Marji Lang: Gujarat

Photo © Marji Lang-All Rights Reserved

Marji Lang is a French travel and documentary photographer, whose color-full photographs in her India galleries just jump at you.

She's fallen in love with India and has already traveled there four times. Over the past 10 years, Marji traveled in South East Asia, and was influenced by Henri Cartier Bresson and more recently by the work of her compatriot and Indiaphile Claude Renault.

She rarely plans ahead her trips, and just takes it a day at a time. No specific hotel reservations nor fixed itineraries. She prefers making her photographs with a human presence...but is not against making a few that are devoid of people (such as the one above). Marji only uses a 24-70mm lens.

I was interested in her Gujarat gallery as some of her photographs are of Jain female pilgrims (sadhvi) in Palitana, one of our stops during my forthcoming photo expedition In Search of Gujarat's Sufis next month.

Romain Alary: The Street

Photo © Romain Alary-All Rights Reserv

Romain Alary is French photographer-filmographer who traveled extensively, and has recently completed a voyage of many months from Paris to Tokyo. He now lives in France where he's involved in both photography and cinematic projects.

From an entry in his blog, Alain was involved in the movie "Women Are Heroes" by JR whilst parts of it was being filmed in India. The reason I mention this is that he posted a movie clip of Bundi, which is very well made...a time-lapse of the small Rajasthani town, which I initially took to be Pushkar because of its central lake. Most of Bundi's houses/bulidings are painted blue, which gives the movie an interesting look. It's not posted on Vimeo, so you'll have to click on Romain's blog to view it.

Neil Wade: Kham & Amdo

Neil Wade is an editorial and corporate photographer based in Taipei, Taiwan. His photography was featured in varied magazines as National Geographic, Forbes, The Financial Times of London and Skateboarder.

Kham is a region currently split between the Tibetan Autonomous Region and the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan and Qinghai. The people of Kham are reputed warriors. Many Khampas are members of the Bon religion; an esoteric branch of Tibetan Buddhism, and are considered with suspicion by more mainstream Tibetan sects.

The traditional Tibetan region of Amdo is located on the northeast corner of the Tibetan Plateau. Most of Amdo lies in modern day Qinghai province. It is famous for producing some of Tibet's most famous spiritual leaders.

Eric Kruszewski: Tibet

Eric Kruszewski is a Baltimore-native, who started traveling internationally in 2005. He is drawn to new cultures, faces, practices and daily life. His website features galleries from Tibet, Mongolia, India, Georgia, and closer to home, Alaska and the American West. Spend some time at Eric's Mongolia gallery, which has some nice photographs of the Naadam festival.

The above photograph is of Tibetans prostrating themselves in Lhasa. Prostration is an important expression of Tibetan Buddhism. It's said that Tibetans are expected to prostrate themselves 100,000 times a year. Although they prostrate themselves at temples, some pilgrims cover the entire 33-mile route around Mount Kailas by repeatedly prostrating themselves.

The first time I saw a Buddhist pilgrim prostrating himself in such a way was at the Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu, about 10 years ago. He wore a full-body leather apron, and wooden "clogs" for his hands, and he circumambulated the stupa for as long as I was there.

The Travel Photographer's 2010 Favorite Image Makers (Part 2)

Following yesterday's post, here are the second 5 of the 10 travel and/or documentary photographers (listed in no particular order) whose work was posted on this blog, and whose photographs were my favorites during 2010.

As I said, deciding which is a visual favorite amongst the hundreds of photographers I've shown here in this blog is a highly subjective and personal choice...nothing more or less. Every single photographer whose work was featured on my blog is worthy of praise and admiration.

1. Jamie Williams:

Photo © Jamie Williams- All Rights Reserved

This photograph is part of Jamie Williams' Tibet series, and is featured in his gorgeous website. I posted on Jamie Williams here.

2. Kieron Nelson:

Photo © Kieron Nelson-All Rights Reserved

This photograph of a Zhuang fisherman is part of Kieron's Guangxi gallery. I posted on Kieron's Vanishing Cultures photographs here.

3. Andrea Pistolesi:

Photo © Andrea Pistolesi-All Rights Reserved

This photograph of a Cambodian dancer is part of Andrea's gallery of Cambodia. I had featured Andrea's reportage work on the Rohingya refugees here.

4. Diego Verges:

Photo © Diego Verges-All Rights Reserved

This photograph is one of the latest of Diego's projects which are featured on his website. I featured Diego's work in a number of posts...this particular one is here.

5. Jørgen Johanson:

Photo © Jørgen Johanson-All Rights Reserved

Although I posted Jørgen's work on Tibet, I also encourage you to visit the rest of his galleries, including the one of Ethiopia, where I've seen the above photograph.

The Travel Photographer's 2010 Favorite Image Makers (Part 1)

First, let me render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s...this post was suggested by travel photographer Paolo Evangelista. He suggested I ought to post some of my favorite photographers whose work I've featured on this blog over the year....great idea!

So here's the first 5 of the 10 travel and/or documentary photographers (listed in no particular order) whose work was posted on this blog, and whose photographs were my favorites during 2010. The remainder (Part 2) will be posted tomorrow.

As I always say to whoever is interested; deciding which is a visual favorite amongst the hundreds of photographers I've shown here in this blog is a highly subjective and personal choice...nothing more or less. Every single photographer whose work was featured on my blog is worthy of praise and admiration.

I decided against grouping these photographs in a slideshow, so this is going to be a rather vertically long post:

1. Matjaz Krivic:

Photo © Matjaz Krivic-All Rights Reserved

This photograph is part of Matjaz's gallery of the Pir-e Shaliar festival in the Kurdish area of Iran. I posted Matjaz's work here.

2. Raphael Nguyen:

Photo © Raphael Nguyen-All Rights Reserved

This photograph is part of Raphael's gallery of super saturated photographs of Hoi An. I posted Raphael's work here.

3. Chico Sanchez:

Photo © Chico Sanchez-All Rights Reserved

This photograph is part of Chico Sanchez's audio-slideshow of Flamenco dancers. I posed Chico's work here.

4. Jehad Nga:

Photo © Jehad Nga-All Rights Reserved

This photograph is part of Jehad's Turkana exhibit at the Bonni Benrubi Gallery in NYC, and was also included in the Daily Telegraph article on his photographs. I had posted Jehad's work a number of times here.

5. Richard Murai:

Photo © Richard Murai-All Rights Reserved

This photograph is by Richard Murai, who recently won the Travel Photographer of the Year contest in the World in Motion category. I had posted an image by Richard Murai here.

Fernanda Preto: Cowboys of Pantanal

Fernanda Preto is a Brazilian photojournalist currently based in Sao Paulo, and after living in the Amazon area for three years, has worked in environment and social reportages. She obtained degrees from the Panamerican School of Arts in Sao Paulo and from the Tuiuti University of Parana.

Her short film is about the Cowboys of Pantanal, which she produced using a Canon 5D Mark II. Pantanal is the largest tropical wetland in the world. Its largest area is in the state of Matto Grosso do Sul, with the rest being in Bolivia and Paraguay. It's considered as one of the last 37 natural wilderness areas in the world. The cowboys working in the area have survived for more than 100 years, doing the same task as the fathers and forefathers did, drive cattle to the highlands before the floods.

You can also see Fernanda's very well composed still images of the Pantanal Cowboys on her website by hovering your cursor over Features.

National Geographic Photo Contest 2010

Photo © Chan Kwok Hung- Courtesy National Geographic

The National Geographic 2010 Photo Contest winners were announced. More than 16,000 photographs were submitted from around the globe, and 3 earned top honors in the people, places, and nature categories.

The winner in the People category is photographer Chan Kwok Hung of Hong Kong, who captured the photograph of an Indonesian farmer and his buffalo charging through the mud in a buffalo race called "makepung".

I also liked the photograph of a Xhosa boy crying during a circumcision ceremony by Robin Utrecht which garnered the Honorable Mention in the People category.

Samih Güven: India & More

Photo © Samih Güven-All Rights Reserved

Samih Güven is a Turkish photographer currently residing in Paris. Despite degrees in political sciences and Turkish language/Oriental civilizations, he practiced photography for over 20 years. His recent voyage to Asia is encouraging him to become a professional photographer, and to take up formal training in photojournalism.

He is also a founder member of a French collective called Phrawup.

Take a look at his India color portfolio from which the above photograph is taken, as well as those of Burma, China and Nepal to name but a few. His galleries are both in color, and black & white.

Vincent Prévost: West Papua

Photo © Vincent Prévost-All Rights Reserved

 I occasionally receive emails from photographers such as the one from Vincent Prévost that make the work of maintaining The Travel Photographer blog feel really worthwhile.

Vincent tells me he's been a regular reader of The Travel Photographer blog for about 2 years, and that it has been a source of inspiration to him. He cites my two posts on Grenville Charles and Diego Verges, who documented tribes of West Papua,  as triggering his own photo expedition "Highlands Encounters" to this remote part of the world.

That's what this blog is all about...to inspire photographers to explore other unfamiliar areas, to try new techniques and to document endangered cultures.

He has been teaching French in South Korea since 2002 and is also a freelance editorial photographer who fuses fine art and journalism. While most of his work is in color, he also enjoys black & white photography, and travels with compact audio equipment to add a further dimension to his visual work.

West Papua is an Indonesian province that borders the independent nation of Papua New Guinea and forms the western half of the world's second largest island. The indigenous people of West Papua are of the same ethnic origin as those in the eastern half of the island of New Guinea. Ethnically and culturally, they are also related to other Melanesian peoples of the Pacific.

Sam Chadwick: Cuba & More

Photo © Sam Chadwick-All Rights Reserved

Sam Chadwick is a travel photographer and a Hell's Kitchen (NYC) resident where he works on a variety of photographic projects and planning his next photographic travels.

He started photography as a main means of documenting his 5-day ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro. Since then, he traveled to over 50 countries, creating a large collection of images of people, cultures and environments. In 2007, he reached the semi-finals of the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year, and his images have appeared on Reuters.

You can see his many galleries on his website, from Guatemala, Belize, Nepal, Costa Rica, East Africa and my favorite Cuba.

Travel Photographer Of The Year 2010

Photo © Larry Louie/Courtesy TPoTY

 The Travel Photographer Of The Year Competition has named its winner for 2010, and it's Larry Louie with his wonderful black & white photographs of Djenne in Mali.

Larry Louie is a Canadian optometrist and a photographer, who is using his photography as a platform to highlight the work of an eye care charity, as well as other issues and challenges in a world facing rapid urbanization and globalization.

I'm glad that black & white photographs have won this contest...as I think color imagery is seen as a "sexier" form for travel photography contests. Readers of this blog will know that I'm going through my own black & white phase, so I'm indeed glad.

Having also seen the remaining entrants, I have to say another photographer considerably impressed me (and certainly the competition's judges) with his lovely work...and that is Richard Murai of the United States who won the World In Motion category.

Photo © Richard Murai-Courtesy TPOTY

Richard Murai teaches creative photography in Northern California, and is interested in documenting sacred sites of the world. He traveled to locations within India, Peru, Turkey, Egypt, Russia and across Asia and Western Europe. His sepia-like images of Bhuddist tsechu dancers are just ethereal.

I suggest you drop by the TPOTY website...there's quite a number of excellent work by travel photographers.

Prantik Mazumder: Mexico

Photo © Prantik Mazumder-All Rights Reserved

 Prantik Mazumder is a self-taught photographer, originally from Calcutta, India, and moved to North America for his graduate studies. Currently settled in Ithaca, New York, he's pursuing a career in scientific research.

He traveled to Mexico in 2006 with his first digital SLR, and has images from New Orleans, Ithaca, Peru and Mexico. I particulalry liked the above picture made in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, because of its colors and composition...and for the graffiti.

The Revolucion signage with the graffiti asking the local police not be brutal while the woman is covering her eyes is a message in itself.

Mitchell Kanashkevich: Vanuatu (And More)

Photo © Mitchell Kanashkevich - All Rights Reserved

As promised, here's the updated website of Mitchell Kanashkevich, replete with new inspirational imagery of his recent travels. One of the best travel, documentary and cultural photographers I know, Mitchell describes himself as a tireless wanderer and documentarian. He's also an author, and published several popular ebooks. You'll also agree with me that Mitchell's photographs are gorgeous, and the new website is equally lovely. It's for a good reason that his website is on my blogroll.


On his website, he introduces us to various galleries of his travels in Vanuatu. The first gallery is of South West Bay, a remote enclave on the island of Malekula. It is separated from the rest of the island by mountains and dense forest, and the only way to get there is by sea or air. Until 50 years ago, its tribal inhabitants practiced cannibalism and warfare. Although the introduction of Christianity resulted in the disappearance of these practices, it also caused the erosion of traditional rituals and customs.

Vanuatu is an island nation located in the south Pacific ocean, and includes more than 80 islands, out of which 65 are inhabited. Its population is less than 220,000 and are of Melanesian descent. I came across Vanuatu while involved in the banking industry, as it's an offshore financial center and a tax haven...but I never imagined that it would have such visual beauty.

Dennis Cordell: Buddhist Monks

Photo © Dennis Cordell-All Rights Reserved

383...that's the number of square format black & white portraits of Buddhist monks (and a few sadhus) that Dennis Cordell is exhibiting on his website; all made with a film Hasselblad which he prefers to the 35mm format. These are not photographs made because the subjects are handsome or beautiful...they're are ethnographic in nature. I believe he uses and pushes Tri-X film, then scans the negatives and prints digitally. I've featured Dennis' portraits of Buddhist novices at the Gyudzin Tantric Monastery School in Ladakh before. These were published on Flickr, but he has now acquired a standalone website.

I'm not certain where all these impressive portraits were made, but I did notice that some had background information that indicated Bodh Gaya. A religious site and place of pilgrimage in the Indian state of Bihar, Bodh Gaya is famous for being the place of the Buddha's attainment of enlightenment. It is one of the most important of the main four pilgrimage sites related to the life of the Buddha. The other three are Kushinagar, Sarnath (both in India) and Lumbini (Nepal).

Dennis trained as a painter, and his favorite subject matter, either in painting or in photography, has always been portraiture...especially of Buddhist monks and similar. He prefers black & white because, in his own voice: "The greater the range of tonality between black and white, the greater, for me, is the image. A photo can never have too many shades of grey. Greys are the midtones that create the designs and textures woven into the photo."

I agree. This is the case, perhaps not always...but often. As I mentioned in an earlier post about my own photographs of Bali, I got too much color while there...and I found black & white more calming...more soothing and more, in a strange way, realistic.

Fred Canonge: Pehlwan of Benares

Photo © Fred Canonge-All Rights Reserved

Pehlwani (also known as Kushti) is a traditional style of wrestling popular in the sub-continent of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The wrestler is known as pahlawan which, interestingly for those who are etymologists, is the colloquial Arabic word meaning "clown". I wouldn't tell this to these wrestlers, as they would be offended and I'd be on the mat in less than a second.

Based in Paris, Fred Canonge is a French freelance photographer who has extensively travelled in India for the last ten years, and is constantly exploring all the nuances and the diversity of Indian society. His website is replete with galleries of India, including some of images made in Kathputli and Varanasi, but the gallery which I liked the most has his work on the pehlawan.

Varanasi has a number of traditional wrestling training gyms (known as akhara), and one can spot them working with rudimentary weights near Tulsi ghat. The wrestlers' diets consist of milk, almonds, ghee, eggs and chapattis, but have a difficult time making ends meet. Some of them find work as bodyguards to those who need protection or as "enforcers" during political elections.

Books By Participants In TTP's Photo~Expeditions™

A few weeks ago, I wished here that more of the participants who join my photo~expeditions would, not only feature their work on their websites as most do already, but also publish their images in book form. It's not an easy task to prep and publish a book, but the eventual satisfaction is just sublime. I know first hand because I self-published Bali: Island of Odalan, and now I'm waiting for the sample proof of my second book Darshan (an announcement will be made shortly).

So I was very pleased to see 4 members of The Travel Photographer's Photo~Expeditions™ have already published their books (and with some, already their second or even third book).

1. Torie Olson joined my Theyyam of Malabar Photo`Expedition™ in 2009, and has just published the wonderful Life In Color (Photographs of Gujarat), a 117 page large hard cover landscape book.

2. Sandy Chandler joined a number of my photo trips; the latest being Bali: Island of Odalan Photo~Expedition™ this past July, and has just published Calling The Soul, an 80 page standard landscape book that promises to be a gem.

3. Charlotte Rush-Bailey joined my Tribes of Rajasthan & Gujarat Photo Expedition™ earlier this year, and quickly published her Kutch Classic, a 98 page large format hard cover landscape with her "specially brewed" photographs.

4) Susan Storm joined my Sikkim & Darjeeling Photo Expedition™ in 2003. A photographer and journalist for over 20 years, she worked for many of the top magazines in most continents. She published Colours In The Dust (On The Sari Trail), a 232 pages standard landscape book of her lovely images of India.

My congratulations to these photographers who took the initiative and featured their work in print form. I'm looking forward to hearing from other participants as to their book publishing efforts. C'mon, guys!

Kares Le Roy: Tibet & More

Here's the photographic work of Kares Le Roy, a French photographer and graphic designer. Unfortunately, his bio is very limited on his web site, but he traveled and photographed in Tibet, Nepal, India, Bali, Cuba, Cambodia and Morocco...returning with quite an inventory of photographs which he categorizes as Portraits, Life, Street and Landscape.

Apratim Saha: Varanasi

Apratim Saha is both a pharmaceutical executive and a photographer, whose work has been featured in the National Geographic and other publications. He's also a contributor to NationalGeographicStock.com

While I've liked Apratim's Varanasi gallery in which the above photograph of the sadhu is fetured, there's a photograph of a holy man, possibly after a dip in the Ganges, carefully arranging what can only be described as a comb-over. A priceless image of the temporal perhaps trumping the sacred. You'll find it in the Culture portfolio.

Raphael Nguyen: Vietnam

Photo © Raphael Nguyen-All Rights Reserved

Photo © Raphael Nguyen-All Rights Reserved

Raphael Nguyen is a French-Vietnamese photographer, who moved to Vietnam in 1999. He lived Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and finally in Hoi An in the very center of the country. He travels within the country, uses either film or digital cameras; Nikon FM2, Nikon F3 and Nikon D70, Canon EOS 5 D and Canon EOS 5 D Mark II.

I was drawn to his gallery of Daily Life in Vietnam with over 100 intensely saturated color photographs of various areas of Vietnam. These range from simple portraits, lifestyle shots, culinary images, environmental portraits etc. The ones I liked most and feature here are of Hoi An, and these two underscore Raphael's photographic style...which gives his images an overly golden saturated look.

Hoi An's old town was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO as a well-preserved example of a Southeast Asian trading port of the 15th to 19th centuries, with a unique building with local and foreign influences. I was in Hoi An for a couple of days while photographing for a NGO in 2003, and had little time to photograph for myself. I sense it's time to return and redress this shortcoming.