Rahgu Rai: Interview With The Guardian

Photo © Raghu Rai- All Rights Reserved

"Most people don't see, they just glance. When we take a picture, we have to be aware of every inch of space we're dealing with" -Raghu Rai

An interview with Raghu Rai in The Guardian newspaper was published to coincide with his work being featured in a retrospective at the Aicon Gallery in central London and in a landmark exhibition at the Whitechapel gallery.

A gallery of his work is also featured on The Guardian's website.

Raghu Rai is a Magnum photographer who spent 40 years photographing India. Born in a small Pakistani village and moving to India during Partition, he was witness to some of the most significant events in his country's recent history. He was one of the first photographers on the scene after the 1984 Bhopal industrial disaster and has produced acclaimed documentary series on Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama and the late Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi.

Via Wendy Marijnissen's Twitter feed.

Leila Alaoui: The Moroccans

Photo © Leila Alaoui - All Rights Reserved

Leila Alaoui is a young French-Moroccan portrait and documentary photographer living in both Morocco and Berlin. She received a B.S. degree in photography from the City University of the New York Graduate Center.

With a number of international exhibitions under her belt, Leila has also featured her portraits of Moroccans at the Palais Es Saadi in Marrakesh.

One of my favorite in her small gallery of Moroccan portrait is the one above of a traditional "guerrab"...or water-seller. This one is from a souk in Boumia (near Meknes), but most people who visited Marrakesh's Souk el Fna have met these water-sellers who now make a living by posing for the cameras. They are a ubiquitous presence in other Morocco's cities.

I'm especially glad when I discover the work of promising (and established) Arab photographers, especially if they're women...and they'll always figure prominently on this blog.

Joseph F. C. Rock: Western China

Photo © Joseph Francis Charles Rock

Joseph Francis Charles Rock (1884 – 1962) was an Austrian-American explorer, botanist, and anthropologist. For more than 25 years, he traveled extensively through Tibet and Yunnan, Gansu, and Szechuan provinces in China before finally leaving in 1949.

His travels in Western China is featured by On Shadow, and I thought I'd show the gallery of his more than 275 photographs made in the 1920s. It's always fascinating to me to view photographs made during these early years of photography, which required lugging heavy cameras and large amounts of developing chemicals. What we present-day photographers carry is a mere trifle of what these photographers had to schlep. They certainly had porters to do it for them, but imagine the difficulties this still was, as well as having to develop the films in situ.

For those of you who are patient and interested enough to scroll through the 275 images, you'll notice one that is captioned as "Lamas with trumpets, drums, and cymbals chanting the prelude to the Black Hat Dance in front of the main chanting hall at Cho-ni Lamasery" and was taken in December 1925. Compare it with contemporary photographs of Bhutan's Black Hat dances at its tsechus, and you'll realize that not much has changed.

On Shadow is primarily run by Nicholas Calcott, and was founded in January 2008, originally as the blog arm of the publisher 12th Press. It presents projects and essays from invited scholars and artists.

Tudor Vintiloiu: Warriors of the Amazon

Photo © Tudor Vintiloiu-All Rights Reserved

Tudor Vintiloiu is a Romanian photojournalist based in Bucharest who specializes in documentary and travel photography. His site features stories from Ecuador, Ethiopia, Cambodia and other countries.

I was tempted to feature his work of the Omo Valley, but I've had Diego Verges' recent Addis work featured a few days ago, so I chose the next best thing on Tudor's website, and that is his work on the Ecuadorean Amazon Indians.

His portfolio features the Huaorani tribe, which consist of almost 4,000 people. In the last 40 years, they evolved from a hunting and gathering society to live mostly in permanent forest settlements, and shun contact with the outside world.Their main weapon are spears, and they use blowguns for hunting. Possessing an extensive knowledge of botany, which they use for medical purposes, for poison and for drugs. The Huaorani have about 6,800 square kilometers of land, about one third of their original territory.

Tudor's work in the Omo Valley, and of Markets/People (black & white) are also well worth your visit.

The Sufis of Gujarat Photo~Expedition™: The Verdict

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

I find it always difficult to objectively assess a photo~expedition, since there are so many variables that must be considered when judging what went right and wrong over the course of an intense two weeks...but it's something I find necessary and useful. I don't know if other travel photographers publicize the positives and negatives of their photo trips or workshops, but I do. It's an exercise in transparency that I follow because I think it's the right thing to do.

The objectives of the In Search of the Sufis of Gujarat Photo Expedition™ were diverse. This was not a run-of-the-mill photo trip, touring Gujarat in search of photogenic individuals or places, but had the complex goals of exploring and photographing traditional Hindu and Islamic syncretism.

But first things first. The group was the most international I've had so far...2 Thai photographers, 1 Singaporean and 2 Americans.  The gear was, for the first time, Nikon-dominated with a couple of Canon users and a Leica aficionado.

Speaking of gear; I used my Canon 5D Mark II, and sort of inaugurated my new Canon 7D (which replaced my trusty old friend the Canon 1D Mark II). The 7D was mostly used when I need the super-fast fps rate, or when I wanted to shoot a movie clip. I used my Canon 24-70mm f2.8 virtually all the time, while the Canon 17-40mm f4.0 was used on my 7D. The 70-200 lens was used only once, and stayed at the hotel on most days. The same for my Canon 24mm f1.4. I lost all of my back-up Compact Flash cards...probably at Delhi airport's security check...so relied on two 16 gb cards that were in the camera bodies.

The photo~expedition's logistics worked well. I traveled to Ahmedabad (where the trip started) from Delhi on Indigo, a privately-owned Indian airline, and I can't be complimentary enough. Its time-keeping and its in-flight staff (not only gorgeous, but efficient and attentive) put American and European airlines to shame. The hotels on our itinerary were as expected, but I ought to mention two in particular: The Imperial Palace in Rajkot (despite it being all-vegetarian) was fantastic, and The Pride in Ahmedabad takes second place. The fleabag award goes to the Leo Resort in Junagadh, and it's now on my list of the ten worst hotels I ever stayed in. On the other hand, the Rann Riders Safari Resort in Dasada gets the fillip, as it has last year, for being oasis of calm, efficient service and excellent food.

Our transport was a large Tata bus, although I had thought we would be driving in a Tempo-like 12 seater. No complaints there (except for the shock absorbers), and driver Ashok and his assistant were put through their paces, often driving for 9-10 hours a day...a grueling pace especially on the roads of south Gujarat, which are not well maintained at all.

Rehman was the photo~expedition guide/fixer. He was the very personification of syncretism due to his conversion from Hindu to Muslim when a young man. His knowledge of Muslim India and of Sufi lore was impressive, and he diligently gave us a written narrative of every dargah, mosque and temple we photographed at, with historical notes. His narrative was heavily laced with tales and superstitions...ideal to us, as these reflected local syncretic lore as for example, his statement that the Prophet Muhammad was the reincarnation of Vishnu!

In Bhuj, we were also assisted (like last year) by Kantilal Doobal, a local photographer-interpreter. He guided us to tribal villages.

There was one major...no, make that huge... disappointment on this photo~expedition. I planned to photograph the Siddis in their village near Diu in the very southern tip of Gujarat. I was informed that the Siddis held spectacular musical (drumming) performance during the evenings of the Muslim weekend. The Siddis are descendants of African slaves brought 300 years ago by the Portuguese for the Nawab of Junagadh. To our chagrin, there were no performances to speak of, and all we saw was a small loban ceremony during evening prayers, hardly anything to write home about. Yes, we photographed the Siddis and it seemed we were in a Central African village, but we were disappointed. I had enormous expectations from this particular itinerary objective, but it was not to be. Traveling so far down to Diu wasn't worth it at all.

Another issue was that women are not allowed in certain areas of the dargahs and mosques. This excluded two of the participants from photographing in the inner parts of the shrines, but this was no surprise. Another issue was that some shrines allowed the saints' tombs to be photographed, while others didn't, depending on the whims of local keepers/guardians. I say whims because at one shrine I was told we couldn't photograph at all, but after talking with the local religious head, he allowed us unfettered access. Insistence can pay off sometimes.

The highlights of the photo~expedition were many...the shrine of Shaikh Ahmed Khattu in Sarkej near Ahmedabad,  the Jain temples and the pujas in Palitana, a couple of tribal villages near Bhuj, a photo shoot at the home of an extroverted hijra (transvestite) named Chandrika in Bechraji, and the utterly mind-blowing scenes of trances at a dargah near Unawa.

The Palitana photo-shoot required us to walk (or be carried) up the 3500 steps to the main Jain temple at the top of the hill. This was well worth it, as a continuous puja was being held at a sacred site considered to be the most sacred pilgrimage place in Jainism. We started the climb at about 6:30 am and were at the top 3 hours later. The puja ceremony lasted for a few hours, giving us ample time to photograph every facet of it.

However, there's no question that the main highlight of the whole trip was our days spent at the Mira Datar shrine where we photographed the fantastic Sufi rituals, which included exorcisms, trances, possessed people (mostly women) in chains lest they hurt themselves, pilgrims of all persuasions, Hindus, Muslims (Sufis, Shias and Orthodox) coming to the shrine for all sorts of reasons...temporal and spiritual. It is accepted in the Islamic world that demons (known as djinns) can inhabit the bodies of individuals, and supplicating saints such as Mira Datar to rid oneself of such demons is commonplace in Sufism.

I was asked by one of the khadims at Sufi dargahs to place a "ghelaph" (or ritualistic cloth covering) over the tomb of a saint...this I tried to do with reverence and alacrity. Not allowed to cross into the area where the saint's tomb is, a number of women also asked me to spread bags of rose petals over it...I was pleased to do this, and was handsomely rewarded by being given a large rose petal to eat. Not bad...it tasted like soggy lettuce.

Diego Verges/Javier Fernandez del Rivero: Addis

Photo © Diego Verges/Javier Fernandez-All Rights Reserved

Diego Verges was at it again...this time with a friend and collaborator Javier Fernandez, and produced interesting set up visuals of various Omo Valley tribes, such as the Mursi, Hamar, and Tsamay.

Here's the background story as told to me by Diego. Having won a photographic contest last November, with a trip to Ethiopia for two as grand prize, Diego and Javier traveled to Southern Ethiopia where they stayed for about 2 weeks. With time on their hands, and an impulse to produce something unusual, they decided to work with studio backgrounds cheaply cobbled together locally.

The goal was to produce photographs more akin to anthropological portraits than travel images, but that would also accentuate the studio-like poses rather than the candid.

Diego tells me he was inspired by the work of John Kenny and Sarah Elliot, who were both featured on my blog, as well as by Isabel Munoz. I also see the influence of Joey L. in these, especially in the use of strobes and lights.

Some of those who describe themselves as purists may well view this work as demeaning to the Omo Valley tribes people and their age-old culture, as well as exploitative to a certain degree. Unfortunately, this has been the case for a number of years, and I understand through a number of conversations that commercialization is now running rampant. I was there last in early 2004, and noticed how the various tribes were adept in soliciting money for images and how prepared they were to pose without any guidance from me. And that's why I qualify my use of the term "exploitative"...perhaps this is a case of what came first...the tourists with their cameras giving out a handful of birrs...or the demand for birrs from tourists for each snap. I don't know the answer to that.

While I am saddened by the economic situation these tribes find themselves in, I pass no judgement. There's always the good and the bad in situations such as these.

Whatever side of the fence you end up on, there's no question that Diego and Javier have done an excellent job in featuring the beauty and majesty of the Southern Ethiopian tribes.

And no...I don't know why Diego decided to title these new galleries as "Addis"...instead of Turmi or Omo.

Note: Diego clarified the reason the reason for choosing Addis...it means "New"...as in new work.

My Work: Flower Girl At Ahmed Shah Dargah

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Near Ahmedabad's main mosque, Jama Masjid, is the tomb of Sultan Ahmed Shah I (1411-1442), the founder of the city, who was a sultan of Gujarat's ruling Muzaffarid dynasty. The tomb is revered by Sufis and Hindus alike, who visit the shrine to pay their respects, and to offer "prasad" in his memory.

The above photograph made during my In Search of Sufis of Gujarat Photo-Expedition  is of a flower girl who, along with a number of family members, sells flowers and offerings such as coconut flesh to the supplicants who visit the shrine every day.

She probably lives in one of the hovels amongst the graves of erstwhile Muslim royals of Ahmedabad which dot the area around the shrine, coming here to sell her wares for a pittance.  Not only did I think that this young woman was attractive, but she also had a great deal of femininity, poise and an innate elegance within her,  so I asked if I could spend a few moments photographing her in her environment. She readily agreed, as I had previously given her sister a print of the photograph I had made of her last year, and I had gained her trust.

Prasad is an offering of sorts (usually edible) to a deity or a saint, in Hinduism...and yet, the same offerings are used by Muslim and non-Muslims alike when visiting the shrine of Ahmed Shah. One of the numerous examples of syncretic traditions still existing in India.

Robert Gauthier: China Journal

Photo © Robert Gauthier-All Rights Reserved- Courtesy Los Angeles Times

As I'm still "suffering" from the afterglow (albeit, and regrettably, only a second-hand one) of the momentous events in Cairo, and from the visual overload of my 2 weeks photo expedition in Gujarat, it was about time to feature photographic work from a different part of the world...

The Los Angeles Times' Framework featured Robert Gauthier's Behind The Lens: A Photographer’s China journal.

I find similar behind the scene journal entries by photographers and photojournalists very interesting, as these provide insight as to what worked, what didn't and what went through their minds as they go about doing their business....whether it was jubilation at getting a "money shot"...or the disappointment at not getting what was expected.

Gauthier writes:

"Here’s the money shot,” I thought. As a photojournalist, I try to anticipate moments that help illustrate the thesis of the story. In my mind’s eye, I pictured Li, arriving home after months away. Children scrambling into his arms, a loving wife’s long embrace, tears of happiness streaming from everyone’s face.


Zonk! Instead, a hesitant father politely introduces his reluctant wife as the children stay outside. We all stand awkwardly in a dimly lighted living room. Li nowhere near his wife. No Norman Rockwell moment here. This is how stories like these generally go. You have to expect the unexpected."

We have all experienced this very same feeling. We build our expectations up; partly because we are wishful thinkers when it comes to our photography, and imagine the "perfect" scenes before we get to them...and partly because we frequently misinterpret how other people react.

Yes, indeed. We have to expect the unexpected...and be realistic in our expectations. I know...that last bit of advice is silly. We can never do that.

TIME Magazine: Egyptian Youth

It's not often that I'm in agreement with TIME magazine's cover choices, but I am with this one. The photograph is of Egyptian activists in Cairo who made history, and is by Finlay MacKay, a Scottish photographer.

The uprisings in the Arab Middle East are defining moments for the youth of these countries...while some mistaken pundits in the West are still trying to define the uprisings as having Islamic (or even Islamist) connotations, these are the same old tired cliches we've heard over and over again since September 11, 2001.

These are the faces of Egypt...look at them carefully. These are its future.

Mawled El-Nabi or The Prophet's Birthday

Photo © Tauseef Mustafa/AFP -Al Rights Reserved

Mawled el-Nabi was celebrated in Muslim countries a few days ago, and it observes the birth of Prophet Muhammad, which occurs during the third month of the Islamic calendar. Islamic scholars are divided on whether observing the Prophet's birthday is necessary or even permissible in Islam. Some see it as a praiseworthy event, while others view it as an improper innovation and forbid its celebration.

It's observed and celebrated in most Muslim countries, and where there are large Muslim communities, with the notable exception of Saudi Arabia, where it is not an official public holiday. Saudi Arabia practices an austere form of Islam, in contrast to Kashmir where these photographs are from.

Photo © Farooq Khan/EPA-All Rights Reserved

Kashmiri Muslims congregate at the Hazratbal Shrine in Srinagar where a relic, said to be a hair from the Prophet's beard, is displayed on the occasion of Mawled el-Nabi.

This reminds me that whilst in Diu (South Gujarat) on my In Search of the Sufis of Gujarat Photo Expedition™ a few weeks ago, I visited a Sufi dargah where a relic of Prophet Muhammad was kept in a receptacle, covered with a green "ghelaph", but under lock and key. I was told that it would be shown during the celebration of his birth.

For those who are interested in stuff like that, Diu (it being an ex-Portuguese enclave) is the only place in Gujarat where alcohol is sold openly. And the elderly Muslim man who courteously showed me the wall receptacle where the relic was kept, spoke fluent Portuguese, having emigrated from Mozambique many decades ago.

POYi: Adrees Latif: First Place Freelance

Photo © Adrees Latif/Reuters

I'm gratified that one of the photographs that I deemed to be outstanding last November , has just won its photographer first place in the 2011 POYi's Freelance category.

Adrees Latif, a Pakistani photographer with Reuters, has been awarded Photographer of the Year Freelance/Agency with his excellent photograph made during relief supplies being delivered to flooded villages in the Muzaffargarh district of Punjab in Pakistan.

I'm also really "chuffed" that the work of non-Western photojournalists/photographers are recognized in such a manner. Recognition has been long in coming for such professionals, but it's here now, and it was about time. As I've suggested in a previous blog post, I am still disappointed at the absence (or paucity) of imagery by local indigenous photographers being featured by the international press in the events such as the Egyptian uprising, the Tunisian revolt and the ongoing events in Bahrain. This has to change.

And while I'm am chagrined that photojournalists are blogging about being roughed up by thugs in Cairo and elsewhere, I'd remind them that it's not about them...so get a grip, fellas...and stop moaning about how you lost some hard drives, how someone stole your satellite phone or whether you had a black eye...you were in a "war" zone, where people were/are making history. Your images may too.

In Focus Does Lantern Festival

Photo © Jason Lee-Courtesy In Focus-All Rights Reserved

The new photo blog In Focus by Alan Taylor for The Atlantic featured about 33 photographs of the festivities on the occasion of the Lunar New Year. The Lantern Festival (known as Yuan Xiao Jie) was observed yesterday in China and wherever there are Chinese communities. It's the last day of the Chinese Lunar New Year festivities.

The blurb accompanying the photographs informs us that it's the most important annual celebration in China, and welcomes the Year of the Rabbit...which is a year of caution and calm.

Calm and caution? I guess the Arab nations revolting for their freedom are unconcerned with the Year of the Rabbit!!

I sense In Focus will soon be one of the favored destinations for those of us who appreciate photojournalism at its best...especially as I just noticed that it offers two choices for its image size: 1024 or 1280 pixels! Nice touch...very nice touch!

Global Post: Ali Sanderson's Mekong River

Photo © Ali Sanderson- Courtesy Global Post-All Rights Reserved

Global Post periodically publishes a photo feature called Full Frame, which showcases some interesting work by emerging photographers. This one is on the Mekong River and is by Ali Sanderson, an Australian photographer from Australia who was based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. She worked on productions with leading broadcasters such as National Geographic TV and Radio Free Asia.

In Phnom Penh, Ali, with three other Australian filmmakers, formed a film production company focusing on documentary films dealing with environmental and human rights issues. This led to projects commissioned by Radio Free Asia.

The Mekong is the 10th-longest river in the world, and the 7th-longest in Asia. Its estimated length is 4,909 km (3,050 mi) and runs from the Tibetan Plateau through China's Yunnan province, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

POV: The Part I Like In Travel Photography

The part I like a lot during my photo-expeditions/workshops is when I revisit an area or a village, and bring prints of the photographs I had previously made there. More often than not, the people remember me either before or after I hand out their photographs. It's a small way to give back to the community, and demonstrates to those who were willing (or unaware) subjects that I keep my promises when I tell them I'd be back with their portraits.

In Ahmedabad, I returned to the area of Ahmed Shah's mosque and his shrine, and found the keeper of the tombs as well as the woman who makes and sells paper flowers. They were thrilled with their photographs. It didn't stop one of them to cheekily but smilingly ask me for "baksheesh" but I laughed it off.

Photo © Kantilal Doobal- All Rights Reserved

In a tribal village close to Bhuj, I was very popular with a group of women and children as I handed out their pictures, and one woman was extremely proud to show off a picture of her in all her finery.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

It takes a little effort to find, edit and print these pictures before each trip, but it's well worth it. It goes a long way to gain the trust of the people I photograph and will photograph anew. There were some areas I didn't revisit this time, but I still carried some prints of those I had photographed, which I gave to either hotel keepers, fixers or locals I know will eventually pass them on to the rightful people.

Photo © Kantilal Doobal-All Rights Reserved

Sharon Johnson-Tennant On Lenscratch

Photo © Sharon Johnson-Tennant-All Rights Reserved

Sharon Johnson-Tennant also joined my Tribes of South Rajasthan & Kutch Photo~Expedition™ last year, and has just been featured by the LENSCRATCH photography blog, amongst others.

LENSCRATCH writes that Sharon discovered photography during her career as New York fashion designer, where visual inspirations came from exploring color, texture, and from through her travels around the world. This echoes what I wrote about Sharon's style in my blog post:

"Sharon's professional background in textile design and international fashion influences her photographic acuity to the point that during our trip, I frequently wondered at what she was photographing so intently in an isolated spot. Now I know what she saw and what I didn't. "

A photographer who can easily cross over from art to photojournalism to travel and back again is a photographer to watch.

POV: Missed Opportunity?

Photo © MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images (Via denverpost.com)

As readers of this blog know, my In Search of Sufis of Gujarat Photo-Expedition coincided almost perfectly with the revolution in Egypt, and I was torn between my commitment to its participants to continue leading it as if nothing was happening in my homeland...and flying off to Cairo and cover the events as best I could.

I stayed on. It was a difficult decision and certainly a missed opportunity to get involved in Egypt's historic moments, but I had a commitment to the group of photographers who chose to accompany me on this trip.

Had I sensed that I needed to be there because of dangerous turn of events, I would have taken leave of my group, and I know they would have understood and supported my decision to be in Cairo instead. But that did not happen and all was safe. Was it a missed opportunity for me to cover the events at Tahrir Square? Of course. But it was not meant to be. Had I not have a commitment to fulfill, I'd have been amongst the first to be there.

I was asked by a number of well-wishers, friends and acquaintances whether I'd return to Egypt and take part in the restructuring that is bound to happen. As much as I'm flattered by the thought, I've been away from Egypt for too long...it's up to the younger generation to remodel their country in the shape and form they want it to be....and I know they will eventually succeed. Once freedom is tasted, there's no turning back.

Perhaps it won't be an Utopian democracy...there'll be disappointments...it'll be imperfect...but it'll be theirs, and they deserve it after 60 years of deprivation, humiliation, and inequality.

In Focus: The Atlantic's New Photo Blog

Photo © AP Photo/Altaf Qadri-All Rights Reserved

Another great addition to the stable of newspaper/magazine photo blogs is The Atlantic's In Focus whose editor is Alan Taylor (previously with Boston Globe's The Big Picture).

It recently featured the photographs which won recognition at the World Press Photo Contest 2011. The top honor went to Jodie Bieber for her image of Bibi Aisha, a disfigured Afghan woman, taken for Time magazine. However it being shown on the magazine's cover spoiled its impact insofar as I'm concerned...it was a blatant use of photography as propaganda since it was accompanied by the title of ‘What Happens If We Leave Afghanistan’. A hypocritical and cynical misuse of Aisha's misfortune. And by the way, her name is not Aisha Bibi...Bibi is just a title of respect given to South Asian women.

Don't get me wrong...it's a powerful image which highlights the plight of tribal women in Afghanistan and deserves recognition for doing so. What spoiled it for me was its appearance on the magazine pushing a political agenda.

Having said that, my top favorite of the lot is by Kashmiri photographer Altaf Qadri of a funeral in Pattan, Kashmir. It was awarded the 1st prize in the the People in the News singles category at the 2011 World Press Photo awards. To me, this powerful photograph is what photojournalism is all about.

The photograph shows the sister of Feroz Ahmad (who was killed by Indian forces) wailing in grief as she clings to the platform carrying the body of her brother during his funeral in Pattan, some 35 kilometers (22 miles) north of Srinagar, India.

Jain Nuns At Palitana

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

One the highlights of the In Search of the Sufis of Gujarat Photo Expedition™ was the Jain temples of Palitana. As my intent for this photo expedition was to explore and document existent syncretism (defined the attempt to reconcile contrary beliefs, by melding practices of various religious traditions) in Gujarat, Palitana proved itself an interesting stop on the itinerary.

Near the town of Paltina, there's a cluster of 1,500 Jain temples packed densely together on the hillside overlooking the town. These date back to the 11th and 12th centuries, and are the focus of Jains' pilgrimage or tirtha. From the foot of the hill to the top there are about 3,800 stone steps, and it is these steps that Jains have to climb to reach the main temple on top of the hill.

Dismissing the help of porters and their "doli", a sort of palanquin from which passengers are suspended, and that would have terrified me anyway, I walked the 3800 steps up and down. I must say it wasn't that much of effort, but many Jain nuns I encountered along the way do it a multiple times a day, on empty stomachs...no food nor water! That would be tough.

The story behind the above photograph is that the Jain nun on the right had earlier stepped on thorns, and had been in pain while her companions tried to pull them out. I stopped and gave them water to soften the skin to make it easier. Seeing her in pain, I tapped her on the shoulder shoulder meaning to comfort her, whereupon she recoiled in alarm. I had forgotten that touching a Jain monk or nun was prohibited as it defiles them. I felt terrible as I had added to her troubles...however I saw her later at the top temple, and she smiled and thanked me.

So I hope I was forgiven.

Incense At Mira Datar Dargah

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

I don't normally post my work so quickly, but having woken up early to follow the latest on Egypt's revolution on the BBC and with some time on my hands before breakfast, I thought of adding this photograph.

It was made at the Sufi shrine of Mira Datar in northern Gujarat. Mira Datar is considered to be an important martyr in India's Sufi lore, and it's said that he was decapitated in a battle with a regional king of the Bhils....possibly during Sultan Ahmed Shah's reign in Ahmedabad.

His status as a martyr gave his shrine an immense importance to Muslims (Sufis or not) and Hindus, as well as Sikhs. A truly syncretic environment. Mira Datar is reputed to cure various maladies, and I saw many pilgrims clearly afflicted with neurological issues, with chains around their ankles and hands to prevent them from causing harm to themselves and others...and others convulsed in the paroxysms of trances, supplicating the Sufi saint for deliverance from whatever ailed them.

In the above photograph, one of the pilgrims/devotees inhales the special incense deeply into his lungs to purge the evil spirits from his body.

In due time, I shall produce a multimedia photo-film of my photographs and audio made at the Dargah of Mira Datar.

Egypt Is Free

Photo © Ed Ou For The New York Times

Egypt Is Free! is the headline in the Indian newspapers here in Ahmedabad...and what a welcome sight it is after two weeks of non stop traveling in Gujarat on the In Search of Sufis Photo~Expedition. Infrequent internet connections, and non existent English news channels on hotels' television meant that detailed news of the historic events in Cairo were sparse.

It's with jubilation that I learned of Mubarak's resignation and the fall of his regime...but as importantly, I'm ecstatic the young Egyptians have more than regained their pride, and their place in history. As many have said, this is a historic and momentous event which will certainly portend freedom for the millions of the Arab youth in other countries. The hard work to establish a working democracy will start soon...and that also will be a test for the fortitude of these admirable Egyptians.

I've seen the phenomenal photo coverage in all the dailies; The New York Times, MSNBC, WSJ Photo Journal, The Big Picture and the rest of them...the excellent work by Ron Haviv, Michael Robinson Chavez, Ed Ou and many others.

However, I cannot help but wonder why haven't the photo editors of these newspapers/magazines also featured the work of Egyptian photojournalists who covered the events as well? Why not give a chance to these young photographers to show how they document their own revolution? They also need the exposure...and it's their revolution after all!!!

Rabari Dancing "Girls" (or Gopis)

Photo © Tewfic-El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

This is my first post since arriving in India on January 27 to lead my In Search of Sufis of Gujarat Photo-Expedition. As my internet connection is somewhat tenuous (even though we're staying at the sumptuous Imperial Palace in Rajkot), this post will be brief. The photo-expedition has progressed quite smoothly in the quest of Sufi centers in the southern part of the Gujarati peninsula. We were welcomed, and treated with the utmost courtesy by the guardians of the various shrines we visited; some were very popular with devotees whilst others were almost deserted...but more will be explained when I do my end of photo expedition verdict in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, the above photograph is of a small group of Rabari women whom we chanced on on the road to Junagadh. They belong to small sect of Rabari pastorals who believe they are descended from Krishna's dancing girls known as gopis. On their way to a temple (or mandir), they performed one of their dances for our lenses. I have many more of these, but I'm pressed for time so this will do for now.

We are on our way to the tribal lands of Gujarat, and we should be in Bhuj tomorrow for the start of the Kacchh section of the photo-expedition.