Talking With Our Hands?

All Photos © Neal Jackson-All Rights ReservedI just stumbled on this collage of photographs made by Neal Jackson during the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop (FPW) in Manali last June.It appears that some the FPW instructors are fond of using their hands whilst conducting their classes....virtually the same gestures and mannerisms!From the top left is Michael Robinson Chavez,...

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WTF!? Waiting For The GF1...

On May 24, 2010 I ordered the Panasonic GF1 with a 20mm f/1.7 lens from Amazon for $812 (excluding NY tax), which listed it as being in stock. I chose the Super Saver shipping discount so I was charged nothing for shipping.Not a bad deal cost-wise since it saves me a little money, except for this: on receiving my order, Amazon emailed me its confirmation that the shipping...

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Underage Marriage in India

Photo © Prakash Hatvalne/AP Photo-All Rights ReservedPhoto © Prakash Hatvalne/AP Photo-All Rights ReservedTwo photoblogs, MSNBC's Photoblog and The Denver Post's Plog, featured images from a mass marriage ceremony held recently in the town of Rajgarh, in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Both are credited to Prakash Hatvalne/AP Photo.The top photograph is of Mamta (7 years...

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My Work: Orissa & Chhattisgarth

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedPhoto © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedHere are two images made while traveling in Chhattisgarh and the neighboring Orissa. There were made using my first digital camera, the Canon 10D...remember that one?The first is of an Odissi dancer in Bhubaneswar. Odissi is one of the eight classical dance forms of India. It originates from...

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POV: The Guardian Eyewitness iPad App

I saw this posted on various blogs, and thought I'd add my two cents. It's the newly released Guardian Eyewitness app for the Apple iPad, shown off by photographer David Levene. I can't argue with the premise that it's gorgeous...but what does it bring to the table beyond what a laptop and/or netbook already does? The Guardian photographs can be appreciated on a laptop/netbook as well, no?I have a Mac Book Pro and its display is equally gorgeous. I have a cheap Acer netbook, and its display is certainly not as great, but it's cheaper than the iPad,...

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Wenjie Yang: Nuo Opera

Photo © Wenjie Yang-All Rights ReservedWenjie Yang is a freelance photographer, who was born and raised in Shanghai. She comes to photography and photojournalism with a background in advertising production and production of movie crews for a number of years.She currently attends the Documentary Photography and Photojournalism One-Year Certificate Program at International Center...

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HabbyCam DSLR Shoulder-Mount

This shoulder mount might be useful to those who use DSLRs for movie making. It's called the HabbyCam (don't ask me why) and it's reasonably priced at $250.It's essentially a brace, is made of aluminum and stainless steel, and weighs only 3 lbs. The shoulder bracket is drilled with holes that can accommodate other accessories such as sound recorders and the like.I don't have...

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Asim Rafiqui: The Idea of India

"!--!--"The close relationships between the island’s Muslim and Hindu communities in fact reveal a blurring of religious and spiritual lines, reminding us of the artificiality of the labels of ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’ and the ordinary human being’s ability to find accommodation and tolerance of the practices and values of his neighbors." - Gujarat’s Faded Testaments – The Parables...

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Antonin Kratochvil : Moscow Nights

Here's an audio slideshow of photographs by Antonin Kratochvil titled "Moscow Nights" that takes us to Moscow's decadent underworld, which is the latest feature on VII Magazine. The images themselves are vintage Kratochvil; some of which are tilted to impart uncomfortable tension (and also to be different). Although he's known for his black and white documentary photography,...

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Books: The Complete Photographer

My work will appear in The Complete Photographer by Tom Ang, which is being published by Dorling Kindersley Limited. According to Amazon, the book will be released on July 19, 2010.I"ll be featured as a Master of Travel Photography, with a profile and work resume. The Complete Photographer encourages photographers to explore every discipline and experiment with different approaches,...

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WTF Department: Ridiculous Bling

Here's a piece of ridiculous bling which ought to be filed in The Travel Photographer's WTF Department's compost heap, along with the Leica Hermes.Found in this week's The New York Time's T-Magazine is a Yves Saint-Laurent travel adapter, which will cost $450 whoever is silly enough to buy it. Mind you, the blurb tells us that fashion has come to the rescue of the stylish...

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My Work: Vedic Gurukul

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedPhoto © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedPhoto © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedPhoto © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedDuring my Theyyams of Malabar Photo~Expedition™ in early 2009, I had arranged for a photo shoot at an ancient Vedic 'gurukul' (or training/boarding school very similar to the Buddhist monasteries for novitiates,...

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The Travel Photographer's Statistics

For some reason, my earlier post on this got deleted...So here it is again:I thought a little trumpet blowing would be appropriate this Sunday morning...so here goes.The Travel Photographer blog is ranked 1st when searching using Google for "The Travel Photographer" (it's sort of obvious, but it's still cool)...Using Google, it ranks 2nd when searching for "Travel Photographer"...

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One Shot: NYT's Rina Castelnuovo

Photo © Rina Castelnuovo-All Rights ReservedThe New York Times' Lens blog features the work of Rina Castelnuovo in Palestine & Israel. Essentially a "smooch" job by the writer, but there's no denying that she deserves every word of it. After all, she's the photographer who captured the infamous photograph of the thuggish Israeli settler tossing wine at a Palestinian woman...

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Diego Vergés: West Guinea

Photo © Diego Vergés-All Rights ReservedDiego Vergés is back at it again, and has completed uploading a couple of new galleries on his website. This time, the photographs (color and B&W) were made during Diego's recent West Guinea adventure in the Baliem Valley.The Baliem Valley is also known as the Grand Valley, and is located in the highlands of Western New Guinea. It...

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Marc Garanger: Femmes Algériennes

Photo © Marc Garanger -All Rights ReservedAlgeria's War of Independence from France officially lasted almost a decade, but its genesis goes back to the early 40s. It was one the bloodiest struggles against a brutal colonial power with over a million Algerians killed, with thousands interned in concentration camps. To this day, the French have not accepted responsibility for...

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Jehad Nga's Turkana in NYC

Photo © Jehad Nga -All Rights ReservedThe beautiful work of Jehad Nga, one of my favorite photographers, is on show at the Bonni Benrubi Gallery on the Upper East Side in New York. The exhibition runs from May 13 to June 16, 2010, and is timed to coincide with the New York Photo Festival. Limited edition prints are priced from $2,800-$10,000.The UK's Daily Telegraph also featured...

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The Travel Photographer's Photo-Expeditions™ 2011

Although I haven't firmed up any decisions yet, I am starting to mull over two (of the possible 3) Photo-Expeditions™ for 2011 that will be non-Arab Islam-centric. The two expeditions' underlying themes will be documenting the existing syncretism between Islam, its Sufi offshoot and another major tradition. The itineraries will include photographing certain rituals at obscure...

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Steven Greaves: Kashi, City of the Dead

Photo © Steven Greaves-All Rights ReservedAmerican writer Mark Twain wrote:"Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together."Varanasi (Benares) or Kashi is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and probably the oldest of India, and is one of the most sacred pilgrimage places...

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NPR: The Grand Trunk Road

The Grand Trunk Road played an important role in India's history at every step of its way. Some 3500 years ago, with the Aryan invasion of the subcontinent, it served as a corridor starting at the Khyber Pass winding eastward between the Himalayas and the Thar Desert onto the Gangetic plain. Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Buddhism spread through it, and Muslim proselytizers...

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FP: Tomas van Houtryve's Maostalgia

Photo © Tomas van Houtryve-All Rights Reserved When one thinks of Foreign Policy magazine, large photographs and photo essays don't really come to mind...but that would be incorrect. The magazine regularly features photo essays from well-known photojournalist and, contrary to many online newsy magazines, does a nice job showcasing them in a large size.This month, Foreign Policy...

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NPR: Sebastian Junger On 'War'

The arm-chair warriors amongst us will like this post on NPR:"Five times between June 2007 and June 2008 the writer Sebastian Junger traveled to a remote Army outpost in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. Junger, a contributing editor for Vanity Fair, made the trip to embed with a company of soldiers from the Army's 173rd Airborne brigade as they fought to keep the Taliban from controlling a small, treacherous plot of land."I have yet to read all of the article and listen to the excerpts, but I can easily predict that a book such as this one,...

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Kieron Nelson: Vanishing Cultures

Photo © Kieron Nelson-All Rights ReservedThe only introduction from Kieron Nelson to his work is an email with his website's address, so I assumed he was suggesting I took a look at it and, if it passed muster, add it to The Travel Photographer blog. Well, it easily passed muster and I'm delighted it did as it's a veritable trove of lovely photographs of indigenous people...

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POV: Imitation...Flattery or Buggery?

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedThe answer? It depends.This time, I'm not referring to visual plagiarism but to the imitation of style and copying of unimaginative itineraries in the travel photography tours/workshops industry. Many travel photographers recently awoke to the fact that tours and workshops can add a little something to their bottom line (actually,...

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Albert Kahn: It's A Wonderful World....

Not all bankers work for "great vampire squids wrapped around the face of humanity". Well, some may enjoy doing just that, reaping millions in the process...but others may be like Albert Kahn. Certainly a product of a different age but Albert Kahn was a wealthy French banker and philanthropist, who started an visionary project to create a color photographic record of the peoples...

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RESOLVE Blog: 3 FPW Instructors Talk

liveBooks recently got an update about the impressive lineup of instructors for this year’s Foundry Photojournalism Workshop happening from June 20-26 in Istanbul, Turkey.Some of them spoke to Miki Johnson of livebooks' RESOLVE blog.Ron Haviv's favorite aspect of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop is "Watching the growth of the students in such a short period of time".Ami...

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Marco Paoluzzo: Omo Valley

Photo © Marco Paoluzzo-All Rights ReservedYes, it does seem that I'm on an Omo Valley streak...and why not? Here's another photographer who showcases his work in Ethiopia. His work doesn't stop at the Omo Valley, but explores many of the country's corners.Marco Paoluzzo is a Swiss photographer who worked as a freelance photographer for advertising and industry, and then took...

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Lightroom 3's Ice Climbing Ad

It's only because I like Lightroom a lot and use it virtually all the time that I agreed to post this advert on The Travel Photographer's Blog. As my readers know, I don't place any ads on this blog, but I occasionally write on products that I like and use...and Lightroom makes that cut.Tyler Stableford is an adventure photographer, and was given the challenge of shooting an ice climbing expedition and perfecting his images with the help of Lightroom 3 beta...

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Sarah Elliott: Women of Omo Valley

Photo © Sarah Elliott-All Rights ReservedSarah Elliott interned for James Nachtwey and assisted Stanley Greene, and traveled extensively around the world pursuing social issues. Her work was opublished by The New York Times, The LA Times, IHT, The Guardian, Monocle, The Observer, Financial Times and the Red Cross and many more.Sarah's galleries include images and essays from...

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POV:iPad & Photography Redux

The New York Times reports that Apple announced it had sold one million units of its iPads as of Friday last week, and that demand outstrips supply. Apple also said there were now 5,000 iPad-specific apps available for the device.Macworld also published a first look review at Apple's $29 iPad Camera Connection Kit, which confirms that the device can upload and store RAW images...

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Jonathan Maher: Venice

Photo © Jonathan Maher-All Rights ReservedIt's not often that I feature European travel photography, so I thought I'd break the mold today by featuring the work of Jonathan Maher on Venice and its Carnival.I've not been to Venice during Carnival yet, but know a number of photographers who've been and returned with splendid work. I visited Venice a few years ago, ill prepared...

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Giulio di Sturco: Dreaming Fashion

I've been meaning to feature Giulio di Sturco's photography for a while now, and recently revisited his website, to which he added a number of galleries.One of those consists of his work during Indian Fashion Week in New Delhi, and is titled Dreaming Fashion. You may wonder what I chose to feature this gallery on what is essentially a travel photography blog. My rationale...

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One Shot: Kate Holt

Photograph © Kate Holt-All Rights ReservedI'm severely pressed for time, so this post will unfortunately be short in prose but hopefully not in substance. I just thought to showcase this magnificent photograph by Kate Holt of an Afghan woman holding a malnourished infant at a therapeutic feeding center in Kandahar.Kate is a news and features photographer, covering events throughout...

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Bruno Barbey: Shanghai World Expo

Not entirely travel photography related but Magnum In Motion is featuring an audio slideshow of Bruno Barbey's photographs of the construction of Shanghai's World Expo construction site and parts of its old city.Shanghai saw the opening of the 2010 World Expo today, starting an event to herald the Chinese financial hub's return as a major world city after the spartan industrialism...

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