He is especially known for a prolific series of detailed prints of Egypt and the Near East produced during the 1840s from sketches made during long tours of the region (1838-1840). This work, and his large oil paintings of similar subjects, made him a prominent Orientalist painter.

What made me think of him? Well, here's why. This an excerpt from Robert Fisk's "The West's Weapon of Self-delusion", his latest article in the Independent:

"The Tate has just sent me its magnificent book of orientalist paintings to coincide with its latest exhibition (The Lure of the East: British Orientalist Painting) and I am struck by the awesome beauty of this work. In the 19th century, our great painters wondered at the glories of the Orient.

No more painters today. Instead, we send our photographers and they return with pictures of car bombs and body parts and blood and destroyed homes and Palestinians pleading for food and fuel and hooded gunmen on the streets of Beirut, yes, and dead Israelis too. The orientalists looked at the majesty of this place and today we look at the wasteland which we have helped to create."

Robert Fisk is one of the few courageous journalists who tells it as it is.

Travel Photography Scholarship

The online travel insurance provider, WorldNomads.com, together with National Geographic Channel, has announced its 2008 photography scholarship, which will award one exceptional student the chance of a lifetime’ assignment.

The winner will get to accompany renowned wildlife on-assignment National Geographic photographer, Jason Edwards, to photograph the Arid Lands Festival and The Great Hughenden Endurance Camel Race, a quirky 160km camel endurance race run in Australia from 22 - 24 August, 2008

For full judging criteria and to apply, go to WorldNomads.com

Via Imaging Insider.