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...

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Ian Terry: Bangkok Offerings

Here's Bangkok Offerings, a short movie (with very nice time lapses) by Ian Terry, a Seattle-based documentary photographer and journalist, as well as an alum of Henrik Kastenkov's multimedia class at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop*.Alms giving ceremonies around Bangkok involving thousands of monks are held to celebrate certain auspicious dates in the Buddhist calendar. However, on regular days monks take to walk along the streets of towns and villages on their alms round. This is done throughout the year whatever the weather. You may also want to view Ian's photographs of a cockfight in Mae Khue, a small town in rural Thailand. According to his entry, the fights he witnessed were not to the finish, and ended when one of the roosters either lost interest or was too exhausted to continue...

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Shooting From The Hip On LK Road

Photo Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved Whilst teaching at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop the past week or so, I've also managed to set aside some time to fit some of my favorite style of photography, and shooting from the hip with the Fuji X Pro-1 has been high on my list to do, especially at night. Here's LK Road, a collection of street photography scenes made in one of the grittiest mainstream streets in Chiang Mai; Loi Kroh Road. The photographs are grouped under the title page of Katoey Or Not?, but I chose not to title this post with that particular name to avoid having visitors being referred to it by search engines for purposes...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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Almost Finished....Foundry Photojournalism Workshop

Photo Ahmed Shajee Aijazi Well, the week passed by like a flash! The hard work during my Multimedia For Photographers class (yesterday -Friday-, my students and I spent around 12 hours non-stop in class putting the finishing touches to the multimedia projects) paid off, and the projects are very well done, imaginative and personal. Tonight is the night when all the students attending the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop will be presenting their individual work...and I bet some haggard-looking people will be walking around like zombies by the end of the day. Despite spending long hours in class, I find that reviewing portfolios...

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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...

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Foundry Photojournalism Workshop: Scholarships Announced

The Foundry Photojournalism Workshop has announced the winners of the Foundry full tuition scholarships for its 2012 Chiang Mai workshop.Eric Beecroft, Director of the workshop, stated that the amount of entries was unprecedented, and the quality of work received was stunning.The awardees are:Arif Setiawan, IndonesiaSaw Banyar, Burma/ThailandBarat Ali Batoor, AfghanistanAjit Bhadoriya, IndiaEnrique Leopoldo Benedicto Cruz, PhilippinesSatirat Dam-ampai, ThailandNguyen Thanh Hai, Vietnam **Ekkarat Punyatara, ThailandRoger Anis, EgyptFabian Weiss, GermanyIlkin Huseynov, AzerbaijanSimona Pampallona, Italy**Nguyen Thanh Hai is also known as Maika...

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Foundry Photojournalism Workshop 2012: Thailand!

Eric Beecroft, the co-founder of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshops, has just announced that it was ready to accept early registrations ($100 deposit, non refundable, and deducted from the total tuition amount) until January 15, 2012. Early registration guarantees a spot and precedence in the choice of instructor.The 2012 Foundry Photojournalism Workshop will be held in North Thailand from July 29- August 4, 2012. For regional students (South Asia-- India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Tibet and South East Asia-Thailand, Burma, Vietnam, Phillippines, Laos, Cambodia,Indonesia, Malaysia) the tuition is $475. For all others it is $975 US dollars....

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Tom Hoops: Wai Kru Ceremony

Photograph Tom Hoops-All Rights Reserved Tom Hoops' biography is sparse....very sparse. His website only says that he's a freelance photographer, based in Bangkok and available for worldwide assignments. That's it. However, his work speaks for him. Mostly black & white, with a few in color, Hoops has a natural affinity for portraits...striking portraits. A few of his subjects display enormous magnetism, and his Heads gallery is a must-see on his website. But the gallery I liked best is the Documentary one because Hoops displays his work on the annual Wai Kru (homage to the teacher) ceremony at Wat Bang Phra, a Buddhist monastery 25...

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Andaman Rising

Courtesy Andaman Rising OrgEvery now and then appears a visual project of such quality that I cannot wait to get its website on the virtual pages of TTP. Such a project is Andaman Rising, and is a project of UNC School of Journalism. A sensitive, and very well-put project by young journalists.Three-and-a-half years after the Asian tsunami hit southern Thailand , a team of young journalists traveled to the seaside province of Phang-nga to document the lives and culture of people living by the Andaman region. As per the introduction of Andaman Rising: "By the salty docks of Phang-nga they found stories of determination. In Buddhist temples they...

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Beat Presser: Oasis of Silence

Photograph © Beat Presser-All Rights ReservedWhen Beat Presser was in late teens, he traveled through Southeast Asia, and met with a car accident in Thailand. Healed from a serious spine injury by monks in a Buddhist monastery, he vowed to do something in return, should he become the photographer he intended to be.Between 2000 and 2004, he returned to live in Theravada Buddhism monasteries in Thailand, Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Sri Lanka, and photographed the essence of Buddhism. Oasis of Silence is the resulting photographic exhibition and book.Presser also produced an accompanying website My Oasis of Silence allows participants to post their...

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