5:25 AM
I saw this a few days ago on Facebook. It's guaranteed to bring a smile to your faces, especially if you're an Indophile.
It's a commercial for the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India's 'Incredible India 2013' campaign directed by Prakash Varma and produced by Nirvana Films.
Lots of humor, some tongue in cheek, incredible color (of course) and a very cute main character who tries the Indian head "wobble", but (in my opinion) fail...
Monday, November 19, 2012
Thursday, November 15, 2012
American Tintype
American Tintype from Matt Morris Films on Vimeo.Checking in my Vimeo channel, I noticed this wonderful short documentary picked by its staff about Harry Taylor who discovered a passion for the 150-year-old craft of tintype photography.There are also remarkable samples of his craft on his tintype gallery, which I urge you to visit.The ICP website describes tintype as: "One of the most intriguing and little studied forms of nineteenth-century photography. Introduced in 1856 as a low-cost alternative to the daguerreotype and the albumen print, the tintype was widely marketed from the 1860s through the first decades of the twentieth century as the cheapest and most popular photographic medium." And Wikipedia defines it as a photograph made by creating a direct positive on a sheet of iron metal...
Friday, November 9, 2012
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...
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
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,...
Saturday, October 20, 2012
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...
Sunday, October 14, 2012
The Travel Photographer's "Cafe Dao (& Love)"
"No one in our village was as beautiful as she was...we liked each other since we were 12 years old..."
A foreign stranger suddenly walks up to you while you're relaxing on your front porch, with cameras dangling off his shoulders, asking to document your daily life. What would your reaction be?
Well, Thai Truang Dao happily said yes. Of course, Maika Elan was there to explain my purpose, but Mr Dao's hospitality went beyond the inherent politeness shown to a foreign guest. Allowing me into his home (and his life)...and at one point, gesturing me to go up the creaky stairs to photograph a now little used second floor, where...
Friday, October 12, 2012
Abdul Waheed, The Music "Doctor"
Here's a delightful "human interest" audio slideshow featured on CityFM89 (a FM station in Pakistan, which promotes the rich musical heritage of the region while offering a wide variety from pop to world music, from jazz to house music) about Abdul Waheed, the owner of Waheed Music Shop in Karachi.Waheed Music Shop is tiny store full of musical instruments; acoustic guitars, tablas, flutes and banjos are crammed on the floor, waiting to be sold or repaired. The piece tells us that Abdul Waheed has been doing this work for over 40 years, and has had renowned artists visit his shop for all their musical needs. I'm certain that the Pakistani qawwali musicians have found their way to his shop.It can also be viewed on Vimeo.While I can't speak Urdu as such, it...
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Ehrin Macksey: Hanoi, Calm After The Storm
As my readers know, I was in Hanoi about two weeks ago, and one of my favorite street photography haunts was the Hoan Kiem district, especially in the streets where vendors sold toys, lanterns, masks, and other gaudy decorations in anticipation of the mid-Autumn festival in early October. The crowds were simply overwhelming in the late evening when young people congregated there to have fun.Ehrin Macksey, a photojournalist/photographer and filmaker living in Hanoi, decided to photograph the streets of Hanoi the first morning of Tet, another huge festival in Vietnam...after the chaos and bustle at the end of each January or beginning of February that characterize the period leading to Tet.As you'll see from Ehrin's video of his stills, the calm that replaces...
Sunday, October 7, 2012
The Lady From Hanoi
"I miss the quiet streets of Hanoi..."Here's a vignette of a story produced by Humanity.tv which caught my eye, especially as I've just returned from Hanoi and loved its people, its overall buzz, its incredible food, and most certainly the slaloming scooters and motorcycles that whizzed past me as I crossed the streets.The short movie clip is about Ms Nahm, who seems to be longing for the calmer days in Hanoi. I say 'seems' because there's no dialogue (only a musical soundtrack and some ambient sound) to explain who Ms Nahm is. All we get to know is what we see...and that she appears to be an artist (or sells artwork), lives with an elderly person (possibly her husband) and likes to dance.It would've been wonderful to hear Ms Nahm's voice, and some of her narration...and get to...
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
The Travel Photographer's "Hilltribes In The Mist"
Following my Vietnam: North of the 16th Parallel Photo-Expedition/Workshop, here's a short audio-slideshow documenting some of the hill tribes of North Western Vietnam in Sa Pa and Bac Ha. Mostly Hmong and Dzao, and a handful from over 10 other tribes, they attend Bac Ha's famous Sunday market to buy, sell, barter and eat.
There are 10 Montagnard groups that live around Bac Ha: the Flower Hmong are the most visible (and seen in the slideshow), but other groups include Dzao, Giay (Nhang), Han (Hoa), Xa Fang, Lachi, Nung, Phula, Thai and Thula.
The still photographs were made with a Leica M9, Canon 5D Mark II and the Fuji X Pro-1. When using the latter, I mostly shot from the hip. The audio was recorded on a Tascam DR-40. The images were post-processed using Alien Skin...
