The Best of Photojournalism 2007

Image Copyright © Carolyn Cole - All Rights Reserved
Carolyn Cole of the Los Angeles Times won the coveted Photojournalist of The Year award for her coverage of the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict in July, 2006. The contest is a project of the National Press Photographers Association, and is described as the contest designed by photojournalists for photojournalists.

Carolyn's work can be seen on BOP's website, and includes the above photograph whose caption tells us that it is of the bodies of civilians, many of them children, killed in the Israeli bombing of Qana lie wrapped in plastic and sprinkled with flower petals. They were among the 1,100 Lebanese civilians who died in the month-long conflict.

Here's her winning gallery on the BOP website.

Simon Larbalestier: Cambodia

Image Copyright Simon Larbalestier
Simon Larbalestier's photography has moved over the past 20 years from album artwork for iconic rock bands to a more documentary approach. His current work involves detailing and documenting chronic disability in Cambodia through the help of The Cambodia Trust, a UK based Charity that operates in the poorest provinces of Cambodia. He's also interested in working within cultures that are trying to re- establish themselves and gain a new foothold in the 21st century.

He says that he's rooted in traditionalist methods of picture making using B&W film and range-finder cameras, and although now using digital methods to output work for clients, the origination is always from film. He's based between the UK, Thailand and Cambodia preferring to hand print his own photographs back in the UK.

His website has a handful of galleries, and I suggest you start with his beautifully toned images of Cambodia. The gallery then moves to Thailand, Laos etc.

Simon's Gallery

PS. To the members of my Angkor Wat photo-expedition: Don't Simon's images of children in Angkor War remind you of our own photo shoots in Banteay Samre?

Ami Vitale: Kashmir

Image Copyright © Ami Vitale -All Rights Reserved
I can't believe that I blogged so far and not mentioned Ami Vitale on the pages of TTP!

It's been written of Ami Vitale that she's nothing short than a terrific photographer, whose work is about being with people in every sense. A feature on her from 2003 on the Digital Journalist site says "She does not simply report her stories. She lives them."

Vitale is regarded as one of today's most memorable visual storytellers. In addition to multiple POYi awards, Vitale has received recognition for her work from World Press Photo, the NPPA, Photo District News and the Society of American Travel Writers, among many other organizations. In 2002 Vitale was awarded the first-ever Inge Morath grant by Magnum Photos. The Alexia Foundation has also awarded her grants for World Peace and the city of Gijon, Spain. Vitale's photographs have been published in major international magazines such as National Geographic Adventure, Geo, Discovery, Newsweek, Time, The New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian and Le Figaro. Her photographs have been presented in international exhibitions including: Visa Pour L'Image, Perpignan; Reporters Sans Frontiers, Paris; the FotoArt Festival in Poland; the Open Society Institute and The United Nations in New York.

She believes in spending time on a story, and in living with the people she photographs. This, she says, has helped her to get beneath the surface of a story. In an interview on the Digital Journalist, Ami says: “You have to get into a culture to actually live there to understand things aren’t as sensational when you understand them in their context. I’ve jumped in, parachuted into a few places before and I didn’t like it. It’s very dangerous and I’ve felt like I wasn’t portraying things truthfully, or it was a different truth.” This speaks for itself.

Here's Ami Vitale's website.

James Nachtwey: United Nations Show

Image Copyright © James Nachtwey- All Rights Reserved
The United Nations is currently exhibiting the superlative photographs of James Nachtwey depicting the pain and suffering of people afflicted with AIDS and tuberculosis.

A poignant passage about the exhibition from the article in the New York Times:

"In Thailand, north of Bangkok, he (Nachtwey) came across an American priest named Michael Bassano who spends endless days with the most desperate of AIDS patients, massaging their feet, changing their diapers, helping them die. Their flesh clings like cellophane to their bones, and their eyes roll up in their heads. In one photograph Father Bassano’s arm just barely extends into the lower right corner of the frame, clasping the tiny wrist of a young woman named Lek. She stares doe-eyed back at him, as if from the grave."

Here's the whole article (registration might be required).

Dirk Panier: 'Must-See' Multimedia

Dirk Panier is a photographer from Belgium, and has created an incredibly beautiful multimedia flash website...probably one of the best I've seen. It's a 'must-see"....not necessarily for the photographs, but for the creativity of the whole feature.

His multimedia galleries are not only creative, but are inventive, of extremely good taste, and are visually and aurally compelling. Cuba, Morocco, Tunisia, Sicily, Syria, Jordan, Istanbul, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand are represented, and are all exceptionally attractive galleries.

Dirk's galleries are accompanied by interesting music and chants. The gallery of Tunisia is accompanied by an Egyptian soundtrack, but this slight oversight hardly matters. Don't miss the steam coming out of the teapot's spot in the Moroccan feature!!!

I have considerable admiration for the aesthetic skills and creativity required to bring all the elements of this multimedia package together, and I strongly encourage you to devote ample time to savor it and then bookmark it. I'm envious of Dirk's skills...you may be too.

Dirk Panier's Travelling

Evan Abramson: Bolivia

Image Copyright © Evan Abramson - All Rights Reserved
Evan is a freelance photographer in Bolivia for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Miami Herald and Bloomberg News. His website tells us that he dedicated the past three years to creating a visual narrative of the lives and experiences of Andean farmers in some of the highest and farthest settlements of humans in Bolivia. He participated in as much of the daily lives and rituals of the Andean farmers as he could, including the Tinku, or “Encounter”—a ritual fight between members of neighboring zones or villages—even going so far as to learn the Pre-Columbian Quechua language more widely spoken in the Andean countryside than Spanish.

He lived and traveled through a wide network of rural Andean villages and provincial lands of barren pastoral settings, meeting mostly farmers, economically impoverished, but humble and earnest in their approach to life.

His affection for the Bolivian people, and his strong connection to Bolivia, are both evident in his powerful, and yet sensitive, work.

This is the second posting on Evan's work. The first was in mid February, when his work on the Tinku festival was published in a slideshow feature in the New York Times. I look forward to admire further work from Evan.

Here's Evan Abramson website.

POV: Techniques

Image from A Bali Canang-Copyright 2005 Tewfic El-Sawy
On my photo expeditions, I constantly encourage my fellow photographers to vary their camera height when photographing people in particular. Changing camera height to even a small degree can result in a huge difference to the background. A low angle allows the photograph to use the sky as plain background, while a high viewpoint can provide a more interesting background. The traditional technique in photographing people is to do so at eye level, as it provides "natural looking" images...but how boring! Breaking the rules and experimenting is so much more satisfying.

In the image above, I was photographing in a 'medresa', or Islamic school, in Bali and had to crouch on the ground to capture an eye level realistic image of the students horsing around while their teacher's back was turned. As photographers, crouching down and even lying down is necessary to get realistic shots. Perhaps elementary advice, and in this case a no-brainer...but I'm always surprised at how many of us still photograph children from our high vantage point.

Q. Sakamaki: Bangladeshi Sex Workers

Image Copyright © Q. Sakamaki - All Rights Reserved
Q. Sakamaki graduated from Columbia University with a master’s degree in International Affairs, Concentration in Conflict
Resolution and Human Rights. Born and raised in Japan, he now makes his home in New York City and has been photographing war zones throughout the world such as Afghanistan, Iraq,Palestine, Liberia, Bosnia and Kosovo - documenting not only the political landscape but people’s emotional relationship to conflict.

His photographs have appeared in books and magazines worldwide including Time, Life, and L’espresso and have been the subject of solo shows in New York and Tokyo. He has published three books, including "Palestine", is a Karate master, and a writer who contributes mainly to the Japanese media. He's represented by Redux Pictures.

To illustrate this post, I chose an image from the Banglan (I'm unsure what Banglan means, but I suspect it's another word for Bangladeshi) Sex Workers gallery on Sakamaki's website. The image is of 15 year-old Rotina, a sex worker who has contracted HIV. Most of his images are toned, and are powerful examples of what responsible social photography is capable of.

Q. Sakamaki website

Let's Go Photo Contest

The publishers of the popular Let's Go guidebooks have recently announced a photo contest. They're looking for primarily scenes that capture the essence of the books being updated this summer. The contest deadline is April 15, 2007. Let's Go will put your photograph on the cover of the Let's Go Guide and give you a copy of the book. The guides will come out in November.

Interested? Before you go rushing to your inventory of photographs, read this bone-chilling condition in the contest's release form:

"By participating in the photo contest, you hereby grant Sponsor (ie Let's Go) all rights to the image(s), including the right to edit, adapt, modify, or dispose of any proper names, likenesses, photographs, and/or city/states on any image(s), as well as all rights to publish, and use in any manner, on any Let’s Go, Inc. products and/or publications, print or electronic, and in any other media for advertising and promotional purposes for this and similar promotions in all media (including and without limitation, the Internet) without any consideration or payment to you, except where prohibited by law.

Now if you're still willing to participate, then go to: Let's Go Contest

My position on this issue is that the Let's Go publishers will get no professional photographer's work in this contest, and that they should pay monetary (or at least a substantial prize) compensation for the chosen photograph. As it stands, they're essentially getting something for nothing.

Beyond The Frame: Indian Gypsies

Image Copyright © 2003 Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
At the end of the Pushkar camel fair a few years ago, I traveled in a crowded and creaky train between Phulad and Jojawar in South Rajasthan. The train stopped at Jojawar station, and I disembarked along with a few locals still dressed in their festival finery and carrying shopping bags heavy with presents for their families.

Near the small one-room stationhouse, I noticed a small group of Indians, dressed in colorful dresses and turbans. These were Lambanis or banjaras, who originate from these parts of Rajasthan. They are part of the nomadic tribes of India, and travel from place to place in search of a livelihood. They have their own language which has no script, their own culture and a unique social structure. It is said that the Roma gypsies in Europe are decended from the Lambanis tribes.

A couple stood out because of their dress and friendly demeanor, so I approached them and after a few moments of indecision, they agreed to be photographed. I wasn't sure if they were husband and wife (and I still don't know), but after a few photographs and good laughs, I jokingly gestured the man (who wore a necklace and had long hair tucked under his turban) if he could get closer to the woman. He surprised me by quickly hugging the woman...a public display which is highly unusal in rural India, and which was accompanied by the hoots and catcalls of his group. I tried hard to get him to hug the woman again, but to no avail. The fleeting moment had passed, and it was not repeated.

This photograph appeared in a two-page spread in the Digital Photographer magazine.