LENS: Tyler Hicks & The Tabligh

Photo © Tyler Hicks/NYT-All Rights Reserved
It's been a while since I featured a war-related photojournalism piece, so I thought The New York Times LENS blog brought us a couple of days ago an interesting On Assignment gallery from Tyler Hicks on the Tabligh Jamaat.

I like the clever way the photographer framed the above image, as he had to photograph surreptitiously and very quickly because photography was banned from the Tabligh gathering for religious reasons.

Wikipedia describes the Tabligh (which means "conveying of message") movement as an apolitical religious movement, whose principal aim is reformation of Muslims, and was founded in India by Muhammad Ilyas as a voluntary, pacifist and independent movement.

The New York Times reports that it's "a missionary movement that spreads revivalist Islam through its followers, who travel the world on preaching missions. The movement convenes in Raiwind, Pakistan, once a year. Attended by as many as 1.5 million people, it is the largest gathering of Muslims outside the annual pilgrimage to Mecca."

American authorities believe the movement incubates "jihadists".

For further reading, The New York Times has a 2007 article here.

Note: For stereotype busting, have a look at Matthieu Paley's fascinating coverage of the annual Lal Shabaz festival when over one million Sufis, devotees and onlookers, join this chaotic pilgrimage which cannot be more different than the austere Tablighi gathering.

Yes, folks...one person's Islam is not another's, even within neighboring countries.

WTF Department: Do I Look Stupid To You?

I recently got this rather terse but pseudo friendly email the other day (it'll remain anonymous because I'm a nice guy) from presumably a very busy person who cannot find the time to type full sentences:

wd apprec. recg detailed itinerary info (hotels, meals, transportation, etc.) on your India tour.
excellent website.
thanks

What's wrong with this request, you ask? Nothing...except here's the deal. The person who emailed me this is married to a well-known photographer, and they both periodically lead photo tours themselves...and have been to India (and to that specific area) a number of times. That's what Google is for, isn't it?

So this is a rather lame (and arguably unethical) attempt to get the full itinerary I spend a long time researching, so they could either set one just like it (and charge double or triple what I do), or compare it to their own...refine theirs, re-price their costs, etc. A sort of industrial espionage!!!!

Note that the fellow is not asking for just the itinerary...oh no, it's an in-my-face request for details on hotels, meals, transportation and even the etc (just in case he forgot something). In other words, the whole friggin' enchilada.

He doesn't even mention that he's interested in joining my trip, which is what people on the level normally do.

I savored the drafting of my response, and then emailed it to him saying that (1) the Tribes of Rajasthan & Gujarat Photo~Expedition™ had been sold out for over 4 months (with a long waiting list), and (2) I screen who joins my Photo~Expeditions™, and finally that his request didn't pass the stench test.

I am disinclined to withhold information from peers and friends if and when they ask for it frontally and honestly...and I try to help whenever I can. There's a number of photographers in the photo tour business who can attest to that.

However, that doesn't mean that I will share the one-of-a-kind itineraries and other stuff that I worked very hard to research and develop. Get that, Mr. Husband-Of-Well-Known-Photographer?

WSJ Photo Journal: Street Barber

Photo © Manish Swarup/AP/Getty-All Rights Reserved
The WSJ Photo Journal brings us a daily collection of fine photographs from photojournalists spread all over the globe, and this one caught my attention. It's by Manish Swarup of a man getting a shave at a roadside barbershop, decorated with portraits of Hindu gods and goddesses, in New Delhi...and the poster of the Swiss lodge in the upper left hand corner!

Street (or roadside) barbers are an important profession in India and elsewhere, and they can set up shop virtually anywhere they please. Naturally, many of them have to pay a form of "contribution" to sundry forms of authority, if you know what I mean. Typically, it's almost a hand to mouth existence despite the daily stream of clients needing a shave or a cut.

For more photographs of this profession, you can check my recent The Street Barbers which I made in Manali (Himachal Pradesh).

Twitter & Google: Lots of Followers

I am chuffed (a British colloquialism meaning delighted) that The Travel Photographer blog now has over 300 Google Followers, over 500 Twitter Followers and is listed in 80+ lists ....and that's not counting close to the thousand subscribers to my newsletter mailing list.

Thank you! It's another a milestone on this blog's (almost) three years' life.

Global Post: Finbarr O'Reilly: Senegal

GlobalPost brings us a feature by photographer Finbarr O'Reilly. The photographer came across performers of the Dseu Renaissance de Pikine theater group, and was smitten by the intense colors he saw when the female artists put their traditional headscarves and applied black makeup and markings worn by the Toucouleur people of West Africa.

The "Toucouleur" possibly originates from the French (slightly misspelled) meaning "all-colors", and are Muslims who live mostly in the Senegal River Valley in Northern Senegal and Southern Mauritania.

The theater group seeks to keep alive West Africa's superstitions, oral storytelling, and narrative skills of the griots.

Finbarr O’Reilly joined Reuters in 2001 as a freelance text correspondent in Kinshasa, Congo and spent two years covering Central Africa’s Great Lakes region from Kinshasa and from Kigali, Rwanda. He took up photography full-time in 2005 and covers West and Central Africa for Reuters, based in Dakar, Senegal. In 2006, he was awarded the World Press Photo of the Year.

NYT: Lynsey Addario : India's Coconuts

Photo © Lynsey Addario/NYT-All Rights Reserved
The New York Times has featured a photo gallery by photojournalist Lynsey Addario documenting coconut pluckers in Kerala, India.

Having visited and photographed in Kerala a number of times, I saw many of these coconut pluckers (as well as palm toddy tappers) climbing the trees with an incredible agility...and yet, it never crossed my mind to document them and their occupation.

It appears there's a scarcity of coconut pluckers in Kerala which threatens to undermine the production of coconuts. The captions of the gallery informs us that India produces 15 billion coconuts a year, and just about every one is plucked by hand!

As visitors to India know, every part of the coconut tree and it fruit is used for food, moisturizers, furniture, and religious offerings.

Dan Bannister: Bhutan

Photo © Dan Bannister-All Rights Reserved
Dan Bannister is a commercial, industrial and editorial photographer based in Calgary, Canada, who joined my recent Bhutan: Land of the Druk Yul Photo~Expedition™, and I'm pleased to feature a selection of his fabulous work that he is showcasing in his Bhutan slideshow.

Photo © Dan Bannister-All Rights Reserved
A consummate professional, Dan's work spans the world from travel stock and magazine features to oil and gas annual reports, advertising imagery and environmental portraiture. He regularly travels the world capturing interesting, high quality travel photography to add to his travel stock photos portfolio. He has a wide selection of royalty free and rights managed travel pictures in his travel stock photos portfolio from destinations in Canada, the US, Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, China, the Caribbean and other destinations.

Photo © Dan Bannister-All Rights Reserved
Dan's travel work has appeared in The New York Times, Canadian Geographic, Our Canada, Connecticut Magazine, Rough Guides travel guides and numerous airline in flight magazines. His commercial client list includes some of the biggest oil and gas and industrial companies in Canada.

One of the important benefits of photographic trips is the informational synergy that accrues to its participants from rubbing shoulders with each other during photo-shoots. We all learned quite a lot from Dan during the Bhutan trip, especially as to his lighting techniques and stylistic approaches...while debating our occasional divergent points of views on photography was always useful and interesting.

Highlands Highway Overland Tour

Highlands Highway, or Okuk Highway is definitely the nation's lifeline.
Main Export products like Gold, Tea, Coffee are transported to coastal town of Lae & Madang for export, and imported consumer goods go up the Highway.
Here is the virtual tour of Highlands Highway from Mt Hagen to Lae.

Mt Hagen at altitude of 1600m is a commercial centre in the Highlands Region.
Outside the Mt Hagen, you can see a large Tea plantation on the road side.
You will then pass the limestone country of Chimbu Province and arrive Goroka, Coffee capital of Papua New Guinea.

The Road will wind down the valley to lowland, through grassland country of Eastern Highlands.

On the way, you will encounter a breathtaking view of Yonki Hydro Dam. The Dam supplies most of the electricity in Highlands, Madang & Lae.

Further going down the mountain, you will reach Markham Valley outside of Lae.
The temperature dramatically changes from freezing 10 degree to "sweating" 30+ degree .

Travelling the Highland Highway is not as comfortable as you drive the highway in other countries. However, if you have a bit of adventurous mind, it is worth taking as you can enjoy different scenery, plants, people and culture.

If you next visit Papua New Guinea, don't miss this exiting part of the country.

WTF Department: Leica M7 Hermès

From the British Journal of Photography comes the news that Leica M7 Hermès edition has just been announced representing a collaboration between Leica and Hermès Paris. My readers may be interested to know that only 200 units will be available...and to make it even more exclusive, only 100 will be in orange and 100 in a green.

The Leica M7 Edition Hermès will be available in the UK from December 2009 from authorized Leica dealers at the suggested retail price of £8550 (or $14,000).

I really (I mean really as in seriously) hope to come face to face with whoever has such a camera dangling around his or her neck. It's not about the jaw-dropping price (although that's a stunner), but about the crass ostentation that it exudes. I'm reasonably certain that Leica has done some market research, and knows that there is a minuscule number of people who may be attracted to the Leica M7 Edition Hermès.

I have some ideas as to what demographics these people may belong to...but I still would like to see one, and then roll on the floor laughing.

On a more sober note, I suppose that this is more of a collector's item, like a great vintage wine or whatever it is that people collect these days. It's not really a camera that'll be used much. After all, the leather cover might get scratched!

Denver Post: The Last Tribes

Photo © Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images-All Rights Reserved
The Denver Post is another newspaper website that brings us large photo galleries from varied sources, including parts of the world that are less well known.

This particular gallery documents the Penan; a tribe found mostly in the northern parts of Sarawak near Miri, Baram and Limbang. The nomadic hunter-gatherers Penan are one of the last in South East Asia. Out of the 10,000 Penan living in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, Borneo, only 200 nomadic people are left. They are a gentle and softly spoken people with a highly egalitarian society and little gender division.

Nomadic Penan move in groups of up to 40 people, but groups form and split regularly as sago palm flour and game is sought from different areas in their territory (roughly 100 sq miles on average).

For further information of the Penan, go here.

Shravanabelgola - Karnataka

Shravanabelgola is a city located in Hassan District in Karnataka state. Shravanabelgola is a extraordinary Jain Pilgrimage site spreads over two hills, several tanks and village. Its highlight is the main temple crowning Indragiri Hill. Inside its precincts stands a 57-foot monolithic statue of Gommata. With long arms and legs entwined with creepers, he is wonderfully serene and oblivious to the crowds of prostrate pilgrims below. Sculptures of Jain Tirthankaras (prophets) and Yaksas (demigods), as well as 9th to 19th century reliefs carved into boulders, continue on Ghandragiri, the samll hill to the north.

How to reach:

Shravanabelgola is 158 kms away from Bangalore, 89 kms away from Mysore and 364 kms from hubli. State buses are available from Bangalore and Mysore.

Hassan is the nearest railway station and Bangalore is the nearest Airport for Shravanbelgola

To know more about the details of Shravanabelgola, click here

To know more tourist spots in India, click here

Pondicherry (Puducherry) - India

The most famous of France's four trading posts in India was, until recently, a sleepy backwater with little evidence of its former status. The opening of a new coastal highway has new reduced the bus journey from Chennai to less than 4 hours and, inevitably, the number of visitors is growing.

Established in the early 18th century and with short interludes of Dutch and British control, it finally entered independent India in 1954. It still has some ornate Catholic churches. It has a grid layout, split north-south by a canal that once divided the French quater, from the Indian quater inland.

Goubert Salai is the main beach promenade, dominated at its northern end by a gigantic statue of Gandhiji (Father of Nation). Some of other tourist spots in Pondicherry are Auroville, Museum, Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

Auroville is the one of the fascinating tourist spot and its 6 kms far away from Pondicherry. Followers are international, with a high proportion of Indians, Americans, Europeans, Russians, and Japanese. Auroville Products, such as fine paper and silk, are sold all over India.

Sri Aurobindo Ashram is located in rue de la Marine, nearby Gandhi beach. Its a memorial place of Swamy Aravinder. Its open daily morning 8-12, and afternoon 2-6, admission is free.

Pondicherry Museum with artifacts from Pondicherry's original prehistoric settlement and Pallava, Chola and Vijayanagar sculptures, alongside French bourgeois furniture and other items.

To know more about Pondicherry Tourism details, click here

Thekkady (Periyar National Park) - Kerala

At the southern end of the Western Ghats on the Kerala - Tamilnadu border lies a 280 square feet stretch of water whose thickly forested banks are reputed to be among the best in India for wildlife. Elephants, Langurs, Wild Boar, Bison, Sloth Bear, Sambar Dear, Porcupines, Flying Squirrels, Leopards and the increasingly elusive tiger all inhabit the depths of this 297 square mile sanctuary, and herons, egrets, darters, kingfishers, and the great malabar grey hornbill are among the 260 or so bird species sighted. Apart from this, the sanctuary is stunningly beautiful and its best accommodations (former royal hunting lodges) occupy prime lakeside spots with lovely misty early morning views.

Season:

Periyar's high season is December through March, but accommodations fill up at any weekend or public holiday, making reservations essential. it is not worth visiting during and just after the monsoon, when lakeside sightings become rare as the wildlife has no need of water from the lake, and the humidity also encourages leeches.

Route and Accommodations:

The nearest access town is Kumily, which has good connections with Kottayam, in the Keralan backwaters, and Madurai. Between Kumily and Thekkady, where budget and mid-range accommodations are concentrated , seemingly endless plantations of cardamom, pepper, coffee, bananas, and tapioca eventually give way to evergreen and semi-deciduous forest, typical of this altitude. Thekkady is located about 257 kms from Trivendrum, 114 kms from Madurai Airport, 185 kms from Cochin International Airport. A better bet is to hire a guide and trek through the sorrounding forest or, better still, stay overnight in one of the viewing towers run by the Forest Department in Thekkady.

Click here to read more...

Tom Van Cakenberghe: The Living Goddess

Tom Van Cakenberghe is originally from Antwerp, Belgium and lives in Kathmandu, Nepal since 2004 and works as a press photographer.

His website brings us a number of galleries on Nepal, but most interesting to me is The Living Goddess photo gallery...where he captured luminous (and candid) images of the Kumari. He must have been granted special access to be able to make these images. There's no further information on his gallery, but the best known is the Royal Kumari of Kathmandu, who lives in the Kumari Ghar, a palace in the center of the city.

Worshiping a pre-pubescent girl, who is not a born goddess, as the source of supreme power is an old Hindu-Buddhist tradition in Nepal.

The traditions of the Vajrayana sect of Mahayana Buddhism, girls 4-7 years old, who belong to the Nepali Sakya community, and have an auspicious horoscope, are chosen on the basis of 32 attributes of perfection. Among these are the color of eyes, shape of teeth and voice quality.

There are further Hindu-Buddhist rituals that follow which finally determine the real Kumari.

POV: Twitter This Twitter That

I've been on Twitter for a while now, and I must say that I haven't gotten it yet. I follow a handful of talented photographers and other professionals, and I am extremely happy to be followed by many more...I must be doing something right... but here's what I find rather puzzling:

1. I only "tweet" my blog posts, and on occasions some stuff that I find interesting in the realm of photography and photojournalism. I do not "tweet" about trivialities that occur in my daily life, since I suspect that no one is (nor should they be, frankly) interested in those. Others do "tweet" about such stuff, and I don't understand why they think that anyone is remotely interested if they suddenly sprout a pimple, or whether Grandma Ida's apple pie tasted like cardboard last night. Isn't that what is diagnosed as narcissism ??

2. There's the phenomenon of "re-tweeting" which I also find puzzling, especially when a group of photographers "re-tweet" each others tweets as a matter of course. Now, I understand the concept of tribalism, and how 're-tweets' are useful for marketing purposes, and that it's to show membership in the good ol'boy network kind of thing, but why re-tweet virtually everything???

3. There are tweeters who follow thousands of other tweeters...when do they find the time and focus to read/scan/parse/skim all these tweets? As I said, I follow a handful of talented people, and I still don't have time to do their tweets full justice.

All this was triggered by an article appearing in The New York Time titled The Value of Twitter Data which in essence, tells us that a start-up company is selling very large sets of data harvested from 500 million Twitter messages, which also include the senders and recipients of 1 billion @ messages, re-tweets and favorites.

Since it is probable that I have no say in that data mining activity, I'd rather my tweets to have a little substantive content than being about nothing...but perhaps that's only me.

Seriously, I believe that Twitter can be a useful marketing and networking tool, but will quickly loses its efficacy if not properly harnessed and used.