Chris Rainier: Papua New Guinea

Chris Rainier: Meetings with Remarkable People - Papua New Guinea from liveBooks on Vimeo.

RESOLVE, the informative blog from liveBooks, has announced that National Geographic Fellow Chris Rainier would be one of its new regular contributors.

Chris is a well known documentary photographer who took part in many National Geographic initiatives, such as the All Roads Photography Program and the Enduring Voices Project. With RESOLVE, Chris will video-post a monthly series "Meetings with Remarkable People" which will take its viewers along with him as he travels the world.

In this first video, Chris shares the ancient dances and rituals he documented on a recent trip to Papua New Guinea.

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Pétanque In NYC's Bryant Park

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

For a shift in gears, here are a couple of photographs made yesterday at the northwestern corner of Bryant Park in New York City, where aficionados meet almost daily to play bocce or pétanque.

Pétanque is a French game of “boules”, where each player strives to throw metal balls as close as possible to a smaller wooden ball, named the “cochonnet”. Game strategies include “pointing” when a player throws his ball to have it roll as close to the cochonnet as possible, and “shooting” when a player aims for the ball of an opponent, hoping to move him out of a favorable spot.

Bocce is a sport similar to the boules, bowls or pétanque family,with an ancient ancestry dating back to the Roman Empire. It was developed into its present form in Italy, and naturally was exported to other countries that received Italian migrants.

In the South of France, this game (or sport) evolved into a regional activity virtually synonymous with Provence...a little pastis and a game of pétanque is what locals do. Anyone who watched the wonderful French films Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources will surely recall how the game was described in the memoirs of novelist Marcel Pagnol.

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New Leica M9

Photojournalists (the few who can still afford it) and dentists have been impatiently waiting for 9/9/2009 for the new Leica M9.

According to the British Journal of Photography, Leica has updated its M8 model with a full-frame M9. The M9 fits a 24x36mm 18.5 million pixel resolution CCD sensor that has been developed specifically for the camera. It offers ‘full 35mm film format without any compromises’ claims Leica.

The M9 has a magnesium alloy body, and is said to have a "discreet" mode for candid shots in street photography. It can photograph at a range of ISO80 to ISO2500, at up to 2fps, and has a 2.5-inch LCD screen on the back.

The M9, which will be available in a steel-grey or black paint finish, weighs 589g with its battery and measures 139x37x80mm. The price in the US is estimated at $7000, while it's the equivalent of $8000 in the UK (at today's exchange rate).

There's also a review here on DPReview, and for the "eye-candy" go to the M9's website.

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Mohit Gupta: Thankas

I mentioned that I would feature Mohit Gupta's multimedia project "Thankas" on TPP as soon as it was uploaded on his website, and I'm pleased that he has just made it available to us to appreciate on his newly completed website/blog.

Originally from Himachal Pradesh, Mohit is an independent photographer based in New Delhi, who specializes in travel and documentary photography. To Mohit, photography is a serious medium for expression. A self taught photographer, he is mainly interested in documenting culture, traditions, rituals and religion, and has traveled within South East Asia to do just that. He also works with NGOs and helps them documenting their work.

"Thankas" was Mohit's project while at the Foundry Photojournalism, where he attended my Introduction To Multimedia Storytelling class. It is a well-made audio slideshow, incorporating many techniques...including the flip-book technique to simulate motion from a number of sequential still photographs.

My previous post on Introduction To Multimedia Storytelling is here.

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Mindy Adams' Guide: Multimedia Reporting

Mindy McAdams teaches university courses about online journalism and the changing ways we use technologies for communication, and she has published a comprehensive guide to multimedia proficiency, now available for download in PDF from her website.

The 42-page document is fully linked and usable online in most web browsers, Adobe Reader, or in Preview on the Mac OS. McAdams has licensed the entire document under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. This means that users are free to share, distribute, reuse and even remix it, in line with the CC conditions.

I have yet to read it in its entirety, but my quick scan of its chapters convinced me that it's a valuable document for those who seek to, not only start incorporating multimedia in their work, but also those of us who already are proficient in it but want to hone their skills.

Via Seshu on Twitter

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Mitchell Kanashkevich: Seeing The Light

Photo © Mitchell Kanashkevich-All Rights Reserved
Mitchell Kanashkevich is an oft-published travel/documentary photographer, whose main passion resonates with those of us who are described as "ethno-photographers". Much of his work is in capturing disappearing ancient cultures and the human condition in unique, challenging situations. Much of his travel/documentary photography is represented by Getty Images, while his cultural portraits, both color and black and white, are in private collections.

Mitchell has recently published a new eBook titled Seeing The Light. The premise of the eBook is to show how to create “believable” looking artificial light with a single off camera flash in a softbox or with a reflector, exploit natural light with and without the help of artificial light,and gain a deeper understanding of natural light and how it can be used creatively, even in challenging situations.

Via the above link, you can see sample screen grabs and even download a sample PDF.

As he says, the lessons in Seeing the Light is relevant to anyone who’s passionate about light, but wants to stay compact – that includes travel and documentary photographers, wedding photographers, portrait photographers and even low-budget commercial shooters.

For Mitchell's wonderful travel and ethno-photography, drop by his website...I guarantee you'll be inspired by his work.

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WIRED: Kanepari & Ferguson

Photos © Adam Ferguson (L)/Zackary Canepari (R)-Courtesy WIRED

"The photojournalist has long been known as the lone wolf, traveling solo to the far-flung corners of the world to document experiences few are capable of seeing. By function, it’s often a solitary quest, lonely and alienating; rarely as romantic as the photographs make it appear."

What a great start for the Raw File article written for WIRED by Bryan Derballa!

The article deals with the friendship and healthy competition between Adam Ferguson and Zackary Canepari, two immensely gifted photojournalists working in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. It appears that they helped each other, and edited one another’s work, always hoping to improve its quality.

WIRED's Raw File's article is in essence two interviews: Ferguson giving his views on Canepari's work, and vice-versa. Quite an interesting read...naturally, they pat each other on the back, but that's what friends do, especially those whose camaraderie withstood difficult circumstances.

Both photojournalists are content to be doing what they want to do at this time. Canepari is back in California pursuing personal projects, while Ferguson is still shooting in Afghanistan.

Zackary Canepari was featured on TTP a few times, and Adam Ferguson's work in Orissa was featured here.

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Ulla Lohmann: Papua Mummies

An unusual project has put Ulla Lohmann in the 'crosshairs' at the Visa pour l'Image photojournalism festival in Perpignan.

Ulla's Mummies in Papua portfolio was shown at Visa's first nightly projections, and is a distinct change from the normal fare that the festival is reputed for. She had to wait two years before being granted authorization to see and photograph the mummies.

In Papua New Guinea’s Morobe Highlands, the Anga tribe used to follow an ancient method of mummification for its dead by smoke curing, however the tradition has been almost lost, until the tribe leader's grand-daughter's death.

The lost tradition was revived when the grand-daughter died. The mummies were brought back to the village, and eventually restored for preservation. Now, the tribe's leader also wants to be mummified once he dies and has asked Lohmann to record the event.

1854, the blog of the British Journal of Photography has an interview with Ulla Lohmann.

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