Kris Bailey's Durga Puja: The Spirit of Kolkata

"Durga Puja is a celebration of the Mother Goddess, and the victory of the revered warrior Goddess Durga over the evil buffalo demon Mahishasura."

Kris Bailey recently sent me her audio slideshow made during my Kolkata's Cult of Durga Photo~Expedition & Workshop which took place a little over a year ago (how time flies!!!).

It's Durga Puja time right now in the wonderful city of Kolkata. Kolkata, the city that to my mind epitomizes India more than any other city in India.

You ought to watch it as it encapsulate very well the tradition of this annual religious event and its rituals, especially as it is the most important observance in West Bangal. I had encouraged the participants in this workshop to produce monochrome photo essays, and Kris's work is unquestionably one of the best I've seen so far.

Apart from being an attorney in Northern California, Kris is a photographer who's keenly interested in South and South East Asia, and is particularly attracted to unusual rituals and religious festivals. She's already been on two of my most intense photo expeditions workshops, and that doesn't seem to deter her in the least.

You may want to drop by her Vimeo page where she has 4 videos of her audio slideshows, and by her blog, on which you'll find examples of her still photography in India and elsewhere.

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Anthony Pond: Faith, Frenzy...

Readers interested in unique religious and cultural events will like this. I guarantee it. Not the faint-hearted though.

Following his participation in my The Oracles Of Kerala Photo Expedition-Workshop in March, Anthony Pond has been a frequent contributor to The Travel Photographer blog, and his Faith, Frenzy multimedia essay is the most recent of his many audio slideshows I've already featured.

Not only is it his most recent, but I wager it's his best production so far. Tony used a Canon 5DMk2, audio recordings were made with a Zoom H1, and was edited in Lightroom, Audacity, and Final Cut Pro. I'm not a huge fan of merging stills with video footage, but Tony succeeded in merging these two mediums quite seamlessly.

The Oracles of Kodungallur celebrate their festival in the Bhagawati temple, which usually occurs between the months of March and April. It involves sacrifice of cocks and shedding of the Oracles own blood, to appease the goddess Kali and her demons who are said to relish blood offerings.

Anthony Pond worked for more than two decades in the criminal courts in California as an attorney for the Public Defenders Office. Now pursuing his passion for travel and photography, he travels repeatedly to South East Asia and India, amongst other places, to capture life, the people and the culture.

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Tony Smith: Kolkata's Cult of Durga (In Motion)

I'm glad Tony Smith has now produced an audio slideshow of his work during the Kolkata's Cult of Durga Photo Expedition/Workshop. The software he used to produce it is ProShow Producer, rather than SoundSlides that I normally use on my workshops. His audio slideshow is divided into chapters or segments which coincied with the different phases of the Durga Puja festival.

Tony is an Associate member of the Royal Photographic Society, and he traveled to Nepal, Bhutan, India, France, China, Spain, Morocco the USA and Canada and the West Coast of Ireland. He has attended Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist and Gypsy religious and secular festivals..

He worked quite hard during the Kolkata's Cult of Durga Photo Expedition/Workshop to produce his audio slideshow on the festival; however and much to my disappointment, he has not added to it his narrative skills which are enhanced by his precise enunciation. Perhaps that'll happen in a forthcoming iteration?

In the meantime, I suggest you view his blog entry on his experiences at the Durga Puja during the workshop, which also has a number of his photographs of the festival.

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It's Thaipusam Time...

"The Hindu festival of Thaipusam is about faith, endurance and penance."

Thaipusam is to occur today 13 kilometres outside the Malaysian capital city, Kuala Lumpur in a sacred Hindu shrine called the Batu Caves...and if my network intelligence is accurate, a group of Asian photographers, such as Mervyn Leong, Maika Elan and Hai Thanh (to mention only a few) are already in place to document it..

The festival of Thaipusam was brought to Malaysia in the 1800s, when Indian immigrants started to work on the Malaysian rubber estates and the government offices. The festival is celebrated mostly by the Tamil community, and commemorates the occasion when Parvati gave Murugan a spear to vanquish the evil demon Soorapadam.

On the day of the festival, devotees shave their heads and undertake a pilgrimage along a set route while engaging in various acts of devotion, notably carrying various types of heavy burdens, while others may carry out acts of self mortification by piercing the skin, tongue or cheeks with skewers and sharp hooks. Not for the faint of heart.

This Thaipusam trailer's direction, cinematography and editing is by Dick Chua, the production coordinator is Kah Hooi Lai, the production assistants are Gary Chuah and CH Tan.

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The Frame: The Magh Mela

Photo  AP / Rajesh Kumar Singh- All Rights Reserved 

The Sacramento Bee's The Frame brings us more than 30 large sized photographs of the Magh Mela.

The Magh Mela is one of the greatest annual religious pilgrimages for Hindus. In Hindu mythology, the Magh Mela's origin is said to be the beginning of the universe. It's held every year on the banks of Triveni Sangam (the confluence of the three great rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati) in Allahabad (UP).

The holy pilgrimage and festival is organized every year during the Hindu month of Magh (mid January - mid February), and is a smaller version of Kumbh Mela.

One of the photographs featured by The Frame is of the pontoon bridges that allow the pilgrims to cross to the area of the Sangam, and it reminds me (so very vividly) of my pre-dawn walks on these very same bridges during the Maha Kumbh Mela of 2001. I can still feel the sensation of being in the midst of a moving "caterpillar" of thousands of people. It was an indescribable thrill of being in such an environment with a multitude of opportunities to photograph the spectacular characters who attend such religious gatherings, that I described as "ascetics, mendicants, mystics, beggars and charlatans".

Stop a moment in sympathy at the photograph in The Frame's series in which a woman weeping as she searches for her son in the massive crowd gathering of the Magh Mela. I witnessed such scenes in 2001, and they're heart-rending. However, I was told that the majority of lost children are reunited with their families.

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The Year Of The Dragon: Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Photo  Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images-Courtesy Al Jazeera

Ethnic Chinese, Koreans and Vietnamese across Asia are ringing in the Year of the Dragon with fireworks, festivals and family reunions. Legend has it that Chinese people descended from a dragon, and it's believed the powerful creature is auspicious. The tradition dictates that those born in Dragon years tend to be brave, innovative and highly driven, regularly making it to the top of their profession. In China, the holiday is known as ??, the Spring Festival, and kicks off 15 days of celebration.

Al Jazeera's In Pictures, The Atlantic's In Focus, The Boston Globe's The Big Picture and the Los Angeles Time's Framework featured photo galleries of the celebrations all over the world.

Photo  Rungroj Yongrit/EPA-Courtesy LAT

I wish all the very best to my friends and readers in Asia and elsewhere who celebrate the Year of the Dragon.

In New York City's Chinatown, a Lunar New Year parade is scheduled for January 29 on Canal Street South from 11:30 to 4 pm. I bet many photographers will be there!!

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The Frame: The Virgin Of Guadalupe

Photo  Anita Baca-All Rights Reserved

Did I realize that the church of Our Lady of Guadalupe on 14th Street (not far from where I live in New York City) would commemorate one of Mexico's most important religious holidays this past Monday? Of course not. I only find out stuff like that after the fact.

However, The Frame of The Sacramento Bee has featured 17 photographs of the celebration of this popular religious festival in Mexico City when millions make the pilgrimage to honor the dark-skinned virgin, said to have appeared to an Indian peasant on Dec. 12, 1531.

According to the captions accopmpanying the images, an estimated 5 million people from across Mexico arrived at the basilica Monday carrying large frames, wooden sculptures and ceramic statues of the virgin on their backs. The Nuestra Seora de Guadalupe is recognized as a symbol of all Catholic Mexicans.

I chose to feature Anita Baca's photograph (above) showing a pilgrim who journeyed by foot from the state of Hidalgo, posing for a photo in front of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, while a fellow pilgrim stands by, not only for its colors but for its composition. Notice how the curve of the dark sombrero matches the curve of the icon.

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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.

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In Focus: Hindu Festivals

Photo  Dibyangshu SarkarAFP/Getty Images

Photo  Reuters/Rupak De Chowdhuri

Photo  AP Photo/Manish Swarup

What an incredible but timely coincidence!

In Focus, the photo blog of The Atlantic, has just featured 39 photographs of Hindu festivals...and yes, you guessed it, 3 of those are of the preparations for the Durga Puja in Kolkata.

I am traveling this evening from London to Delhi, where I'll spend a couple of nights, then on to Kolkata to for my Kolkata's Cult of Durga Photo Expedition/Workshop.

The expedition/workshop will involve a lot of street photography, and at its core is the Durga Puja festivities. We plan to document the festivities from the making of the clay idols and their delivery to the neighborhoods' pandals to their final immersion in the Hooghly river.

It appears that the weather for Kolkata might be intermittently rainy during the Durga Puja week, but I also expect we shall have glorious light quality when the rain stops.

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The Frame Does Ramadan

Photo  AP/Mohammed Zaatari-All Rights Reserved

The Frame, The Sacramento Bee's photo blog has featured 33 magnificent photographs of Muslims around the world are observing the holy month of Ramadan which runs this year from Aug. 1 to Aug. 30. During that period, observant Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and having sex from dawn to dusk.

It was a tough choice as there are many images from photographers such as Kevin Frayer in India, Altaf Qadri in Srinagar, and Achmad Ibrahim in Jakarta which captured the many facets of Islam during Ramadan all over the globe.

However for the blog, I chose the photograph of Lebanese "dawn awakener" (known as the "mesaharati", holding a lantern and a drum to awaken observant Muslims for a meal before sunrise in the old souk of the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon.

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Delhi Photo Festival: Nazar Foundation

The Nazar Foundation, in partnership with the India Habitat Centre, is organizing the Delhi Photo Festival on 15 to 28 October 2011.

The Delhi Photo Festival is a non-commercial venture, and entry will be free to ensure popular and wide-reaching participation. Through Nazar Foundation, the festival is the brainchild of Prashant Panjiar and Dinesh Khanna, both well known photographers, and for mentoring young photographers and propagating photography. Nazar Foundation was launched with the aim of institutionalizing what these two photographers are already been doing so on an informal basis.

The core attraction of the festival will be exhibitions of photography from India, Asia and other international work.

This promises to be quite an event, and will include workshops and seminars. I am excited to have been asked to teach an Introduction to Multimedia class on the afternoon-evening of October 15.

More details will be available in due course, and a schedule for submissions and the process will be announced soon.

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Angkor Photo Workshops 2011

Now in its 7th year, the free 2011 Angkor Photo Workshops is now officially accepting applications from all young Asian photographers.

To get started, photographers can download and read through the application guidelines and the application form below:

• APWS 2011 Application Guidelines
• APWS 2011 Application Form

The guidelines and form contains all the information needed on how to apply for this years workshops. However for clarifications and or questions, the Angkor Photo Workshops can be contacted email at angkorworkshop [at] gmail.com .

The workshop will be held from November 17  23, 2011 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. As per the previous years workshops, 30 participants will be selected from amongst the applications received. The deadline to submit the application is July 15, 2011.

Since its inception in 2005, more than 180 young photographers from all over Asia have been selected to participate in the annual free Angkor Photo Workshops. Conducted by renowned international photographers who volunteer their time, the Angkor Photo Workshops provide participants with firsthand training, invaluable exposure and a chance to perfect their art.

Over the years, the workshop has highlighted emerging talent from the region, and many previous participants go on to embark on successful photography careers both regionally and internationally.

I'll be there!!

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Thaipusam: Kevin WY Lee

Here's a well done video of the festival of Thaipusam (some graphic scenes) by Singapore-based Kevin WY Lee. Kevin WY Lee is a street and documentary photographer and founder of Invisible Ph t grapher Asia, which is not only a collective of photographers in Asia specializing in street photography and visual journalism, but is also a platform, blog, showcase and library archive of street photography and visual journalism in that important part of the world.

I have already posted work by one of their photographers, and I'm consistently impressed by IPA's features...so bookmark it.

It was made using a Panasonic GH2 and Pentax 25mm F/1.4 lens.

Thaipusam is an important festival observed by the Hindus of southern India during the Tamil month of Thai (January - February). Outside of India, it is celebrated mainly by the Tamil speaking community settled in Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka and elsewhere.

This short movie was made in Singapore's Thaipusam, where Hindu devotees walk a pilgrimage from the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple in Little India, carrying milk pots as offerings or attaching kavadis (heavy burdens) to their bodies, to the Tank Road Temple, four kilometers away.

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Angkor Photo Festival 2011: Submissions Open!

It was just announced that the 7th Angkor Photo Festival will take place from November 19 to November 26, 2011 in Siem Reap (Cambodia). Details on the venue, programs and workshops, invited curators and other details will be shortly announced.

During the 2010 festival, 110 photographers (including 60 Asian photographers) presented their work, which was curated by Francoise Callier (also Program Coordinator), Antoine d'Agata and Yumi Goto.

The call for submission for the 2011 Angkor Photo Festival is now open. There is no imposed theme on the submissions, but single image submissions will not be accepted. Submissions have to be projects, and should also be accompanied by a short biography.

I've heard great feedback on this unique photo festival, and I have marked my calendar to attend it. It's a been a few years I haven't been to Siem Reap, so a photo festival of this caliber in one of the loveliest of Asian cities is impossible to resist.

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SacBee's The Frame: Holi Festival

Photo  Manan Vatsyayana/AFPGetty-All Rights Reserved

Photo  Kevin Frayer/AP-All Rights Reserved

The Sacramento Bee's photo blog The Frame is featuring 45 remarkable photographs of Holi, the colorful (to say the least) festival which is currently being celebrated all over India. I know we'll soon see much more from travel photographers and photojournalists who are covering this annual festival...but The Sacramento Bee's spread is the first I've seen so far.

Holi is known as the Hindu festival of colors, and is celebrated in Spring by people throwing colored powder and colored water at each other. The tradition is based on the legend of Radha and the Hindu God Krishna. The latter was envious of Radha's fair complexion and in a mischievous mood, he applied color to his beloved Radha's face.

In Vrindavan (which is the place to be during Holi), the festival is celebrated for 16 days in commemoration of the divine love of Radha for Krishna. The above photographs were made at Krishna's Bankey Bihari Temple in Vrindavan. It's the most popular Hindu temple of Krishna in the city.

It's quite evident that protection for one's cameras and lenses is mandatory to photograph Holi anywhere. Perhaps an underwater camera housing or a sturdy zip-lock bag...press the shutter and back in bag it goes?

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In Focus Does Lantern Festival

Photo  Jason Lee-Courtesy In Focus-All Rights Reserved

The new photo blog In Focus by Alan Taylor for The Atlantic featured about 33 photographs of the festivities on the occasion of the Lunar New Year. The Lantern Festival (known as Yuan Xiao Jie) was observed yesterday in China and wherever there are Chinese communities. It's the last day of the Chinese Lunar New Year festivities.

The blurb accompanying the photographs informs us that it's the most important annual celebration in China, and welcomes the Year of the Rabbit...which is a year of caution and calm.

Calm and caution? I guess the Arab nations revolting for their freedom are unconcerned with the Year of the Rabbit!!

I sense In Focus will soon be one of the favored destinations for those of us who appreciate photojournalism at its best...especially as I just noticed that it offers two choices for its image size: 1024 or 1280 pixels! Nice touch...very nice touch!

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MSNBC's Does Thaipusam

Photo Stephen Morrison/EPA-All Rights Reserved

MSNBC's Photo blog featured Thaipusam, which was observed a few days ago by thousands of Hindus in both Malaysia and Singapore, and who subjected themselves to painful rituals. These included rituals involving self-piercing with hooks, skewers and small blades. Some devotees pull chariots and heavy objects using hooks attached to their bodies. Others pierce their tongues and cheek to impede speech, while others enter into a trance during the self-mortification as a result of the incessant drumming and chanting.

The Asia Society in New York is also featuring Thaipusam on its Photo of the Day page on its website. I wonder what's keeping The Asia Society from bringing us the very best photojournalism of the continent...it's taking baby steps, and yet seems to have the resources to really make a splash in visually fulfilling its mission. Maybe I expect too much?

Thaipusam is an important festival observed by the Hindus of southern India during the Tamil month of Thai (January - February). Outside of India, it is celebrated mainly by the Tamil speaking community settled in Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka and elsewhere.

I seldom follow MSNBC's Photo blog....perhaps I should make it a habit to check it every now and then.

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Ashura: Photos In "The Big Ones"

Photo  REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl (Courtesy Reuters Photo Blog)

Photographs of the Day of Ashura are carried by a number of the newspaper large picture blogs, largely because of its graphic nature, and while I initially thought it might have been because it reinforces the stereotype of Islamic fervor being violent, I've reconsidered and I'm quite certain that this is not the case. I recall seeing lovely peaceful scenes of Muslims celebrating Ramadan on The Big Picture blog.

Photo  Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images (Courtesy WSJ Photo Journal)

Be it what it may, the photographs are graphic because the acts of self mortification and flagellation carried out by the Shias are just that...extremely graphic. Flagellation is not at all exclusive to Shia Islam, but is also practiced by certain elements of the Christian faith.

Photo  REUTERS/ Ali Hashisho (Courtesy Reuters Photo Blog)

The Day of Ashura falls on the 10th day of the Islamic month of Muharram and for the Shias, commemorates a day of mourning for the death of Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, at the battle of Karbala.  Shias consider Hussein the third Imam and the rightful successor to Muhammad, and the grief for his death is demonstrated by the self-flagellation in parades and other venues.

Photo  Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters (Courtesy WSJ Photo Blog)

For Sunni Muslims, Ashura is observed by fasting as the Prophet Muhammad did, to commemorate the day when Moses and his followers were saved from Pharaoh by God by creating a path in the Red Sea. Surprising, huh?

The top photograph is of a girl with a green headband with the words "Hussein" as she attends the Ashura religious festival in Khorramabad, southwest of Tehran.

The second photograph is of a Shia devotee in New Delhi beating his bloodied chest as part of the ten-day mourning period marking the death of Imam Hussein. 

The third photograph is of a Lebanese Shia whose shaven head bleeds after tapping his forehead with a razor during the Ashura ceremony in Nabatiyeh.

The fourth and last photograph is a Shia walking on hot coals during a Ashura ceremony at a mosque in Yangon, Myanmar.

I ought to plan attending Ashura to photograph its ceremonies...it would be fascinating. Yes, bloody and graphic...but I'd attend it given half the chance. I came close years ago to do so when working in Bahrain, but I was advised not to attend it with a camera. Different times, I suppose.

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LATimes' Framework: Chhath Festival

Photo  Narendra Shrestha/EPA

 The Los Angeles ' Times large image photoblog Framework has featured a number of lovely photographs from around the world this past week. I liked this one by EPA photographer Narendra Shrestha of a Nepali woman staring while offering fruits and coconuts to the setting sun during the Chhath festival in Kathmandu.

The Chhath festival is observed by Hindus in India and Nepal, and it's performed in order to thank the Sun god Surya for sustaining life on earth, and to ask for the granting of wishes. The rituals include bathing, fasting and abstaining from drinking water, standing in water for long periods of time, and making offerings to the setting and rising sun.

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Angkor Photo Festival 2010

The 2010 Angkor Photo Festival is to be held between November 20 to November 27 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The event is a unique photo festival in South East Asia,  and it's now in its 6th iteration, having had its inaugural gathering in 2005.

In 2010, 110 photographers including 50 Asian photographers are showcasing their work, in keeping with festivals mission of highlighting emerging Southeast Asian photographers. These works are curated by  well-known figures in photography, Yumi Goto, Antoine dAgata, and Franoise Callier .

This promises to be a real cornucopia of established and emerging photographic talent, with the participation of Olivia Arthur, Munem Wasif, Paolo Pellegrin, Shiho Fukada, Sohrab Hura, Rony Zakaria, Palani Mohan, Agnes Dherbeys and John Stanmeyer, amongst many others.

To keep up with developments, you can also drop by Angkor Photo Festival's Facebook Page

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