John Kenny: Omo Valley & Africa

Photo © John Kenny-All Rights Reserved
Here's a real treat for those of us who are enamored with Ethiopia's Omo Valley tribes (and we are many), and a treat for "Africanphiles" in general as well. A real trove of magnificent portraits of handsome and beautiful African native people, ranging from the Omo Vallley various tribes to Kaokoland's Himba.

John Kenny's website presents around 100 of these portraits along with a handful of African landscapes, and is a must-have bookmark for anyone with an ethnographer interest.

John started his photography career about 7 years ago, and is self-taught. He first arrived in Africa in 2006, and keeps returning to photograph because he's fascinated to encounter societies that are able to survive in some of the most arid, isolated and difficult environments.

He tells us that he chose to make each and every one of these portraits because the individuals attracted him, and gave him a sense of wonder. He photographs without using flash or studio equipment, preferring natural sunlight. He also tells us that he travels alone, or with a local guide...and uses local transport to get from one place to the other.

I chose a color photograph to accompany this post, but I suggest you visit John's toned monochromatic portraits. The tones of his photographs are earthy, rich and vibrant...perfect for his subjects.

Via Greg Pleak

Bali: Odalan at Pura Desa Sapat

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
Here's the first gallery of my own work whilst I was leading the Bali: Island of Odalan Photo~Expedition™ last month.

It's a linear photo gallery of about 20 large color photographs made during an important anniversary of a Balinese Hindu temple, and it's titled Odalan: Pura Desa Sapat. It's more photo journalistic in style than travel, and there are graphic photographs of animals being sacrificed, which may be disturbing to some.

This was one of the two most intense photo-shoots during the whole photo~expedition...not only because of the time spent photographing, but also because of the unending kaleidoscope of movements, rituals, rites and activities.

Every temple in Bali has a scheduled festival, an odalan, to celebrate the anniversary of temple dedication. The timing of the anniversaries are either based on the lunar calendar or on a 210-day ceremonial cycle. Depending on the importance of the anniversary and on the wealth of its community, animals are occasionally sacrificed.

These anniversary events are important for the communal harmony of the Balinese, where villages will join other villages to pray at their odalan, adding their blessings for the success of the occasion.

Conor Ashleigh: Futu-Manu In East Timor

Photo © Conor Ashleigh -All Rights Reserved
Futu manu means"fighting bird" in the local Tetum language of East Timor. Cockfighting is a tradition that goes back centuries in various countries, and I've witnessed it practiced in India, Mexico and Bali to name but a few.

I was glad to find Conor Ashleigh's website, and see that he has featured a photo essay on cockfighting in East Timor. There, cockfights are complementary to religious rites and ceremonies, but also feed a gambling streak amongst many men.

Conor lives in Australia and works on developing stories that comment on under-reported environmental, political and social issues. He photographed in Egypt, Gaza, South Africa, Thailand, Cambodia and Uganda, as well as working on long term projects in India, Nepal and Timor-Leste. His images have been published in New Internationalist, Sydney Morning Herald, Newcastle Herald, The Asia Foundation, Catholic Mission and Oxfam.

I also suggest you check in Conor's photo essay on The Brick Kilns of Bhaktapur in Nepal.

I'm currently working on my own photographs of cockfights in Bali, which will soon be published here on this blog.

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.

Penni Webb: Bali Island of Odalan

Photo © Penni Webb-All Rights Reserved
Penni Webb is a second time participant in my photo~expeditions, and is the sixth to submit samples of her work made during the Bali: Island of Odalan Photo~Expedition ™.

Penni is a professional photographer as well as an Interior Designer and Organizer in Marin, California. She has an MA from the SFAI in Printmaking, learned Photography at California College of the Arts and worked with several Master Photographers such as Phil Borges.

Her first photograph is of Rejang dancers during a pre-cremation ceremony at a private house. The girl in the middle was a natural...and loved to pose for cameras. Rejang dancers are usually young females, dressed in bright yellow and white silk and headdresses made from fresh young coconut leaves decorated with flowers. The Rejang dancers represent the female angels who accompany deities.

Photo © Penni Webb-All Rights Reserved
The above photograph is one that was made by most of the group's members, and is of an elderly Balinese matriarch returning to her traditional home after having emptied a basket of morning offerings, known in Bali as canang.

Photo © Penni Webb-All Rights Reserved
The third photograph is of a Balinese woman snapping a picture with her cellphone of three Rejang dancers during a during a melasti ceremony at Masceti beach.

Before starting her business in 1999, she managed and directed contemporary art and antique galleries and was a photographer for a large event & film company in Oakland. Her hand-painted photography work is represented by Smith Andersen North in San Anselmo where she had a solo show in 2008. She has exhibited her photographs and prints nationally since 1974.

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.

Udaan School of Photography

Dhiraj Singh and Arko Datta have just announced the launching of Udaan, an independent photography school in Mumbai.

Udaan's students will be tutored by leading working professionals such as Singh, Datta, Ritam Banerjee and Yogesh Bhandary. The courses in Udaan have been designed to meet the needs of photography-enthusiasts at different levels of learning and expertise. The school will cater to both photojournalists and commercial photographers, and will encourage and cultivate individualistic thinking and a creative vision.

Award winning independent photographer Dhiraj Singh has focused on human stories evolving in India and regularly works for Polaris and his photographs have been published in various international publications.

Pulitzer award nominee and winner of the 'Picture of the Year' at the World Press Photo 2004, Arko Datta has extensively covered news and sports across the world for the last two decades, which includes wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Beat of New York: Thomas Noesner

Filmmaker Thomas Noesner captures the energetic pulse of the big city. Along with the folks at Stereoscreen, including Tim Hahne, Noesner took the sights and sounds of New York city and laid them down to a remixed soundtrack of a drummer performing in a subway station.

I live in New York city and just loved this piece. You can smell and feel "it" in this short clip of 3 minutes. The drummers who use empty drywall compound containers to play their infectious beats are fixtures in subway stations or parks, and the piece used in this movie is a perfect for it. Excellent choice, and it gives a highly recommended buzz.

I hope it inspires me to get on with film-making using my Canon 5D Mark II in the West Village and Chinatown!

Via LA Times The Framework

Pop Photo's 25 Best Places To Photograph

Photo © Carolyn Drake-All Rights Reserved
Popular Photo Magazine has published a feature titled 25 Best Places To Photograph after running a poll amongst various documentary and travel photographers who are drawn to cultures far-removed from ours both geographically and chronologically.

The photographers are, amongst others, Chris Rainier recommending New Guinea, Carolyn Drake recommending Xinjiang, and Andrea Pistolesi recommending Sicily.

Jaipur was recommended as one of the best places to photograph but in my view, that city pales in comparison to a hundred of other more picturesque places in India.

I could have easily straighten that out had I been asked.

And what about Nepal, Bhutan, Bali, Vietnam, Ethiopia....?

Light & Composition Magazine

I'm always on the lookout for new and innovative venues in which photographers (and especially travel photographers) can feature their work, and Light & Composition Magazine appeared on my radar screen via The Raw File Blog's Twitter's Feed.

Light and Composition defines itself as a monthly photography magazine that aims to inspire people towards the true essence of photography, and attempts to take us around the world, to its people, nature, and culture, in pursuit of value and authenticity.

It also featured Around The World in 29 Days, which allowed it to showcase photos from around the world, through the lenses of twenty photographers. From northern Spain to the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh, from villages in Thailand to the USA, and from the Middle East to the far west.

Via RawFile

Chris Schaefer: Bali Island of Odalan

Photo © Chris Schaefer -All Rights Reserved
Chris Schaefer is a first time participant in my photo~expeditions, and is the fifth to submit samples of his work made during the Bali: Island of Odalan Photo~Expedition ™.

Chris is an attorney, and when asked to describe himself for this post, wrote that he "likes to travel to far away places with professional photographers and hopes for a quality photo now and then. He is educated in nothing related to photography, but enjoys snapping the shutter and seeing what happens."

Having seen the results of his "snapping" as he calls it, I think he did extremely well and surpassed his expectations of having a quality picture now and then.

The above photograph is that of a traditional procession on Masceti beach on the Balinese eastern coast during a melasti ceremony. Melasti is the purification of the Pratima deity and other symbols at a beach, and is a fundamental ritual during a temple's anniversary.

Photo © Chris Schaefer -All Rights Reserved
The second of Chris' photographs is of a Legong dancer at the Ubud Palace during a performance. The performance included various dances, such as the Gabor, Baris, Kraton ad the Taruna Jaya. The Legong dance is characterized by intricate finger movements, complicated footwork, and expressive gestures and facial expressions. This dancer in particular used her eyes to convey emotions extremely well.

Photo © Chris Schaefer -All Rights Reserved
The third of Chris' photographs was made at the holiest of Bali's religious sites: Pura Tirta Empul, whose sacred spring is said to have curative properties. The tradition has continued unchanged at the temple for a thousand years. This photograph shows how the Balinese place canang (offerings) at the spouts of the springs.

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.

NY Times: Madagascar's Famadihana

Having just returned from Bali where I attended and photographed exhumations and cremations, I was interested in reading a The New York Times' article and watching its accompanying video about the celebratory exhumation of the dead in Ambohimirary, Madagascar.

The article written by Barry Bearak (with accompanying photography by Joao Silva) reports that in the island nation of Madagascar, ancestors are frequently taken from their tombs with musical fanfare from brass bands, sprayed with perfume and wine and the skeletons lovingly rearranged.

It's a testament as to how many traditions are carried over from one continent to the other, from one race to the other and from one culture to another.

Julie Aucoin: Redux

Photo © Julie Aucoin -All Rights Reserved
I've already mentioned Julie Aucoin on this blog, but I've thought of re-posting her recent work which includes a number of South East Asian countries to include Vietnam, and this image of a Bac Ha woman.

Julie who's based in Nevada, describes herself as a passionate photographer, an adventurous traveler and experienced stage manager. She's one of those photographers who, as a child, perused the pages of the National Geographic magazine and this implanted peripatetic seeds in her.

The earlier post on Julie is here.

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.

Houston: Taking A Day (or 2) Off

I'm in Houston for Labor Day weekend and will resume posts in a day (or two) depending...

Bo Jungner: Bali Island of Odalan

Photo © Bo Jungner -All Rights Reserved
Bo Jungner is a first time participant in my photo~expeditions, and is the fourth to submit samples of his work made during the Bali: Island of Odalan Photo~Expedition ™.

Bo holds a MSc in Business Administration and Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics and works for a Swedish-based private equity company. He's also a photography enthusiast who joined my group whilst in Bali with his family.

When I first saw the above photograph of a Rejang dancer adjusting her headgear during a melasti ceremony, I told Bo that it was my favorite I had seen from his portfolio. I still think it is.

Photo © Bo Jungner -All Rights Reserved
The second photograph may repel some of the viewers, but washing skeletons is what happens during the exhumation which precedes a cremation in Bali. The whole event is a joyous one for the Balinese as the cremation of the body leads to the release of the soul, and brings final closure to the families. We were photographing in a small village in the Gianyar Regency, and spent some 6-7 hours shooting non-stop under a merciless sun. It was one of the most intense photo shoots during the expedition.

Photo © Bo Jungner -All Rights Reserved
This photograph is of a group of young Rejang dancers during a pre-cremation ceremony at a private house. We were welcomed, and feted like old friends by the family of the deceased, and welcomed by the whole neighborhood. The first dancer was really very comfortable with the cameras, and posed for us very professionally despite her young age.

Photo © Bo Jungner -All Rights Reserved
Here Bo photographed the preparation for a cockfight which was to take place on a beach during a temple odalan. Normally, cockfights in Bali are illegal unless these are connected to temple ceremonies.

Burn: Lisa Wiltse: The Mennonites of Bolivia

Photo © Lisa Wiltse-All Rights Reserved
In my view, one of the better photo journals on the web is Burn magazine, which is an online feature for emerging photographers, curated by Magnum photographer David Alan Harvey.

I've recently noticed a fantastic photo essay by Lisa Wiltse that documents The Mennonites of Bolivia who settled in eastern Bolivia’s farmlands more than 50 years ago.

Today, some 60,000 Mennonites call Bolivia their home, and they've come from Mennonite colonies in Canada, Russia, Mexico, Belize and Paraguay, to improve their lives, and live simply, dress plainly and refuse to use many modern conveniences. Similar in their lifestyle to the Amish, the Mennonites lead quiet, dedicated, religiously inspired lives.

Lisa Wiltse graduated from the Art Institute of Boston with a BFA in photography, and moved to Sydney, Australia in 2004 where she worked as a staff photographer for the Sydney Morning Herald. In 2008, she started her freelance career and subsequently moved to La Paz, Bolivia. Her work has been recognized by POYI’s, the National Press Photographers Association, the Sony awards, and others. She has recently been awarded The PDN Emerging Photographer award, and her work was published in The Fader, TIME magazine, GEO, Internazionale, Private Photo Review, The Sun Magazine, Marie Claire, The Australian Financial Review and The Sydney Morning Herald. She is currently a contributor with Getty Reportage.

POV: Hypocrisy

Photo © AP Photo/Bernat Armangue/Courtesy The Big Picture
This post has nothing to do with photography, but I've been thinking about the summer madness that enveloped us in the past few weeks; a madness that came to boil with the orchestrated (and well-funded) demonstrations against the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" and of course, our media's mendacious efforts to sensationalize all this even further...as well as the subsequent attack on a Muslim Bangladeshi taxi driver in New York City by a 21-year-old knife-wielding Michael Enright...and other acts of violence against Muslims in the Deep South and Upper New York state to name just some I've read about. This is against the backdrop of Mr Obama's enemies eagerly labeling him a Muslim...as if it mattered if he was.

In this frame of mind, I came across Stanley Fish's opinion in The New York Times (link further on), in which he writes:

"The formula is simple and foolproof (although those who deploy it so facilely seem to think we are all fools): If the bad act is committed by a member of a group you wish to demonize, attribute it to a community or a religion and not to the individual. But if the bad act is committed by someone whose profile, interests and agendas are uncomfortably close to your own, detach the malefactor from everything that is going on or is in the air (he came from nowhere) and characterize him as a one-off, non-generalizable, sui generis phenomenon." - Stanley Fish: We've Seen This Movie Before

How very (and sadly) true! Imagine the frothy headlines and cable news had this Michael Enright fellow been Muslim, and had stabbed a Christian, Jewish or even, dare I say it, an agnostic cab driver!

But in my view, here's what Mr Fish's excellent opinion piece left out:

Much hot air has been expended in calling on moderate Muslims to "rise" and "excoriate" the radical Muslims who commit acts of violence. Why should the large majority of the 1.6 billion Muslims, who are not fools, take that transparent bait? The radical Muslims who commit these acts do them as individuals, not as representatives of their faith, tradition or religion. They can say that they do so as loudly as they want...as much and as stridently as the right-wing radicals say that only they speak for real Americans...but they don't.

And whether the right-wing clowns like it or not, Mr Obama's statement at his inauguration is a fact.

"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth."

By the way, Muslims in America are responding to the intimidation by producing ads such as this:

9/11 Happened to Us All