Justin Guariglia: A Leica Interview

Photo © Justin Guariglia-All Rights Reserved

Justin Guariglia has had a lifelong passion for documentary photography and Leica M cameras that eventually led to a distinguished career as a magazine and travel photographer.

He currently lives in Taipei, and was recently interviewed by the Leica Camera Blog, in which he says:

"Of course, one cannot travel without money, and that is how I discovered photojournalism. Even back in the late 1990s, unlike today, there was still a good amount of work available—a shoot here, a story there, a portrait needed…so magazine work became the way to pay my bills and to travel and see the world, but I always came back with lots of personal images that editors usually never saw. At that stage National Geographic Traveler and Smithsonian magazines ran short stories on distant countries, and that helped pay my way to see the world."

Naturally the interview lauds the qualities of Leica versus other brands of cameras, and highlights how unobtrusive it is in comparison to the large DSLRS currently used by many other photographers. Justin's lenses consist of a 24mm f/2.8, a 35mm f/2, and a 50mm f/2, although he tries to only carry the 35mm f/2 Summicron.

For Leica fans, there's also a Leica contest with the grandiose name of In The Footsteps of the Great Explorers, which calls for adventurers and travel blog writers to submit their entries, and travel with Leica from mid-January 2011. A very fancy website!!!

Justin Guariglia's interview via The Click

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Faces of a Vanishing World: Joey Lawrence

I've posted a few times about Joey Lawrence (he also goes by Joey L), the young photographer who's been involved in commercial photography, photojournalism and music videos around the world by the age of 17, and who now has the established reputation of being a pioneer of new aged digital hyper-realistic photography, lighting and manipulation.

Joey has released a documentary titled Faces of a Vanishing World available for purchase on DVD or as an instant download. The official trailer for the documentary is above. Joey also says he's donating a portion of all the documentary's sales to Survival International, who are supporting the tribal people of the Omo Valley defend their rights, protect their lands and determine their own futures.

I am always a little hesitant in accepting cliches such as "vanishing world", "dying cultures", etc...because cultures are usually more resilient that people think, but in this instance, I'm convinced the Omo Valley tribes are under severe threat.

This relates to the Ethiopian's government building a massive dam that will block the south western part of the Omo River. The Lower Omo Valley is a UNESCO World Heritage site, in recognition of its archaeological and geological importance, and is home to several tribes.

I have neither acquired the DVD nor have I downloaded it...but from the trailer and from Joey L's quality of work, I'm certain it'll be money well spent.

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POV: My Photo~Expeditions: Verdicts

Wade Laube is a photo editor, a photographer and an opinionated ranter (the two last descriptions make him a "my-kind-of-guy"), and he's penned an interesting post on his blog titled Buyer Beware of the Dodgy Workshop.

He says this:

"The travel industry has offered photography-themed holidays for years. Hobbyists spend their annual leave somewhere picturesque, get expert tuition and access to expensive gear they wouldn’t normally, while the organisers make some money and everyone’s happy. But what aboveboard entrepreneurs started, parasites are mimicking."

And I couldn't agree more. Caveat Emptor is the rule here. I would also add that great photographers are not necessarily great travel photography workshop teachers and/or leaders. Some are and others are not.

Once again, here's Wade's wisdom:

"Ultimately what you need to ask yourself is whether you are purchasing a valuable educational experience. Are you just paying for the brand-value of a big name photographer and getting little more?"

Having one of the highest number of "repeaters" (returning participants) in the business is a fillip that I wear with great pride, and as one of the few in this business who's decided to reduce the number of expedition participants to a maximum of 5, I thought it useful to once again feature the verdicts of my past photo~expeditions as follows:

Bali: Island of Odalan Photo~Expedition

Tribes of Rajasthan & Gujarat 2010 Photo~Expedition

Bhutan Photo~Expedition 2009

Morocco-Gnawa Festival Photo Expedition 2009

Theyyam of Malabar Photo~Expedition 2009

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Next Week On The Travel Photographer

Most of my posts are scheduled ahead of time, but there are exceptions, which occur when and if I stumble on an interesting portfolio, website or issue...

For the week starting Monday October 4, I have posts on:

1. A poignant multimedia project involving the treatment of Women In India .
2. A movie trailer by a super talented ethnophotographer showing off his work on endangered cultures.
3. An interview with a travel photographer's talking about his passion for documentary photography and Leica M cameras.
4. The work of a documentary photographer featuring daily life along the Ganges.
5. My as yet unreleased work from Bali featuring a new audio slideshow on deity purification ceremonies.

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SoundSlides Version 1.9.4 Beta

I'm chuffed (as the Brits say) that SoundSlides is now available in Beta with the option to produce the audio slideshow so that it's iPad compatible. In fact, version 1.9.4 has a couple of options related to the iPad. The first option is to have the slideshow only readable on iPads, whilst another is an iPad-auto-detect.

I've tried the auto detect option on three audio-slideshows, and they worked pretty well. However, I haven't been able to remove the Captions and Credits buttons (which I don't want) from showing up on the iPad, and I understand that this will be fixed in a future version.

The other issue which I don't think is fixable relates to transitions. The transitions look somehwhat choppy on the iPad...presumably due to its processor and browser. One of my audio slideshows makes use of the "flip-book" technique which relies on a large number of stills with very short time intervals to give the appearance of motion, and this feature doesn't show well on the iPad at all. It just shows the first and last frame.

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Timer Remote Control For Multimedia Projects

I was so impressed by Andreas Burgess' In The Courtyard of the Beloved that I solicited advice from my good friend Anamitra Chakladar, who suggested that the time lapse frames may have been produced by using an intervalometer.

The device is a remote switch with a cord and a self-timer, interval timer, long-exposure timer, and exposure-count setting feature. The timer can be set anywhere from 1 second to 99 hours, 59 minutes, or 59 seconds. Ignoring the more expensive Canon model on B&H, I found one on eBay for less than $50 including shipping.

The brand new device, called JJC TM and made in China, arrived last night in perfect condition. Its accompanying manual is somewhat sparse in details, so I'll have to figure it out on my own (which I prefer anyway). Once I do, I'll try it out on the traditional opera singers in Chinatown or some similar activity.

PS: I figured how to work it in a few minutes...without the manual's "help".

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Devadasi: Prostitutes of God

I'm somewhat ambivalent about this documentary by VBS Television (you can click on the above image), which I found on The Independent newspaper's website. In a nutshell,  Sarah Harris, a British journalist,  made a documentary about temple prostitutes in south India...Devadasi women dedicated to a Hindu deity who spend their lives selling sex.

The journalist, with a couple of local minders, travels to villages and towns of Southern India to try to document a system of religious sex slavery dating back to the 6th century. Although illegal, there seems to be more than 23,000 women in the state of Karnataka selling their bodies in the name of the mysterious Hindu Goddess Yellamma. These are known as Devadasis, or ‘servants of God’.  As such things go, these statistics are estimates...which can be inflated or deflated depending on one's agenda.

I'm ambivalent because I don't get from this documentary that the women are Devadasi per se. They are certainly sex workers, but not necessarily Yellamma temple sex workers.  In parts, the documentary feels like a Lonely Planet or Global Trekker feature I watch on PBS...minus Ian Wright's wit and humor. I don't think that this documentary is accurate at all...and comes across as callous and superficial. The journalist sounds and acts as flaky as a young tourist traveling in India during a gap year, and I've seen no evidence that there was serious research done in the subject matter.

Having said that, William Dalrymple in his recent book Nine Lives, has interviewed and written about devadasi women, and their undeniable plight. Devadasi women have had a venerable history in performing a wide variety of religious functions, including sexual service...but their lives are now hard and harsh. Only marginally better than ordinary prostitutes, the devadasi system provides a way out of crippling poverty...very similar to other countries and societies. 

You can also watch it on VBS.TV website.

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