The 8th Angkor Photo Festival

This wonderful Angkor Photo Festival will be held from December 18, 2012 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. I know from first hand experience that it's a festival that's well worth participating in, and attending because of the quality of the photography exhibited during its evenings and galleries. The quality of the curating, and the gracious hospitality of Francoise Callier and Jean-Yves Navel is instrumental in making a success of the event, along with the assistance of Camille Plante and Jessica Lim. 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...

Read more »

Maika Elan: The Pink Choice

"I want to show simply how they care and love each other in daily activities."-Maika Elan According to the web edition of Thanh Nien, an influential newspaper in Vietnam, Maika has changed Vietnams entire conception of what it means to be gay and in love with her seminal work The Pink Choice. Sensitive and compelling...that's The Pink Choice in two words. I'm not going to rewrite what has already been written on Maika and her various projects, but I have to mention a couple of things: first off I had written a post on her work two years ago, much before I met her at subsequent photo events, and I ended that post with this: "In my view,...

Read more »

KL Photo.BOM: Asia By Asians

One of The Travel Photographer blog's objectives has always been to provide a modest platform to further the exposure of emerging travel and documentary photographers from all over the world, so it's a distinct pleasure to feature a slideshow of photographs by KL Foto.BOM, a collective of documentary photographers from Asia/Malaysia. The actual slideshow presentation was held at The Leica Store Malaysia, Avenue K on 2 September 2012.The photographs/photo essays are by Andri Tambunan,  Adli Ghazali,  Maika Elan, Edward Khoo,  Lim Paik Yin, Binh Dang, Azahari Salleh, Ahsan Qureishi, Ridzki Noviansyah, Mervyn Leong, Azreen Madzlan, Izzat Yahaya, Khairil Safwan, Vignes Balasingam, Rahman Roslan, Javad Tizmaghz,...

Read more »

Amy Helene Johansson: A Lost Revolution?

"My heart is beating for this project and it would be wonderful if as many people as possible see it and get enlightened about the situation. " -Amy Helene Johansson Prior to the boom in the garment industry, almost no women in Bangladesh worked outside of their family or marital homes, and had few opportunities to earn money. However today, the female garment workers are the backbone of the Bangladeshi economy in an industry that generates billions of dollars each year. It should be a womens revolution, but is it? While academics and economists agree to some extent that Bangladeshi women are in the midst of a revolution, they are still not empowered financially or socially. And are not strong enough to demand a fair remuneration. Multinational companies such as Nike, Levi Strauss...

Read more »

Mark Carey: Muay Thai In Black & White

Photo  Mark Carey-All Rights Reserved Here's a gallery of monochrome photographs of Muay Thai training made in Bangkok by the talented Mark Carey. These appealed to me as they were photographed away from the glitzy lights of the top Muay Thai arenas in Bangkok, but show the rather edgy side of the sport...as I tried to do in my recent photo essay of the Muay Thai ring in Loi Kroh Road in Chiang Mai.  Mark Carey is a London-based documentary photographer, who tells us he never had an interest in photographing posed or set-up shots, whether for his wedding photography or during his travels. I think he somewhat bent his rule with...

Read more »

Maika Elan: Ain't Talkin', Just Lovin'

Photo  Maika Elan-All Rights Reserved Here's the work of Maika Elan titled Ain't Talkin', Just Lovin', which -in my view- is one of the three photo projects that attracted me the most during the final evening of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Chiang Mai. Maika attended Maggie Steber's (known as "the incomparable Maggie") class The Power of Images in Todays Media, and presented a photo essay depicting individuals living in Chiang Mai with close bonds to their animal friends. Whether these were cats and dogs, or exotic snakes, the mutual relationship and dependency between the two were brilliantly captured by Maika's lens. While...

Read more »

Ulises Baque: Oui Nan, 93 Years Riding

As per my latest blog post, the presentation evening ending the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop showcased all of the students' work, and I highlighted three projects which I thought were the best. Two of the three were multimedia, and here's one of these. Extremely well made and edited, this short multimedia piece elicited much praise from the audience.The project was made and edited by Ulises Baque, a videographer based in Thailand. It was made for Henrik Kastenskov's multimedia class, and is about the oldest samlaw cyclist in Chiang Mai.I intend to write a bit further about this, but the dichotomy of the multimedia and the non-multimedia projects during the Foundry's evening presentation could not have been more stark. Although some of the non-multimedia were interesting and compelling,...

Read more »

POV: The 5th Foundry Photojournalism Workshop

Photo  Mervyn Leong-All Rights Reserved During the long flight from Bangkok to London, I thought I'd write up a personal POV on the Fifth Annual Foundry Photojournalism Workshop (FPW) which was held in Chiang Mai from July 29 to August 4, 2012. This will be the closing post on the Workshop. As my readers know,  FPW is an annual photo event held in various international locations, bringing well regarded photojournalists together to teach to emerging photographers and students who normally would not be able to afford workshops. Firstly, as I always do, I tip my hat to Eric Beecroft, the...

Read more »

The Travel Photographer's Presentation At The Foundry Photojournalism Workshop

Photo  Insiya Syed-All Rights Reserved The Travel Photographer (Me) Presenting The Cult Of Durga...A Multimedia Photo Essay On Kolkata's Durga Puja...During The Foundry Photojournalism Workshop. The presentations were held at the very impressive facilities of the Chiang Mai University. As you read this, I'll be on my way to London...

Read more »

Ahmed Shajee Aijazi: Under The Ramadan Moon

Photo  Ahmed Shajee Aijazi-All Rights Reserved Ahmed Shajee Aijazi is another graduate of my Multimedia For Photographers class at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop held in Chiang Mai. Titled Under The Ramadan Moon, it's Ahmed's personal take on how the Muslim community in Chiang Mai observe and experience the month-long fast during Ramadan. This is one of the three multimedia projects that were made in color, and Ahmed exerted much effort to gather its image and audio files despite fasting himself. Difficult under any circumstance, but Ahmed persevered, and completed a worthwhile project he ought to be very proud of. Ahmed Shajee...

Read more »

Cheryl Nemazie: Night At The Naga

Here's the multimedia work of Cheryl Nemazie, a photographer who attended my Multimedia For Photographers class at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Chiang Mai.She singlehandedly produced this impressive audio slideshow and spent hours, not only photographing at the Naga Tattoo parlor on Loi Kroh Road, but also with her laptop in class and elsewhere, adjusting the linear sequence of her photographs, syncing her multi layered audio track to the photographs, and preparing her photographs as best she could to preserve their integrity. During her first visit, since the tattoo parlor 's music system played the music of Johnny Cash, the employees obliged her during her subsequent photo shoots by playing it again, so as to have the same soundtrack for her project. During the project's various...

Read more »

Presentation Night: Foundry Photojournalism Workshop

Well, the Saturday evening presentations of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop were held at the Chiang Mai University, and I can confirm that the evening was a total success.My Multimedia For Photographers class presentations started with Near Sky, a monochromatic photo essay documenting the production of the Chaw Fah (symbols atop the spires of temples) by Alycia Down,  followed by Close Encounters of the Foundry Kind by Amean J...consisting of clips of Foundry students expressing their expectations from the Workshop, then followed by Loun Steve, a personal insight into the life of an American expatriate living in Chiang Mai, afflicted...

Read more »

POV: Finally! A Minimalist Gear....

I'll be in Chiang Mai in a few days for the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop which formally starts in a week from today. I wasn't keen to haul my usual gear with me, especially with my stops in London and Bangkok, so I have just what you see in the picture.Depending on whether I have the time or not, I intend to shoot a couple of personal projects in Chiang Mai so I chose to take a Leica M9 with an Elmarit f2.4 28mm and a Voigtlander f1.4 40mm, a Fujifilm X Pro-1 with a Fujinon 18mm and the Tascam DR-40 to record audio. All of this fit in my small Domke F-3X (with room to spare); a small and tough shoulder bag I've been using almost incessantly...

Read more »

Multimedia For Photographers: Foundry Photojournalism Workshop

I am soon to travel to Chiang Mai for the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop which is to be held from July 29 to August 4, 2012 and where I am to teach photojournalists how to produce audio slideshows that rival in quality and content more elaborate multimedia productions, using their own images and audio generated in the field, and to produce cogent photo stories under the simulation of publishing deadlines.In reality, it's a little more than that, since through class discussions, I also share my views on typography, aesthetics, titling, marketing, blogging, web design and branding...with a little business savvy thrown into the mix. This my fifth...

Read more »

POV: Have We Gone Over The Top?

Stanley Greene, in my view one of the best photojournalists in the business, just recently said I honestly believe photography is 75 percent chance, and 25 percent skill. In accidents, we really discover the magic of photography during the LOOK3 festival in Charlottesville. I agree wholeheartedly. All of us will agree. We might differ as to the percentages (I'm more in the 85% in favor of serendipity camp), but the concept is right on the money. Whether in photography, photojournalism, medicine, chemistry, technology, biology, etc....accidents have led to fresh discoveries, new approaches and life changing products. No...

Read more »

Foundry Photojournalism Workshop: My Multimedia Class: The Quick And Easy

I thought I'd post the description of the class I'll be teaching at the forthcoming Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Chiang Mai. And in so doing, I'm also encouraging those interested in photojournalism and photography to join this event, in which all the instructors are amongst the best photojournalists available. This will be the 5th time I am to teach at the Foundry, and I'm thrilled to have been included since its inception in Mexico City in 2008. I will teach a multimedia class that allows its participants to concentrate on their stories, rather than on the application. The purpose and aim of the class is to show photojournalists...

Read more »

Foundry Photojournalism Workshop 2012 Contest!!!

Eric Beecroft just circulated this amongst the instructors, so here is the fresh news! You can win ONE FULL FREE TUITION TO THIS YEAR'S FOUNDRY PHOTOJOURNALISM WORKSHOP in CHIANG MAI, THAILAND.  Winning=ONE  free tuition AND an invite to the pre workshop faculty and staff private dinner.  HOW TO PLAY: (read and keep the rules or you'll be disqualified) 1. You may post ONE PHOTO TOTAL on the Facebook Foundry Workshop Page. Thats one photo, over the 10 day span of the contest.  2. The theme is 'Home.'  You can interpret that however you wish. There is no trick or secret, we aren't...

Read more »

Sacbee's The Frame: Kevin Frayer's Urs Festival

Photo  Kevin Frayer-All Rights Reserved I've been waiting for coverage of this event! Just look at this flamboyant character!!! The Sacramento Bee's photo blog The Frame features Kevin Frayer's remarkable photographs made during a major Sufi Muslim Urs festival in Rajasthan. It starts off the series of these 36 photographs telling us that thousands of Sufi devotees from different parts of India annually travel to the shrine of Sufi Muslim saint Hazrat Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti, in Ajmer, in the Indian state of Rajasthan for the annual Urs festival observed to mark his death anniversary. Along with other photographers,...

Read more »

NYTimes: Moises Saman's Egypt's Choice

Presidential election fever has been gripping Egypt for months, and it'll perhaps come to a conclusion in the coming few days...or in another few weeks, if a runoff is the case.Along with many millions of Egyptians, I couldn't believe my eyes when watching the first ever presidential debate in the Middle East took place earlier this month. Yes, it was flawed...yes, the two frontrunners went overboard in hyperbole and off topic attacks one each other... but nowhere else in the Arab world, has such a spectacle ever been seen before.Yes, Egypt's political transition has been farcical, messy, bizarre, chaotic, violent, unpredictable, and serious,...

Read more »

Diana Markosian: The Girls of Chechnya

Photo  Diana Markosian-All Rights Reserved An interesting glimpse in an area that a relatively few are really familiar with...Chechnya, was recently featured by TIME Lightbox. Diana Markosian's Goodbye My Chechnya is such a glimpse into the lives of young Chechen women who witnessed the horrors of two wars, and are coming of age in a country that is rapidly rediscovering its Muslim laws and traditions. It's particularly interesting to view Diana's photographs of these Chechen women and their traditions and compare them to Oded Balilty's photographs of the Jewish ultra orthodox communities, which included a series on a traditional Hasidic...

Read more »