Remi Benali: The Khampa Horsemen

Photograph © Remi Benali-All Rights Reserved
Here's a presentation of photographs by Remi Benali, a photojournalist and travel photographer from France, on The Khampa Horsemen of Tibet.

The Khampas are the inhabitants of the Kham region,the eastern third of Tibet. Marco Polo described the Kham as "thieves and caravan raiders practicing all sorts of magic". Many of them adhere to their religious and cultural traditions. The Khampas' spectacular Yagi Summer Festival is held in Litang, in China's western Sichuan province, one county over from Tibet proper. Tibetans make up 90 percent of the people who live in Litang. The NPR website has further background (including some audio) on the Khampa Horsemen and the festival.

Remi Benali worked with the photo agency Gamma for twelve years and has been working independently since 2002 and currently lives in Provence. His journeys have led him to 70 countries--from the North Pole to the Sahara Desert and the remote jungles of Sumatra to Indian rituals in the Andes mountains. Specialized in travel photography, his personal work celebrates the living remnants of a vanishing past, with a focus on rituals and traditions, tribal cultures and UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Lightroom Beta 2.0: Sample

© Tewfic El-Sawy - All Rights Reserved
As reported in an earlier post this week, I've been test-driving Lightroom 2.0 in its Beta form. I found it to be intuitive and simple to use so far, and I'm very pleased to have downloaded it. I'm far from being a "pixel-pusher", so I keep my usage very basic and the photograph above (village elders in Jojawar, Rajasthan) is the result of just a couple of clicks.

A photojournalist friend recommended that I try the recently updated Aperture as well, predominantly for its capability to seamlessly integrate with all of Apple's applications. I shall do so shortly.

Marc Dozier: Papua New Guinea

Photograph © Marc Dozier-All Rights Reserved
Marc Dozier is a French photojournalist, who describes himself as a tireless globetrotter. He traveled to the four corners of the world, reporting and photographing for Grands Reportages, the French travel magazine. He studied graphic arts at the University of Moresby, in Papua New Guinea.

He regularly travels to Papua New Guinea, and considers it his second home. His portfolio consists of travel photographs from PNG, Benin, Zanzibar, Thailand, Burma and Taiwan among others.

Rubin Museum of Art: Kevin Bubriski

Photograph © Kevin Bubriski-All Rights Reserved
From March 14 to October 13, 2008, the Rubin Museum of Art in New York is featuring "Nepal in Black and White", an exhibition of photographs made by Kevin Bubriski.

The photographer arrived in Nepal as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1975, and spent about 4 years working in remote villages. He returned in 1984 as a photographer, and with a 4” x 5” view camera, a Nepalese photographic assistant, and two porters, he traveled the length and breadth of the country for the better part of three years.

“The realization that not only my camera but also the modern world was making ever-increasing intrusions into even the most remote areas of Nepal compelled me to document a time and way of life slipping inexorably into the past.” — Kevin Bubriski 1993.

I intend to go to the Rubin to see the exhibit, and will report on it when I do. From the little I've seen of Bubriski's work, his photographs of Nepal are extraordinary.

The exhibition is well-timed, as Nepal is currently in the news with its first election taking place since 1999. The landmark election is for an assembly which will re-write the constitution, and the new body is likely to abolish the 240 years-old Nepali monarchy (which pleases me enormously!).

Bruno Morandi: Guatemala

Here's a two for one post; I already featured Bruno Morandi on TTP about a year ago with a post on his work with the Hijras of Pakistan. Bruno is a globe trotting French photographer blessed with an excellent 'eye', and who relies on all-inclusive framing and the power of colors.

I also posted about Issuu, an online conversion system that converts PDF files so that they can be read on the internet via web browsers. One can create a digital magazine or book with its pages flipped just like the real thing.

Bruno has published his colorful Guatemala: A Symphony of Colours photographs as an Issuu digital book, and it's really lovely. I don't know what it is, but having one's photographs in digital book form seems aesthetically more pleasing to the eye than a regular ho-hum photo gallery on the web....is it because we are used to seeing photographs in book format?

If you're tempted to use Issuu service, make sure you read its terms and conditions, and consider downloading Combine PDFs 3.0. It's a Mac-only shareware that allows you to convert and put all your photographs unto one document, which is then easily uploaded to Issuu. There must be similar shareware for PCs.

The Magnum Workshop East London

The Magnum Workshop East London will be held 14th - 20th June 2008 is a seven day event organized for advanced photographers wishing to take the next logical step in their career. Led by Magnum photographers Chris Steele-Perkins and Simon Wheatley, this workshop is an opportunity to build a body of work focusing on the topical regeneration of East London.

For Further information: The Magnum Workshop East London

Sony World Photography Awards

© Arup Ghosh, courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards
Arup Ghosh's image of an Indian barber shaving a customer has won him top honors as Amateur Photographer of the Year in the Sony World Photography Awards.

The inaugural Sony World Photography Awards will be held in Cannes, France, between April 21 and 25. Professional photographers nominated in the 11 categories will find out in Cannes who has been named Photographer of the Year.

There are many terrific photographs among the World Photography Awards Finalists (via Spiegel Online) gallery.

Amy Thompson: Cambodia

Photograph © Amy Thompson-All Rights Reserved
Amy Thompson is a talented photojournalist who recently completed her masters in documentary photography from Ohio University and is currently teaching at the Massachusetts College of Art. Amy worked as a freelance and staff photographer for The New York Times (Washington D.C. bureau) and was a featured photographer in National Geographic Magazine.

Supported by a grant from the Center for Southeast Asia Studies, she created and produced an essay Peace, Violence and Visitors, which is chosen for this post. Her photographs captioned "Hunting for frogs" and "Selling bok-shoy" in the photo essay amply demonstrate her talent.

To me, Amy's photograph of a lay nun (aka doan-chi) in the Bayon Temple in Angkor Wat, with the smoke of the incense sticks obscuring her face, is a "decisive moment" photograph.

Pulitzer Prize: Breaking News Photography

Photograph © Adrees Latif -All Rights Reserved
The 2008 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced a short while ago, and Adrees Latif of Reuters was awarded the $10,000 2008 Pulitzer Prize in the Breaking News Photography for his photograph of a Japanese videographer, fatally wounded during a street demonstration in Myanmar.

Mahmud Hams of Agence France-Presse was also nominated as finalist in this category for his picture of a missile, caught in mid-air, as it falls on a target in the Gaza Strip while young Palestinians scramble for safety.

2008 Pulitzer Prizes

TTP Recap of the Week

For your convenience, here's the past week's (March 31-April 6, 2008) most popular posts on TTP:

Karen Huntt: PNG.
Adobe Lightroom 2.0 Beta
Edirol R-09HR

4th Angkor Photography Festival

Françoise Callier, Curator of The Angkor Photography Festival, has announced that it will be held in Siem Reap, Cambodia, from November 23rd to 28th, 2008.

For the program of exhibitions and slideshows, projects photographed worldwide, not just in Asia, are welcomed by the selection committee.

The deadline for submitting work is July 15th, 2008. The selected photographers will receive a reply during the month of August.

Details are available at : The Angkor Photography Festival

Ehrin Macksey: Pulikali

© Ehrin Macksey-All Rights Reserved
Ehrin Macksey is a multimedia freelance producer, designer and programmer. He graduated with an engineering degree with specializations in business and web programming from the University of Florida.

He spent part of his life in the Middle East, and traveled in South East Asia, where he developed a love for photography. He currently photographs social, economical and political issues in Vietnam.

Here is his multimedia feature on Pulikali, or the "Tiger Dance", which is a folk dance and art form from Trissur in the south of India. The unusual dance is performed during the Onam festival which occurs in the months of August or September.

You can also see other multimedia work by Ehrin at Relative Exposure and The Raw File

Adobe Lightroom 2.0 Beta

I'm a Luddite when it comes to imaging software, and in justification I have to say that I don't spend much time fiddling with my images. While I certainly use Adobe's Photoshop to prep my images before displaying, printing or selling them, I seldom use its more advanced tools. I decided to leave these to people better qualified than I am.

However, I decided to give Adobe Lightroom 2.0 (Beta) a try, and downloaded its trial. Having no patience to read manuals or tutorials, I just took a plunge and I must say that it's one heck of a program! As I haven't used its predecessor, I can't make any comparisons (my friend Gavin Gough did on his blog) nor can I add anything that hasn't been written or said since it was released. I currently use iView for digital asset management, but Lightroom is sorely tempting me to switch.

To my utter delight, I am creating Flash-based slideshows with Lightroom with incredible ease...and just can't stop!

Smithsonian 5th Annual Photo Contest

The Smithsonian magazine has announced the selection of 10 Finalists in its 5th Annual Photo Contest. We are told that its judges reviewed 7,500 photographs from around the world.

The five categories are Americana, The Natural World, People, Altered Images, and Travel. The Grand Prize Winner and the five Category Winners will be announced in the July 2008 issue of Smithsonian, and on its web site on July 1st.

The Smithsonian's 5th Annual Photo Contest