Brent Foster: Varanasi

Varanasi, India : Holy Waters - Images by Brent Foster

Brent Foster is a photojournalist producing still, video, and multimedia content who is based in Delhi, India since January 2009. He was a staff visual journalist for the Los Angeles Times before deciding to give freelancing a try.

Not content in being an accomplished photographer and multimedia producer, Brent also authors an interesting bog titled Visual Journalist. The above slideshow is of his photographs made during a few days spent in Varanasi. You may want to view the photographs in the large screen format.

I wish it'd had some audio!

My own gallery of Varanasi photographs is City of Shiva

Read More

The Travel Photographer's Face-Lift

Many of my readers will have noticed that The Travel Photographer blog has undergone somewhat of a face-lift. Its original anthracite background with a lighter grey logo was over 2 years old, and I felt it was time for a freshening up. After all, I started this anthracite/grey color scheme in January 2007!

Over the past few months, I stealthily increased the size of the photographs appearing in my posts, and while I'm a proponent of the "larger is good" concept, I don't want to increase them further...at least for now.

I hope this white background works well...as well as the anthracite color did for so long.

Read More

My Work: Theyyams, Incarnate Deities

One of the most personally rewarding photo~expeditions I organized and led was the Theyyams of Malabar this last February. There are many reasons for this; the synergy between the 9 photographers in the group worked exceptionally well, the pace of the photo expedition was just right, and I fulfilled the ambition of photographing the Theyyam ceremonies over the 5 days we spent in northern Kerala.

To the people of northern Kerala, rituals are enormously important. Theyyam, a word that derives from daivam, meaning "god," is practiced mostly within the so-called "lower" castes of that region. To call it a ceremony would not quite be the word for it, and to name it ritual would only be half right. It is 2000-year-old theatrical performance in which an artist becomes divine and is in incarnated with that deity’s power. The gods and goddesses of Theyyam are not inanimate idols; they are incarnated in the bodies of the artists/performers.

The preliminary ritual is called Thottam, and takes place in the temple's shrine. It is then and only then that the artist receives the deity’s spirit. The deity’s makeup is called "body writing" and is said to have magical and medicinal properties. During the Theyyam the deity converses directly with the devotees, giving blessings, receiving homage and donations, and dispensing advice.

For my new gallery, visit Theyyams: Incarnate Deities

For another interesting post on the background of Theyyam on my blog, go here.

If you missed the verdict on the Theyyam of Malabar photo~expedition, go here and here.

Read More

Taylor Davidson: India, Close & Afar

©Taylor Davidson-All Rights Reserved
Taylor Davidson is a documentary photographer focused on the role of business and people in their environment, and according to the map of India on Taylor Davidson's website, he visited about 25 cities in the subcontinent; from Dharmasala in Himachal Pradesh at the foothills of the Himalayas to Trivandrum in Kerala at its southernmost tip. He traveled across India over two months, and writes this about his experience:

"And, it's nearly impossible to keep your senses closed off. Life invades you, crashes into you, ignores and welcomes you, eventually permeating into your skin, your head, your heart."

What more is there to say about India? Not much...Taylor summarized it pretty well.

Taylor divided his images of India into two sections: the Afar gallery and the Close gallery. He judiciously chose to show off his images in a large (and satisfying) format, and you won't regret exploring his website for more of his galleries.

He recently published a book of 90 of his best photographs of India that is avaialble from the Blurb Bookstore here.

Read More

Alex Espinosa: Criancas de Nordeste

©Alex Espinosa-All Rights Reserved
Alex Espinosa is a Mexican photographer and photojournalist, who traveled in Latin America from 2000-2006 to document daily life and the humanitarian efforts made to improve lives of children. The documentary project was sponsored by CETYS University, San Diego State University and the University of Baja California.

His work was exhibited in Mexico, Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and the United States, and was published in Obras, Expansion, Ambientes, Escala, Vinum and International GEO.

Alex is also an alum of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Mexico City.

Criancas de Nordeste is a photo essay dealing with poverty in Brazil, where official statistics show that about 32 million people live under the poverty line. Particulalry in the northeast of the country, this statistic is exacerbated by the fact that many poor families have 7 children or more, and depend on a monthly salary equivalent to $14.

Alex Espinosa's website also has galleries of La Santa Muerte, Migrants and Patagonia, among others.

Read More

Marantz-PMD 620

I just published an article on Photocrati providing my impressions of the Marantz-PMD 620, a small hand-held audio recorder, which I needed badly to replace my aging M-Audio MicroTrack I that was beginning to act erratically.

I’m not an audio engineer, so my take on the quality of my various recordings should be viewed as that of a photographer who records ambient sound to accompany slideshows...no more and no less. There’s no question in my mind that the PMD620 is an excellent “point and shoot” audio recorder, small enough to be carried as an accessory, and well capable of capturing sounds in sufficient quality to provide lovely sound tracks for my multimedia productions.

For the rest of my impressions, drop by Photocrati.

Read More

Farzana Wahidy: Burqa

At the age of 24, Farzana Wahidy has been a photographer for Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press. She was born in Afghanistan but now resides in the United States. The National Geographic All Roads Film Festival recently recognized her work by awarding her seed money and equipment to assist in her field work.

In an interview, she said:

" I wasn’t at all interested in photography before. I wanted to be a journalist. I thought I could travel around as a journalist. I wanted to tell the world about the situation in Afghanistan. Above all, I wanted to be free and independent. I always had to work to support my family. One day, I found out about these film and photojournalism courses and I applied. I was 17 -- I thought they wouldn’t accept me because I was too young. So I changed the date of birth in my passport. Two weeks later I found out I had been accepted."

Farzana was initially trained at Aina Photo Agency (founded by Reza), and her work in Afghanistan is remarkable. It underscores how many indigenous photographers and photojournalists are often better storytellers than non-indigenous professionals, and gives the photographs an imprimatur of authenticity..

Read More