One Shot: Sune Wendelboe

Image Copyright © Sune Wendelboe-All Rights Reserved
For this One Shot feature, I chose this image of an Embera woman with her child amongst the hundreds of exotic photographs on Sune Wendelboe's website Global Photographic. He's a peripatetic traveler and his website lists dozens of countries he visited and photographed over the course of 12 years. It's an incredible trove of travel imagery, landscapes and ethno-photography, which will impress even the most blase of travel photography enthusiasts. Unfortunately, Sune's biography is conspicuous by its absence on the website...it would've been very welcome.

As background to the above photograph: an estimated population of 15,000 Emberá indians inhabit the Darien rainforest of Panamá. This tribe along with the Wounaan were formerly known as the Choco because they emigrated from the Choco province of Columbia in the late 18th century. Nowadays, they have largely abandoned their traditional hunting and farming, and cater to the tourist trade.

(Thanks for the heads up, Eric.)

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.

Human Planet: Trailer

Photo © Tim Allen-All Rights Reserved

I've featured Tim Allen's Human Planet quite a number of times, but the BBC's latest trailer is a a treat and a must see. Narrated by Tim, it features a number of his phenomenal still photographs made during the production of the series.

As the BBC describes it: "From the icy Arctic to Africa's dense jungles - and the mountain tops of Mongolia to the deep waters of the Pacific - the BBC series Human Planet has explored mankind's incredible relationship with nature."

One photographer, 4 teams and 40 countries...and almost 2 years for Tim to shadow BBC film crews during the production of the landmark television series. This is what it took to produce this stunning series. Human Planet was featured on BBC One on Thursday 3 March and is viewable on its BBC iViewer, but this is not available in the United States.

I'm very pleased to be listed on Tim's favorite links. He describes my blog as "Not much from the culture of traveling photographers slips past the watchful eye of Tewfic El-Sawy in this, his highly informative blog for those of us who travel and photograph." Nice.

My thanks to readers Jonny of www.shimmerimages.co.uk and Jonas Bendik for letting me know of this trailer.

Gul Chotrani: Leica Oskar Barnack 2011 Contest

Photo © Gul Chotrani-All Rights Reserved

Gul Chotrani lives in Singapore, and joined my recent recently completed In Search of the Sufis of Gujarat Photo Expedition™. Originally an international corporate banker for most of his career, Gul also set up his own business consultancy, providing corporate financial advisory services to European and Asian firms seeking to do business in South East Asia.

Notwithstanding these achievements, he relinquished the fast-paced corporate life for a faster-paced life in photography, becoming a full-time photographer, and traveling to the four corners of the world to nurture his passion.

He just completed his entries in the Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2011 Contest which he titled "Faith Along The Way". His images wre made in Haridwar during the 2010 Kumbh Mela, in Ujjain, in Varanasi, and a couple from Gujarat made during the photo~expedition (as the one above of the woman in trance in one of the Sufi dargahs).

I know it sounds biased...but I hope he wins!!!

Roger Job: Turkanas, The Last First Men

Les Premiers Derniers Homme from Reporters Magazine on Vimeo.

Roger Job is a Belgian photographer, whose work in Afghanistan, Bosnia, the Congo, Ethiopia, Kosovo, South Africa, Rwanda, the Philippines, Sierra Leone, Somalia, US, and Zaire frequently appear in the Belgian and international press. He has also published 5 books.

Roger's Turkanas: The Last First Men started in September 2008 and ended in July 2010, and documents the impact of climate change on the Turkana pastoralists in north Kenya. A group of people who have lived for ages tending to their livestock, remote from the modern world and with a way of life of freedom, pride and in perfect harmony with nature.

The Turkana have begun to face the difficulty of accessing water points and pastures for their cattle and their way of life that has largely been intact for some 6,000 years is likely to be destroyed. Roger's photographs aim to document a way of life that is likely to disappear within a span of a generation.

The Making of The Last First Men can also be seen here. I could only find it in French, but it's more or less self-explanatory.

Incidentally, Reporters Magazine is the brainchild of Reporters, a photo agency in northern Europe, founded in 1989.

My Work: In Search of Sufis In Gujarat Gallery

In Search of Sufis in Gujarat is a new gallery of 20 photographs made during my recently completed In Search of the Sufis of Gujarat Photo Expedition™. I think these photographs are reflective of my personal style, which is best described as "travel photography meets photojournalism". The gallery features traditional travel portraits, photojournalism-like photographs, and close-up/textures.

I've traveled to India about 20 times so far, and I've always been interested in, and drawn to, its multi-layered religious-cultural identities...which I now know is another term for its syncretism. As I write in one of the photo gallery's panels, Sufism "walked" into the sub-continent from Iran and Afghanistan, and wherever the Sufi acetic teachers lived and died, shrines were built to commemorate their teachings, deeds and legacy...and they eventually became saints, or pirs as they're called in the subcontinent. It is these shrines that were the intended destinations for my photo-expedition, and where we witnessed and photographed the manifestations of this religious fusion. I can't call these either extraordinary nor unusual, since they've been practiced here for millennia. It's just that I haven't been aware of this syncretism before visiting India.

Hinduism and Islam co-exist in India, despite what the politicians on both sides will have you believe. The fixer I hired for the photo~expedition was a living, breathing example of India's syncretism. Having converted to Islam from Hinduism, he exemplified this melding of religious traditions and practices by announcing that he firmly believed (as well as many others like him) that the Prophet Muhammad was a reincarnation of Vishnu, and that the Arabic word for Allah graphically originated from Shiva's trident. I can consider this to be lore and simplistic traditional belief as much as I want, but it's widely prevalent in the areas we traveled to.

I saw Hindus and Muslims at these shrines; Hindu women in colorful saris, and Muslims in either the traditional kurta and salwar kameez, or in shapeless black robes, as well as barefoot tribal women with gorgeous silver jewelry. Many of them supplicating the Sufi saint for favors; some reading the Qur'an and others in trances. I saw no constraints on these worshipers, based on religion, creed, race, ethnicity, caste or social status. However, no women were allowed in the chambers where the saints' tombs were. I thought I could tell the Hindu men from Muslims, but I wasn't always right. Older Muslim men usually sported beards, while Hindus didn't...however with the younger men, I was stumped unless they wore the Muslim cotton skullcap called "topee".

At the Sufi shrines, I met a woman politician with flawless English from Ajmer, a Hindu teacher from Mumbai whose daughter was afflicted with an undiagnosed mental ailment, articulate Muslim khadims (guardians of the shrine), a Portuguese-speaking elderly man who had emigrated to South Gujarat from Mozambique decades ago, and many others who were universally courteous and welcoming. At no time did I (nor any in my group) feel unwelcome or viewed with any suspicion....quite the opposite.

This is the first of many galleries I plan to feature following the photo- expedition.. Some will be of stills, while others will be in a multimedia format.

Finally, the motivational impulse behind this photo-expedition was the work by Asim Rafiqui, a US photographer and photojournalist based in Sweden, whose The Idea of India is a fascinating philosophical and visual project that documents religious and cultural pluralism as a prominent feature of Indian life.

Leila Alaoui: The Moroccans

Photo © Leila Alaoui - All Rights Reserved

Leila Alaoui is a young French-Moroccan portrait and documentary photographer living in both Morocco and Berlin. She received a B.S. degree in photography from the City University of the New York Graduate Center.

With a number of international exhibitions under her belt, Leila has also featured her portraits of Moroccans at the Palais Es Saadi in Marrakesh.

One of my favorite in her small gallery of Moroccan portrait is the one above of a traditional "guerrab"...or water-seller. This one is from a souk in Boumia (near Meknes), but most people who visited Marrakesh's Souk el Fna have met these water-sellers who now make a living by posing for the cameras. They are a ubiquitous presence in other Morocco's cities.

I'm especially glad when I discover the work of promising (and established) Arab photographers, especially if they're women...and they'll always figure prominently on this blog.

Tudor Vintiloiu: Warriors of the Amazon

Photo © Tudor Vintiloiu-All Rights Reserved

Tudor Vintiloiu is a Romanian photojournalist based in Bucharest who specializes in documentary and travel photography. His site features stories from Ecuador, Ethiopia, Cambodia and other countries.

I was tempted to feature his work of the Omo Valley, but I've had Diego Verges' recent Addis work featured a few days ago, so I chose the next best thing on Tudor's website, and that is his work on the Ecuadorean Amazon Indians.

His portfolio features the Huaorani tribe, which consist of almost 4,000 people. In the last 40 years, they evolved from a hunting and gathering society to live mostly in permanent forest settlements, and shun contact with the outside world.Their main weapon are spears, and they use blowguns for hunting. Possessing an extensive knowledge of botany, which they use for medical purposes, for poison and for drugs. The Huaorani have about 6,800 square kilometers of land, about one third of their original territory.

Tudor's work in the Omo Valley, and of Markets/People (black & white) are also well worth your visit.

Diego Verges/Javier Fernandez del Rivero: Addis

Photo © Diego Verges/Javier Fernandez-All Rights Reserved

Diego Verges was at it again...this time with a friend and collaborator Javier Fernandez, and produced interesting set up visuals of various Omo Valley tribes, such as the Mursi, Hamar, and Tsamay.

Here's the background story as told to me by Diego. Having won a photographic contest last November, with a trip to Ethiopia for two as grand prize, Diego and Javier traveled to Southern Ethiopia where they stayed for about 2 weeks. With time on their hands, and an impulse to produce something unusual, they decided to work with studio backgrounds cheaply cobbled together locally.

The goal was to produce photographs more akin to anthropological portraits than travel images, but that would also accentuate the studio-like poses rather than the candid.

Diego tells me he was inspired by the work of John Kenny and Sarah Elliot, who were both featured on my blog, as well as by Isabel Munoz. I also see the influence of Joey L. in these, especially in the use of strobes and lights.

Some of those who describe themselves as purists may well view this work as demeaning to the Omo Valley tribes people and their age-old culture, as well as exploitative to a certain degree. Unfortunately, this has been the case for a number of years, and I understand through a number of conversations that commercialization is now running rampant. I was there last in early 2004, and noticed how the various tribes were adept in soliciting money for images and how prepared they were to pose without any guidance from me. And that's why I qualify my use of the term "exploitative"...perhaps this is a case of what came first...the tourists with their cameras giving out a handful of birrs...or the demand for birrs from tourists for each snap. I don't know the answer to that.

While I am saddened by the economic situation these tribes find themselves in, I pass no judgement. There's always the good and the bad in situations such as these.

Whatever side of the fence you end up on, there's no question that Diego and Javier have done an excellent job in featuring the beauty and majesty of the Southern Ethiopian tribes.

And no...I don't know why Diego decided to title these new galleries as "Addis"...instead of Turmi or Omo.

Note: Diego clarified the reason the reason for choosing Addis...it means "New"...as in new work.

My Work: Flower Girl At Ahmed Shah Dargah

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Near Ahmedabad's main mosque, Jama Masjid, is the tomb of Sultan Ahmed Shah I (1411-1442), the founder of the city, who was a sultan of Gujarat's ruling Muzaffarid dynasty. The tomb is revered by Sufis and Hindus alike, who visit the shrine to pay their respects, and to offer "prasad" in his memory.

The above photograph made during my In Search of Sufis of Gujarat Photo-Expedition  is of a flower girl who, along with a number of family members, sells flowers and offerings such as coconut flesh to the supplicants who visit the shrine every day.

She probably lives in one of the hovels amongst the graves of erstwhile Muslim royals of Ahmedabad which dot the area around the shrine, coming here to sell her wares for a pittance.  Not only did I think that this young woman was attractive, but she also had a great deal of femininity, poise and an innate elegance within her,  so I asked if I could spend a few moments photographing her in her environment. She readily agreed, as I had previously given her sister a print of the photograph I had made of her last year, and I had gained her trust.

Prasad is an offering of sorts (usually edible) to a deity or a saint, in Hinduism...and yet, the same offerings are used by Muslim and non-Muslims alike when visiting the shrine of Ahmed Shah. One of the numerous examples of syncretic traditions still existing in India.

Global Post: Ali Sanderson's Mekong River

Photo © Ali Sanderson- Courtesy Global Post-All Rights Reserved

Global Post periodically publishes a photo feature called Full Frame, which showcases some interesting work by emerging photographers. This one is on the Mekong River and is by Ali Sanderson, an Australian photographer from Australia who was based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. She worked on productions with leading broadcasters such as National Geographic TV and Radio Free Asia.

In Phnom Penh, Ali, with three other Australian filmmakers, formed a film production company focusing on documentary films dealing with environmental and human rights issues. This led to projects commissioned by Radio Free Asia.

The Mekong is the 10th-longest river in the world, and the 7th-longest in Asia. Its estimated length is 4,909 km (3,050 mi) and runs from the Tibetan Plateau through China's Yunnan province, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Sharon Johnson-Tennant On Lenscratch

Photo © Sharon Johnson-Tennant-All Rights Reserved

Sharon Johnson-Tennant also joined my Tribes of South Rajasthan & Kutch Photo~Expedition™ last year, and has just been featured by the LENSCRATCH photography blog, amongst others.

LENSCRATCH writes that Sharon discovered photography during her career as New York fashion designer, where visual inspirations came from exploring color, texture, and from through her travels around the world. This echoes what I wrote about Sharon's style in my blog post:

"Sharon's professional background in textile design and international fashion influences her photographic acuity to the point that during our trip, I frequently wondered at what she was photographing so intently in an isolated spot. Now I know what she saw and what I didn't. "

A photographer who can easily cross over from art to photojournalism to travel and back again is a photographer to watch.

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.

Jain Nuns At Palitana

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

One the highlights of the In Search of the Sufis of Gujarat Photo Expedition™ was the Jain temples of Palitana. As my intent for this photo expedition was to explore and document existent syncretism (defined the attempt to reconcile contrary beliefs, by melding practices of various religious traditions) in Gujarat, Palitana proved itself an interesting stop on the itinerary.

Near the town of Paltina, there's a cluster of 1,500 Jain temples packed densely together on the hillside overlooking the town. These date back to the 11th and 12th centuries, and are the focus of Jains' pilgrimage or tirtha. From the foot of the hill to the top there are about 3,800 stone steps, and it is these steps that Jains have to climb to reach the main temple on top of the hill.

Dismissing the help of porters and their "doli", a sort of palanquin from which passengers are suspended, and that would have terrified me anyway, I walked the 3800 steps up and down. I must say it wasn't that much of effort, but many Jain nuns I encountered along the way do it a multiple times a day, on empty stomachs...no food nor water! That would be tough.

The story behind the above photograph is that the Jain nun on the right had earlier stepped on thorns, and had been in pain while her companions tried to pull them out. I stopped and gave them water to soften the skin to make it easier. Seeing her in pain, I tapped her on the shoulder shoulder meaning to comfort her, whereupon she recoiled in alarm. I had forgotten that touching a Jain monk or nun was prohibited as it defiles them. I felt terrible as I had added to her troubles...however I saw her later at the top temple, and she smiled and thanked me.

So I hope I was forgiven.

Geoffrey Hiller: India

Photo © Geoffrey Hiller-All Rights Reserved

I've recently received an email from Geoffrey Hiller with the link to his dedicated India website with photo galleries of its various cities and areas. The one that caught my particular attention, since I've announced a photo expedition to Kolkata during the Durga Puja, was his work in Kolkata . The rest of his galleries are of Mumbai, Bangalore, Mysore and Chennai.

You'll see that Geoff's photographs of this quintessential Indian city is a mix of environmental portraits and classic street photography, including a few shots made during the Durga Puja too.

To my knowledge, Geoffrey Hiller is one of the first photographers who embraced multimedia, and I recall his work on Burma which introduced me (and certainly others) to this medium. His photography has been published in the United States, Europe, and Japan in such publications as Geo, Newsweek, Mother Jones, and The New York Times Magazine. His photo-essays have covered Asia, Latin America, Europe, and West Africa, and his multimedia projects about Vietnam, eastern Europe, Ghana, Burma, and Brazil have earned recognition from Adobe, the Soros Foundation, Apple, The Christian Science Monitor, and USA Today.

(Posted From London)

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.

Books: Robert Van Koesveld's Bhutan Heartland

Robert Van Koesveld has published a wonderful book on Bhutan, and entitled it Bhutan Heartland. The details of the book are available on a sub-section of Robert's website.

When I got it, I experienced a twinge of envy at Robert's talents as a photographer, and how well produced this book was. Joining Robert in the task of putting this book together is his wife Libby Lloyd.

Bhutan Heartland explores the culture, history, beliefs and dazzling Himalayan landscapes of this wonderful country, known as Druk Yul...and where smoking in public places is against the law!

Nine chapters make up this hardback book of 210 pages. Robert and Libby have taken their readers from Paro in the west of the country to its east, traveling through the high passes of Dochu La and others, meeting monks, nuns, lamas...stopping at Ogyen Choling and documenting the various exuberant tsechu festivals...and end up with silk weavers and yak herders.

If you decide to visit Bhutan (and you must!!!), this is the book you ought to read. It's not a guidebook, but the amount of informed research in it was new to me, informative and interesting...and I've already been to Bhutan about 4 times!!!

Well recommended. You can buy it from Robert's website or order it from major booksellers such as B&N.

Joey Lawrence: Omo Valley Portraits

Photo © Joey Lawrence-All Rights Reserved

There's no question that Joey Lawrence (aka Joey L) is one heck of a photographer...travel photographer, ethno-photographer and portrait photographer as well. He recently added more photographs of Lower Omo Valley tribes to his blog that are breathtaking in their simplicity.

These are different than what we come to expect to see from Joey, who had accustomed us to environmental portraits of endangered tribes people, whether in Ethiopia or Indonesia. This latest crop of incredibly beautiful photographs have been posed, and the subjects set against a simple black background. According to Joey, these will be part of a fine art book with all his work from the Omo Valley.

The tribes depicted in this series are the Karo, the Nyangatom, the Mursi, the Daasanac. the Hamer and the Arbore.

Joey used a PhaseOne/Mamiya 646 with a 80mm prime lens, a light setup and a collapsible reflector.  The combination of the medium format and the lighting technique produced these remarkable results. 

Frederic Lemalet: Tibet

Photo © Frederic Lemalet-All Rights Reserved

Frederic Lemalet is a French travel photographer who, evidenced by his focus on Tibet, is in love with that region. He traveled to Alaska, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, China, and Nepal...but it's Tibet that seduced him

Between 2003 and 2009, Frederic spent 3 years in Tibet, documenting its culture which may soon disappear. Distributing his time between his native France and Tibet, he's currently working on publishing books, and displaying his images in exhibitions. The last exhibition was "Himalaya" and held in Montier-en-Der (north-eastern France).

His Tibet gallery has 44 photographs, with a number of lovely portraits like the one I chose above...but don't miss those of the famous Tibetan wide open spaces, and of the Tibetan pilgrim praying in a sort of crude shelter made of stones. The photographs span the four seasons; a testament to Frederic's dedication to the region.

Marji Lang: Gujarat

Photo © Marji Lang-All Rights Reserved

Marji Lang is a French travel and documentary photographer, whose color-full photographs in her India galleries just jump at you.

She's fallen in love with India and has already traveled there four times. Over the past 10 years, Marji traveled in South East Asia, and was influenced by Henri Cartier Bresson and more recently by the work of her compatriot and Indiaphile Claude Renault.

She rarely plans ahead her trips, and just takes it a day at a time. No specific hotel reservations nor fixed itineraries. She prefers making her photographs with a human presence...but is not against making a few that are devoid of people (such as the one above). Marji only uses a 24-70mm lens.

I was interested in her Gujarat gallery as some of her photographs are of Jain female pilgrims (sadhvi) in Palitana, one of our stops during my forthcoming photo expedition In Search of Gujarat's Sufis next month.