RESOLVE: Foundry Photo Workshop

©Kirsten Luce, Courtesy FPW -All Rights Reserved

"But if you’re serious about becoming an international photographer, the Foundry can be like a halfway house. We’re here to help you with the first steps. Student who haven’t traveled, or they’re scared of travel, or they’re scared of shooting internationally — this can bring them to the next level".

So says Eric Beecroft, the co-founder of Foundry Photojournalism Workshop, whose second venue is in Manali, India at the end of July.

Interviewed by Miki Johnson of RESOLVE blog, the discussion highlights how this affordable new workshop is an incubator for emerging international photojournalists, and describes how it ought to be viewed as a "halfway house" helping photographers who may be uncomfortable in shooting internationally.

A must-attend for all emerging photojournalists and photographers!

William Widmer: Between Giants

Here's Between Giants, a feature on a small community in Ladakh by photojournalist William Widmer.

The Changpa are one of several groups of indigenous nomads who inhabited the high plains of Ladakha for generations, and are finding their traditional way of life threatened by modernity and influx of tourism.

William Widmer is a freelance photographer based in San Francisco, who's interested in shifting concepts of community. While most of his work is focused on subcultures within the United States, he also produced photo essays (including multimedia) of India and others. He also works at liveBooks, a company that provides customized, editable websites for photographers.

Don't miss his Soundslides essay on SOFOSH, an NGO involved in childcare, adoption and foster care for children.

DISPATCHES & Foundry Workshop

A couple of news bits from Dispatches:

The Dispatches 2009 Foundry Scholarship in Memory of Alexandra Boulat has awarded Sabhanaz Rashid Diya (Dhaka, Bangladesh) a full scholarship to attend The Foundry Photojournalism Workshop as well as $100 toward travel expenses.

So congratulations to Sabhanaz, and I look forward to meet her in Manali.

Filmed on 22 May 2009 at VII Gallery, Brooklyn, here's a discussion on war & photography, photojournalism and its future involving Gary Knight, Tim Hetherington, MaryAnne Golon, and Ashley Gilbertson.

Franck Vogel: The Bishnois

Photo © Franck Vogel -All Rights Reserved
The Canon Professional Nework (Europe) brings us a feature on Franck Vogel's project photographing the Bishnois in India. The project was recently a major cover story for the 30th anniversary edition of GEO France magazine.

This features dovetails quite neatly into my plans for a photo~expedition in early Spring 2010 to South Rajasthan and the Rann of Kutch to cover tribal life (including the Bishnois and Rebaris, amongst many others), and Baneshwar Fair.

Anyway, back to Franck Vogel and his project. In 2006, he began documenting the lives of the Bishnois in India. This tribal group (the article calls it a "sect") bases its way of life on 29 principles formulated in the 15th century by Guru Jambheshwar. Many of these are involve environmental protection, especially protecting trees and wildlife.

It's an interesting read as to how the photographer went about getting access to the Bishnois. I'm certain that Vogel was able to discern the difference between the authentic Bishnois and those who are featured on virtually all the tour itineraries in Rajasthan..especially the rather demeaning and obviously staged "opium"-drinking ceremonies.

5D Mark II: New Firmware

Canon USA published the recently announced firmware update for its EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR which enables manual exposure during video capture.

As well as the manual exposure video functionality, EOS 5D Mk II firmware v1.1.0 includes fixes to the lens peripheral illumination correction, auto lighting optimizer, battery information display, and depth-of-field preview button functionality, as well as correcting menu errors in certain languages.

You can download it from here

7dot7 Magazine

Photo © Alfonso Moral-All Rights Reserved
7dot7 is an online photo magazine, and a project of the collective of photographers called RUIDO Photo in Barcelona. Its objective is to become a a repository for an independent, social, critic and committed photojournalism.

One of its interesting features in its initial publication is the work of photographer Alfonso Moral with his photo essay on the heroin addicts in Afghanistan. Alfonso studied journalism in Valladolid, and photography in Barcelona. He har worked in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Palestine and Afghanistan. His photographs has been published in Newsweek, The Sunday Times, El País Semanal, Magazine de La Vanguardia and Foto Magazine, among others. He is a member of the collective Pandora Foto.

His Addicts: A Lost Generation In Afghanistan is the third reportage on 7dot7 magazine, and consists of large images (almost as large as my monitor) of heroin addicts in Kabul.

Once again, being an advocate for showing large images on the web, I'm pleased to see such large imagery and appreciate its impact when compared to similar work such as Lynsey Addario's for the New York Times titled Drowning In Opium. Which one give the viewer a better visual experience, and which one stands to affect a photo editor more? I'm not too keen on 7dot7's navigation, and hope it'll be worked on soon.

I don't know what the future of this online publication will be, but any effort to widen the exposure of photojournalists in this era of shrinking budgets, and disappearing newspapers is more than welcome.

Alfonso Moral's website.

Saiful Haq Omi: Bangladesh's Coastline

Bangladesh is a country that produces incredibly talented documentary photographers, and certainly Saiful Haq is among those who qualify for the recognition.

Saiful Haq Omi has wanted to tell stories from his very first days as a photographer. His political activism eventually evolved, and he now considers himself as a ‘photo activist,’hoping to use his visual talents to document a variety of unique and vibrant profiles including the former prime minister, migrant workers, laborers, - and victims of political violence.

From his black & white portfolios, I like his Life Along the Coastline the best as it documents a way of life surviving the erosion of land by rivers and sea, surviving the loss of homes and livelihood, and a story of migration against all odds.

I ought to add my thanks to Asim Rafiqui for pointing out, via his erudite post The Dust From Blood-Filled Eyes, that Saiful Haq was a finalist for the prestigious Alexia Foundation Grant, where there's more on his photographic background.