Foundry Photo Workshop-Manali

Well, after approximately 20 hours of driving from Delhi to Manali, we've reached our destination: the Foundry Photojournalism Workshp (Manali) which is to be held at the Green Cottages Hotel. The view above is from my room's balcony.

Manali is at an altitude of 6,398 ft in the Vyas River valley, and is an important hill station in the mountains of Himachal Pradesh, providing an idyllic scenery and temperate climate even in the months of July and August. I can actually hear the roar of the Vyas river from my balcony from where I'm typing this post.

As for the question as to why it took us 20 hours for a journey that normally should take about 12-13? Ah, well...perhaps the second photograph will explain it better than I can. Our bus had an unfortunate accident (rather minor) with a truck coming down an incline. No one was hurt on our bus, so we were extremely lucky. However, it meant that the bus' dashboard was somewhat bent out of shape making it difficult to steer. So we boarded 5 4x4s ordered by the Foundry team, and we were on our way. Having lost a lot of time, we were hoping to make it up, but the gods of the Kullu valley were not letting enter that easily. Flat tires and over-enthusiastic policemen conspired to impede our progress, but the team of instructors and administrators, tired and bedraggled perhaps, finally made it.

Chico Sanchez: Pok Ta Pok

"The Popol Vuh, holy book of the Quiché Maya, contains a story of a confrontation between good and evil, played out in the form of a ballgame. Throughout pre-Hispanic history, this ballgame has played an important yet mysterious and debated role in the cultures of Mesoamerica, sometimes taking the form of sacrifice ritual, sometimes a game of chance, always symbolic of a timeless struggle between opposing forces, with an outcome governed by supernatural powers in conjunction with human skill and honor."-(BBC)

Here's a short audio slideshow by photographer Chico Sanchez documenting the ancient ballgame of Pok Ta Pok as played in Yucatan, Mexico. As the preamble above describes, it's a symbolic game between the forces of good and evil.

Chico Sanchez is a freelance photographer based in Mexico City. Chico worked in Venezuela, collaborating with Reuters, European Pressphoto Agency, Agencia EFE, and freelances for various newspapers and magazines.

Many of Chico Sanchez's documentary/travel photography slideshows have been featured on The Travel Photographer blog and can be found here.

Canon Pro Network: Editor's Choice

The Canon Pro Network has recently introduced an interactive feature that allows Canon photographers to submit their images for review by the world's top photo editors. All of the entries are then viewed and edited by a big name 'guest editor' who makes a selection of the best submitted images.

The guest editor for the second edition Editor's Choice is Magdalena Herrera, director of photography at GEO France. She reviewed 4,471 photos submitted by 721 Canon photographers from around the world.

You can now watch and listen to an in-depth explanation of her final picture selection by clicking here.

My Work: Maghreb Still Life

Ancient cameras (Marrakech)-Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
Water gourd (Ouarzazate)-Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
Allah (Ouarzazate)-Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
Shelf & Door(Marrakech)-Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
Door (Essaouira)-Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights Reserved

Here's a collection of photographs made in the medinas of Marrakech, Essaouira and Ouarzazate, during my Gnawa Festival Photo~Expedition last month. Some of the old cameras are the very popular Kodak 55X Instamatic; one of which I still have in perfect working order!

On My Way To Manali, India

I will be flying out of London today on my way to Delhi then on to Manali, India. The Second Foundry Photojournalism Workshop is being held at this hill station, located in the Vyas River valley, among the mountains of Himachal Pradesh, India, near the northern end of the Kullu Valley.

I will have missed one of nature’s most awesome spectacles, a solar eclipse (here are some photographs of it) which was seen from India's (and China) various cities, especially in Patna, Bihar.

Anyway, back to FPW. The small town of Manali was the beginning of an ancient trade route to Ladakh and, from there, over the Karakoram Pass on to Yarkand and Khotan in the Tarim Basin. Manali and the surrounding area is of great significance to Indian culture and heritage as it is said to be the home of the Saptarshi, or Seven Sages.

I'm part of the faculty that will be teaching various classes to emerging photojournalists, mostly from South and South East Asia.

The workshop will have internet and WiFi access, so I will be able to continue posting....I have a bunch of interesting posts coming up. I hope to also be able to write about the workshop, which may be of interest to the readers of TTP.

My Bags: Foundry Photo Workshop

I had a difficult time deciding what camera bag to take with me for the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop. I had the choice of a Swiss Army briefcase roller, a seldom-used Billingham 555 (or whatever the model is...the large one), a Lowepro Computrekker backpack, or a Lowepro Stealth Reporter shoulderbag.

Having been used to my minimalist gear on my previous two international trips, I was loath to return to the heavy Swiss Army roller, the Billingham requires steel fingers to close its clasps, and the Stealth Reporter seems to auto-inflate in front of the Virgin Atlantic check-in desk. I was left with the Lowepro backpack, and the Domke F-8.

The Domke F-8 could comfortably carry all my camera gear but my Mac laptop wouldn't fit (I have to take the Mac since the Acer's screen is too small for my multimedia class), The Lowepro backpack was the logical answer, but I decided to drop by the nearest Army Surplus Store, and buy an IDF Messenger Bag for about $20. That bag has the identical canvas material and hardware as the Domke F-8...it's really uncanny how they seem to be made from the same cloth.

So all my photo gear is in the Domke F-8 (except for my 70-200mm lens, which I'll have to lug around in my checked luggage) and my laptop is happily ensconced in the IDF bag. Both are secured to each other by a couple of carabiners (D-rings), and to me so far, this is an excellent alternative to carrying a heavy backpack or shoulder bag. I can easily separate the two, and carry each on a shoulder...or carry them from each hand. When they're coupled together with the carabiners, I look a little like a homeless person schlepping his belongings around, but looks are not everything in life.

Is it the holy grail? Not by a long shot...but so far so good.

Matt Powell: Humanitarian Photographer

Matt Powell is a documentary photographer and a multimedia producer ( his bio tells us that he's also a budding documentary filmmaker), as a well as a writer, who works for the Christian humanitarian relief agency Samaritan’s Purse. It's a job which takes Matt all over the developing world, and nourishes his passion for visual storytelling and his desire to improve the world.

Soon after his graduation, Matt undertook a 2.5 month trekking journey into some of the most remote terrain in South East Asia to perform an ethnographic survey of tribal minorities known to be living under severe religious and ethnic persecution. It was the adventure of his lifetime, and established his career as a humanitarian photographer.

His subsequent assignments took him to Indonesia, Cambodia, PNG, Viet Nam, India, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Uganda, to mention just a few.

I'm greatly impressed by Matt's commitment and talents, and feature his Portraits portfolio, however I also encourage you to explore his work beyond this gallery, and check the rest of his galleries and informative blog .

It's immensely refreshing to meet an altruistic photographer, and Matt Powell is it.

Jonas Bendiksen: The Places We Live

Jonas Bendiksen began his photography career as a 19-year-old intern in the London office of Magnum Photos. Eventually leaving office life to travel through Russia and pursue his own work as a photojournalist, he worked on numerous projects throughout the world, including his ongoing project about the world's slums.

The installation for "The Places We Live" project was developed and produced in cooperation with the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway, where it was launched a year ago.

From 2005 to 2007 Jonas Bendiksen documented life in the slums of four different cities: Nairobi, Mumbai, Jakarta and Caracas. The Places We Live is the result.

Oliver Weber: Marrakech

Oliver Weber is a German photographer who currently lives and works on the Canary Island of La Gomera. He specializes in reportage, portrait and street photography.

It was his 2007 photo exhibition “Humans” in Bredevoort, Netherlands, that Oliver Weber became more broadly known to an international audience, and his first book of photographs was published and nominated for the German Photo Book Award.

His interest in street photography is based on spontaneity and the awareness of situations and moods. He seeks to grasp the right moment since once the moment is over, it's gone forever. His black & white street photography of Marrakesh interested me the most amongst his galleries, since I've just returned from there, and I've posted about the immense frustration facing anyone photographing in Morocco. And yet, Oliver seems to photograph with such ease and fluidity.

Justin Jin: 100Eyes Magazine

Justin Jin worked for more than than a decade as an independent photojournalist with leading magazines and newspapers, specializing in documenting people in hidden, harsh and sensitive situations, such as authoritarianism in Russia, exploitation in China or illegal immigration in Europe.

Based for the last four years in Moscow, Justin is doing reportage and
corporate assignments in Russia, China and beyond. While some of his projects are commissioned, others are self-initiated.

The beautifully produced 100Eyes Magazine features Justin Jin's edgy photo essay Made In China-Blues After Midnight which documents how workers in Chinese factories toil through the night scrubbing, spraying and tearing trousers to create the rugged look of blue jeans so favored by consumers all over the world.

Justin Jin's website is here.