New Website: The Travel Photographer

As announced in my Next Week In The Travel Photographer post, I've completed (well, almost) the face-lifting, liposuctioning and tightening of my website, and it's now ready to brave the outside world. It's based on a WordPress blogging theme which I deem to be just right for my style of gallery categorization.

The 18 galleries are categorized as in photo essays, and each has a thumbnail with a short description. It makes sense, it's easy to navigate and is simple and intuitive.

One caveat: The Photo Expeditions link is intentionally not working...and that's because I have yet to announce the details of my next one in October 2011...so be patient. It'll be announced in a few days.

Here's the current link.

And it's iPad-friendly as well...by the way, iPad's Mobile Safari can't manage a HTML file with more than about 6MB of images on it, so I had to take this into consideration when building this portal. The individual galleries are iPad-readable but not all images will download on Mobile Safari...this will be fixed either by using a work-around trick, or just reducing the resolution of the images.

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My Book: Darshan

I'm chuffed to announce my new photo book DARSHAN is now available from Blurb. There are two styles of the book (72 pages with black & white photographs) on Blurb's bookstore. It's a large (13x11 inches) landscape hardcover version with either a hard cover dust jacket, or a hard cover with image wrap. I much prefer the latter.

It's a handsome book of selected black & white photographs from my travels to India over a span of no less than 10 years. Street photography in Old Delhi and in the alleys of Kochi, portraits of Sufis at the dargahs, Theyyam rituals of Malabar, Rajasthani nomads, Gujarati tribals, widows in their ashrams of Vrindavan and sadhus on the ghats of Varanasi, as well as pilgrims at the Maha Kumbh Mela.

All the details are available on a page of my website DARSHAN. If you choose to buy, the links will take you to my bookstore on Blurb, which has a preview of the book.

If you don't choose to buy, that's okay...but why don't you leave a nice comment on its Blurb page??? It'll be appreciated.

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James Morgan: People of the Coral Triangle

James Morgan features the People of the Coral Triangle, a well made documentary on the Bajau Laut, on his website, along with other multimedia projects such as the Eagle Hunters (previously featured on TTP), and fast-paced documentaries of Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo.

As he explains, the Coral Triangle refers to a triangular shaped area of the tropical marine waters of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste. It is there that 3,000 species of fish live, including the largest fish - the whale shark, and the coelacanth. It also provides habitat to six out of the world’s of seven marine turtle species.

The Bajau Laut are an indigenous ethnic group of the southern Philippines, who have migrated to neighboring Malaysia over the course of the past 50 years. They depend directly in the natural resources of the Coral Triangle, and are the last nomadic marine communities of the world. Mostly Muslims, some also worship local sea spirits.

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Saiful Huq Omi: Interview

Screen Capture Courtesy World Press Photo

Saiful Huq Omi is a Bangladeshi photojournalist, whose photos appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Time and Asian Photography, among others. His work has been exhibited in galleries from Zimbabwe and Russia to Japan and his home country. He received a number of awards, including the All Roads National Geographic Award, and an emerging photographers grant from the Open Society Institute.

I thought his recent interview with the World Press Photo ** was one of the most honest I've seen in a long time. Saiful Huq spoke candidly, and tells his interlocutor something which resonates with many emerging photographers in the world...

"...the world has seen us through the eyes of white photographers from the west.."

Well said, Saiful Huq! That's true, but these days are now gone, never to return. It's now the time for local photographers to show us their cultures, their countries and their creativity...as indeed you and many others like you have already done...and will continue to do.

His Rohingya project gained him a grant from the Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund. He is represented by Polaris Images, and published his first photo book, Heroes Never Die - Tales of Political Violence in Bangladesh, in 2006.

** (The direct link may redirect you to the main World Press photo website. If so, you'll have to navigate to its multimedia library and then to "Meet its Participants")

Via Duckrabbit.

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Marco di Lauro: Italian Traditions

Photo © Marco Di Lauro-All Rights Reserved

I did feature Marco Di Lauro's work previously on this blog, but he recently updated his website, and boy...what a website it is!!! It's a great way to start off the week.

For a long time, I felt no urge to click on any of his galleries...the website's multimedia introduction of large sized powerful photographs and audio clips kept me mesmerized for quite a while...and it will do that to you too. There's a lot of Ken Burns effect: not my favorite at all but very effective here.

I perused Marco's galleries, and particularly liked his compelling Italian Traditions feature which documents the various medieval festivals and practices still celebrated in Italy today.

For instance, the Carnival of Venice was originally devised as a social equalizer, allowing the poor, under the safety of elaborate masks, to belittle the rich at least once a year...and the Palio di Siena, an exciting horse race which is held and governed by rules since 1644...and the intriguing annual Procession of the Snakes held in Cocullo when the statue of the patron saint, San Domenico, is paraded covered with live snakes.

An engrossing collection of documentary photographs which I encourage you to visit and admire.

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Next Week On The Travel Photographer

For the week starting Monday December 6,  the following posts are in the blog's pipeline:

1. The work of a photographer/photojournalist, whose website is a delight. I chose his work on Italian traditions...I seldom showcase European subject matters, so this one will partially make up for this.
2. The work of another photographer with an interesting reportage on the Sea Nomads.
3. The diverse portfolio of a travel photographer...large images!
4. Interesting photographs by an Indian photographer of Mexico..
5. An interview with a Bangladeshi photographer will be featured.

Will another hint as to my forthcoming photo~expedition be disclosed? Maybe. And I should be receiving the first copy of another book of my photographs...all black & white...made during my long love affair with India...I'll keep you posted. Oh, its title is Darshan.

Plus other posts "shot from the hip" as the week goes on.

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Paul Patrick: African Witches

Photo © Paul Patrick-All Rights Reserved

People in eastern, southern, and western Africa generally believe in witches, both male and female, and Paul Patrick, a Norwegian photojournalist, was able to document them in Ghana. He started traveling at the age of 16 in search of stories from Europe, India, Nepal, China, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Morocco.

Frenzy and hysteria about witches still grip the African mind, and witchcraft evokes fear, hatred and suspicion among Africans. Africans believe that any misfortune, whether accidents, deaths, diseases, infertility or child-birth difficulties, business failures to the male and female witches. Those accused of witchcraft are expelled from their homes, and forced to survive in the streets, in the bush, or in makeshift camps...and even killed.

You'll find the captions under each of Patrick's photographs in his gallery Witch Village are descriptive and informative...and provide background on the circumstances that caused for these women to be considered witches.

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