AEVUM: New Collective

A new photographers' collective was born with the formation of AEVUM (which, according to the website, means life, time, age in Latin/Greek). The photographers are Elyse Butler, Matt Eich, Yoon S. Byun, Andrew Henderson, Chris Capozziello and Matt Mallams.

Check out Andrew Henderson's The Untouchables while you explore the collective's projects. It's about the horror of leprosy in India.

AEVUM PHOTO

Pieter Hugo: Hyena Men

Photograph © Pieter Hugo-All Rights Reserved
Here's an unusual subject matter through the lenses of photographer Pieter Hugo, who documented Nigerian men who stroll the streets of Lagos with hyenas and other wild animals. Nigerian newspapers usually claim that these men are bank robbers, bodyguards, drug dealers, and debt collectors.

He eventually traveled to Benin City in Nigeria, and met with the Gadawan Kura as they are known in Hausa (a rough translation: 'hyena handlers/guides'). After a while, he discovered that these people were essentially itinerant minstrels, performers who used the animals to entertain crowds and sell traditional medicines. They also hold permits from the Nigerian government to keep these animals.

Pieter writes this in his interesting background essay: "Europeans invariably only ask about the welfare of the animals but this question misses the point. Instead, perhaps, we could ask why these performers need to catch wild animals to make a living. Or why they are economically marginalized. Or why Nigeria, the world's sixth largest exporter of oil, is in such a state of disarray.

Pieter Hugo

LA Times: The House of Allah

In the prevailing climate of Islam-bashing and to counter the widespread ignorance about the religion it's certainly a tribute to the Los Angeles Times that it recently published a multimedia feature titled "The House of Allah" about a California couple, Raef and Ellen Hajjali, who joined 2.3 million Muslims on the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

One of the popular misconceptions is the one that Muslims worship Allah, a different deity. In fact, Allah is the Arabic word for God.

One of the sentences that caught my eye in the accompanying article is:"Using modern American slang to describe the ancient ritual, Hassan Badday, 30, a recent medical school graduate from Claremont, recalled some of his happiest times as "just sitting in front of the Kaaba after the hajj and just chilling."

The LA Times' The House of Allah

The Altars of the Zapotecs

Photograph © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
It is customary for most of the Zapotec homes in the Oaxaca region to have a room or corner where an altar is maintained by the women of the house. It is a measure of the Zapotecs' hospitality that I was welcomed in some of these houses, and the gallery Altars of the Zapotec is the result.

The Altars of the Zapotecs

Lunatic Magazine: Issue 2

Photograph © Bruno Stevens-All Rights Reserved
The second issue of Lunatic magazine has just been published. It's a bi-annual image online magazine presenting new work from talented photographers from all around the world. The target audiences of Lunatic magazine are photographers, photojournalists and picture editors and all people interested in contemporary photography. It is created by photographer Karl Blanchet, member of the collective Luna.

The second issue has an photo essay entitled Lettres Persanes by the talented photojournalist Bruno Stevens which features images of Iran and the spirituality of its people. It also features the work of Kalpesh Lathigra with his photo-essay titled The Anglo-Afghan War.

Lunatic is a well presented web magazine and in the prevailing environment deserves much praise as it tries to redress the paucity of serious photo journalistic publications.

Lunatic Magazine

Rumors of a Canon 5D Mark II ????

Some photography blogs are circulating rumors that Canon will announce a new 5D in late April, with a June availability at your favorite stores. The specs are said to include a 15mp CMOS 35mm full frame sensor, dual core DIGIC III chipset, weather sealing, a new AF sensor, and a $3500 list price.

If this is for real, why would Canon choose a late April announcement?! Has it no sympathy for US tax-payers who have to meet the dreaded April 15 deadline? Why make things more difficult?

In any event, I'm in the market for a Canon 5D replacement...and have been for a while, but I'm puzzled by the recent price jump of the Canon 5D amongst the leading retailers. At year end, the 5D was listed at B&H for $2100 and now it's back to $2200. What's this all about? I would think that retailers would want to get rid of their inventory before the new 5D hit their shelves. Puzzling.

Photo Contests: Grabbing Your Rights???

Image © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
The answer to this question is generally a yes.

Many sponsors of photo contests and competitions are unashamedly robbing photographers of their work and stealing their creativity. Photographers submit photographs to a contest, the terms of which take away their rights to their submission; hence providing the contest's sponsor a 'free' photo which can then be sold or used at will for advertising purposes.

Pro-Imaging has a run-down on this issue, and lists a number of photo contests for you to watch out for. Generally-speaking, the majority of photo contests are rip-offs in one shape or another. Yes, some may argue that having a winning entry is good for their careers and widens their exposure, and I acknowledge that this has some validity...but that's exactly what sponsors of such contests prey upon. Seeing one's photograph winning a National Geographic or Smithsonian contest is enormously thrilling, but seeing it being subsequently used for other purposes will eventually make you realize that your work is being exploited.

So read the fine print carefully, and make an informed decision.

Pro-Imaging's Rights Off Lists

Karen Kasmauski: Viet Nam

Image © Karen Kasmauski-All Rights Reserved
Since 1984, Karen Kasmauski has photographed at least 25 major stories for National Geographic Magazine. She has traveled from Malaysia's rainforests to the megacities of India to the Alaskan wilderness, covered earthquakes in Japan, been arrested in Africa and exposed to radiation in Russia.

Karen has been profiled on the Charlie Rose show and the National Geographic Channel. She has been featured in a variety of online photographic projects for National Geographic and other web sites. She has taught at numerous workshops and conferences, including the annual Women in Photojournalism conference. She is a frequent speaker at National Geographic's Masters of Photography lecture series.

Her website is replete with beautiful photographs, and I liked her Viet Nam images the best...the photograph of the fisherman is just superb. So explore her website and see her excellence for yourself.

Karen Kasmauski

Sarah Leen: NGM: POYi

Image © Jonas Bendiksen-All Rights Reserved
The 65th Annual Pictures of the Year International ("POYi") competition which is currently being judged has announced Sarah Leen/National Geographic as the first prize winner in the Magazine Picture Editing Portfolio section, with Jonas Bendiksen's photo essay on Dharavi, a slum called Mumbai's shadow city.

In my view, this is a deserved recognition for the photographer and the magazine. There are two images that I think really stand out in the photo essay...the one above, and the 8th one in the series, which is of a man hunched under an umbrella while a woman in the alley is drenched in the pouring rain, and a priest and a child are arranging a small altar. A moment frozen in time...very well captured by Jonas.

(Note: I erroneously had this photo essay as being by Sarah Leen. However, sharp-eyed Kendrick Kwok, a fellow photographer and Lightstalkers member, kindly pointed out that it was Bendiksen's. A quick search of the National Geographic website confirmed that this was indeed the case. Thank you, Kendrick.)

(Note 2: Another sharp-eyed friend and photographer, Asim Rafiqui, corrected my error in that POYi awarded the Dharavi photo for picture editing, not for the pictures of the essay. The recipient of the award is Sarah Leen, and not Jonas Bendikson, as the category 'Magazine Picture Editing' is reserved for the editors who create the best photo layouts and best use of pictures to tell a story. Many thanks, Asim!)

The photo essay Dharavi, Mumbai's Shadow City

Kloie Picot: Hidden In Plain Sight Benefit

HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT: A Benefit for Iraqi and Palestinian Refugees is put together by Kloie Picot, and is a worthwhile benefit for Iraqi and Palestinian refugees, one that she hopes will raise awareness of their plight. All proceeds will go to CROSSING LINES, a non-profit Ms. Picot is establishing to provide language, job training and other skills to refugees.

The important worthwhile event opens March 15 at the River Bar and Restaurant in Chung Li, Taiwan and will feature an exhibition and silent auction of photographs donated by several well-known photographers.

For further information: War Shooter (Hidden In Plain Sight)

Bravo Kloie!

TTP Recap of the Week

For your convenience, here's the past week's (March 3-9, 2008) most read posts on TTP:

Celebrity Photographers' Tours. This topic is consistently popular!
NGM: Annie Griffiths Belt
La Guelaguetza

Magnum Photos: China

Magnum Photos' In Motion just featured a Flipbook on China which takes a look at 60 years of transformation in this enormous country from Magnum's archives. The photographs are from legendary names such as Henri Cartier Bresson, Eve Arnold, Bruno Barbey and Paolo Pellegrin to name but a few.

Magnum Photos' Flipbook: China

NYT: In the Land of Black Coats

Image © Gianni Cipriano for NY Times-All Rights Reserved
Central Brooklyn in New York City is the land of the Black Coats...specifically 55th Street in the center of Borough Park which is home to a quarter million Orthodox Jews, the largest concentration of Jews outside Israel.

The slideshow is of atmospheric black & white photographs by Gianni Cipriano, and accompanies a short article in The City section of the New York Times. Why travel when one has this cornucopia of photogenic traditions literally next door?

I just read that the recent introduction of new slideshow templates and tech-savvy multimedia on the pages of the NY Times' website caused a substantial increase in the number of its readers/viewers.

NY Times' In The Land of Black Coats

Celebrity Photographers' Tours

Image © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
I found another example of what I deem to be an over-the-top photo tour led by a celebrity photographer to a developed country in South-East Asia, so I thought I'd share my 'back of the envelope' ruminations about the economics (or lack thereof) of joining such a photo tour. Let me say this at the outset: the photo tour is no workshop...just a tour led by a well-known photographer.

The land cost for the 9 days tour (in essence 8 full days) is advertised at $4600 and the single supplement is quoted as $1000. Assuming that most single travelers don't want to share (I certainly wouldn't) a room with a complete stranger with annoying nocturnal habits, the total for the photo tour is $5600.

Tacking on a round trip airfare from New York of about $1500, and day to day expenses of at least $600 for the duration of the tour, we total $7700.

Now let's do some math: let's imagine that the 10 or 12 participants each return with 50 photographs that are exactly...but exactly what stock agencies, travel companies and others are desperately looking for, each photographer would have to sell every photo for at least $150 to break even. Naturally, there are many numerical variations to this assumption...one photograph may be sold 50 times and so on, or two photographs 25 times. Let's not also lose sight that the returning photographers will have much of their photo inventory either identical or similar to one another...and could well compete with each other.

In the current state of the industry, with the advent of photo-sharing websites populated by photographers willing to sell their work (often excellent) for next to nothing, the probability that any of these photographers will sell that many of photographs is virtually non-existent. Realistically, I'd say that a participant in such a photo tour has a slim chance to sell 2-4 photographs for $200-250 each....better than nothing, but a rather dismal return on the $7700 investment.

People who join such expensive photo tours led by celebrity photographers must do so for a reason or reasons...are these tangible or intangible? Are there real merits in just rubbing shoulders with one? Are there bragging rights attached to it? Is it a resume thing...or just for showing off during cocktails? Is it the "if it's expensive it must be good' mentality? Are there intrinsic values in shooting next to one? What are they? Do these famous photographers have the time and motivation to attend to individual needs, for mentoring? How do people quantify the return on investment from such tours? Are "in-the-field" tips from famous photographer worth 10 times those from a non-celebrity photographer? Do the participants draw comfort from the fact that since the celebrity photographer makes superb photos, they will too?

Email me if you know....but note that I draw a distinction between photo tours and bona fide workshops which have course descriptions, schedules and in which participants learn from instructing photographer(s), and nor do I question reasonably priced photo tours operated by hard-working photographers.