My Work: Ranakpur Priest-Caretaker

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights ReservedAt the outset of my Tribes of South Rajasthan & Gujarat Photo~Expedition, we traveled to Ranakpur, north of Udaipur.The Ranakpur temple is one of the most famous Jain temple in India, and is dedicated to Adinath, the first Jain Tirthankar, or saint. Jainism is an ancient religion of India that prescribes a path of peace and non-violence...

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It's Holi Time

Photo © K. K. Arora/Reuters- (Courtesy WSJ Photo Journal) -All Rights ReservedHoli 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...

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Greg Du Toit: The Waiting Game

Photo © Greg du Toit- (Courtesy The Daily Mail) -All Rights ReservedHere's an interesting story reported by The Daily Mail (a UK newspaper) which tells us that Greg du Toit, a wildlife photographer living in south Kenya's Great Rift Valley, spent 3 months submerged in a wild lions watering hole for three months, just to get what he deemed to be the perfect photograph of these lions...

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Book: Charlotte Rush-Bailey: Soul Survivors

I've just received the book Soul Survivors from its author Charlotte Rush-Bailey, who was a participant in The Tribes of Rajasthan & Gujarat Photo~Expedition, and it's certainly a wonderful addition to anyone's travel book collection.It's essentially a tribute to the people of the Sahel, and focuses on Niger which Charlotte visited in the fall of 2005, amidst a food crisis...

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Agnes Dherbeys: Street With No Name

Agnes Dherbeys is a freelance photographer based in Bangkok since 2001. She decided to take up photography as a career after graduating from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques and Sciences of Communication at the Sorbonne.Since then, she mostly worked in Thailand, Cambodia, East Timor, Aceh), Nepal and the Palestinian Territories. She was recognized with numerous awards, and is member...

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Antonio Perez Rio: Omo Valley

Photo © Antonio Perez Rio-All Rights ReservedAntonio Perez Rio is a Spanish emerging photographer with a special focus on documentary and travel photography. He has two degrees in Law and Social Work, as well as a specific training in creative writing. He has traveled to more than 20 countries, and speaks Spanish, English, French and is learning Arabic.Antonio tells me that he...

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Ron Haviv: Haiti

Let's move away from the insignificance of photojournalists conducting photo tours to Haiti (and wherever else there is human misery), and contemplate the work of Ron Haviv of VII Agency who, less than 24 hours after the earthquake hit the island on January 12, 2010, arrived in Haiti without fanfare to chronicle the ensuing devastation and human suffering.Ron Haviv's photographs will be showing at an exhibition and fundraiser on March 4, 2010 at...

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Sean Gilligan: Morocco

In my experience, Morocco is one of the most difficult places for people photography. One not only needs the technical skills of photographing quickly and unobtrusively, but also have an enormous reservoir of patience. I think that Sean Gilligan managed to pull it very well with his gallery titled God, King & Country . The title is from the 3rd image of the gallery which shows...

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Canon EOS-1D Mark IV Review

Digital Photography Review is dedicating a massive 33 pages review to the new Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, granting it an overall rating of 89%. It garners the highest marks in build quality, features and performance (speed).According to DPR, the Canon EOS-1D Mark IV "has the feel of a product that is determined to be as close to perfect as possible", and "From the point-of-view of the...

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Ed Ou: Journey To The Promised Land

Ed Ou is a Canadian-Taiwanese photojournalist living and working in the Middle East, who covered his first big story during the Israel – Hezbollah conflict from southern Lebanon in 2006, when he was studying Arabic and International Relations in the Middle East.Since then, he has worked with Reuters and the Associated Press covering diverse stories such as the ongoing conflict...

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Anamitra Chakladar: Kushti

Photo © Anamitra Chakladar-All Rights ReservedAt the outset of my Tribes of Rajasthan and Gujarat Photo~Expedition, I spent a few days in Delhi where I had the immense good fortune to meet with Anamitra Chakladar, a friend who attended the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Manali last July.Along with Terri Gold and Wink Willett (participants in the photo expedition) we visited...

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POV: P As In Professional

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedThe New York Times' Gadgetwise blog features an interview with Harry Benson, the legendary Scottish photographer, who shared some tips on taking photos in low-light situations. It was also picked up by WIRED's Gadget Lab.Harry Benson's tips are:1. Use program (P) mode to get the best results and to capture detail.2. Remain in the reasonable...

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My Work: The Rabari & The Charpoy

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedWhile in Dasada (in the Little Rann of Kutch) during the The Tribes of Rajasthan & Gujarat Photo~Expedition ™, we stopped by a small Rabari village to photograph. We fanned out to photograph whatever caught our eye, and whoever was willing to cooperate. The previous evening at the Rann Riders Resort, we were shown a wonderful book of...

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Rajibul Islam: The Rohingya

Photo © Sheikh Rajibul Islam-All Rights ReservedThe Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group of the Northern Arakan State of Western Burma, are denied citizenship and suffer persecution and discrimination in Myanmar. Hundreds of thousands have fled to Bangladesh. An estimated 25,000 unregistered Rohingya refugees are living in the Kutupalong makeshift camp in Bangladesh, and are being forcibly...

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Charlotte Rush-Bailey: Tribes of Raj & Gujarat

Photo © Charlotte Rush-Bailey- All Rights ReservedCharlotte Rush-Bailey is the second group member of The Tribes of Rajasthan & Gujarat Photo~Expedition ™ whose work is being showcased here on TTP.As demonstrated by her photographs here, and by those on her impressive website, Charlotte's quest to explore the unknown and learn from it has always been with her. Her career...

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Tribes of Rajasthan/Gujarat Photo Group

Photo © Kantilal Doobal-All Rights ReservedKantilal Doobal is the Bhuj-based photographer/guide who accompanied us on our forays in the tribal lands of Bhuj area. He photographed alongside us, and emailed us this group photograph at a Wadha village on the last day in the Kutch.From left: Sharon Johnson-Tennant, Colleen Kerrigan, Sandy Chandler, Tewfic El-Sawy, Kim McClellan, Terri...

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Alessandra Meniconzi: The Roitschäggätä

Photo © Alessandra Meniconzi -All Rights ReservedPhoto © Alessandra Meniconzi -All Rights ReservedAlessandra 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...

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NPR: The Mekong, A River

Here's a wonderful multimedia piece The Mekong: A River And A Region Transformed, which is produced by NPR, as only a sterling institution such NPR would know how. It documents the Mekong through a 3,000-mile journey from the river’s source on the Tibetan plateau to its mouth at the South China Sea, relying on Michael Sullivan and photographer Christopher Brown examine the turbulent...

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Apple iPad & Photography

Apple announced its newest creation, the iPad, while I was in the Kutch area in Gujarat, and had no reliable internet access so I'm still pretty much out of the loop in as far as its technical specifications are concerned...but that won't stop me from expressing my knee-jerk opinion on it from what I already know.I gather from a couple of opinions written about the iPad that the...

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POV: The Gulf Between Us?

Photo © Charlotte Rush-Bailey -All Rights ReservedOh, how our eyes can deceive us sometimes..and how easily photographs captured in a split-second can convey a very different story from reality. Here's a photograph of me while at the Jama Masjid in Ahmedabad during prayers (called namaz in India), in which I look wary of the man who's crossing my path. Our body language and side...

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Foundry PJ Workshop: Istanbul

If you haven't checked the updated website for the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop recently, do yourself a favor, and do so. Not only has it been totally revamped (I believe it's the work of the talented Chilean photojournalist and webmaster Gabriel Morty Ortega Berger), but it also showcases work by FPW's astoundingly creative alum such as Monte Swann, Dhiraj Singh (who attended...

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Peter Turnley: Haiti

Photo © Peter Turnley-All Rights ReservedMuch as been said and written about the horrific earthquake which befell Haiti and its aftermath, ranging from the compassionate to the cynical, with disparate opinions as to whether Zoriah Miller and Andy Levin are right to conduct photo workshops on the island at this time or not, including thoughtful entreaties from photojournalists like...

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The Travel Photographer Blog: 3 Years

The Travel Photographer blog turned 3 years old on the 24th of January, and I missed celebrating it while leading the Rajasthan & Gujarat Photo Expedition...but no matter.About 1700 posts, thousands and thousands of unique visitors and subscribers, followers and an enormous amount of support from photographers, full timers and part timers, and many other creatives. And to think...

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Kim McClellan: Tribes of Raj & Gujarat

Photo © Kim McClellan -All Rights ReservedPhoto © Kim McClellan -All Rights ReservedPhoto © Kim McClellan -All Rights ReservedKim McClellan is a professional photographer (as well as working for the SBA in DC), and graduated from the Washington School of Photography in January 2001. She's passionate about international travel photography, and her work was featured in juried exhibitions...

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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...

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Tribes of Rajasthan & Gujarat: Photo Shoot!

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights ReservedRather than posting a group photograph of the members of the Tribes of South Rajasthan & Kutch Photo~Expedition™ in which everyone is smiling rather self-consciously, I thought this one would be more appropriate. This cluster of the group members was not really the norm, as most of the time we wandered either individually or in twos...

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Book: To Cambodia With Love

Having not read the fine print and that Amazon and Barnes & Noble were promoting the publication date of 1 March 2010 for the new guidebook To Cambodia With Love - A Travel Guide for the Connoisseur, I was on the verge of getting my credit card out to order it on Amazon , only to realize that it's still unavailable, and listed as a pre-order only. Nonetheless, I am hugely chuffed...

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Tribes of Rajasthan & Gujarat: Verdict

Bathing Pilgrims (Baneshwar) © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights ReservedI can best summarize my verdict on the Tribes of South Rajasthan & Kutch Photo~Expedition™ as being a mixed bag. Readers of this blog know that I (in contrast to the majority of other travel photographers who lead photo tours) do not not sugar-coat nor gloss over the results of my photo-expeditions, and that...

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