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...
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Monday, November 19, 2012
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...
Saturday, August 18, 2012
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...
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Anthony Pond: Kathakali, The Story Dance
Anthony Pond is hardly a stranger to The Travel Photographer blog, as Kathakali, The Story Dance of Kerala is the newest one of his many audio slideshows I've already featured.
In this latest one, Tony has very ably merged stills, ambient audio with video clips to produce a 3 minute multimedia look into the backstage preparations for a Kathakali performance, and then the performance itself.
Tony was a participant in The Oracles Of Kerala Photo Expedition-Workshop during which I had arranged a private photo shoot involving the performers of this ancient art form. The 3 hours make-up session, and the 2-1/2 hours performance took place at the Kalatharangini Kathakali School near Cheruthuruthy. The performers' intensity was incredible, and I recall mentioning that earlier on this blog that...
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Rasha Yousif: At The Madrasa
As Rasha Yousif writes on her Vimeo page, Islam is the second-most practiced religion in India following Hinduism, while 24% of Kerala's population is Muslim. Muslims of Kerala believe that their origins in the area started in the 7th century AD when Islam originated in Arabia.During my The Oracles Of Kerala Photo Expedition-Workshop, Rasha worked on a number of multimedia photo projects and one of her Soundslides (now converted to video) photo films is her At The Madrasa, whose still photographs and audio were taken at the madrasa of Cheraman Perumal Juma Masjid. The photographs are in monochrome, and Rasha has done very well in merging the various audio tracks that include the students voices, and religious chants. You will see these Muslim children learning the Qur'anic texts...
Saturday, May 26, 2012
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,...
Friday, May 25, 2012
Anthony Pond: Ginger Godowns (Mattencherry)
Anthony Pond is certainly prolific. His multimedia piece Ginger Godowns is the fourth audio slideshow I feature on my blog, and the second of his photographs and audio recordings made during The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition/Workshop.
And I know he's got a few more up his sleeve.
This time, he focuses on the area of Mattencherry with its ancient warehouses, or godowns, of ginger, pepper, turmeric, rice and other spices which are hand-sifted, bagged and marketed, filling the air with pungent, sharp aromas, which you can almost smell from this audio-slideshow.
The area of Mattencherry dates back to the Arab, Portuguese and Dutch traders before British colonial times, and its streets are lined with old dilapidated warehouses which can be easily imagined as having been in use...
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
My Work: The Art of Kathakali
One of the highlights of my Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition-Workshop this past March was spending half a day at a Kathakali school near Thrissur, and documenting the preparations and performance of this ancient art. It was totally distinct from the usual superficial performances shown at the various tourist hotels, and the professionalism of the performers was breathtaking. Apart from the talent of the performers, I was especially struck by the singing which you hear on this "photo-film".Kathakali is one of the oldest theatre forms in the world, and originated in Kerala. It's a group production, in which actors-dancers take various roles in performances based on themes from Hindu mythology, such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.The elaborate make up sessions often take longer...
Monday, April 30, 2012
Charlotte Rush-Bailey: Blood & Turmeric
Charlotte Rush-Bailey is a photographer who migrated to the world of photography from a corporate career that covered three decades of marketing and communications positions in a variety of global industries including energy, financial services, media, conservation, technology and professional services. This gave her opportunities to work with people all over the world, and to learn to appreciate cultural nuances and the influences of socio-political forces.
She has just produced her audio-slideshow Blood And Turmeric of her stills and ambient sound recordings made during the festival of the Oracles in Kodungallur whilst participating in my The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition/Workshop.
So hold on to your seats, you'll get sweaty palms perhaps...but I'm certain you'll be bowled over...
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Dougie Wallace: Road Wallah
Here's a movie -or what photographer Dougie Wallace calls- a "photo film" on Kolkata's unorganized (aka chaotic) transport modes. He has chosen to show us the tram drivers, the rickshaw pullers, the yellow taxis, the passengers, the pedestrian and vehicular traffic that criss-crosses this teeming city along with a soundtrack (produced by Rosie Webb) that just pulsates and throbs.The buses, the most commonly used mode of transport, are run by government agencies and private operators, and as the photo film describes them, are haphazard to say the least. Kolkata is the only Indian city with a tram network, which I've greatly enjoyed when I was there last October. Almost all of Kolkata's taxis I have seen were old Ambassador cars, with little if any modern amenities. Hand-pulled rickshaws are...
Monday, April 23, 2012
The Oracles Of Kodungallur
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.
"It was one of the most intense photographic experience I've had in a long while."
The festival is overseen by the aging King of Kodungallur where hordes of Oracles (Vellichapads in local Malayalam) stampede around the temple waving their curved swords while chanting abuse at the goddess.
This 4 minutes movie (using SoundSlides for the still photographs...
Thursday, April 19, 2012
The Travel Photographer's The Vedic Disciples
This is the second of my multimedia (audio slideshows) projects of stills, audio and video made during my The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition/Workshop. It's of the activities at an ancient Vedic 'gurukul' (or training/boarding school; very similar to the Buddhist monasteries for novitiates), where we were treated to a demonstration of this way of teaching sacred Vedic scriptures.
It is an ancient Indian educational system, which is currently being rejuvenated with the assistance of the Indian government. The young boys who populate the Vedic school usually belong to a caste of Keralan Brahmins, who are responsible to carry on the age-old tradition of chanting Vedas during religious rituals or functions. The chanting is learned by practice, and nothing is written down.
The rhythm of...
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Anthony Pond: 10,000 Verses
Anthony Pond has just produced another audio slideshow of black and white photographs made at the Vadakke Madham Brahmaswam Vedic Institute in Thrissur, Kerela, India where young novices spend five years learning Vedic chants.
It was made during my The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition/Workshop when I arranged a photo shoot at this ancient Vedic gurukul (a training and boarding school very similar to Buddhist monasteries for its novitiates, or Muslim madrasas) in Thrissur, where we were allowed to attend demonstrations of this way of teaching and reciting sacred Vedic scriptures.
One of the suggestions I make during my workshops was that essays produced by its participants ought to have intriguing titles. I certainly think Anthony did well with his...
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Verdict: The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition-Workshop
Photo Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
"...the uniqueness of this photo expedition-workshop..."
That's how one of the group members started to express his satisfaction in having attended The Oracles Of Kerala Photo-Expedition-Workshop while bidding goodbye to me and the rest of the group.
Uniqueness! It's precisely what I strive for when I structure my itineraries and programs for my photo expeditions/workshops. Are all of those based on unique itineraries? Of course not...but most of them are. The Oracles Of Kerala Photo-Expedition-Workshop was based on two main Hindu religious festivals: Thirunakkara...
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Teerayut Chaisarn: In Search of Sufis Movie
Teerayut Chaisarn is an emerging photojournalist/photographer from Chiang Mai in Thailand, and participated in my In Search of the Sufis of Gujarat Photo Expedition in January 2011. He recently completed a 14 minutes movie of his experience during the photo expedition, and posted it on YouTube.
Teerayut started photographing about 5 years ago, and is largely self-taught. He started work as a photographer on the magazine staff of his hometown, but preferred to become a freelance photographer. He also applied his Photoshop post processing expertise to assist various Thai professional photographers, and processes their portfolio...
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Travelling Lens Workshop To Ladakh...
What would you get if you mixed a troika of world-class women photographers with the visionary founder of a photojournalism workshop with an expert on Ladakh...and asked them to lead a 15 days photography workshop in a remote corner of the Indian Himalayas?You'd get the Travelling Lens Master Class...that's what!The Masterclass Workshop is led by Eric Beecroft (the founder of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop) and by Varun Gupta, a photographer with first hand knowledge of Ladkah and an alum of the Foundry), with the extraordinary talents of Andrea Bruce, Maggie Steber, and Ami Vitale as workshop instructors (they are also instructors...
Friday, February 10, 2012
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...
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Asia Society: Princes And Painters In Muhgal India
The Asia Society Museum in New York City is to show Princes and Painters in Mughal Delhi, 1707-1857, an exhibition showcasing Delhi's rich rich history of art, artists and patrons who flourished during this critical period.
The exhibition will focus on the reigns of the last four Mughal emperors Muhammad Shah, Shah Alam II, Akbar Shah II and Bahadur Shah II Zafar. The latter emperor is the subject of William Dalrymple "The Last Mughal"...a captivating biography of Bahadur Shah Zafar, a descendant of both Genghis Khan and Timur the Great, and of the city of Delhi around the time of the Sepoy Rebellion.
The Sepoy Rebellion was eventually...
Thursday, February 2, 2012
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...
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Sandy Chandler: Videos & Book...Kolkata & Durga Puja
Sandy Chandler has been busy the past few months. No, make that real busy.
She participated in my Kolkata's Cult of Durga Photo~Expedition & Workshop in October, and having produced a highly commendable black & white audio-slideshow (at top) during the workshop, also returned home with a trove of images and audio tracks recorded live during the two weeks in Kolkata.
Back home, she produced a more light hearted view of the festival which views it from what she calls "Another Side of Durga Puja", and features its mixture of spirituality and commerce.
As she describes it, "the annual Durga Puja festival in Kolkata celebrates...
