NY Times: Samba In Brazil

Image © Lalo de Almeida/NY Times-All Rights Reserved
The New York Times brings us a slideshow of photographs by Lalo de Almeida of the preparations that go into the forthcoming carnival in Rio de Janeiro. It's a shame that there's no accompanying audio...really a shame.

The article is by Alexie Barrionuevo, and this sentence in it caught my eye: “They say Brazilians all have some samba in their feet,” Ms. Guimarães, a 23-year-old native of Minas Gerais, said. “I didn’t have much in mine. I know it has to improve, and I’m practicing hard.”. The speaker? Miss Brazil 2007 in the above photograph.

I guess I don't need to add anything to this post.

NY Times' Training for Carnival slideshow.

In Focus Does Lantern Festival

Photo © Jason Lee-Courtesy In Focus-All Rights Reserved

The new photo blog In Focus by Alan Taylor for The Atlantic featured about 33 photographs of the festivities on the occasion of the Lunar New Year. The Lantern Festival (known as Yuan Xiao Jie) was observed yesterday in China and wherever there are Chinese communities. It's the last day of the Chinese Lunar New Year festivities.

The blurb accompanying the photographs informs us that it's the most important annual celebration in China, and welcomes the Year of the Rabbit...which is a year of caution and calm.

Calm and caution? I guess the Arab nations revolting for their freedom are unconcerned with the Year of the Rabbit!!

I sense In Focus will soon be one of the favored destinations for those of us who appreciate photojournalism at its best...especially as I just noticed that it offers two choices for its image size: 1024 or 1280 pixels! Nice touch...very nice touch!

Mitchell Kanashkevich: Ati Atihan Festival

Photo © Mitchell Kanashkevich-All Rights Reserved

Mitchell Kanashkevich has just posted to his blog a reportage on the Ati Atihan festival in Kalibo, which is the capital of the province of Aklan, in the northwest of Panay Island, Philippines; about 45 minutes flight from Manila.

This festival is, as Mitchell describes it, a convergence of Catholic and tribal traditions, and dates back more than 700 years. It was originally a pagan festival observed by local tribes who were practicing animism, and Spanish Catholic missionaries gradually added to it Christian elements, culminating into what it now a frenzied religious festivity observed in January honoring the Santo Niño (Infant Jesus), and concludes concluding on the third Sunday of the month.

Ati Atihan was caught in my radar a few weeks ago, and I am putting it (or perhaps another one like it in the Philippines) on the list of possible photo~expeditions for 2012. I'll do some homework to explore the logistics involved, and if all works out, will announce it in due course to my newsletter subscribers, and eventually here on this blog.

Mitchell Kanashkevich is a travel/documentary photographer, and is represented by Getty Images. He's been featured on this blog a number of times.

MSNBC's Does Thaipusam

Photo © Stephen Morrison/EPA-All Rights Reserved

MSNBC's Photo blog featured Thaipusam, which was observed a few days ago by thousands of Hindus in both Malaysia and Singapore, and who subjected themselves to painful rituals. These included rituals involving self-piercing with hooks, skewers and small blades. Some devotees pull chariots and heavy objects using hooks attached to their bodies. Others pierce their tongues and cheek to impede speech, while others enter into a trance during the self-mortification as a result of the incessant drumming and chanting.

The Asia Society in New York is also featuring Thaipusam on its Photo of the Day page on its website. I wonder what's keeping The Asia Society from bringing us the very best photojournalism of the continent...it's taking baby steps, and yet seems to have the resources to really make a splash in visually fulfilling its mission. Maybe I expect too much?

Thaipusam is an important festival observed by the Hindus of southern India during the Tamil month of Thai (January - February). Outside of India, it is celebrated mainly by the Tamil speaking community settled in Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka and elsewhere.

I seldom follow MSNBC's Photo blog....perhaps I should make it a habit to check it every now and then.

Ashura: Photos In "The Big Ones"

Photo © REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl (Courtesy Reuters Photo Blog)

Photographs of the Day of Ashura are carried by a number of the newspaper large picture blogs, largely because of its graphic nature, and while I initially thought it might have been because it reinforces the stereotype of Islamic fervor being violent, I've reconsidered and I'm quite certain that this is not the case. I recall seeing lovely peaceful scenes of Muslims celebrating Ramadan on The Big Picture blog.

Photo © Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images (Courtesy WSJ Photo Journal)

Be it what it may, the photographs are graphic because the acts of self mortification and flagellation carried out by the Shias are just that...extremely graphic. Flagellation is not at all exclusive to Shia Islam, but is also practiced by certain elements of the Christian faith.

Photo © REUTERS/ Ali Hashisho (Courtesy Reuters Photo Blog)

The Day of Ashura falls on the 10th day of the Islamic month of Muharram and for the Shias, commemorates a day of mourning for the death of Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, at the battle of Karbala.  Shias consider Hussein the third Imam and the rightful successor to Muhammad, and the grief for his death is demonstrated by the self-flagellation in parades and other venues.

Photo © Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters (Courtesy WSJ Photo Blog)

For Sunni Muslims, Ashura is observed by fasting as the Prophet Muhammad did, to commemorate the day when Moses and his followers were saved from Pharaoh by God by creating a path in the Red Sea. Surprising, huh?

The top photograph is of a girl with a green headband with the words "Hussein" as she attends the Ashura religious festival in Khorramabad, southwest of Tehran.

The second photograph is of a Shia devotee in New Delhi beating his bloodied chest as part of the ten-day mourning period marking the death of Imam Hussein. 

The third photograph is of a Lebanese Shia whose shaven head bleeds after tapping his forehead with a razor during the Ashura ceremony in Nabatiyeh.

The fourth and last photograph is a Shia walking on hot coals during a Ashura ceremony at a mosque in Yangon, Myanmar.

I ought to plan attending Ashura to photograph its ceremonies...it would be fascinating. Yes, bloody and graphic...but I'd attend it given half the chance. I came close years ago to do so when working in Bahrain, but I was advised not to attend it with a camera. Different times, I suppose.

LATimes' Framework: Chhath Festival

Photo © Narendra Shrestha/EPA

 The Los Angeles ' Times large image photoblog Framework has featured a number of lovely photographs from around the world this past week. I liked this one by EPA photographer Narendra Shrestha of a Nepali woman staring while offering fruits and coconuts to the setting sun during the Chhath festival in Kathmandu.

The Chhath festival is observed by Hindus in India and Nepal, and it's performed in order to thank the Sun god Surya for sustaining life on earth, and to ask for the granting of wishes. The rituals include bathing, fasting and abstaining from drinking water, standing in water for long periods of time, and making offerings to the setting and rising sun.

Angkor Photo Festival 2010

The 2010 Angkor Photo Festival is to be held between November 20 to November 27 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The event is a unique photo festival in South East Asia,  and it's now in its 6th iteration, having had its inaugural gathering in 2005.

In 2010, 110 photographers including 50 Asian photographers are showcasing their work, in keeping with festival’s mission of highlighting emerging Southeast Asian photographers. These works are curated by  well-known figures in photography, Yumi Goto, Antoine d’Agata, and Françoise Callier .

This promises to be a real cornucopia of established and emerging photographic talent, with the participation of Olivia Arthur, Munem Wasif, Paolo Pellegrin, Shiho Fukada, Sohrab Hura, Rony Zakaria, Palani Mohan, Agnes Dherbeys and John Stanmeyer, amongst many others.

To keep up with developments, you can also drop by Angkor Photo Festival's Facebook Page

WSJ Photo Journal: Kapparot

Photo © Ariel Schalit/Associated Press-All Rights Reserved
The Wall Street Photo Journal featured the above photograph of a an ultra-Orthodox Jewish mother holding a hen that was later slaughtered for the Kaparot ritual. Some Jews believe their sins can be transferred to the chicken (or roosters) during the ritual, which comes before Yom Kippur.

Kaparot is performed by grasping the bird (hen for women, roosters for men) and moving it around one's head three times, symbolically transferring one's sins to the object. The bird is then slaughtered or donated to the poor.

Many religious traditions have more or less the same rituals, including Islam with its prescribed animal sacrifice during Eid ul-Adha, when the meat is partially donated to the needy.

Understandably, the little girl doesn't look very pleased at the prospect of the hen being killed.

Stijin Pieters: Durga Puja

Stijn Pieters is a self taught freelance photographer based in Gent, Belgium whose work focuses on under-reported social, political and environmental issues. He completed projects in Nepal, Kashmir, Palestine, Northern Ireland, Swaziland, Yemen, Morocco, Iran, Vietnam, The Philippines, India and Bangladesh; most of which tackle diverse issues, from HIV/aids in Swaziland to the pervasive gun culture in Yemen, from Agent Orange victims in Vietnam to stateless people in Bangladesh.

For his projects in Yemen in 2006 and Morocco in 2007, Stijn received respectively grants from the Pascal Decroos Foundation and the King Baudouin Foundation. His work has been published in Belgian magazines like MO*, Vrede, Menzo, Tertio, Vacature, Varen and Isel Magazine.

The above slideshow is on the Durga Puja in Bangladesh, and is very nice work by Stijn. It's an annual Hindu festival in South Asia that celebrates worship of the Hindu goddess Durga. You can click on it for a full screen experience.

The most celebrated Durga Puja is in Calcutta where more than 2000 pandals (temporary structures...like thrones) are set up for the populace to venerate. Durga Puja in Calcutta is often referred to as the Rio Carnival of the Eastern Hemisphere.

Fons Rademakers: Haridwar Kumbh Mela

Photo © Fons Rademakers-All Rights Reserved
I've featured so much work from various photographers, and seen so many photographs of the Nagas and pilgrims here and elsewhere, it's as if I've been there myself. I'm pretty sure these photographers who were at the Kumbh will either recognize each others work, or recognize the subjects.

However, here's the work of Fons Rademakers who's a physicist working at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva, where the largest particle accelerator is operated and where the World Wide Web began as a project. Fons leads a software project that provides programs for data processing and analysis, but started his connection with photography when 12 years old, and regards it as his passion next to physics and computing.

I would recommend to Fons that he ought to consider moving his many other photo galleries from SmugMug to his own website. They're certainly worth showing in a more professional medium.

Mark Thomas: Haridwar Kumbh Mela

Here's another feature from the recent Kumbh Mela which was held earlier this year in Haridwar, North India.

This body of work by photographer Mark Thomas is titled Kumbh Mela 2010, and is mainly of portraits he made during that religious event.

Mark Thomas is a photojournalist and a multimedia expert, whose work appeared in various publications, including The Boston Globe and National Geographic News. He professes a deep passion for documenting and photographing India.

His Kumbh Mela 2010 gallery consists of portraits of naga babas, the ash-covered sadhus who belong to the Shaivite sect, as well as pilgrims.

Mark's website has other Indian-centric galleries such as Faces of Kashi, Visions of Kashi and Child Labor.

A worthwhile website to bookmark for Indiaphiles.

Tony Smith: Kumbh Mela

Photo © Tony Smith-All Rights Reserved
Tony Smith is an adventurous Welsh photographer who, at the age of 15 joined a cargo ship to South America...and this is how his world travel started. He worked on ocean liners, and subsequently on dry land in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Johannesburg in South Africa and London before settling down in Winchester.

He's been deeply involved in travel photography to the point it's developed into a second career. He tells us in his biography that nothing pleases him more than attending and photographing cultural and religious festivals: the more difficult and remote the better.

Tony is an Associate member of the prestigious Royal Photographic Society. His travels have taken him to Nepal, Bhutan, India, France, China, Spain, Morocco the USA and Canada as well as the West Coast of Ireland. He attended Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist and Gypsy events.

He has just returned from Haridwar in North India where he attended the Kumbh Mela, and produced a photo slideshow and a blog travelogue.

Tony also produced a number of slideshows of festuivals such as Holi, Gypsy Pilgrimage, Maha Shivratri (particularly recommended) and Feria de Bernabe, as well as others which are on his website.

The Sabarimala Pilgrimage: Asim Rafiqui

Photo © Asim Rafiqui-All Rights Reserved
It's always a pleasure to start off the month with a super interesting post.

Here's a religious event/festival that not only fires up my adrenaline and imagination, but whose descriptive details I savor with relish, particularly as these are written by one of my favorite writers, William Dalrymple, and photographed by one of my favorite photojournalists, Asim Rafiqui.

And naturally, this event (as one of the largest pilgrimage festival in southern India) will be added to my list of possible destinations for a photo~expedition in 2011 or beyond. Not as overhyped as the Kumbh melas, it's the sort of authentic event I would love to photograph and attend...and then produce photo-essays and audio slideshows. It is this kind of destination that I seek for my photo~expeditions, which are destination/event-driven rather than just hopscotching from one tourist spot to the other. The trek up to the temple takes a minimum of five hours on a crowded path and unfortunately, women aged 10-60 are excluded from the pilgrimage.

The festival is the Sabarimala pilgrimage, and it brings Hindus and Muslims together in a fashion that is seldom witnessed. It would be redundant for me to re-post what Dalrymple describes, so here is his article as published in The Guardian.

Here's Asim's post in his opus; The Idea of India, and in which he writes:

"Here, in this small town in Western Kerala, members of two communities have managed, through legend, lore and ritual, to create a shared spiritual and social space and bridged what many claim is an insurmountable divide. The Sabarimala pilgrimage, in the course of about forty days, will bring nearly 50 million pilgrims through this town, and to the Vavar mosque. The seventy kilometer trek from Erumeli to the mountain top shrine of the god Ayyappa at Sabarimala cannot be completed without first paying respects to his friend the Muslim pirate/saint Vavar and asking his permission to proceed."

Asim meets a guruswami who invites him to join his group to Sabarimala and, being of a different persuasion, assumes wrongly that the invitation was only rhetorical. As the guru leads his group towards the mountain shrine of Ayyappa, he waves and tells Asim that perhaps Ayyappan did not call him yet, but that when he was ready he'd ask him to come.

I hope Ayyapan includes me as well.

My Work: Baneshwar Pind Daan

One of the highlights during my Tribes of South Rajasthan & Kutch Photo~Expedition™ was a few days spent photographing in Baneshwar during its annual fair, or mela.

The Baneshwar mela is popular tribal gathering held in the Dungarpur district in south Rajasthan. The gathering is followed by a fair held at a small delta formed by the river Soma and Mahi. It's a relatively modest event, without the hype and the attendance of the Kumbh Melas, but it's nevertheless a deeply religious gathering with simple and traditional rituals. Bhil and Garasia tribals come from the neighboring states of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat to offer prayers to Lord Shiva, to perform pind daan, and to socialize.

Here's Baneshwar: Pind Daan, an audio-slideshow of photographs made and ambient sound gathered during the mela. Photographed in a documentary style, I chose to process the images in black & white despite their vivid colors.

The audio-slideshow was featured in my March email newsletter sent to my subscribers.

CNN: Haridwar Kumbh Mela

CNN brings us this short video, which was produced by Alex Zolbert, who traveled by train north of Delhi to witness and photograph the Dvitya Shahi Snan, or Second Royal Bath, on March 15, at the Ardh Kumbh Mela.

Photographs by Palani Mohan are included in the piece. Palani's photographic career started at the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, and since then he has been based in London, Hong Kong, Bangkok, and now Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia.

As I wrote on my earlier posts about the Hardiwar Kumbh Mela, exuberant hyperbole (and imaginative press releases) describe it as the largest gathering of humanity. It is not. The distinction belongs to the Maha Kumbh Mela which occurs after 12 'Purna Kumbh Melas', or after every 144 years. It was held at Allahabad in early 2001, and was attended by over 60 million people, making it the largest gathering in the world. I would also say that, in my opinion and having been to both Allahabad and Hardiwar, that the latter is an unappealing city and its ghats are not photogenic.

Whether it's over-hyped or not, all of the photographers who attended it over the past few weeks had a wonderful time, and captured magnificent images.

It's Holi Time

Photo © K. K. Arora/Reuters- (Courtesy WSJ Photo Journal) -All Rights Reserved
Holi is a festival of color and was recently celebrated all over India. This exuberant festival aims at infusing fresh hope to people as it marks the end of the winter days and the start of summer. Originally, Holi was a festival to celebrate harvests, and to give thanks for the fertility of the land.

Although Holi is observed all over the north of India, it's also celebrated with considerable zest in Vrindavan and Mathura, and other towns which are said to have housed Krishna. In Vrindavan, Holi takes place over the course of two weeks in Vrindavan, and is observed with numerous processions, folk songs, and dances.

Alessandra Meniconzi: The Roitschäggätä

Photo © Alessandra Meniconzi -All Rights Reserved
Photo © Alessandra Meniconzi -All Rights Reserved
Alessandra Meniconzi's work has graced the pages of The Travel Photographer blog on many occasions, with photographs of far-away and remote areas of the world, however she sent me some of new work made in her back-yard. Yes, literally in her back-yard in Switzerland, although when I first viewed the photographs, I took them to be from Mongolia or even perhaps Papua New guinea.

But not at all...these were made in the villages of the Lötschental valley. It's the largest valley on the northern side of the Rhône valley in the canton of Valais in Switzerland, which lies in the Bernese Alps.

The masks are worn by the Roitschäggätä, who are unmarried young men from Lötschental villages who hide behind handmade wooden masks and are clad in fur, scaring passersby and playing pranks.

Starting as early as February 2, this tradition has been repeatedly prohibited by the Church, but without much success. The Roitschäggätä roam through the valley on Maundy Thursday, while there is a masked parade in the village of Wiler on the Saturday prior to Ash Wednesday.

Haridwar Kumbh Mela

© Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP (Courtesy WSJ Photo Journal)
The three month-long bathing festival Kumbh Mela along the Ganges river in Haridwar occurs every 12 years, and about 50 million Hindu devotees performing their prayers and washing away their sins in river's waters are expected in this holy city. However, non-accredited photographers seem to face mounting difficulties and restrictions in photographing main events, such as the bathing at the Har-Ki-Pairi ghats.

Tom Carter, an American photographer, is quoted as saying: "I was planning on attending the Maha Shivratri Pratham Shahi Snan first royal bath on February 12 and the main royal bath on April 14 to photograph the infamous Naga Sadhu processions, however I was informed that tourists won’t even be allowed in the proximity of HarKiPairi on those dates. Westerners be warned"

The most captivating event of all the Kumbh Melas is undoubtedly the bathing of the naked Naga Sadhus, and many photographers without accreditation will not be able to photograph there. However, there is much to photograph in religious events such as these, and photographers will hopefully have an embarrassment of choices.

Photographers wishing to obtain official press passes need to have entered India on a journalist visa, have a copy of their press card and a letter of accreditation from their organization...otherwise the main bathing areas and Naga Sadhus will be off-limits.

I've read many articles on this event, and exuberant hyperbole describe it as the largest gathering of humanity. It is not. The distinction belongs to the Maha Kumbh Mela which occurs after 12 'Purna Kumbh Melas', or after every 144 years. It was held at Allahabad in early 2001, and was attended by over 60 million people, making it the largest gathering in the world. Satellite imagery of the event were posted online and its mass of humanity was clearly seen.

For recent photographs of the Haridwar event, drop by Tom Bourdon's blog here.

You can also visit my own take on the Maha Kumbh Mela of 2001, which I describe as "rubbing shoulders with ascetics, mendicants, mystics, beggars and charlatans".

WSJ Photo Journal: Magh Mela

Photo © Rajesh Kumar Singh/Associated Press-All Rights Reserved
The preponderance of religious bathing festivals in India is really confusing. The Wall Street Journal Photo Journal featured the above photograph of a Hindu holy man drying his clothes after a ritualistic bath in the River Ganges during the annual Magh Mela in Allahabad. However, the Ardh Kumbh is also being held in Haridwar from January 14 to April 28, 2010...so there are two overlapping religious festivals with the same rituals.

Magh Mela is observed during Magh and Falgun months (Hindu calendar) for nearly 45 days, and this year ends on February 12, 2010. The ritual of bathing at the Prayag Sangam in Allahabad has a great significance, and attracts millions of devotees to the confluence of rivers Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati.

It is believed that bathing in sacred rivers during these festivals breaks the circle of life & death, and liberates Hindus to attain moksha.

Personally, I'd much rather attend the Magh Mela over the Haridwar Ardh Kumbh. Of course, neither can come close to what I experienced during the 2001 Maha Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, but Haridwar (despite the relative proximity of Rishikesh) is a pretty awful town, hence my bias.

Greg Constantine: Ardh Kumbh Mela

The Ardh Kumbh is being held in Haridwar from January 14 to April 28, 2010, and knowing that a number of photographers are making their way to attend it, I thought it opportune to post Greg Constantine's Ardh Kumbh Mela audio slideshow which was held in Prayag in 2007.

The main objective in attending the Kumbh Mela is to bathe in the Ganges. It is said that bathing in sacred rivers during Maha Kumbh or Ardh Kumbh breaks the circle of life & death, and liberates Hindus to attain moksha. Pilgrims & sadhus will descend in large numbers from India and elsewhere on Haridwar to bathe in the Ganges during these three months.

To underscore the importance of such events, it is estimated that more than 17 million Hindu pilgrims took part in the Ardh Kumbh Mela at Prayag over 45 days beginning in January 2007. On January 15, 2007 which was the most auspicious day of the festival, more than 5 million participated.

I attended and photographed the 2001 Maha Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, which was attended by approximately 60 million people, making it the largest gathering in the world.

Greg Constantine is based in Southeast Asia since early 2006. His photo essays have been internationally published in various publications (IHT, The NY Times, CNN, Stern, The Economist and PDN to name but a few), and he also has been the recipient of a number of international awards.

My own slideshow of the 2001 Maha Kumbh Mela is here.

For the sake of completeness, there are a number of posts on the Kumbh Mela on The Travel Photographer's blog (do a search), but here's an outstanding one of the Ardh Kumbh Mela 2007 produced by BFC.