POV: Massacre in Gaza

Photo: Yasser Saymeh/AFP-Getty Images
The New York Times reports today that more than 200 Palestinians were massacred by the Israeli military strikes. Being The New York Times, it tempers its headlines by pointing out that these military strikes were in retaliation for the "rockets" launched by the militant wing of Hamas on the towns of Southern Israel.

It also features Attack in Gaza, a slideshow which has many photographs of the horrific casualties and devastation. The accompanying article is also well worth a read.

Whenever I read and hear of such violence committed against Palestinians by one of the world's most powerful military machinery, while the so-called civilized West and the rest of the world watches it do so placidly, impotently and in some cases with complicity, I remember Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel's ringing words:

"...to remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all..."

Will you finally speak out Mr Wiesel, or is the Palestinian corpse in the above picture not worth it?

Alice Smeets: UNICEF Photo of the Year

Image © Alice Smeets-All Rights Reserved
It' always a pleasure to hear of young emerging photographers gaining awards and wide recognition for their work, and here's one who just did that.

The young Belgian photographer Alice Smeets won the international photo competition "UNICEF-Photo of the Year". Her winning picture is of a girl in the largest slum in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. Although this girl lives amidst mud, litter and refuse, she still wears a clean white dress with ribbons in her hair.

Alice is a freelance photographer based in Belgium, who says she seeks to document "the cruelties the human race has to deal with. I want to touch people’s feelings without shocking them to provoke a reaction as a result."

She won the Canon Profifoto Förderpreis 01/08, was finalist for the Inge Morath Award 08 and selected for the Eddie Adams Workshop XXI. Her images has been exhibited at the Photokina 08 in Cologne and projected at “Visa pour L’image” 08 in Perpignan.

Alice Smeets' website is HERE. Check her black & white work on Haiti's Saut D'eau.

Gyula Sopronyi: The Holy River

Image © Gyula Sopronyi-All Rights Reserved
Gyula Sopronyi, originally working for Népszabadságis, Hungary's political daily newspaper, is a freelance photographer with an eye for stories in the faces, expressions and eyes of his subjects. He has won an impressive array of awards and competitions, and attended various Magnum workshops and classes.

Here's one of his galleries, titled The Holy River, of the incomparable Ganges and Varanasi. Other galleries well worth the visit are Gyula's Turkish Baths and the Whale Hunters of the Indonesia's Lamalera.

Alberto Cairo: A Good Man

Photo © Tyler Hicks/NYT-All Rights Reserved
In the midst of the unimaginable mess, misery and corruption in Afghanistan comes the story of Alberto Cairo, heads the orthopedic rehabilitation program of the International Committee of the Red Cross, a job dedicated to helping disabled Afghans live normally again by equipping them with artificial legs and arms.

Here's a man whose story is truly a remarkable one, and that The New York Times brings to us to exemplify selflessness and charity. The photographs are by Tyler Hicks and the story by John F. Burns.

The article tells us that "Mr. Cairo, once a debonair lawyer in his native Turin, Italy, is almost certainly the most celebrated Western relief official in Afghanistan, at least among Afghans. To the generation who have been beneficiaries of his relief work for the International Committee of the Red Cross, he is known simply as “Mr. Alberto,” a man apart among the 15,000 foreigners who live and work in this city."

It is reported that much of the $10 billion to $15 billion in aid donated since the Taliban's fall in 2001 goes to the salaries of foreign workers, however Mr. Cairo gives up much of his salary to patients and ensures that all but a handful of the jobs at the centers go to disabled Afghans, not foreigners. Is a Nobel Prize in the offing? It ought to be.

Here's The New York Times The Admired Foreigner

Happy Holidays

To all of you who follow this blog

wherever you are

Thank you for your comments and participation in this blog during this year which is ending.

Happy Holidays & A Luminous 2009!

I wish all readers of The Travel Photographer blog a Merry Christmas, a very Happy Holiday Season and a Luminous 2009!

It's the time of year when, amongst many reflective thoughts that whirl around my head, I look back at the genesis of this blog, and marvel at the breathtaking growth in number of its readers, at the number of comments received, and at what I've learned about photography along the way. I'm both thrilled and humbled by the immense talent demonstrated by the many photographers (whether travel or documentary photographers) who appeared on this blog's posts.

This blog started early 2007, and has rapidly grown to be a ravenous "beast" needing a lot of attention. Its readership has spread around the globe, including readers from far-flung countries such as Mongolia and Botswana...and more are subscribing to its feed every day...it's just incredible!

For Xmas, I've found that the Singing Santa & His Reindeers to be the best White Christmas rendition ever! For those who are interested, it's by The Drifters.

Nick Hall: Mongolia

Photo © Nick Hall-All Rights Reserved
Nick Hall calls the Cotswolds in England his home, but now lives in Seattle and works for various publications such as the UK's Geographical magazine. He was runner-up in the 2007 Travel Photographers Network Annual, and recognized in the Young Travel Photographer of the Year Awards.

Check out his lovely photographs made in the Orkhon Valley of Mongolia...plain-vanilla portraits, environmental portraits, vistas and landscapes...all of them large sized!

Via David duChemin's Pixelated Image

Chico Sanchez: Virgin of Guadalupe

Image © Chico Sanchez-All Rights Reserved
Another Soundslide-based slideshow from photojournalist Chico Sanchez, who this time documents the Virgin of Guadalupe's annual festival on December 12 in at the main Basilica in Mexico City, and titled The Empress of America.

Not only are the photographs well-chosen, but Chico has seamlessly woven various audio tracks into the slideshow; the ambient sound of a local flute and mini-drum, a couple of interviews, a live mass at the Basilica, organ music and even a mariachi band. A very nice production.

WP: "Destiny" of Girls

Photo © Nikki Kahn/WP-All Rights Reserved
Nikki Kahn is a documentary photographer and photojournalist working for The Washington Post, and has recently been featured of the its website with her photo essay "For Impoverished Girls, School Is Just A Dream", which is accompanied by an article written by Mary Jordan, titled "This Is The Destiny of Girls".

The photographs are of young girls in the westernmost area in India called the Little Rann of Kutch, where one of the main industries is salt-gathering.

In these impoverished villages, many young girls are pulled out of school to help the families earn a meager living from salt gathering. The article tells us that "it is a familiar story in much of the developing world, and particularly South Asia. In India, half the women older than 15 are illiterate, twice the rate for men, and millions of poor girls are pulled out of school to help at home, often when they are 10 to 12 years old." In these parts, it's the girls destiny to remain illiterate.

Nikki Kahn's website is here

Cambodia: Royal Apsaras

Photograph © Christophe Loviny-All Rights Reserved
Christophe Loviny is a photojournalist and editor. He's been a specialist of Southeast Asia for over 25 years, and was based in Angkor from 1989 to 1994. His work on Cambodia has been published in The Sunday Times Magazine, Asiaweek, Geo, L'Express, Paris-Match, Stern, Le Figaro-Magazine, and others. He is the author of several illustrated books, one of which is “Les Danseuses Sacrées d'Angkor”, a collection of texts and photographs on the identity of Cambodia.

Here's a sampling of his photographs of the sacred dancers of Angkor, or The Royal Ballet of Cambodia in a Issuu flash booklet via Lightmediation Photo Agency.

For an early multimedia (QuickTime) gallery of my own, and overdue for a Soundslides makeover, here's Celestial Apsaras.