Verdict: Gnawa Photo Expedition

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights ReservedNow ensconced in sunny and hot London, I've reflected on the past 2 weeks spent photographing in Morocco during the Gnawa Festival Photo Expedition, and two key words immediately jump to mind: frustrating and sublime.Here's the frustrating bit: people photography in the large cities of Morocco is to say the least, extremely difficult....

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Essaouira Report: Zaouia Sidi Bilal

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights ReservedWithin a few steps from my lovely Essaouira hotel (Riad Mimouna) is the zaouia of Sidi Bilal, who was the first muezzin in Islam, and is the patron saint of the Gnawa order.It is there that most of my photographs of the Gnawa performers are made. The backdrop of the zaouia is of traditional islamic zellige, and is just perfect. I've witnessed...

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Essaouira Report: Gnawa Festival

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights ReservedThe 2009 Gnawa (or Gnaoua) Festival in Essaouira officially started yesterday at 6:00 pm, when all the participating groups congregated at the medina's Bab El-Doukala for its inaugural procession through its narrow streets.The various Gnawa bands were amply represented in the square just outside the Doukala Gate, and were being interviewed...

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Essaouira Report: Gnawa Musicians

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights ReservedPhoto © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights ReservedI've just been able to photograph and audio record a couple of rehearsals of musical bands and dancers in the medina of Essaouira through the persistent assistant of our fixer, Hassan. Normally, attending and photographing these rehearsals require special permits and press passes. The first rehearsal...

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My Work: The Tanners of Marrakech

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights ReservedAs readers of this blog know, I'm leading a photo expedition in Morocco whose principal destination is Essaouira where we will be photographing the Gnawa Music Festival in a few days' time. The 9 photographers on this expedition are now in Ouarzazate, an ancient city south east of Marrakech and described as the gateway to Africa, and where...

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National Geographic: Angkor Wat

Photo © National GeographicThe National Geographic online is featuring a 3D innovative look at the Khmer Empire, which includes Angkor Wat and life as it must have been in the 13th century.In fact, this animation will provide a sliver of solace to those who heeded the National Geographic's advice of not going to visit the complex. A few months ago, the National Geographic's Intelligent...

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Blind Boys Magazine

Blind Boys Magazine describes itself as being bold, new and South Asian. I'm unsure whether these photographers form a collective, or are just a group of photographers who seek an avenue to expose their diverse work to the outside world.Aditya Kapoor's photographs reveal the lighter side of the often misunderstood Muslim community, Kapil Das' photo essay covers one of the last...

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Candace Feit: West African Wrestling

Photo © Candace Feit -All Rights ReservedTyson and 50 Cent are the names of the biggest stars in West African wrestling, which according to photojournalist Candace Feit, has become a huge business for wrestlers and sponsors alike. Instead of wrestling to win a bag of rice or a goat, the current monetary prizes are now in excess of $300,000. For many young men in Senegal, it can...

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My Gear For The Gnawa Photo~Expedition

Having received questions as to what I normally pack on my photo~expeditions, I thought thought I'd list what I loaded my Domke F-3X Canvas bag with for my Gnawa Photo~Expedition which starts in a few days. In a departure from my usual packing style, I decided this time that I'd go minimalist (sort of) in terms of camera gear, and leave my Canon Mark II (and all its heavy paraphernalia)...

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Think Tank Wired Collection

Think Tank has announced that it will begin shipping a line of bags aimed at editorial photographers whose work includes capturing audio along with still photos, plus photographers who are acquiring the new breed of digital SLRs capable of capturing high-quality video.The line of bags is called the Multimedia Wired Up Collection consists of 4 belt-mountable pouches and two beltpacks....

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Tyler Hicks: The Battle For Pakistan

Photo © Tyler Hicks/NYTimes-All Rights ReservedA superb photojournalism feature published by The New York Times of photographs by Tyler Hicks appeared on its website late last night. The title of the multimedia feature is The Battle For Pakistan; a title which I find rather exaggerated, as it really is about South Waziristan. Having said that, the area which may well be the toughest...

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Michael Kamber: Hard Lessons in Somalia

"It is also important to keep a low profile when you’re moving through dangerous areas where kidnapping risks are high. Try to find vehicles with tinted windows. Long sleeves, beards, hats and local dress all help. Don’t be embarrassed to wrap a scarf around your head or put on local garb. From a distance, this makes you less visible. It may save your life."-Michael Kamber (from...

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Book: Within The Frame: David duChemin

If there's one book on photography I must have with me if I'm ever marooned on a desert island, it'd be David duChemin's Within The Frame. If there's one photography book I'd recommend to all the photographers of varying levels of proficiency who join my photo~expeditions, it's David du Chemin's Within The Frame.If there's one photography manual I'd have with me when teaching my...

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En Route: The Gnawa Photo Expedition

I'm on my way to Morocco to lead the Photo~Expedition: The Gnawa Festival In Essaouira, which begins in Casablanca on June 19. In Casablanca, I will be meeting (all for the first time) the 8 photographers who are joining me on this exciting adventure, exploring the souks of Marrakech, the fabled city of Ouarzazate and the famous port city of Essaouira, where the Gnawa music festival...

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Khaled Hasan: The Stone Crushers

Khaled Hasan was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and joined Pathshala (the South Asian Institute of Photography) and completed a workshop in Chobimela IV (2006). He was inspired by Shahidul Alam and Reza Deghati. He worked as a freelancer for several daily newspapers in Bangladesh and for the photo agency Majorityworld. His photographs have been published in the Sunday Times Magazine,...

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Pakistani Cinema: Zackary Canepari

Photo © Zackary Canepari -All Rights ReservedTIME Magazine features a photo essay by Zackary Canepari titled The Last Days of Pakistani Cinema.It's a welcome change from the current run of the mill photojournalism which we normally see in the mainstream media. I've had enough of seeing photographs of frightfully scary Islamic mullahs, with black beards and betel-stained teeth,...

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The Purge: The Travel Photographer's Newsletters

I've sent out my June newsletter yesterday, and realized that it was about time to purge my ever-growing mailing list of subscribers that no longer open my newsletters with regularity. Through my email marketing service, I get an update as to which emails do not open my newsletters, and I've already started to remove them from my list. The criteria is simple. Subscribers who haven't...

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My 2010 Photo~Expeditions: Update

As posted a few days ago, a newsletter with details of two of my 2010 Photo~Expeditions was emailed yesterday morning to subscribers. These subscribers have either joined my previous trips, or are photographers who emailed directly expressing interest in them or are people who joined my mailing list by completing the mailing list on this blog's right column.The responses to the...

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My Work: Kathakali Actor

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights ReservedKathakali is a highly stylized classical Indian dance-drama well-known for its attractive make-up of characters, elaborate costumes, detailed gestures and body movements. It's prevalent india's southern state of Kerala where it also originated.It was photographed at the reputed Kathakali Kalatharangini school in Thrissur, during he Theyyams...

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Sankar Sridhar: Zanskar

Sankar Sridhar spent his early years in Calcutta, subsequently trekking and guiding tourists on trails in Sikkim, Darjeeling and Kashmir, then worked as an outdoor survival instructor in a Delhi-based adventure company.He eventually worked as a journalist, with many of his articles appearing in Le Courrier France and Le Courrier International Japon, Geo Magazine, Financial Times,...

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New 13" MacBook Pros

Apple announced yesterday new MacBook Pros, and what I liked in particular is the 13” MacBook Pro. I'm far from being a real gear head, but I salivate at the prospect of updating my aging laptop, and getting one of those, hooking it up to my Apple Cinema display and doing without my iMac desktop all together.I'd say the 13” MacBook Pro is an ideal laptop for traveling photographers....

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Photo~Expeditions 2010

My photo~expeditions schedule for the first half of 2010 is almost completed, with two events planned; one will be a two-week trip amongst the tribal communities of Rajasthan & Gujarat, while the second will be set amongst the temples of Bali.The Travel Photographer's Photo~Expeditions are best described as a mixture of "documentary photojournalism, ethno-photography and travel...

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Partha Pal: Santhals

Partha Pal's biography states that his profession is that of a mechanical engineer, technically making him a part-time photographer. Notwithstanding, his photographs were published in Popular Photography, Hindustan Times, Sanctuary Asia, on covers of Penguin books, in Better Photography, Times Journal of Photography amongst others. He has also been recognized by many photographic...

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Photocrati: Cairo Report, The Real Thing?

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights ReservedOver on Photocrati, I've just uploaded a couple of photographs, along with an article, describing an authentic zeqr ceremony in a small village on the western banks of the Nile. Here's an excerpt:Following the sound of the rhythmic Sufi song booming out of loudspeakers, we turn into a narrow alley, crowded with people; some are standing...

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Robin Hammond: Street Children of Delhi

Here's Namaste Delhi, a photo essay on the street children of Delhi, India's capital city, by Robin Hammond, who presents his work in a flip book format. He has also written an essay on these children, so his photographs are arranged in magazine format, which is very attractive.He tells us that most of the street children in Delhi are originally from Bihar (one of the poorest states...

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POV: White Judges Only?

Here's an issue that came to my attention via the excellent blog Duckrabbit, which in turn noticed it on the Reciprocity Failure blog.PDN (Photo District News) has recently announced the results of its Photo Annual 2009 Contest, and also introduced its readers to the 24 judges who adjudicated this hard fought contest. So far so good...however here's the rub: all 24 judges are white....

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James Morgan: Kazakh Eagle Hunters

James Morgan is a travel and documentary photographer, as well as a professional writer based in the United Kingdom. Although he specializes in travel and documentary photography, he has also worked on a number of commercial projects. Amongst his many clients are The Sunday Times (South Africa), Foto8 (UK), Dalmatia Creative (UK/US), Baikal Club (Siberia) and others.He recently...

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FolioLink Does Large

As readers of this blog well know, I'm a strong proponent of large images on websites so I'm glad to see that one of the online website services is now offering such an option to its clients.FolioLink, an online website service for photographers, has announced the immediate availability of scaling technology in their latest FLASH design. With scaling websites, photographers no...

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World In Focus Contest

The National Geographic Traveler Magazine and Photo District News announced the World in Focus Photography Contest, which ends on September 8, 2009. The prizes range from a 10-day safari trip to Tanzania, to various camera equipment prizes.As in all and every photography contests, I strongly encourage all interested photographers to make sure they carefully read the contests' terms...

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Joey L. : Ethiopia

Once in a while, I come across work by a young photographer that is so interesting, so adventurous, so visually compelling, so extraordinarily edgy and so cerebral....that I spend many hours just staring at it. And yes, I'll admit it...it's so good that it's incredibly annoying. I'm a purist and certainly not a fan of photo manipulation, but the imagery I've seen by this photographer...

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RESOLVE: Foundry Photo Workshop

©Kirsten Luce, Courtesy FPW -All Rights Reserved"But if you’re serious about becoming an international photographer, the Foundry can be like a halfway house. We’re here to help you with the first steps. Student who haven’t traveled, or they’re scared of travel, or they’re scared of shooting internationally — this can bring them to the next level".So says Eric Beecroft, the co-founder...

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William Widmer: Between Giants

Here's Between Giants, a feature on a small community in Ladakh by photojournalist William Widmer.The Changpa are one of several groups of indigenous nomads who inhabited the high plains of Ladakha for generations, and are finding their traditional way of life threatened by modernity and influx of tourism.William Widmer is a freelance photographer based in San Francisco, who's...

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DISPATCHES & Foundry Workshop

A couple of news bits from Dispatches:The Dispatches 2009 Foundry Scholarship in Memory of Alexandra Boulat has awarded Sabhanaz Rashid Diya (Dhaka, Bangladesh) a full scholarship to attend The Foundry Photojournalism Workshop as well as $100 toward travel expenses. So congratulations to Sabhanaz, and I look forward to meet her in Manali.Filmed on 22 May 2009 at VII Gallery, Brooklyn,...

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Franck Vogel: The Bishnois

Photo © Franck Vogel -All Rights ReservedThe Canon Professional Nework (Europe) brings us a feature on Franck Vogel's project photographing the Bishnois in India. The project was recently a major cover story for the 30th anniversary edition of GEO France magazine.This features dovetails quite neatly into my plans for a photo~expedition in early Spring 2010 to South Rajasthan and...

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5D Mark II: New Firmware

Canon USA published the recently announced firmware update for its EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR which enables manual exposure during video capture.As well as the manual exposure video functionality, EOS 5D Mk II firmware v1.1.0 includes fixes to the lens peripheral illumination correction, auto lighting optimizer, battery information display, and depth-of-field preview button functionality,...

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7dot7 Magazine

Photo © Alfonso Moral-All Rights Reserved7dot7 is an online photo magazine, and a project of the collective of photographers called RUIDO Photo in Barcelona. Its objective is to become a a repository for an independent, social, critic and committed photojournalism.One of its interesting features in its initial publication is the work of photographer Alfonso Moral with his photo...

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Saiful Haq Omi: Bangladesh's Coastline

Bangladesh is a country that produces incredibly talented documentary photographers, and certainly Saiful Haq is among those who qualify for the recognition. Saiful Haq Omi has wanted to tell stories from his very first days as a photographer. His political activism eventually evolved, and he now considers himself as a ‘photo activist,’hoping to use his visual talents to document...

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