The Leica Monochrome...And Other B&W Thoughts

Through the PetaPixel blog, I viewed the video of Chris Niccolls from the Canadian camera shop The Camera Store who was able to test a pre-release Leica Monochrome M, and which shares his thoughts on the camera. He also reveals a new feature in the Leica MM which delays the shutter sound camera for stealthier street photography.

For further technical specifications, there's also DPReview's webpage.

This gives me the opportunity to share brief thoughts on the monochrome capabilities of the Fuji X Pro-1, and compare these to the Leica M9's color photographs converted to black and white. As the Leica M is rumored to be released at the end of this month, I don't know how the monochrome photographs generated by the Leica MM will compare to those altered by the traditional post processing, nor to those made in-camera by the Fuji X Pro-1...but I thought I'd post two monochrome photographs made during my recent trip to Chiang Mai.

One of these photographs (the top one) was made with my Leica M9, and post processed in monochrome in Photoshop, while the bottom one was made using the Fuji X Pro-1, and using its B&W film simulation setting, then sharpened (with some added contrast) in Photoshop. Click on the photographs to enlarge.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

I pass no judgement at this stage on the merits of the Leica Monochrome, and whether its $8000 price tag is justified or not. For a few photographers, it will be...for the majority of us, it certainly isn't.

However what I can say is that I'm extremely pleased with the Fuji X Pro-1's film simulation settings, as I am pleased with the Leica M9's images when converted to monochrome. I found shooting monochrome with the X Pro-1 to be a cinch, and enjoyed every moment I used that setting. I didn't think I would before doing so in Chiang Mai's streets. But seeing the monochrome images on the X Pro-1's screen helped my visualization process, and reassured me that my camera settings were correct.

Nicolas Lotsos: The Masai Typology

Photo © Nicolas Lotsos-All Rights Reserved

"Photography is my motive for travel."

The Masai Typology is one of the many gorgeous photo galleries of Africa by photographer Nicolas Lotsos. I'm not much of an African wildlife aficionado, but his fine art galleries of photographs of the handsome Masai, of Zanzibar, or of the African slums and townships are lovely exemplars of monochromatic imagery.

Nicolas Lotsos is  a fine art photographer (and in my view, a travel photographer as well) and a basketball agent. He co-runs a sports agency representing some of the top sports figures in Europe. He has been a photographer since he was 16 years old, and specializes in photographs of wild life and nature.

He also won an impressive number of awards, to include Gold Winner at the 2012 Grand Prix de la Photographie, Outstanding Achievement at the Spider Award 2012, the 2012 Veolia Wildlife Photographer Award, including two awards by the Travel Photographer Of The Year (TPOTY), amongst others.

A Nilotic group in East Africa, next to the Indian Ocean, the Masai society is patriarchal, and elder men decide most major matters for each group. A full body of oral law covers many aspects of behaviour. The Masai are monotheistic, worshipping a single deity.

Multimedia Or Make Up Your Own Audio In Your Mind?

As my readers know, I've been privileged to attend the annual Foundry Photojournalism Workshop for the fifth consecutive time, every year teaching Multimedia For Photographers class.

But for those who don't know; the purpose and aim of this class is to show photojournalists how to make quick work of slide show production, using their own images and audio generated in the field, to produce cogent photo stories under the simulation of publishing deadlines, rivaling other multimedia forms in terms of quality.

At the end of Workshop, the instructors and staff gathered to discuss and suggest ways to improve it. The length of the multimedia presentations was one of the issues that came up.

As background, the majority of the remaining classes involved visual storytelling in one form or other, only two during the Workshop were actual 'multimedia', meaning they required photo (or video) essays AND field recordings gathered by students.

That said, this post deals with my class only..so back to the discussion.

One of the suggestions dealt with the length of my multimedia class presentations during the final evening of the Workshop. Although only averaging just over 2-1/2 minutes per project, it was felt by some that this was unfair, as the remaining non multimedia presentations were much shorter, causing the students not enrolled in either of the two multimedia classes to remark that they were shortchanged (that's my own interpretation) by being given less time to show their still photographs.

Looking back at the conversation, I have a couple of thoughts about this.

1. Setting aside other obvious differences for now, but audio slideshows (my kind of multimedia, and which is what my class is all about) provides much more 'magnetism' to photo essays/projects produced by my class participants. The audio carries the still photographs in a way that still photographs on their own cannot...especially with a large audience such as the presentation evening had. I certainly sympathize with the photographers who worked hard to present their very best photographs, but whose impact was lessened because of the absence of a meaningful aural accompaniment...an absence I call a "vacuum". To be honest, a part of me silently screamed my disappointment when I viewed a wonderful photo story with no sound to move along its linearity.

I highlighted the word meaningful in the preceding sentence...and that's a key word. There's an immense difference between the impact that ambient audio, as an accompaniment, adds to a photo essay....and just any kind of audio plucked from iTunes or elsewhere. I've viewed many wonderful photo essays spoiled by incongruous soundtracks that have absolutely nothing to do with the still photographs...and when that happens, my first reaction is always "huh?" then "noooo!".....certainly not the reaction the authors-creators of these projects hope for.

For presentations to a large audience, as the Workshop's last evening was about, I believe the projects with ambient audio will always steal the show. Being accosted by no less that two dozen photographers after the presentations, and told that they wanted to put their still photography work into a multimedia format and start ambient audio recording, not only reaffirmed this belief, but was also personally gratifying.

2. As for the duration of the audio slideshows, it has to be understood that it's determined by the story arc and/or theme...and by the logical pace of the project. It'd be foolish to force the pace of a story...and snip the audio down to a collection of incoherent babble clips just because the multimedia projects had to fit a cookie-cutter time frame. Editing an audio slideshow with no careful regard to the logical and measured pace of the project would be self-defeating, and impractical....and that is not going to happen in my class.

As I wrote in an earlier post: multimedia (whether as audio-slideshows -with ambient sound- or more elaborate productions) is the future, and photographers must hop on its train if they want to remain on the cutting edge of their industry, and retain the attention of viewers.

Unless, of course, they prefer to follow Yoko Ono who famously said: "All my concerts had no sounds in them; they were completely silent. People had to make up their own music in their minds!"

The Art Of 8 Limbs With the Fuji X-Pro 1

Photo ©2012 Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Before going to Chiang Mai for the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop, I researched locations and venues for muay thai (the Thai kickboxing), and the most prominent ones were unappealing for what I had in mind.

Despite its ancient history as a self-defense martial art akin to kickboxing, I had read that muay thai had gone through a rough patch. It was revived some years ago as a popular glitzy sport activity and held in large modern arenas...but it wasn't what I wanted. I wanted the bouts that had been relegated to seedy areas, surrounded by gambling and other nefarious activities. It was this side of muay thai that I had in mind.

It wasn't difficult to find what I wanted...the area known as Loi Kroh Road was the setting: a rundown gym with a decrepit ring amidst a "mall" of girlie and ladyboy bars, the boxing ring patched up with duct tape and tarted up with adverts for Jack Daniels Whisky, play-acting fights, the actual smell of sweat and the ambience of the sex for hire, ...and of course, shady nak muay, as the sport's pugilists are known.

I bought a front seat row for my first evening there, and subsequently discovered I could have a drink at one of the bars instead, walk a few steps to the ring and photograph at will. At some point, I wasn't very popular with a half-sober and rather beefy European spectator, who (rightly) claimed I was in his (and his -possibly underage- girlfriend's) line of vision, but the tense moment soon passed.

So here's The Art Of Eight Limbs, a collection of monochrome photographs made at the Loi Kroh arena, and made with the Fuji X Pro-1.

I've said it earlier, but I'm very pleased with the Fuji X Pro-1's performance, especially under the conditions I was shooting under. As one can imagine, photographing a fast-paced sports such as muay thai in dim conditions and under uneven lights is tough for any camera, but the X Pro-1 didn't let me down, except for an occasional slip with its slow focusing or because its auto-focus was fooled by the action.

Anthony Pond: Faith, Frenzy...

Readers interested in unique religious and cultural events will like this. I guarantee it. Not the faint-hearted though.

Following his participation in my The Oracles Of Kerala Photo Expedition-Workshop in March, Anthony Pond has been a frequent contributor to The Travel Photographer blog, and his Faith, Frenzy multimedia essay is the most recent of his many audio slideshows I've already featured.

Not only is it his most recent, but I wager it's his best production so far. Tony used a Canon 5DMk2, audio recordings were made with a Zoom H1, and was edited in Lightroom, Audacity, and Final Cut Pro. I'm not a huge fan of merging stills with video footage, but Tony succeeded in merging these two mediums quite seamlessly.

The Oracles of Kodungallur celebrate their festival in the Bhagawati temple, which usually occurs between the months of March and April. It involves sacrifice of cocks and shedding of the Oracles own blood, to appease the goddess Kali and her demons who are said to relish blood offerings.

Anthony Pond worked for more than two decades in the criminal courts in California as an attorney for the Public Defender’s Office. Now pursuing his passion for travel and photography, he travels repeatedly to South East Asia and India, amongst other places, to capture life, the people and the culture.

Lisa Kristine: Bhutan

Photo © Lisa Kristine-All Rights Reserved

Lisa Kristine has been in the news with her recently published book Free The Slaves, and her talk at TEDxMaui about her photographic work. She has worked over the past 28 years documenting indigenous cultures in 70 countries on 6 continents around the world, and involved with Free the Slaves, an organization whose goal is to end slavery.

Notwithstanding the undeniable virtues of her involvement in using her photography to document the scourge of modern day slavery, I feature instead her lovely work of Bhutan which is representative of the best of  ethnographical fine art photography. Toned to perfection, these images are just superlative and were made with a large-format 4″x5″ field view camera.

2012 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest Finalists

Photo © Cedric Houin-All Rights Reserved

In Focus, the superlative photo blog of The Atlantic, features the winners of the 2012 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest in a much more satisfying format than the National Geographic. The finalists' photographs are shown in a 1280 pixel size; a size that will fill the largest monitors.

The winners consist of a group of 10 photos plus one Viewer's Choice winner. These images were chosen from more than 12,000 entries submitted by 6,615 photographers from 152 countries. The winners are from four categories: Travel Portraits, Outdoor Scenes, Sense of Place, and Spontaneous Moments.

First place went to Cedric Houin with the above photograph of the inside of a family yurt in the Kyrgyz lands of the Wakhan Corridor. We are told by the photograph's caption that the tribes living in the area are weeks away from any village by foot, and although located at an altitude of 4,300 meters in one of the most remote areas of Afghanistan, solar panels, satellite dishes and cellphones are prevalent.

It's not often that I agree with results of photography contests, but the judges' choice in this one is spot on. The richness of the reds of the yurt's interior, and the facial expression of the main protagonist along with the smaller details make a story out of that photograph. 

Cedric Houin is a French & Canadian documentary photographer, and a visual storyteller.

As for the Wakhan Corridor, it's an area of far north-eastern Afghanistan which forms a land link between Afghanistan and China. It's a long and slender area, roughly 140 miles long and between 10 and 40 miles wide. It also separates Tajikistan in the north from Pakistan in the south.

Narratively: Stories Of New York

Living and photographing in New York City when I'm not traveling means that projects such as Narratively never fail to turn me on.

Narratively describes itself as a digital platform devoted to original, true, and in-depth storytelling about New York, through writing, photography, documentary video, animation and interactive media. And the best is that Narratively is on the lookout for interesting stories and talented contributors.

And this sounds especially compelling:

Each week, we’ll explore a different theme about New York and publish a series of connected stories — just one a day — told in the most appropriate medium for each piece. We might feature a longform article with portrait photos on a Monday, followed by an animated documentary on Tuesday, then a photo essay, an audio piece or a short documentary film. Every story gets the space and time it needs to have an impact. We’ll bring you weeks devoted to New York’s waterways, hustlers, sexual subcultures, obscure pastimes and countless other themes.

What's not to like? So drop by Narratively's Kickstarter's page, and if the concept also turns you on, consider supporting it.

Shooting From The Hip On LK Road

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Whilst teaching at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop the past week or so, I've also managed to set aside some time to fit some of my favorite style of photography, and shooting from the hip with the Fuji X Pro-1 has been high on my list to do, especially at night.

Here's LK Road, a collection of street photography scenes made in one of the grittiest mainstream streets in Chiang Mai; Loi Kroh Road. The photographs are grouped under the title page of Katoey Or Not?, but I chose not to title this post with that particular name to avoid having visitors being referred to it by search engines for purposes other than photography.

Loi Kroh in Thai means "washing one's troubles away", and it's one of Chiang Mai haunts for tourists principally for the preponderance of girlie bars on its approximately one-mile length...some of these bars are staffed by young women, and/or ladyboys known as katoeys.

Apart from the bars, Loi Kroh Road hosts some restaurants, massage parlors for tourists with aching legs and feet, and tattoo shops. That said, I found its ambiance a little sad and melancholic despite the blaring large screen television sets then showing some Olympics sport event, the occasional clicks of billiard balls, the forced laughter of the young women (or ladyboys) working the bars and the ubiquitous and hopeful "sawasadee...massage?" yells at every corner.

The areas seemed to me to be way past its prime...perhaps it was the off-season as well...but the bars were less than half-empty, even when there were muay thai fights held at the seedy boxing ring. Most of the fights seemed (at least to me) to be staged, with spectators generally consisting of drunken middle-aged European men.

I was asked why I chose to shoot from the hip on Loi Kroh Road, and if it was because it was risky. Not at all...although I imagine some of the bar clients wouldn't relish being photographed. The real reason is the same as whenever I choose to shoot from the hip: it allows me to capture the subjects unawares with natural expressions.

Lastly, the ladyboy in the above photograph, extroverted and very "sociable", reminded me of Ru Paul. I was super prompt in buying her a drink to get rid of her unwanted and rather heavy-handed attentions.

Finally, the Fuji X Pro1 performed extremely well at night, and I have nothing but praise for its performance. Its auto-focus let me down a few times, but its overall performance at high and very high iso is nothing short of spectacular.

Maika Elan: Ain't Talkin', Just Lovin'

Photo © Maika Elan-All Rights Reserved

Here's the work of Maika Elan titled Ain't Talkin', Just Lovin', which -in my view- is one of the three photo projects that attracted me the most during the final evening of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Chiang Mai.

Maika attended Maggie Steber's (known as "the incomparable Maggie") class The Power of Images in Today’s Media, and presented a photo essay depicting individuals living in Chiang Mai with close bonds to their animal friends. Whether these were cats and dogs, or exotic snakes, the mutual relationship and dependency between the two were brilliantly captured by Maika's lens.

While this photo essay most certainly stands firmly on its own two (or is it four in this case?) feet, I somehow wished it had been accompanied by an ambient soundtrack; perhaps a short snippet of a conversation between the young man and his cat purring...as an example. Imagine that!?

Maggie Steber used a wonderful phrase in one of our recent email exchanges...we (the photographers) need to go beyond the tyranny of the photographic boundaries. Yes, we do. Very much so. And adding ambient sound collecting to our panoply of skills is one way of doing it.

Maika will be soon working with me during my Vietnam Photo-Expedition-Workshop, and I'll make sure she's up and running insofar as multimedia is concerned.

The other two projects I particularly liked during the final Foundry Workshop presentation were Ulises Baque's Oui Nan, and Cheryl Nemazie's Night At The Naga.

Ulises Baque: Oui Nan, 93 Years Riding

As per my latest blog post, the presentation evening ending the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop showcased all of the students' work, and I highlighted three projects which I thought were the best. Two of the three were multimedia, and here's one of these. Extremely well made and edited, this short multimedia piece elicited much praise from the audience.

The project was made and edited by Ulises Baque, a videographer based in Thailand. It was made for Henrik Kastenskov's multimedia class, and is about the oldest samlaw cyclist in Chiang Mai.

I intend to write a bit further about this, but the dichotomy of the multimedia and the non-multimedia projects during the Foundry's evening presentation could not have been more stark. Although some of the non-multimedia were interesting and compelling, few could compete for the audience's attention as powerfully as those presented from two classes: Henrik Kastenkov's Storytelling For An Online Audience or my own Multimedia For Photographers.

In short: multimedia (whether as audio-slideshows -with ambient audio- or more elaborate) is the future, and photographers must hop on its train if they want to remain on the cutting edge of their industry, and retain the attention of viewers. I heard this point of view over and over from students after the presentation night...wanting to put their still photography work into a multimedia format and start ambient audio recording.

POV: The 5th Foundry Photojournalism Workshop

Photo © Mervyn Leong-All Rights Reserved

During the long flight from Bangkok to London, I thought I'd write up a personal POV on the Fifth Annual Foundry Photojournalism Workshop (FPW) which was held in Chiang Mai from July 29 to August 4, 2012. This will be the closing post on the Workshop.

As my readers know,  FPW is an annual photo event held in various international locations, bringing well regarded photojournalists together to teach to emerging photographers and students who normally would not be able to afford workshops.

Firstly, as I always do, I tip my hat to Eric Beecroft, the visionary (he hates it when I describe him as such, but it's the truth) co-founder of the workshop, and the staff he assembled to support the logistics that such events require to function smoothly.

In my view, FPW Chiang Mai was the best organized of all the workshops that preceded it, although I have to stress that it shares that distinction with last year's FPW Buenos Aires. The availability of the very impressive (jaw-dropping, actually) facilities of the Chiang Mai University's Faculty of Arts were really a phenomenal attribute to this year's workshop.

I don't know if the other classes fared as well, but the two multimedia classes (Henrik Kastenskov's and mine) of the workshop were given large computer labs with about 50 iMacs, all connected to the internet, color balanced projectors and sound systems. Heaven on earth! Thank you, Chiang Mai Uni.

The choice of Yantarasri Resort as hotel accommodations for the instructors and staff was brilliant, as it was comfortable, posh, lovely and well run...plus within walking distance from the University where the classes and presentations were held....and I'm told it has a beautiful swimming pool. Its proximity to Nimmanhaemin, Chiang Mai’s most fashionable street, made it doubly better. After all, I got my daily fix of mango smoothies from a cafe a few steps away.

The location of Documentary Arts Asia for the portfolio reviews was grumbled about, since it wasn't very easy to find (at least for some map-challenged instructors), and it was space restricted as well. However, the availability of food, drink and masseuses during and after the portfolio reviews made up for the minor shortcomings.

More importantly, I have to laud the accomplishments of my class members. I don't really know how they managed it, but they were the fastest class I've ever taught in grasping Audacity and the concept of audio editing. I was taken aback at their speed/ease in using the nature of sound tools, so breathed a huge sigh of relief much earlier than I expected. 

Alycia-Ray Down, Ahmed Shajee Aijazi, Adelina Abad-Pedrosa, Cheryl Nemazie, Amean J. and Christina Malkoun in my class produced disparately-styled audio slideshows, reflecting their interest and individual personalities. From the faith-based to the human touch, they all shone...not only with the quality of their productions  but also with their enthusiasm and single minded approach. My style is perhaps different from other instructors in as much I don't dictate what sort of projects my students ought to produce. They make the choice, and provided they feel for it and like it, I go along with their choices.

Here's where I may get into trouble, but this is my blog and I answer to no one anyway: in my view, the best three projects were Maika Elan's (Maggie Steber's class) Ain't Talkin' Just Lovin' (a lovely photo essay on young people and their pets), Ulises Baque's Oui Nan, a touching web-documentary on 93 years-old rickshaw driver in the Old City (Henrik Kastenkov's class), and Cheryl Nemazie's Night of the Naga (in my own class), a web-documentary of a small tattoo parlor. Yes, the latter two are multimedia projects...and I am certainly biased. Multimedia is the future...whether as web documentaries or as simpler forms of multimedia.

Finally, I was very touched in getting this sweet thank you card from my class. I always learn more from my class participants than they do from me...so it was I who should've given them thank you cards...but I did share a bottle of excellent red Merlot wine sent to me by Nadim Bou Habib all the way from Lebanon. I also have to express my appreciation at the lovely scarf that Christina Malkoun gifted me, and which I wore in the group's photograph.

In closing, all I have to say is that I was glad to renew/refresh my friendship with so many of Foundry alums, and equally happy to make new friends amongst the students...and look forward to seeing all of them in the future.

Chico Sanchez: La Guelaguetza

Photo © Chico Sanchez- All Rights Reserved

As part of the celebrations in honor of the Virgin of Carmen, residents from Oaxaca state's eight regions travel every year to the capital to offer traditional dances, while the residents from Carmen Alto and Carmen Bajo neighborhoods participate in banquets, offerings and processions throughout the city....and this is how Chico Sanchez describes his latest audio-slideshow Deep Friendship.

The Guelaguetza is an annual indigenous cultural event in Mexico that takes place in the city of Oaxaca as well as in nearby villages. The word Guelaguetza means "offering" in the Zapotec language, but its means much more. In traditional Oaxacan villages, people attending the festivities bring food, alcoholic beverages, etc. Each person's offering, or "guelaguetza" triggers a reciprocal exchange, and enables the reinforcement of social ties.

Chico Sanchez is far from being a stranger to The Travel Photographer's blog. His audio-slideshow work has been featured on it on many occasions.

He is a freelance photographer based in Mexico City. Chico worked in Venezuela, collaborating with Reuters, European Pressphoto Agency, Agencia EFE, and freelances for various newspapers and magazines.

The Travel Photographer's Presentation At The Foundry Photojournalism Workshop

Photo © Insiya Syed-All Rights Reserved

The Travel Photographer (Me) Presenting The Cult Of Durga...A Multimedia Photo Essay On Kolkata's Durga Puja...During The Foundry Photojournalism Workshop.

The presentations were held at the very impressive facilities of the Chiang Mai University.

As you read this, I'll be on my way to London.

Ahmed Shajee Aijazi: Under The Ramadan Moon

Photo © Ahmed Shajee Aijazi-All Rights Reserved

Ahmed Shajee Aijazi is another graduate of my Multimedia For Photographers class at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop held in Chiang Mai. Titled Under The Ramadan Moon, it's Ahmed's personal take on how the Muslim community in Chiang Mai observe and experience the month-long fast during Ramadan.

This is one of the three multimedia projects that were made in color, and Ahmed exerted much effort to gather its image and audio files despite fasting himself. Difficult under any circumstance, but Ahmed persevered, and completed a worthwhile project he ought to be very proud of.

Ahmed Shajee Aijazi is a Karachi-born photographer, with a formal background in art and design. Known as Shajee (Arabic/Urdu for "courageous"), he has been involved with professional photography for over five years now. His works have received regular press coverage in reputed papers like Dawn, Express Tribune and AAJ News.

Cheryl Nemazie: Night At The Naga

Here's the multimedia work of Cheryl Nemazie, a photographer who attended my Multimedia For Photographers class at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Chiang Mai.

She singlehandedly produced this impressive audio slideshow and spent hours, not only photographing at the Naga Tattoo parlor on Loi Kroh Road, but also with her laptop in class and elsewhere, adjusting the linear sequence of her photographs, syncing her multi layered audio track to the photographs, and preparing her photographs as best she could to preserve their integrity. During her first visit, since the tattoo parlor 's music system played the music of Johnny Cash, the employees obliged her during her subsequent photo shoots by playing it again, so as to have the same soundtrack for her project. During the project's various showing in class, we pumped up the volume so as to enjoy "Ring of Fire" and "I Walk The Line".

Cheryl attended the very first Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Mexico, then the one in Buenos Aires last year. A successful art director and graphic designer for an international hotel chain, she decided to embark on a second career as a documentary and fine art photographer. Her recent exhibitions include Children Raising Children, Living in the Wake of AIDS, Lessons from the Ring: Main Street Gym.

Night At The Naga can also be seen on Vimeo.

Presentation Night: Foundry Photojournalism Workshop

Well, the Saturday evening presentations of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop were held at the Chiang Mai University, and I can confirm that the evening was a total success.

My Multimedia For Photographers class presentations started with Near Sky, a monochromatic photo essay documenting the production of the Chaw Fah (symbols atop the spires of temples) by Alycia Down,  followed by Close Encounters of the Foundry Kind by Amean J...consisting of clips of Foundry students expressing their expectations from the Workshop, then followed by Loun Steve, a personal insight into the life of an American expatriate living in Chiang Mai, afflicted by Tourette disease and Huntington's Disease by Christina Malkoun.

Then it was Ahmed Shajee Aijazi's turn for his personal take on Muslim life in Chiang Mai with his Under The Ramadan Moon, which depicted the Islamic tradition of fasting during Ramadan, and this was followed by Aroy May? by Adelina Abad-Pedrosa, a photo essay of the vibrant street food culture in Chiang Mai, which was followed by Cheryl Nemazie's Night At The Naga, a monochromatic look (complete with the foot thumping music of the legendary Johnny Cash) of a tattoo parlor on Loi Kroh Road.

Three of the audio slideshows were in black and white, and three were in color. All of them different from a visual standpoint and content.

NB: It is indeed a small world. I met a photographer who turns out lived on the same street I am on now in New York City...she moved a few years ago, but what are the odds of that happening? And another photographer who saw me on Sudder Street in Kolkata last October...she also stayed in a nearby hotel and ate at some of the same restaurants. Incredible isn't it?

Most of the photographers with whom I spoke to were following my The Travel Photographer blog...which chuffs me a lot.

Almost Finished....Foundry Photojournalism Workshop

Photo © Ahmed Shajee Aijazi

Well, the week passed by like a flash! The hard work during my Multimedia For Photographers class (yesterday -Friday-, my students and I spent around 12 hours non-stop in class putting the finishing touches to the multimedia projects) paid off, and the projects are very well done, imaginative and personal.

Tonight is the night when all the students attending the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop will be presenting their individual work...and I bet some haggard-looking people will be walking around like zombies by the end of the day.

Despite spending long hours in class, I find that reviewing portfolios is the most difficult and exhausting of all the tasks I do during the Workshop. It's challenging to provide honest but candid yet constructive opinons about the work presented by the photographers...much of the work I've seen during the portfolio review session was thoughtful, interesting and some outright beautiful...and all was needed was a few suggestions here and there.

My Work: I'm Getting Serious Now....Muay Thai

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

I was very glad to have attended a late night Muay Thai at the Loi Kroh dingy and grubby boxing ring. I had access to wherever I wanted to go, which included chatting up the bar girls (and the ladyboys) who work at the bars and drinking spots surrounding it. The most incongruous was a store selling Muay Thai paraphernalia such as gloves and shorts at the entrance of the area, and owned by a veiled Muslim woman. She didn't seem to be fazed by the going ons at the abutting girlie bars.

I had my Fuji X Pro1 fitted with the 18mm lens, and used it whenever the fighters came close to the edges of the ring such as the one above. I also had my Canon 7D with a 70-200 as reserve when I needed the reach.

I am buzzed by the scene in that area....the hardness of the Muay Thai fights and the "softness" of the bar girls...two extreme, and probably motivated by the same thing; the need to make money.

Tia And Thom Of Loi Kroh...And The Lovely Bar Girl

All Photos © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Loi Kroh Road is an interesting byway in the Old City of Chiang Mai, and a section of it in particular has been a magnet for the type of street photography I do.

Lined with girlie bars with television screens and billiard tables, it also has its shares of tattoo parlors, Texas-style saloons, and fortune tellers. It's also where I met Thom who's a bartender/bouncer at one of the girlie bars in an alley that leads to a grubby Muay Thai boxing ring.

I also meeting Tia, a little person, who supposedly is a Muay Thai fighter but is more of a clown (as I discovered later on). He is a very effective poser...and looks fierce in his outsized gloves.

As for the lovely young woman who was tending bar at one of the many establishments, I assured her that by placing her photograph on my blog would bring her not only luck, but many suitors.

Foundry Photojournalism Workshop: It Starts!

Well, it started this afternoon...the 5th Foundry Photojournalism Workshop held in Chiang Mai was launched by its co-founder Eric Beecroft , and with a lovely keynote address by Maggie Steber.

The classes will be held at the impressive facilities provided by Chiang Mai University's Faculty of Fine Arts....computer rooms, overhead projectors, amphitheater, you name it...it has.

My first class Multimedia In Storytelling starts Monday morning, and I am to teach how to produce audio slideshows that rival in quality and content more elaborate multimedia productions, using their own images and audio generated in the field, and to produce cogent photo stories under the simulation of publishing deadlines. Some of them have already discussed their project ideas with me, and are quite interesting.

Monday evening, I'm on tap to show my audio slideshow "The Cult of Durga".

POV: Finally! A Minimalist Gear....

I'll be in Chiang Mai in a few days for the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop which formally starts in a week from today. I wasn't keen to haul my usual gear with me, especially with my stops in London and Bangkok, so I have just what you see in the picture.

Depending on whether I have the time or not, I intend to shoot a couple of personal projects in Chiang Mai so I chose to take a Leica M9 with an Elmarit f2.4 28mm and a Voigtlander f1.4 40mm, a Fujifilm X Pro-1 with a Fujinon 18mm and the Tascam DR-40 to record audio. All of this fit in my small Domke F-3X (with room to spare); a small and tough shoulder bag I've been using almost incessantly for a couple of years. I shouldn't forget to mention my iPhone4S, which will be useful for ah hoc photography.

Heck...the Tascam audio recorder is larger than either of these two cameras!!!

I will post sporadically during the coming two weeks...with most of the posts from Chiang Mai and the Foundry Workshop.

The Travel Photographer's First 2013 Photo Expedition-Workshop

Details soon to be announced via my newsletter!

Unique...Unusual...Hard Core...Limited to 8 experienced photographers only.

Monica Denevan: Burma

Photo © Monica Denevan-All Rights Reserved

I'm glad to have found Monica Denevan's website with its gorgeous photographs of Burma and China. Trust me...you will find that her some 120 photographs are indeed luminous and gorgeous.

Monica travels with her medium format Bronica, one lens, and a bunch of plastic bags filled with Ilford Delta 400 film. She tells us that her photographs are printed from negatives in her traditional darkroom and selenium toned.

Classic photography in the full meaning of the word, and the farthest thing from the Instagram and Hipstamatic fad.

Born in San Francisco, Monica studied photography at San Francisco State University. She started visiting parts of Burma and China for many years, and always had her Bronica along. Her work was published in ZYZZYVA, Communication Arts Photo Annual, SHOTS, Black and White Magazine, The Photo Review, The Sun, and Artvas-The Photo (Korea) among others.

She is represented by Scott Nichols Gallery in San Francisco, Duncan Miller Gallery in Santa Monica, Capital Culture Gallery in London, and Tao Evolution Gallery in Hong Kong which produced a small catalogue of her work. Monica’s photographs are in the permanent collection of UCSF Medical Center.

Multimedia For Photographers: Foundry Photojournalism Workshop

I am soon to travel to Chiang Mai for the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop which is to be held from July 29 to August 4, 2012 and where I am to teach photojournalists how to produce audio slideshows that rival in quality and content more elaborate multimedia productions, using their own images and audio generated in the field, and to produce cogent photo stories under the simulation of publishing deadlines.

In reality, it's a little more than that, since through class discussions, I also share my views on typography, aesthetics, titling, marketing, blogging, web design and branding...with a little business savvy thrown into the mix.

This my fifth year with the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop, and I'm glad that my Multimedia For Photographers has been on the curriculum since the Workshop's inception in 2008. I'm also glad my class in Chiang Mai is full. Since it involves practical hands-on instruction, as well as abstract guidance, it's capped at 8 students.

While this class is somewhat more advanced than the one included my own ongoing Photo Expeditions-Workshops (which are also capped at 8 participants), the objective of both is essentially the same.

You Like Red?

I've added a couple of galleries to my recently published website: www.telsawy.com. One of the galleries groups photographs of The Sufis, while the other has a grouping of Theyyam performers.

Red is the color of fire and blood, and associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, courage, desire, and love. And it's used in many religious rituals and festivals in India, and worn by religious practitioners such as the Theyyam of Northern Malabar and the Vellichapads (or Oracles) of Kodunggallur.

Theyyam is a living cult with several thousand-year-old traditions, rituals and customs, it includes many of the castes and classes of the Hindu religion in the Malabar region. The word Theyyam is a corrupt form of Devam or God. People of the region consider Theyyam itself as a god and seek blessings from them.

Another of my Theyyam photo essays is Theyyam: Incarnate Deities.

As for the Oracles of Kodungallur, they celebrate both Kali and Shiva at an intense festival that lasts about a week.In their thousands, these red-clad devotees perform self mortification acts by banging on their heads with ceremonial swords repeatedly until blood trickle down their foreheads, and daub the wounds with turmeric. A photo essay titled Agony & Ecstasy documents the Oracles religious event.

And yes, I do like the color red.

Black Rapid: Lens Bling

I use BlackRapid Camera straps, and just noticed that the company announced the launch of LensBling, a series of rear lens caps that allow users to quickly and easily differentiate between lenses they own. The rear lens caps carry bold graphics and labeling so it's very easy to identify and quickly find the right lens in a camera bag.

Alternatively, one can do what I do...and that is to print labels with the focal length of the lens, and stick these to the lens' front and rear caps (and sometimes the hood as well).

Notwithstanding, the LensBling is much more elegant and only cost $8.50 each. Not bad.

Note: I am not sponsored by BlackRapid, nor associated with it in any fashion. As I said, I just like and use its straps, and I thought that this product may be of interest to my readers in the travel and documentary photography industry.

Devansh Jhaveri: Ahmedabad

Photo © Devansh Jhaveri: All Rights Reserved

Devansh Jhaveri is a travel photographer, and describes himself -quite rightly- as being passionate in capturing ancient cultures and the human condition in unique, challenging situations. I wager you will agree with me that he is extremely talented

He reminded me that he had a portfolio review with me the Delhi Photo Festival last November, and I recall telling him that he was gifted, and his photographs were amongst the best I've seen in this genre.

You will see that his imagery is varied, ranging from travel photography (in India and elsewhere such as Egypt and Thailand), classical Indian dance, portraiture, fashion (exceptional!), fine arts, interiors and also videography.

Before I share with you my preferred gallery out of Devansh's travel work, I want to highlight his fashion work because it's well worth your time to have a look at them.

As for his very broad travel work, I particularly liked his Ahmedabad gallery perhaps because of those made in the Jami Masjid...one of the most impressive mosques in India. Two photos stand out...the one above, and the one following it on the gallery which depicts an elderly Muslim checking his bag while a couple is 'canoodling' in a corner.

You will also find a quartet of Devansh's self-published books on Blurb: Varanasi, Ladakh, Colleena Shakti and Lost & Found.

Finally, Devansh's biography page is the first I see of a photographer with a QR("Quick Response")  Code, which is a mobile phone readable barcode I wrote about here.

Budi N.D. Dharmawan: Ketoprak (Javanese Theatre)

Photo © Budi N.D. Dharmawan-All Rights Reserved

Ketoprak is a theatrical genre of Java in Indonesia which features actors and performers who sing to the accompaniment of the gamelan. It draws its stories from Javanese history and romances, and in that respect is different from the wayang kulit (shadow puppets) which are based on stories from the Hindu epics.

Ketoprak was created by a Surakarta court official in 1914, evolved into a spoken drama of Javanese and Islamic history but with the modernisation brought along with television and videos, it has lost much of its popularity, and the younger generation has lost interest in traditional folk/cultural arts.

Budi N.D. Dharmawan is is an Indonesian documentary photographer, with interest in social, humanitarian, and cultural issues. His Staged Life gallery documents a ketroprak troupe which he followed.

He describes this experience very eloquently: 

"It is a story of poverty, which is widespread across Indonesia, a country that has been celebrating economic growth in the past decade. It is unimaginable that these people can live on less than USD 10 a month, but yet it is very real. It is a story of people practicing a form of art that younger generation no longer cares about, not necessarily in order to preserve it, but because it is their way to make ends meet. It is a story of life, both on-stage and also off-stage, which somehow feels like it is just another stage to perform."

I haven't attended a ketoprak performance, but i did photograph an Arja performance in Bali. Arja enacts old stories mainly based on the Panji Romances (11-14th centuries) and uses dialogue understood only by Balinese-speaking audiences. Many of the stories derived from Balinese tales, Chinese and Arabic, and from the Mahabharata and Ramayana.

Dan Kitwood: Benin Voodoo

Photo Dan Kitwood/Getty Images-Courtesy The Guardian

Can anything dispel the auguries of a Friday 13th better than a Benin Voodoo festival?

Being fascinated by such religious festivals and rituals (the more obscure the better), I was glad to have seen Dan Kitwood's gallery of a Benin Voodoo festival in The Guardian, which also led me to his website/blog on which he lays out further captivating photographs (with better resolution) of Voodoo which also has a slideshow at the bottom of the post.

As seen in the above photograph, the costumes are incredibly colorful...perhaps rivaling the Bhutanese dancers at tsechus in their elaborateness and intricacy of their embroidered designs .

In the tiny West African nation of Benin, Voodoo is and remains the state religion. Incredibly, voodoo has officially been a national religion of Benin since 1996, where more than 60% of the people are said to follow its traditions. Slaves from this corner of Africa brought the religion to the New World, most notably to Haiti.

And while Christianity and Islam in Benin are also practiced, voodoo still influences them. In the voodoo tradition, there's a supreme god, Mahu, and a number of smaller gods or spirits, with whom humans can interact.

Dan Kitwood is a UK photojournalist who, after completing a degree in Fine Art, traveled around South East Asia, Australasia and South America, which triggered a passion for photography. After two years working for the South West News he joined Getty Images in London.

Oded Balilty: The Stone Throwers of Palestine

Photo © Oded Balilty-Courtesy TIME Lightbox

“On the weekend, they are in those protests, but other than that, they are totally normal people..."

"But other than that...? Is the implication in this qualifiying sentence that these Palestinians are not normal because they protest against the Israeli illegal occupation? I hope not.

But let's stray from politics for a while, and just focus on Oded Balilty's excellent photographs of seven Palestinian protestors as featured by TIME Lightbox a couple of weeks ago.

I featured Balilty's work on other occasions on this blog, and admire his work, especially his photographs of Jewish ultra orthodox communities, traditional Hasidic Jewish weddings, and preparations for Passover.  He is based in Tel Aviv as an Associated Press photographer and frequently photographs the ongoing "friction" between Israelis and Palestinians.
For these posed portraits, Balilty enlisted the help of his colleague, Nasser Shiyoukhi, the AP’s Palestinian photographer from the West Bank.

Perhaps it would've been even better had both Balilty and Shiyoukhi collaborated on this project...we may have seen a difference perspective in the setting up of the photographs.

The Nifty Mini-Drive

The Nifty Mini-Drive for the Mac Book Air (and the Nifty MiniDrive Pro for the Macbook Pro) is a new hardware project which raised almost $200,000 (at the time of writing) on Kickstarter, much exceeding its original goal of $11,000.

From its introductory videos and write up, it's an easy to use device that will allow a quick and simple add-on to the available memory in MacBook Pros and Airs, and  as well as back-up solution.
All it does is to provide an intelligent 'adapter' that will take a MicroSd Card, which will then be inserted flush in the SD Card slot of the MacBooks, and used as an additional hard drive.


It appears that the price of the Nifty Mini-Drives will be in the vicinity of $30 each, and as the current price of a 64GB microSDXC SanDisk (as an example) is about $60, the total cost to increase one's memory by that amount is about $100 (inclusive of sales taxes or shipping, etc).

As a guidance price, the price of an 11 inch 64GB MacBook Air is $999 versus $1099 for an 11 inch 128GB MacBook Air. However, if one already owns a MacBook Air (or Pro) and wants a quick and simple increase in memory, this might be a smart alternative than to send it for an upgrade. 

Kevin WY Lee: The Return of Hundred Daughters

Photo © Kevin Wy Lee-All Rights Reserved

"...a fortune teller told my grandparents that demon gods wished harm upon their first-born son. So when my father, the only son in the family, was born, they named him Pak Noi – Hundred Daughters – to fool the demon gods."

Kevin WY Lee is a photographer based in Singapore, whose creative work was honed in Australia and Singapore for more than 15 years. He's the founder of Invisible Photographer Asia (IPA); a well known multi-faceted platform for Street Photography & Visual Journalism in Asia. He also participated as a judge for various creative and photography awards including Singapore Creative Circle Awards, Angkor Photo Workshop, and KLPhotoawards.

Kevin's just recently featured a fascinating photo essay which chronicles the return of his father to his  ancestral home in Zhaolong Li (mainland China) after a prolonged absence of almost 56 years. He was accompanied by his wife, his sisters and families as well as his only son, Kevin...who documented this incredibly touching and intimate experience, and recorded it for posterity.

Because of a fortune teller's tale, Kevin's father was named Pak Noi (Hundred Daughters), and it's utterly appropriate it's also the title of this very well done photo essay.

As I'm fond of stressing in my multimedia classes, a photo essay of that type is always successful if it has two main ingredients: access and intimacy. The Return of Hundred Daughters certainly has both.

I only wish it had an accompanying audio track to it...but perhaps not having one was a conscious decision by the photographer.

WTF? Not Even A Plug?

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

A few days ago, and such a beautiful summer morning it was, I get an email from someone (a writer) who compliments me on my photographs, and asks if whether I'd be amenable to send one of them to illustrate a European blog (whose link was provided). It was implied there would be no payment for the  photograph.

Before emailing back in a caustic tone (as I usually do to such emails), or ignoring the implied message and provide the contractual terms and pricing tariff for the photograph required, I checked into this European blog and saw it was beautifully crafted...a sort of a compendium for fine arts, culture, photography and other high brow stuff...and if statistics were correct, has a decent readership. And it was based (despite it being in English) in a country from which I have no clients for my photo expeditions-workshops.

So I swallowed hard, and replied to the request, in essence agreeing to provide a photograph on the condition that it was (1) properly credited to me, (2) that my two main websites and this blog would be highlighted, and (3) a paragraph about me and my photo expeditions-workshops (a paragraph that I would write up) be added at the bottom of the post.

Yes, I know...this is a lopsided exchange, more advantageous to the European blog than to me. It'd get a lovely image for nothing...but I reckoned this could've advertised my photo expeditions-workshops to a 'new' country, and to a well-heeled demographic/readership interested in arts and cultures. It would have been a one-off thing...and perhaps it would've paid off...or maybe not.

The response to my generosity? Something to the effect that it would only be a copyright notice...and nothing more.

Whoa! Isn't that the ultimate chutzpah?

So readers of this blog post...what should be my response? I have my four-lettered response ready to go....but if you like, make your suggestions on my Facebook page.

Brijesh Patel: McCluskieganj

Photo © Brijesh Patel-All Rights Reserved

Not too dissimilar from my previous post, here is another photo essay about disintegrating mansions and dwellings.

McCluskieganj was founded by the Colonisation Society of India in 1933 as a homeland for Anglo-Indians. In 1932 Ernest Timothy McCluskie, the founder of the town, invited some 200,000 Anglo-Indians in India to settle there. Of the nearly 250 original families, only 20 remain, as most of the Anglo-Indian community left after World War II, and the once spatial mansions are overgrown with jungle growth, and it's difficult to imagine that McCluskieganj was a paradise for mixed-race children of the British empire.

Brijesh Patel was born in Gujarat, and moved to the UK during his childhood. He enrolled at LCC for a Masters in photography, and awards from The Guardian, and the Winston Churchill Foundation supported his work in the UK and in India.

His McCluskieganj photo essay is one amongst many of his books that are hand made.

There are an estimated 80,000-125,000 Anglo-Indians living in India, most of whom are based in the large cities of Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kanpur, Mumbai and Tiruchirapalli. Some also live in Kochi, Goa, Pune, Secunderabad, Visakhapatnam, Lucknow, Agra, and in some towns of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

Researching the subject, I chanced on this recent article in The Economist about Rita McDonald, an elderly Anglo-Indian who "...eats bacon and eggs for breakfast, speaks precise English and, though she has lived all her life in India, knows little Hindi or Bengali. Yet her home, hung with yellowing photographs of Queen Elizabeth and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, is thick with tales of poverty and loss."

Perhaps one of my photographer friends in Kolkata would be interested in taking this up? Imagine it as an audio slideshow!

Xenia Nikolskaya: Dust, Egypt's Forgotten Palaces

Photo © Xenia Nikolskaya-All Rights Reserved

From afar, it seems Egypt and its people are still waiting to exhale since its popular uprising against the Mubarak regime, and 60 years of dictatorships...and whilst I try my best to counter the lay neo-cons and the agenda-driven commentators who write absurd comments about its current events and future in The New York Times by writing my own points of view (and they all get featured without fail), I fear the internal political situation in Egypt is murky, and will remain unsettled for the near future ...and that's an immense understatement.

So Xenia Nikolskaya's work on the UK's Daily Telegraph suffused me with mixed feelings. Dust is a good title for her photographs of buildings built after the Suez Canal opened in 1869, and before Nasser came to power in 1954, introducing sequestration decrees that would send many of the wealthy elite into exile.

The buildings, mansions, movie theaters, and retails stores that are depicted in Xenia's Dust have mostly fallen into disrepair. Due to long standing governmental rent-control policies, these once ornate and grandiose buildings were left to rot, with no repairs or maintenance done, as landlords weren't making money from them.

I recall the names of some of them....Radio Cinema ( I watched movies there, at a time when I was careful to count my change as the women at the ticket had the habit of "rounding" it in their favor), Sakakini Palace, Sarageldine Palace, while others are unknown to me.

Xenia Nikolskaya graduated from the Academy of Art in St Petersburg and then went on to study at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen. She has worked as a professional photographer since 1995, and became a member of the Russian Art Union in 2001. She first came to Egypt in 2003 as part of a Russian archaeological mission.

Fuji X Pro-1: LGTB Hip Hop

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy- All Rights Reserved

I am so taken by the capabilities of the Fuji X Pro-1 that I created a new 'page' on my street photography website The Leica File (And X Pro-1) for my most recent project involving the LGTB Hip Hop gathering during the Gay Pride of 2012 in New York City.

Most of the images I've chosen were made by shooting from the hip, and by pre-visualizing the composition in my mind's eye...not quite a Hail Mary per se, but a sort of "eyeless" photography as I call it in my Is Shooting From The Hip...Photography? post of over a year ago.

I'm quite impressed by the quality of these images, especially as I've decided to quit using RAW with the Fuji X Pro-1 until such time there's adequate software support for its conversion. The Fuji RAW convertor is so clunky that it's laughable, and the Adobe Lightroom seems to have issues with it (I am also considering switching from Lightroom to Aperture....but that's another story).

All the photographs were shot in JPEG (Velvia film simulation setting), and sharpened a touch in Photoshop.

Many years ago, I was told that to be really successful, a street photograph should have no one in it looking at the camera or the photographer, essentially a candid moment. In the dense crowds of the LGBT Hip Hop crowd, that was impossible. However, by shooting from the hip, I did manage to capture such candid moments. The photograph (cropped) that I chose to accompany this post is one of those. A tender moment between two young people whose lives are just starting. Where will they be in 20 years' time?

In other photographs, I wasn't as successful...simply because I stood out like a sore thumb in that type of crowd, and just by being there attracted some stares (and in one instance, given the finger....but I had the camera to my face then).

I realize that I have already shown these photographs on this blog in a short Vimeo audio slideshow, but it didn't show them off in the best light...so these are now on my street photography blog.

Myanmar: Ruben Vincente & João Almeida

Ruben Vicente and João Almeida have just inaugurated a photo exhibition of their work from Myanmar (Burma) in Lisbon, just a few minutes away from the Belém neighborhood. It will be available until mid September, and if I lived in Europe, I'd go just to view their images. Yes, I would. I even have the address: Espaço João Sousa Valles Rua Gonçalves Zarco, 2A Lisboa.

Ruben is a freelance photographer (and a computational physicist) and  João is also a freelance photographer (and a web developer), both living and working in Lisbon.

Ruben has just published an excellent ebook titled Myanmar: A Journey Through Time of his photographs, along with cogent and well written travel photography advice for this wonderful country, just emerging from a state of military dictatorship. I know there's a rush of travelers and photographers to Myanamr (Burma)...so do yourself a real favor, buy Ruben's ebook and drop Lonely Planet and the like.

They sent me a short video clip of the photo exhibition, which provides a preview of what attendees will see.



I also have a couple of photographs by Ruben and João to convince you to view their websites, attend the exhibition if you can, and buy Ruben's book.

Photo © Ruben Vincente-All Rights Reserved

Photo © Joao Almeida-All Rights Reserved