The Travel Photographer's The Vedic Disciples

This is the second of my multimedia (audio slideshows) projects of stills, audio and video made during my The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition/Workshop™. It's of the activities at an ancient Vedic 'gurukul' (or training/boarding school; very similar to the Buddhist monasteries for novitiates), where we were treated to a demonstration of this way of teaching sacred Vedic scriptures.

It is an ancient Indian educational system, which is currently being rejuvenated with the assistance of the Indian government. The young boys who populate the Vedic school usually belong to a caste of Keralan Brahmins, who are responsible to carry on the age-old tradition of chanting Vedas during religious rituals or functions. The chanting is learned by practice, and nothing is written down.

The rhythm of the Vedic chants is followed by the young boys' moving their bodies in cadence to the verses, which reminded me how the Buddhist novices recite their mantras, or how the Islamic students recite the Qur'an at their madrasas.

You can watch The Vedic Disciples on Vimeo as well.

Poll: Which Should Go On My Wall?

Living in New York City means that space is at premium, and while my office walls are literally covered from ceiling to waist-level with my photographs, paintings, etc., I still have a spot where a 20x24 inch frame can fit....but it has to be a vertical frame!

People who photograph with me know that I much prefer landscape/horizontal format, but a vertical space is all I can find on my crowded office walls. I like the above photographs equally so I need your involvement in choosing the one.

The top photograph is of a posed full length portrait of a Kathakali artist, while the lower one is of a trio of Oracles who I persuaded to stop their trances, and pose for us. Both were made during The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition/Workshop™.

I plan on having the elected photograph printed commercially on Kodak Professional Glossy paper then in a dark wooden frame...either black or dark brown depending on the photograph.

Thirunakkara Utsavam Festival

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy- All Rights Reserved

 I barely have the time to post this today since the internet connection is somewhat iffy, but the day's photo shoot was at the Mahadeva temple for the Thirunakkara Utsavam festival. This is where I spotted this family of pilgrims. I'm uncertain of which sect they belong to, but I'll find out and edit this post shortly.

Note: These are members of a family on a pilgrimage to Sabarimala Temple, some 150 kilometers from Kochi, and they're adherents of Ayyappa.

POV: Passion & Enthusiasm

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

"hello sir,

i'm a 18yr old from india

i've dropped my college for my passion of travelling ,writing n photography!

your work have quite inspired me continue it!

n just wanna thank you!

your blog is quite a source of inspiration for me!

thank you"

It's a leap year, and what better way to end this February's 29 days!

This wonderful email from a young Indian woman was waiting in my inbox...and while I frequently get complimentary emails on my photography and blog from readers, this one was so enthusiastic, and so full of hope for the future, that I had to feature it here.

Naturally, I urged her to remain in college, get a degree and pursue her passion at the same time. I hope she does.

I occasionally meet with young people seeking my advice as to how to forge a career in travel photography. It's always a difficult task to balance youthful aspirations and hard-core reality...but one of my principal pieces of advice is to stay in college (if they don't have a degree...and get one), and take up a profession that can pay the bills for a while.

The Travel Photographer Is On Cowbird!

I've just uploaded my first Cowbird story titled The Sufi Itinerant of Qutb Uddin.

While working on the photograph of Miskine, the Sufi in my post of yesterday, I realized I had a recording of him briefly telling me his life story. Coincidentally, I was invited to join Cowbird, which describes itself as "...a small community of storytellers, focused on a deeper, longer-lasting, more personal kind of storytelling than you’re likely to find anywhere else on the Web."

Cowbird seeks to feature incredible stories by some of the world's finest storytellers, and present them in the most beautiful storytelling environment on the Web. Its community consists of journalists, photographers, writers, artists, filmmakers, designers, explorers, and many others.

"incredible stories by some of the world's finest storytellers"

It allows members of its community to produce multimedia stories, incorporating text, photos, sound, subtitles, roles, relationships, maps, tags, timelines, dedications, and characters, thus mixing elements of traditional storytelling with elements of technology.

I'm excited to have joined Cowbird, and will upload new single image stories as time permits. I've seen that Aaron Huey, a fantastic photographer has also joined Cowbird, and already has a number of stories on it. This one of Zahoor is especially wonderful!

Readers of this blog who feel, as I do, that this is an exciting venue to display their storytelling talents, request an invite from Cowbird...as I did.

The Travel Photographer Has His "The Big Picture"!

I had neglected my Tumblr blog for a while, and recently realized there was a lot more themes available. One of those is HD Exhibit free theme which is, frankly speaking, just gorgeous and displays large sized (1200 pixels by 800) photographs really beautifully.

So I've worked quite diligently during the past two days to rejig my The Travel Photographer's Tumblr blog which now features some of my own favorite travel photographs. From here onwards, it will be the repository of some of my photographs (more travel than documentary) which I have archived over the past years, as well as those I intend to make on my forthcoming trips and workshops.

So follow my The Travel Photographer's Tumblr blog for your fix of travel photography!!!

5 Weeks To 'The Oracles of Kerala' Photo Workshop

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Only 5 weeks to the start of The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition & Workshop™!!!

All participants flights and arrival times in Kochi (where the workshop starts) have been set, hotels rooms are booked, itinerary rejigged, and my multimedia presentations are currently being updated...

The participants in this photo expedition/workshop (7 in all, which is my ideal group size for such a workshop) are from the United States, Ireland, Bahrain and Australia...an international mix I am certain will prove to be quite interesting, since each will probably bring a varying point of view.

I am eager to start the workshop off with a couple of days of intense street photography amongst the spice godowns and alleys of old Mattencherry...The street activity of the area is a virtual live theater, with bazaar-like alleys, traditional godowns and stores stocked with all types of rice, dark brown nutmeg, red and green chillies, earthy ginger, black pepper and other spices. Not only people photography of traders, merchants, porters, but also we'll photograph details, age-old textures, peeling wall colors (or discolored) of indigo blue and ochre...etc.

I am eager to return to Mattencherry, especially after I revisit my Traders of Kochi gallery.

I mentioned Holy War before on this blog, and I am pleased it turned out to be well suited for this forthcoming adventure. It's a chronicle of Vasco Da Gama's voyages to reach the Indies; and seize its markets in spices, silks and gems from Muslim traders in Calicut and Kochi. Perfect!

My Work: Kushti In Kolkata

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

During my Kolkata's Cult of Durga Photo Expedition/Workshop, I chanced upon a group of traditional wrestlers near the Armenian Ghat on the Hooghly river. These were Kushti wrestlers, about to practice their sport in a small area, which was being carefully prepared for their bouts.

While I had known of Kushti being practiced in Delhi and Varanasi, I hadn't heard of it in Kolkata and after watching these wrestlers for a while, I concluded that it was different here. In contrast with the ground being moist (as in Delhi), the wrestling area (known as an akhara) here was dry, was swept with young tree branches then covered with bits of leaves, which I believe were from neighboring neem trees (which have medicinal properties).

Kushti is India's traditional wrestling, and is an ancient form of wrestling. It was held in great importance in Indian societies, but its popularity has dwindled over the years, although there are concerted efforts to revive it. Kushti practitioners face grueling daily training, a strict diet and celibacy.

The Armenian Ghat is probably the most interesting of all of Kolkata's ghats. It was built by a merchant of Armenian origin in 1724. Armenians dominated has spice in gem traders in ancient Kolkata. The Kolkata station and Ticket Reservation Room of Eastern Railways was situated in the Armenian Ghat from 1854-1874.

For those who're interested in tech stuff, I used a Leica M9 with an Elmarit 28mm 2.8.

The Trams Of Kolkata

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved (Click To Enlarge)

On the penultimate day of the Kolkata's Cult of Durga Photo Expedition/Workshop this past October, some of us rode one of the famous Kolkata trams on one of its routes. As far as I recall, we chose the Esplanade to Shyambazar route, which is about 5 kilometers. Kolkata is India's only city to have a tram network, which is operated by Calcutta Tramways Company.

These are slow-moving cars, battered from many years of hard service. There are 170 trams running on the streets of Kolkata on a daily basis. The cars are single-deck articulated cars and can carry 200 passengers. When we rode ours, it was off-peak and seats were readily available.

At the Shyambazar depot (end of the line), I photographed the conductors (who were amused by my presence) in their small restroom, while they were having tea and cigarettes. I explored the idle tram cars and photographed inside the cars. The engine was made in Japan by Fuji Electric. All my exploration and photographing was observed by one of the conductors seen in the photo above.

I haven't decided yet if I ought to produce a photo gallery of the Kolkata tram "project"...perhaps an audio slideshow since I managed to record some great audio of the traffic, the clang of the tram's bell, etc.

Kolkata's The Cult of Durga

My main project that came to be from the Kolkata's Cult of Durga Photo~Expedition & Workshop™ which I led and organized is The Cult of Durga.

In contrast to my previous audio slideshows that on average are 3 minutes in length, The Cult of Durga is long...it's just over 5 minutes. I also broke a few of my own rules with it. Using the Ken Burns effect on a couple of occasions is one of the most obvious. I decided against a tighter edit,  thinking that reducing the number of photographs would've eliminated some important components. So I left it as I produced it in Kolkata.

Durga Puja is an annual Hindu festival in South Asia that celebrates worship of the Hindu goddess Durga. It's the most important religious and social event in Kolkata. It involves a series of rituals which start from the production of effigies, building of the pandals, offerings of flower and worship, and then finally immersion of the effigies in the Ganges.

The Durga Puja event is celebrated over no less than ten days, but it's the last four days – Saptami, Ashtami, Navami and Dashami – that are celebrated with considerable joy and fanfare when the ten armed goddess riding the lion and slaying evil is worshipped with immense zeal and devotion.

This documentary audio slideshow starts with the fashioning of the effigies of Durga which is supervised by certain rites and rules, which include that the clay used for these effigies must be collected from the banks of the Ganges. It then follows the transport of the effigies to the pandals and homes. I also photographed the dhakis, the traditional drummers who accompany the effigies to the pandals, then it was the "kala-bau" snan processions to the Ganges where banana plants are cleaned and draped in a cloth along with nine types of leaves, and on to the last day of the festival when the Durga effigies are brought back to the river for their final immersions symbolizing the goddess' return to her abode in the Himalayas.

And for those who are interested in that kind of stuff, I used a Leica M9, a 5D Mark II and a 7D. The audio was recorded with a Marantz PMD 620.

The Travel Photographer In Asian Geographic Passport

"It is at these religious events that one connects with humanity at its basic denominator, and with the nobility of the human spirit."

That's a quote from a longer statement I made to accompany a handful of photographs published in the December issue of the Asian Geographic Passport which can be partially previewed here.

I am waiting for a hard copy of the issue to be mailed to me from the publishers, so that's all I can show at this time.

In any event, the religious rituals I submitted photographs of are the Theyyam rituals of Northern Kerala and of the Tsechus of Bhutan. The photographs are included in my Theyyam: Incarnate Deities and Tsechus!.

I am influenced by Sebastiao Salgado's philosophy which he described by saying: "if you take a picture of a human that does not make him noble, there is no reason to take this picture. That is my way of seeing things.". This is my way of seeing things as well...I find it impossible to photograph otherwise.

The Travel Photographer's Best of 2011

Most of the big picture blogs and news outlets such as The WSJ Photo Journal, Boston's Globe's The Big Picture, The Denver Post's PBlog and Reuters' Full Focus, amongst many others, will soon feature their version of the best photographs of 2011. So taking their lead, I am featuring what I liked best of my own photographs made during the past 12 months. I'm not saying these are the best photographically speaking of all my 2011 images, but I like them...and I suppose that counts for something. They are a mix of pure travel photography and documentary/reportage style.

The 20 or so images were made during my two 2011 Photo Expeditions/Workshops to Gujarat and Kolkata. I've added traditional Turkish music to provide the accompaniment to the slideshow.

I know...I ought to have chosen some Indian sitar music instead, but I couldn't find a track in my library that matched my mood today. My apologies to the purists.

Siem Reap Journal: Issue #2

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

I recently switched over from Blackberry to the iPhone 4s just for it's camera capabilities, and where else to put it through its paces than in Siem Reap?

Here are a few of photographs made on the iPhone using Instagram and Hipstamatic filters of young monks at the old temples of Roluos, Preah Ko and Lolei.

And one of Angkor Wat itself and the reflecting pond.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Kolkata Masala!

I apologize.

I know I've overdone it with all these recent posts (my work and those of others) on Kolkata, but having returned with a few thousand images from my Kolkata's Cult of Durga Photo~Expedition & Workshop™, I was bound to produce a number of slideshows...audio slideshows and still galleries. And since I'll be on my way in a few days to Siem Reap to attend the Angkor Photo Festival, I want to upload as many of my Kolkata work as possible before I travel. Of course, I still haven't rejigged my Durga Puja audio slideshow, but it will have to wait my return. So there's still that one for you to contend with.

The Kolkata Masala audio slideshow (this link is better quality than its Vimeo iteration) is a collection of color stills accompanied by the musical talent of a Baul singer. It's just a collection of pure and colorful travel photographs...so there's no linear sequencing or storytelling timeline.

There's no question that my favorite photograph is of the mendicants in front of a Jain temple, with one of them gesturing me to stop photographing. This, despite me having given her some biscuits that another charitable gentleman had given me for her. She wanted money, and only money.

The Rickshaw Wallahs of Kolkata

Following my two weeks Kolkata's Cult of Durga Photo~Expedition & Workshop™, I have now completed two photo essays centering on the rickshaw pullers of that quintessential Indian megapolis. About half of the photographs were made using a Leica M9, while the rest with a Canon 5d Mark II. The audio was recorded with a Marantz 620PMD.

The first photo essay is an audio slideshow of about 30 black & white photographs of rickshaw pullers, supplemented by a soundtrack made up of Kolkata's traffic sounds, short narrative clips by the pullers themselves and live instrumental music played by Satyananda Das, a traditional Baul musician.

It can be seen either as a Vimeo movie (above) or as a regular SoundSlides multimedia, which is recommended because the quality of the photographs are much better, and are much larger.

The second photo essay is a gallery of still photographs... essentially the same as those in the multimedia products above, but the gallery is better suited for those who prefer to view them without any multimedia influence.

Documenting the rickshaw pullers was a secondary objective of the workshop, but was an important one. The government of Bengal had announced plans to completely ban the rickshaws, saying that the grueling work violates the pullers human rights, the argument was rejected by the rickshaw pullers with huge protests. Almost all of the pullers I spoke to were from the state of Bihar, one of India’s poorest states. Mohammed was one of those...an older man, a Muslim from Bihar with a dark bunion on his forehead from genuflecting five times a day. Past his prime, he said that he made about 400 rupees a day...the equivalent of $9 or so.

Having experienced first hand Kolkata's incredible 24-hour traffic jams, I believe those who claim that rickshaws are the only mode of transport who can circulate its narrow streets and alleys. The rickshaws carry business people, live poultry, school children, the sick to the hospitals, fruit to the markets, and even prostitutes. Without them, Kolkata could risk coming to a standstill, especially during the monsoon rains when roads can be impassable...and let's face it, Kolkata without the rickshaw pullers wouldn't be the same.

Many Kolkata intellectuals have said that while we can refuse on moral grounds to be carried by another human being, we have no right to take away their livelihood. There's also the hope that rickshaw pullers can be provided with an alternative employment.

Khari Baoli: The Porters of Spice

Khari Baoli is a street that runs from the Fatehpuri Mosque on Chandni Chowk to the western edge of the old city of Delhi, and is its wholesale spice market. Little has changed there for centuries. Enormous jute sacks of herbs and spices are brought to the wholesalers on long, narrow barrows or carried by porters. From ginger to chilies, from lentils and rice to jars of chutneys, pickles, nuts and tea...all kinds of spices and hers can be found here.

The market itself is on the south side of Khari Baoli, and was built by wealthy merchants in 1920s. It is now Asia’s largest wholesale spice market. It's an important and busy commercial district, and caters to the vast spice market of North India, including states of Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and even as far as Madhya Pradesh, making it perpetually crowded with traders, and shoppers.

However, my focus was on the porters who carry the loads of spices from and to the market. Mostly from Rajasthan and Bihar, they're extraordinarily tough and strong.

Khari Baoli: The Porters of Spice can either be seen on Vimeo (above) or as an audio-slideshow (much better quality).

Kolkata's Cult of Durga In The Hindustan Times!!

Our workshop is prime news in Kolkata this morning!!!

I was initially interviewed by the delightful Debarati Chakraborty of the Hindustan Times regarding the objectives of my Kolkata's Cult of Durga Photo Expedition/Workshop, and shared what were our intentions to document the festival of Durga. Debarati also interviewed the remainder of our group, and penned a wonderful article on the photo workshop, with many quotes from Kris, Zara, Tony and Ron. Sandy Chandler wasn't available for the interview, and that's the reason why only four participants are mentioned in the article instead of five.

The article can be read in full here.

A salient quote from the article:

"It's easier to get seduced by colours (in India). When you use black & white, you focus more on the expression, the story behind the images."

I have only managed to get 4 copies of the newspaper so far...some of which were through the kindness of the Lytton Hotel's reception manager....so they must be selling out at a brisk pace!!!

Khari Baoli: Delhi's Spice Market

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

One of my favorite places in Old Delhi for street photography is in its spice wholesale market located just off Khari Baoli street. The smell of the various spices is overpowering, and I spent a few moments sneezing and coughing, much to the amusement of the onlookers. The market has been operating (probably unchanged to a large extent) since the 17th century, and can be accessed by walking to Fatehpuri Masjid on Chandni Chowk, and turning left.

It seems there had been a murder of a jewelry storekeeper a few days before on Chandni Chowk, so a handful of merchants of electronics and other stuff were shuttered in protest. The police was out in force with barricades, but outnumbered the protestors.

I recorded some ambient sound from the spice market, which is punctuated with spitting, coughing and hawking by the porters...this will add considerable authenticity should I decide to produce a multimedia piece on the spice market.

The Leica M9 functioned flawlessly...and eagerly jumped to action in its first view of India. Its baptism of fire seems to have been successful. It unobtrusiveness allowed me to remain unnoticed for a while, but of course, India is India...and someone will notice you and eventually engage you in some banter.

By the way, this photograph is the in-camera jpeg version of the larger DNG. I haven't processed it at all, except for a minute touch of sharpening.

Canon Does Holga

Southampton Tomatoes-© 2011 Tewfic El-Sawy

When the heavens open up to a deluge of rain upon a Long Island summer house, what does one do? Well, in my case, I find still life to photograph with my new Holga lens attached to my Canon 7D, which I had the foresight of bringing along just in case.

Whilst in Buenos Aires, my friend Mervyn Leong won one of the Holga lenses during a quiz session at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop. Having seen some of his test photographs with it, I bought one from B&H a few days ago, and I am liking it a lot.

Southampton Fruits-Photo © 2011 Tewfic El-Sawy

The results look as if they were made with a classic analogue toy plastic camera, it has soft-focus properties, produces more Holga-like vignetting, and opens up a new dimension to my photography. In a few weeks, I'll be in Kolkata leading a photo expedition and teaching a workshop, and I intend to take it with me and try it out on its streets. I have a few projects in mind while there, which involve portraits...and having this attachment will add a different style. I'll be interested to explore its video results as well.

This reminds me that John Stanmeyer published a wonderful book Island of Spirits, which he photographed using analogue (ie real) Holgas.

The main drawback with a Holga lens is that it needs a huge amount of light. That being said, I prefer an underexposed look for the images made with it, so a manual setting is preferable.

Canon 7D With A Holga Lens f8

Just Because...Les Autres Blogs

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

I had non photography stuff on my mind yesterday....so my posting today will be to simply brag about my new other blogs.

I consider myself to be a sort of a purist with my documentary travel photography; no cropping, and minimal post-processing, so I thought I'd use The Travel Photographer on Tumbler blog as a space to let my post processing "creativity" shine. Naturally, the post-processing so far for the images on that blog is essentially done via an app called Flare App which, I explained in previous posts, is an easy way to achieve interesting results at the push of a button or two. It's even simpler than using LR Presets.

The above image of porters at the spice market in Old Delhi is an example of what I post on the Tumblr blog....so take a look and follow it if you like.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

I also maintain The Leica File for my street photography in New York City. I am experimenting with the well-established techniques of street photography, which include shooting from the hip, amongst others. New Yorkers are the savviest people in many things, and they notice a photographer when they see one...some of them are so good that they recognize a Leica even if its logo is covered with black tape....so it's not that easy to shoot candid photographs in the big city. Don't be fooled by the "I'm engrossed in my own world" attitude or "I'm busy fiddling with my cell phone" posture...they possess antennas, receptors of some kind...that go active when a photographer is on the horizon.

The fellow in the above photograph was intently reading a Chinese menu stuck to the window, but somehow noticed me aiming my camera at him, and started to move away as I captured his startled expression.

In both these blogs, the size of the images is at least 1000 pixels wide.