Innocence: Child Soldiers of Sri Lanka

Here's Innocence: Child Soldiers of Sri Lanka, a SoundSlides production by duckrabbit multimedia, with the song of Irish singer Luka Bloom.

Before 2007, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebel movement was accused of recruiting thousands of children into their ranks. The LTTE has been accused of knowingly recruiting and using child soldiers as front-line troops. Amid international pressure, LTTE announced in July 2003 that it would stop conscripting child soldiers, but both UNICEF and HRW have accused it of reneging on its promises, and of conscripting orphaned Tamil children.

One Shot: Peter Bendheim: Sangoma

Photo ©Peter Bendheim-All Rights Reserved
Peter Bendheim is a documentary photographer in Durban, South Africa. He's represented by africapictures.net and his work is part of the permanent collection of the Durban Art Gallery, and his documentary work was exhibited in various galleries to include on the Digital Journalist website.

Peter's favorite photographers are Sebastiao Salgado, W. Eugene Smith, Gary Winogrand and Martin Parr. His favorite camera equipment is Nikon, and is the editor and principal photographer of MetroBeat, a full color magazine of 400,000 copies in circulation. He also worked with the National Geographic Traveler magazine on a specific assignment.

I chose his portrait of sangomas for this post. Sangomas are practitioners of herbal medicine, divination and counseling in traditional the Zulu, Xhosa, Ndebele and Swazi societies of Southern Africa. The practice is based on a belief in ancestral spirits.

Matt Brandon: Thaipusam

Matt Brandon, aka The Digital Trekker, has just produced an audio slideshow using the SoundSlides platform of his photographs of Thaipusam in Penang. Some 800,000 Hindu Tamil and Chinese devotees of Muruga (also called Subramaniam), the Hindu God of War, gathered in Penang to celebrate Thaipusam, and Matt was there to record the images and ambient sound.

In contrast to the nervous energy from his pulsating photographs of the festival, Matt does an admirably calm and well articulated narration. A well done job.

Matt is now living in Malaysia, and travels all around South Asia and beyond on different assignments, and most often shoots people in their natural environment. He also authors an excellent blog called The Digital Trekker, so bookmark it if you haven't already.

As for Thaipusam, I read on Wikipedia that the largest Thaipusam celebrations take place in Singapore, Mauritius and Malaysia. The temple at Batu Caves, near Kuala Lumpur, often attracts over one million devotees!

Medford Taylor: El Corazon de Mexico

Photo ©Medford Taylor-All Rights Reserved
It is a delight to bring Medford Taylor, a photographer with an incredible eye for color, to the virtual pages of The Travel Photographer.

Since 1974 Medford worked on assignment for Time Magazine, Newsweek, GEO, National Geographic magazine and National Geographic Traveler, among others. His photographs have been published in various books and publications all over the world, and he has received awards from the Virginia News Photographers Association, the White House Photographers Association, and the Slover Award from the Virginian Pilot. In 2002, he published his first book "Saltwater Cowboys: A Photo Essay of Chincoteague Island.

I chose Medford's work on Mexico, especially his lovely gallery titled El Corazon de Mexico, to show here. I also admired his saturated color work in his gallery Mariposa Monarca, which you can see on his website or as a music-accompanied slideshow on Burn magazine

My thanks to my photographer friend Cathy Scholl, who not only directed me to Medford's work, but also reminded me that I expressed to her my fears that I wouldn't find enough talent to fill the pages of my blog. That was in February 2007...two years ago!

Robot Posts

As I'm getting swamped in my final preparations for the imminent departure of my Theyyams of Malabar photo-expedition, I've set up and scheduled various posts which will be posted during as many days of my absence as possible.

This will ensure an uninterrupted stream of posts for a while so readers of The Travel Photographer continue to read one of their favorite blogs as long as possible. I will try to post while on the road, but I can't guarantee it.

In the field, my primary focus is on the 8 photographers who accompany me and who are making this photo-expedition a sold-out event, but I will try my best.

Foundry PJ Workshop 2009: Update

The Foundry Photojournalism Workshop has announced the availability of three separate tuition scholarships which will benefit 6 photojournalists.

Separately, Eric Beecroft just announced that the Foundry Photojournalism Workshops and N11/Lightstalkers are pleased and proud to announce the two winners of the full tuition Lightstalkers Foundry Workshop Scholarships. The winners for 2009 are Ashwini Bhatia and Dar Yasin. Ashwini lives and works in Dharamshala, India where he covers Tibetan affairs for the Associated Press, and Dar Yasin is an award winning freelance photojournalist, and native of Kashmir.

Check out the details on its website.

New York Photo Festival: May 13-17

The New York Photo Festival, which drew positive reviews when it debuted last year, has changed its plans to expand from four to 10 days in 2009. After announcing last year that the festival would take place May 14 to 24, NYPH '09 quietly rescheduled for May 13 to 17.

Festival co-founder Frank Evers said the change was the result of programming decisions, with the slowdown in the economy being a lesser concern. It made more sense to make the festival "intense and short" rather than trying to fill up a longer schedule, Evers says. The festival schedule has not been announced, but NYPH is adding some new events this year including portfolio reviews.

Marantz PMD 620

I finally succumbed. I dropped by B&H yesterday to check on whether they had any Canon 5D Mark II batteries in stock, and walked out with a Marantz PMD 620 audio recorder.

But first things first; the LP-E6 Rechargeable Lithium-Ion batteries are unavailable. The salesman said that there were none available in the United States...perhaps an exaggeration, but probably not that far off. I guess the alternative is to buy a Canon 5D Mark II just to have a spare battery. In my view, Canon mismanaged the supply of both camera and accessories, and will eventually suffer the consequences.

Now about the Marantz PMD 620 audio recorder: I decided to replace my Micro Track which was showing its age...and it didn't perform that well in Bhutan last October. I had replaced its original microphone which had been damaged, but it still didn't perform as well as it should have...hence the new Marantz PMD 620.

I figured a new audio recorder would be useful during my forthcoming photo-expedition to South India to document Theyyam performances...I'm hopeful that the accompanying music and ambient sound during these performances will add much to my photographs.

I was glad that the Marantz PMD 620 was sold by B&H with a free 2gb SD card (it comes with a 512mb card), a free carrying case and a $100 rebate from Marantz. I briefly tested it yesterday, and think it'll work well. Why did I choose it over the other models? Well, because of these incentives.

For a detailed report on the Marantz PMD 620, check Transom Tool. I will put it through its paces in India and will write my own on my return.

BBC: Lalibela's Bet Maryam

Photo ©Karoki Lewis-All Rights Reserved
I'm not too fond of the BBC these days as a result of its unconscionable decision not to air the Gaza appeal, however it has recently published an interesting audio slideshow with photographs and audio by Karoki Lewis, and produced by Phil Coomes

As part of a series looking at religious pilgrimages around the world, Karoki recorded the all night ceremony at Bet Maryam (Church of the Virgin Mary) in Lalibela, Ethiopia, as they celebrated Orthodox Christmas in early January.

I recall being in Lalibela during Epiphany in 2004, and being part of, and photographing the pre-dawn rituals of the ancient celebration was an unforgettable experience. Ethiopian Christianity dates back to the 4th century, and as the festival of Epiphany nears, Lalibela’s population swells with 60 thousand pilgrims.

I visited the beautiful cross-shaped Church of St. George, but the awning that is visible in the slideshow wasn't there...so it must be a new addition. It certainly preserves the stone church from the elements, but it's also hideous.

(Via duckrabbit multimedia)

Peter Gasser: African Tribes

Photo ©Peter Gasser-All Rights Reserved
Every now and then, I'm confronted with photographic work of such superlative quality that my jaw literally drops. Peter Gasser's photography is such work.

Peter Gasser is a Swiss photographer, and his biography as penned by Professor Helmut Gernsheim on his website reveals his affinity for precision work. While Professor Gernsheim commends Gasser's landscape work, comparing it to that of Ansel Adams, Brett Weston and Paul Caponigro, it is his ethno-photography that left me speechless.

Peter Gasser has exhibited his work in European and United States galleries, and is the recipient of a number of awards including the official recognition from the Swiss Confederation. His photographs are at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Art institute of Chicago, International Museum of Photography, Rochester; Center for Creative Photography, Arizona and others.

While all of his galleries are collectors' items, it's his images of the African Tribes that I liked the most...even more than his work from Ladakh. The black & white portraits of the Karo and Hamer tribes people of Ethiopia's Omo Valley, of the Himba of Namibia and of the Samburu of Kenya leap out of the pages...as if lifelike.

No question about it in my mind...this is jaw-dropping work.

My thanks to Alia Refaat, a freelance photographer from Egypt, for directing me to Peter Gasser's website.

Simon Norfolk: Future of Photography

My apologies for spoiling your Sunday, but here's a sobering interview by Simon Norfolk on the World Press Photo website.

I would say that two of his predictions for the future are ones that forward-looking photographers have certainly realized for a while, and have acted upon already. There are quite a number of "masterclasses" that have sprung up recently, such as Gary Knight and Philip Blenkinsop Master Classes for instance. I have no idea if these are aimed at "wealthy orthodontists" or not, but that's the general idea.

Simon Norfolk:

"So my predictions for the future? More "name" photographers will be cashing in their reputations to teach "masterclasses" to wealthy orthodontists.

None of us will be saying "no" to wedding photography or lucrative teaching posts which sell to young students the rarely-realized dream that they’ll one day have jobs as photographers."

Some of us will perhaps deem Simon Norfolk's view as being too pessimistic or cynical. I, for one, see it as realistic.

However, let me also point out there are some of us who accept short-term teaching posts for no pay...such as those who have lined up to teach at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop.

Some Canon 5D II's Fail in Antartica: Luminous Landscape

Michael Reichmann of Luminous Landscape has written a detailed report on his 2-week long photo expedition to Antarctica, and what has worked and hasn't. He writes this about the Canon 5D Mark II cameras used by some of the participants on the expedition:

"The largest group of failures though were among the Canon 5D MKIIs. Of the 26 samples of this camera onboard, one quarter (six) failed at one time or another, and while three recovered, the other three never did. In all cases it appeared to be water or humidity damage. Of particular concern were two cameras which stopped working while completely protected within Kata rain covers during a light rain ashore. They came back to life the following day though and were mostly fine for the rest of the trip, but one died permanently just before the end of our voyage."

For more of the article, go to Luminous Landscape.