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,...

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Leica & Magnum: Chien-Chi Chang's Chinatown

Chien-Chi Chang's work in this short video is a singular treat because it'll appeal with many of the street photographers who find New York City's Chinatown to offer the richest of visual opportunities...and I'm one of those. This photo essay is made of a collection of photographs taken between 1992-2011, and each photograph is paired with a short clip of audio...which is a brilliant idea, and one I shall try to emulate as I walk the streets of NYC. I am certain that adding 5 seconds or so of high heels on the sidewalk of Bleecker Street and some pedestrian chatter for instance, will enhance the visual experience. I have already tried this yesterday, and it isn't as simple as it sounds. But back to the Chien-Chi Chang's Chinatown. It is estimated that more than 100,000 Chinese live in...

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The Rickshaw Wallahs of Kolkata

Following my two weeks Kolkata's Cult of Durga Photo~Expedition & Workshop, I have now completed two photo essays centering on the rickshaw pullers of that quintessential Indian megapolis. About half of the photographs were made using a Leica M9, while the rest with a Canon 5d Mark II. The audio was recorded with a Marantz 620PMD. The first photo essay is an audio slideshow of about 30 black & white photographs of rickshaw pullers, supplemented by a soundtrack made up of Kolkata's traffic sounds, short narrative clips by the pullers themselves and live instrumental music played by Satyananda Das, a traditional Baul musician. It can be seen either as a Vimeo movie (above) or as a regular SoundSlides multimedia, which is recommended because the...

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Milongas: The Seduction of Tango

I'm pleased to feature an audio slideshow titled "Milongas! The Seduction of Tango" of my still black & white photographs made in various tango halls and milongas of Buenos Aires during the week I spent there  teaching with the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop.Note: You have two viewing options: either to view it as a Vimeo movie (above) or as a SoundSlides, which has better resolution images.I am equally pleased in having broken many of my self-imposed rules which I religiously followed when producing such multimedia pieces. For this piece, I applied panning (Ken Burns effect) on a few occasions to give the semblance of motion, and to bring the eyes of the viewers to a specific part of the still. Rules are made to be broken, and I hope the photographers who attended...

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Gardelito, The Tango Performer Of San Telmo

Photo  Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved (Click To Enlarge) After the phenomenally successful Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Buenos Aires ended, and the raucous party(ies) waned in the wee hours of the night (or more accurately with the first rays of the sun), some sleep-deprived souls joined the Sunday throngs in San Telmo. San Telmo is the oldest neighborhood of Buenos Aires. It is a well-preserved area and is characterized by its cafes, tango parlors, antique shops on cobblestone streets, which are often filled with artists and dancers. Mervyn Leong, Syed Azahedi, Mariana Castro and myself met in the San Telmo main square...

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Oskar Barnack Award 2011: The Winners

Leica announced the 2011 winners of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award, and produced an 18 minute movie of their work. The movie was presented at the Arles Photo festival of 2011. Jan Grarup received the Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2011 for his Haiti Aftermath series and Jing Huang won the Newcomer Award 2011 for his photo set titled Pure of Sight. "Regular readers of The Travel Photographer's blog won't be surprised. I am not moved by most of the photo essays that won the Oskar Barnack Award 2011." I've watched this movie three times, and readily confess that the majority of the photo essays left me indifferent, and even puzzled. I found that the exceptions were the two projects by Jan Garup; the Haiti Aftermath and Darfur (at the end of the clip) and a poignant photo essay by Carsten Stormer...

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Fourth Of July....

Photo  Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved In observance of the Fourth of July, I thought I'd feature a photograph of the barker at the Coney Island Circus Sideshow. After all, the fellow stands under the American flag and has the gift of the gab; a valued talent in the land of the free. He's probably even busier today...the 2011 International Hot Dog Eating Contest is scheduled in Coney Island, Brooklyn, for the 4th of July. And its thousands of spectators will surely gravitate towards the Sideshow sooner or later. Happy Fourth of July!...

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Jeffry Plomley: Havana

Photo Jeffry Plomley-All Rights Reserved I caught Jeffry Plomley's work on The Leica Camera Blog, and was immediately drawn to his Havana gallery, which features excellent street scenes that are very nicely toned. A Canadian photographer, he has the ability of traveling to Cuba as freely as he wishes; something that we here in The United States cannot do as freely. Jeffry tells us in the Leica Camera Blog that he considers Havana to be one of the worlds meccas for street photography. This is not an exaggerated statement, but one that I wholeheartedly endorse since I visited the island and its capital (legally) in 2000. In the first part...

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