Mawled El-Nabi or The Prophet's Birthday

Photo © Tauseef Mustafa/AFP -Al Rights Reserved

Mawled el-Nabi was celebrated in Muslim countries a few days ago, and it observes the birth of Prophet Muhammad, which occurs during the third month of the Islamic calendar. Islamic scholars are divided on whether observing the Prophet's birthday is necessary or even permissible in Islam. Some see it as a praiseworthy event, while others view it as an improper innovation and forbid its celebration.

It's observed and celebrated in most Muslim countries, and where there are large Muslim communities, with the notable exception of Saudi Arabia, where it is not an official public holiday. Saudi Arabia practices an austere form of Islam, in contrast to Kashmir where these photographs are from.

Photo © Farooq Khan/EPA-All Rights Reserved

Kashmiri Muslims congregate at the Hazratbal Shrine in Srinagar where a relic, said to be a hair from the Prophet's beard, is displayed on the occasion of Mawled el-Nabi.

This reminds me that whilst in Diu (South Gujarat) on my In Search of the Sufis of Gujarat Photo Expedition™ a few weeks ago, I visited a Sufi dargah where a relic of Prophet Muhammad was kept in a receptacle, covered with a green "ghelaph", but under lock and key. I was told that it would be shown during the celebration of his birth.

For those who are interested in stuff like that, Diu (it being an ex-Portuguese enclave) is the only place in Gujarat where alcohol is sold openly. And the elderly Muslim man who courteously showed me the wall receptacle where the relic was kept, spoke fluent Portuguese, having emigrated from Mozambique many decades ago.

Terri Gold: Tribal India & Kham Exhibition

Terri Gold joined my Tribes of South Rajasthan & Kutch Photo~Expedition™ last year, and will be showcasing a series of her photographs from tribal India and Kham that are painted with encaustic wax and oils. This is an intricate and creative process, which Terri describes here on her blog.

Terri is an award-winning photographer and artist based in New York City, and built an impressive reputation for her rituals, rites of passage, festivals, celebrations and portraits from all over the world.

The exhibition is at Keyes Art, 551 West 21st (4th floor), New York, from February 17th to March 8th.

It's well worth attending this exhibition to appreciate Terri's artistry, and her ability to capture the very essence of tribal India and Kham on such a creative medium...so mark your calendars!!!

And here's an insight into the installation process.

The Travel Photographer's B&H Photo's VIP Tour

B&H's Isaac Buchinger with Tewfic El-Sawy

B&H's Yechiel Orgel with Tewfic El-Sawy

I'll preface this post by saying this:...despite my spending over an hour at B&H SuperStore on a VIP tour, I managed to reach deep in my inner reserves of self-discipline and will power, and emerged without buying a single item from one of my favorite retailers! It took a super-human effort, and a high degree of self-negation. A note to Santa:  Write this down in my plus column.

My hosts on this exhaustive tour on Thursday were Isaac Buchinger and Yechiel Orgel of the company's Affiliate Marketing Department. I visited every nook and cranny of the SuperStore, and even though I'd like to think I'm a frequent visitor, I was shown areas I didn't know existed.

Nothing was left out; Isaac must've guessed I had a flashlight fetish and showed me one that doubles up as a weapon and that sells for many many dollars...he showed me headphones that cost almost as much as my car, and ushered me into B&H's TV studio...a jaw-dropping environment which made me feel I was at one of the networks.

All that, and we were still in the ground floor of B&H's 70,000+ square feet building. The second floor is, of course, where the photography stuff is...and where I frequently spend more than what I can afford.

Nothing new on the second floor that I hadn't seen before, except for two areas of interest to me. The first is that B&H has a new (at least to me) section for DSLR video rigs, and that it produces and offers a full line of affordable line of photo/video support gear under the name Pearstone.

For instance, I noticed a Pearstone intervalometer or shutter release for a very reasonable $50 instead of the pricier Canon. I recently bought mine from an eBay vendor in Hong Kong, and while it's perfectly fine, I would've chosen to buy it from B&H had I known about this product line.

Following the tour, we returned to B&H's corporate offices for a meeting.

Oh, and another thing...I still don't know what B&H stands for.  Now I know...see below.

Addendum: A number of readers informed me that Wikipedia lists B&H's ownership and history.

The 1000th Google Follower

Photo © Haleh Bryan-All Rights Reserved

I was glad to see my Google followers have reached the 1000th mark yesterday, auguring well for The Travel Photographer's blog in 2011.

The 1000th Google Follower is Haleh Bryan who publishes her own blog Haleh Bryan Photography which showcases her talented personal work. Apart from her art photography, she has a gallery of Egypt which the above image is from.

Merry Xmas & Happy Holidays!

The Travel Photographer's 2010 Favorite Image Makers (Part 1)

First, let me render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s...this post was suggested by travel photographer Paolo Evangelista. He suggested I ought to post some of my favorite photographers whose work I've featured on this blog over the year....great idea!

So here's the first 5 of the 10 travel and/or documentary photographers (listed in no particular order) whose work was posted on this blog, and whose photographs were my favorites during 2010. The remainder (Part 2) will be posted tomorrow.

As I always say to whoever is interested; deciding which is a visual favorite amongst the hundreds of photographers I've shown here in this blog is a highly subjective and personal choice...nothing more or less. Every single photographer whose work was featured on my blog is worthy of praise and admiration.

I decided against grouping these photographs in a slideshow, so this is going to be a rather vertically long post:

1. Matjaz Krivic:

Photo © Matjaz Krivic-All Rights Reserved

This photograph is part of Matjaz's gallery of the Pir-e Shaliar festival in the Kurdish area of Iran. I posted Matjaz's work here.

2. Raphael Nguyen:

Photo © Raphael Nguyen-All Rights Reserved

This photograph is part of Raphael's gallery of super saturated photographs of Hoi An. I posted Raphael's work here.

3. Chico Sanchez:

Photo © Chico Sanchez-All Rights Reserved

This photograph is part of Chico Sanchez's audio-slideshow of Flamenco dancers. I posed Chico's work here.

4. Jehad Nga:

Photo © Jehad Nga-All Rights Reserved

This photograph is part of Jehad's Turkana exhibit at the Bonni Benrubi Gallery in NYC, and was also included in the Daily Telegraph article on his photographs. I had posted Jehad's work a number of times here.

5. Richard Murai:

Photo © Richard Murai-All Rights Reserved

This photograph is by Richard Murai, who recently won the Travel Photographer of the Year contest in the World in Motion category. I had posted an image by Richard Murai here.

New Website: The Travel Photographer

As announced in my Next Week In The Travel Photographer post, I've completed (well, almost) the face-lifting, liposuctioning and tightening of my website, and it's now ready to brave the outside world. It's based on a WordPress blogging theme which I deem to be just right for my style of gallery categorization.

The 18 galleries are categorized as in photo essays, and each has a thumbnail with a short description. It makes sense, it's easy to navigate and is simple and intuitive.

One caveat: The Photo Expeditions link is intentionally not working...and that's because I have yet to announce the details of my next one in October 2011...so be patient. It'll be announced in a few days.

Here's the current link.

And it's iPad-friendly as well...by the way, iPad's Mobile Safari can't manage a HTML file with more than about 6MB of images on it, so I had to take this into consideration when building this portal. The individual galleries are iPad-readable but not all images will download on Mobile Safari...this will be fixed either by using a work-around trick, or just reducing the resolution of the images.

Eid El-Adha

Photo © Muhammed Muheisen/AP (courtesy Lens Blog New York Times)

Muslims around the world are celebrating the Eid El-Adha or  the"Festival of Sacrifice" in commemoration of the belief that Ibrahim (Abraham) was willing to sacrifice his son Ismail to God. Observant Muslims celebrate it by slaughtering animals to commemorate God's gift of a ram to substitute for Ibrahim's son, and distributing the meat amongst family, friends and the poor.

It's also an occasion for everyone (but mainly children) to wear newly-bought clothes in order to celebrate it in style.  Many young boys wear suits and ties, while young girls show off their fancy dresses as in the above photograph by Muhammed Muheisen of a couple of Yemeni girls dressed as angels, complete with pink diaphanous wings, in the back streets of Sanaa.

The Haj In 1885 And Now

CNN has featured an interesting clip of images and audio dating from 1885 of Mecca and of the Haj ritual. It's accompanying article tells us that Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, a Dutch scholar of Oriental cultures and languages, and an advisor to the colonial government of the Netherlands East Indies, visited Mecca in 1885 taking photos and making sound recordings. He had converted to Islam, and was therefore allowed to gain entry to the city.

The article is an interesting read, especially since it seems Snouck had to leave his camera equipment behind to a local Saudi, who continued making pictures, possibly becoming Mecca's first home-grown photographer. (My thanks to Gul Chotrani who sent the article to me).

Contrast the scenes in the CNN clip (it has an annoying advert at its start) to the following photograph; one of the many posted by The Boston Globe's The Big Picture of Muslim pilgrims circling the Kaaba at the center of the Grand mosque in Mecca during the annual Hajj pilgrimage.  (Click it for larger photograph).

Photo © REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

WSJ Photo Journal: The Haj

Photo © Hassan Ammar/Associated Press

The Wall Street Photo Journal is one of the first of the large picture blogs to publish a photograph to commemorate the Haj (or Hajj, as it spells it). The caption reads "Tens of thousands of Muslim pilgrims prayed inside the Grand Mosque, during the annual Hajj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The Islamic pilgrimage draws three million visitors each year, making it the largest yearly gathering of people in the world."


I think the qualifier that it's the largest yearly gathering of people is appropriate since the religious gatherings of the Kumbh in India surpass it....however the Kumbhs are not yearly pilgrimages.

The Guardian newspaper's website has also featured a fresh slideshow of the Haj rituals. Some lovely images there.

In Support of Joao Silva

The New York Times contract photographer Joao Silva, one of the major conflict photojournalists of our time, stepped on a mine while on assignment in Afghanistan a couple of weeks ago, and as a consequence his legs have had to be amputated below the knees. He is now recovering at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, DC.

His friends have set up a new website to raise funds for him by selling some of his prints. So please consider helping him by buying a print, by making a donation,  or by forwarding/tweeting this post.

The 900th And 901st Follower

Photo © Debarpita Mohapatra- All Rights Reserved

My list of Google Followers has now grown to just over 900 people. This list is distinct from my Twitter and Facebook followers and/or friends, Feed subscribers or from the subscribers to my newsletters.

To commemorate this milestone, here are the two Followers as they've joined at the same time.

The 900th Google Follower is Debarpita Mohapatra. He's an architect, photographer and biker based in Bhubaneswar and New Delhi. He also authors a blog titled The Indian Expedition.

Photo © Luisa Puccini- All Rights Reserved

As for the 901st Google Follower, she's Luisa Puccini from Camogli near Florence. She's a traveler and photographer, and authors a blog titled Fotovagando, or Photo Wanderer. She seems to have been wandering in the right places since her blog has photographs and entries from Bali, Delhi's Nizam Uddin, Burma, and other interesting places.

Thank you for following The Travel Photographer!

NPR: Tibet 100 Years Ago

Photo Courtesy Bonhams

NPR's The Picture Show recently reported that a part of Tibet's history recorded through old photographs was auctioned in London. The photographs (consisting of 70 platinum prints and 2 folding panoramas) were taken by British political officer John Claude White during a 1903 British mission to Tibet, and were sold for £38,400 (or about $60,000).

I love news like that because it fuses history (military), Asia, adventurism and photography. John Claude White was part of the British expedition led by Francis Younghusband who, under orders from George Curzon, was to settle disputes over the Sikkim-Tibet border. In reality, the expedition was to establish British hegemony in Tibet, and morphed into an invasion and occupation of Tibet. This was one of the many chess pieces in The Great Game between Great Britain and Russia to control Central Asia.

Younghusband is subject of a well-documented biography by Patrick French, titled The Last Imperial Adventurer. A fascinating man (comparable in my view to Sir Richard Francis Burton...another incredible adventurer), Younghusband is said to have experienced revelatory visions in the mountains of Tibet, toyed with telepathy in Kashmir, and eventually espoused a sort of atheism, even though he was brought up as an Evangelical Christian.

I always think photojournalists (especially those who work in Iraq and Afghanistan) to read up on history instead of believing the crap we see on television...they'll have a better grasp of what's still going on. The Last Imperial Adventurer is one of those books.

I know...I may be wasting my breath.

Breaking News: 2011 Foundry Photojournalism Workshop

Eric Beecroft has just announced that the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop will take place in mid July 2011 in beautiful Buenos Aires, Argentina!

The tuition is $500 for regional students (Mexico, and all countries south to Tierra del Fuego; including Caribbean nationals, and $975 for non-regional students. Early registration is available for a non-refundable $100 via Paypal only. The early registration guarantees a spot and places the payer in the front of the line for class choice. Scholarships will be announced shortly.

The instructors' line up include:

Kael Alford
Walter Astrada
Andrea Bruce
Michael Robinson Chavez
Tewfic El-Sawy
Ashley Gilbertson
Ron Haviv
Henrik Kastenskov & Poul Madsen (Bombay Flying Club)
Jared Moosy
Maggie Steber
Ami Vitale
Adriana Zehbrauskas

Next Week on The Travel Photographer

I'm starting a Sunday feature in which I announce some of the posts in the pipeline for the rest of the week. Most of my posts are scheduled ahead of time but there are exceptions, which occur when I stumble on an interesting portfolio, website or issue..

I've also been frequently complimented on my POVs...and especially those containing rants. I will try my best to come up with those as soon as I can.

For the week starting Monday September 27, I have posts on:

1. A fantastic multimedia project involving Indian Sufis. You will NOT want to miss this one!
2. The work of a talented photographer involved in NGOs.
3. The work of another talented photojournalist featuring tribal life in Orissa.
4. A movie by a British journalist featuring prostitution in India.

I'm also going to release an audio slideshow of my work in Bali during the week. It documents a cremation ceremony.

Oh, and by the way...so far, I've written about 2000 posts for The Travel Photographer!

John Stanmeyer: Bali Island of Spirits

Excerpted from VII's press release announcing John Stanmeyer's new book Bali: Island of Spirits:

Spirits are everywhere in Bali. Balinese spiritual culture has its roots in Indian Hinduism, Buddhism and ancient animist beliefs, first originating in East Java. Centuries-old ceremonies with deeply layered rituals are very much alive today. John Stanmeyer spent five years living in Bali, creating this reportage through the uninhibited and timeless lens of a Holga. His photographs capture practices from decades past, transcending the temporal as they live on today and into the unforeseen future.

Details on the reception and book signing:

Artist reception and book signing will be held September 16, 2010, 6 - 8:30pm at the VII Gallery located in Brooklyn at 28 Jay St. (F-York St), and open Mon-Fri from 10am to 6pm.

A PDF version of the book's description and details of the reception is here.

Roberto Boccaccino: The Flagellanti

Photo © Roberto Boccaccino-All Rights Reserved
Roberto Boccaccino's work on the "flagellanti" was featured in the New York Times' Lens blog, but there are more photographs on Boccaccino's website where he titles his photo-essay as Doomsdays.

Out of his many lovely photographs of this photo essay, I chose the one above as the one that I prefer because of Roberto's use of layers.

Roberto Boccaccino is a freelance photographer. Most of his work is focused on social and geographical storytelling, and he was published by Italian and International magazines such as Foto8, Private Magazine, IO Donna, Stiletto, Euroman, etc. He recently attended the Advanced Visual Storytelling course at the Danish School of Media and Journalism in Aarhus.

The Doomsdays photo essay is about a traditional penitential rite in the southern Italian town of Guardia Sanframondi which is held every seven years. It is the largest self-punishment ritual in the Western world, and is locally known as the “Riti Settennali di Penitenza”.

The ritual starts in the week following the Assumption, when more than a thousand men (and some women), dressed in white and wearing hoods to hide their identities, beat their chests and flagellate their backs with sharp instruments, as a sort of mortification and an act of penance. The practice is also followed in Latin America and the Philippines.

In Islam, it's the Shi'as who have a similar rite which is practiced during Ashura, the 10th day of the month of Muharram in the Islamic calendar, when devout Shi'as commemorate the martyrdom of Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad at the Battle of Karbala, by self-flagellating and beating their chests.

Thaipusam is a Hindu festival celebrated mostly by the Tamil community, when devotees may also practice mortification of the flesh by piercing their skin, tongue or cheeks with skewers.

Eid El Fitr & Rosh Hashanah

Photo © AP/Muhammed Muheisen-All Rights Reserved (Courtesy The Big Picture)
I'm certain that the large majority of the world's 1.5 billion Muslims see through the myopia and venality of our media which, by its coverage, abetted the recent freak show in Gainesville, with the "Christian" fundamentalist/sect leader seeking to burn Qur'ans, and will celebrate Eid El-Fitr as joyously and peacefully as they've done for 1400+ years.

Photo © Andrey Smirnov/AFP-Getty-(Courtesy NY Times Lens Blog)
On the occasion of Rosh Hashanah I extend my best wishes to Jewish readers. Rosh Hashanah is the holiday commonly referred to as the "Jewish New Year", and is observed on the first day of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar.

Lonely Planet's 100 Million Competition

Photo LP's 100 Million Competition/Sreesailam Pasupula -All Rights Reserved
Lonely Planet's competition celebrating its 100 millionth guidebook has ended, and the winning entry was this lovely photograph by Sreesailam Pasupula which features five women on a performance stage at the famous Pushkar Mela.

The competition received over 130,000 photos from around the world, and some of the editors' favorites are featured here.

The Telegraph newspaper in the UK also published results of the competition.

Many of the photographs featured by LP are really very well chosen, and I couldn't help noticing that 13 of the 55 photographs that are featured are of India. About 17% of the total. This is remarkable but I'm not surprised...India is India.

Damon Winter: 2010 Visa d'Or News Award

Photo © Damon Winter/NYTimes -All Rights Reserved
Damon Winter won the Visa d’Or News award in Perpignan for his work for The News York Times on Haiti and the earthquake’s aftermath. The award is supported by Paris Match and was presented by the Visa Pour l’Image director Jean-François Leroy.

Damon is a New York based photographer who specializes in documentary, editorial, and travel photography. He received a Pulitzer Prize for feature photography in 2009 while with The New York Times.

Check his website on which his Haiti photographs appear...incredibly compelling and powerful.