NPR: The Grand Trunk Road

The Grand Trunk Road played an important role in India's history at every step of its way. Some 3500 years ago, with the Aryan invasion of the subcontinent, it served as a corridor starting at the Khyber Pass winding eastward between the Himalayas and the Thar Desert onto the Gangetic plain. Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Buddhism spread through it, and Muslim proselytizers traveled on it. Since 1947, Pakistan controls the 300-mile segment between Peshawar and Lahore, while the remaining 1,250 miles link six Indian states, making it lifeline of northern India.

Nowadays, the road used by Alexander the Great, Ibn Battutah, Mughals invaders and other conquerors and the just curious, is ruled by truck drivers roaring through countless tiny villages.

NPR features a hybrid multimedia project in which its journalists travel the route and tell the stories of young people living there, who make up the majority of the populations in India and Pakistan.

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Bruno Barbey: Shanghai World Expo

Not entirely travel photography related but Magnum In Motion is featuring an audio slideshow of Bruno Barbey's photographs of the construction of Shanghai's World Expo construction site and parts of its old city.

Shanghai saw the opening of the 2010 World Expo today, starting an event to herald the Chinese financial hub's return as a major world city after the spartan industrialism following the 1949 communist revolution.

According to the news reports here in the UK, no expense was spared and like the 2008 Olympics, the World Expo will showcase China's immense economic and geopolitical importance; almost bragging its power and influence.

I haven't been to Shanghai yet, but it's quite obvious the degree by which China has developed, and is continuing to develop its main cities. It's in stark contrast with the crumbling infrastructure of many large cities in the United States.

China is spending over $4.0 billion on the Expo itself, and many billions more on other improvements for this city of 20 million people. While in the United States, we are faced with economic difficulties caused by the mismanagement of the Bush Administration, the spectacle of hypocritical Tea Baggers and a catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

It's depressing.

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Frontline: Dancing Boys of Afghanistan

On Tuesday night, I watched the harrowing Frontline: The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan which exposed an ancient practice know as as "bacha bazi" which, literally translated, means 'boys' play'.

This illegal practice exploits orphans and street boys, and has been revived by powerful warlords, businessmen and military commanders in Afghanistan. These men dress the boys in women's clothes, who are trained to sing and dance for their enjoyment. The dancing boys are also used sexually by these men.

This is outstanding journalism by Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi, and my hat's off to PBS and to the Frontline producers for doing such an admirable job. I was particularly impressed by Quraishi and his producers' attempts to arrange the rescue of one of the dancing boys profiled in the film, an 11-year-old boy bought from an impoverished rural family.

In contrast with other productions (see my post of yesterday, for instance) the 11-year boy's face was blurred throughout the film to preserve his anonymity and self-respect.

Homosexuality is forbidden in Islam, and yet pederasty and boy concubinage has had a long history in the Persian cultural world which includes much of Afghanistan.

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WP: India In Motion

The Travel section of the Washington Post has featured a collection of short videos titled India In Motion. The videos are somewhat eclectic, and start with fast paced clips of Mumbai, then Udaipur, Jaislamer, Agra, Haridwar and Rishikesh.

The videos are by Whitney Shefte, while the design is by Kat Downs. It's unfortunate that some of the music choices chosen to accompany the videos are incongruous. For instance, I'm still scratching my head over the logic of having music which sounds it's played by a Central European zither group with a video clip featuring camels in Jaisalmer!

I realize that the Washington Post is not the National Geographic, but India In Motion is superficially researched, and seems to meander with no clear objective and purpose. It puzzles me when a project such as India In Motion, with the considerable backing and funding of one of the premier newspapers in the world, ends up being an incoherent mess like it is.

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George Steinmetz: Aerial Views

The New Yorker magazine's online edition is featuring a video in which George Steinmetz discusses his career and techniques with Lauren Collins, who had traveled with him to Algeria.

George Steinmetz is a photographer known for his explorations of remote deserts, obscure cultures, and mysteries of science and technology. He is regular contributor to National Geographic and GEO Magazines, and explored subjects ranging from the remotest stretches of Arabia’s Empty Quarter to the unknown tree people of Irian Jaya. He has won numerous awards for photography during his 25-year career,including two first prizes in science and technology from World Press Photo. He has also won awards and citations from Pictures of the Year, Overseas Press Club and Life Magazine's Alfred Eisenstadt Awards.

Once you're done with watching the interview in the video above, take a look at Steinmetz's website. You'll be rewarded with large gorgeous photographs of the remote areas he explored, both from the air and on land.

I think his aerial photographs are more accessible and intimate than those by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, because he photographs from a motorized paraglider at heights of 100-500 feet above ground, rather than a small airplane.

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Canon 7D

I thought I'd post this advert for the National Geographic camera bags because it was entirely shot with a Canon 7D. Johnnie Behiri is the photographer who produced it.

By the way, I just read that the producers of the Dr. House television series have shot a soon to be aired episode with the Canon 5D Mark II. Incredible!

Another gem I found on Gizmodo is a $6 do-it-yourself thingamajig that allows rack focus (aka follow focus). I'll drop by Home Depot and see if I can make one for my 5D Mark II. A video of a similar project is also here.

With a ATR6250 microphone affixed on my camera's hot shoe, and this home-made follow focus ring, I'll be schelpping quite a contraption.

The Canon's EOS 7D can be considered as an entry-level "professional" DSLR, positioned between the EOS 50D and EOS 5D Mark II, and I'm tempted by it because of its many still photography interesting features; one of which is its speed reaching 8 fps (for the first 16 frames) and an average 7.1 fps for 144 frames. This almost compares with the speed of the Canon 1D series dSLRs. More to follow on this topic.

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Luciano Rodriguez Pena: Holi & Kumbh

India Khumbamela from SENSES on Vimeo.

Here's a movie by Spanish photographer Luciano Rodriguez Pena, made during a recent trip to India. It features two main events during the first three months of this year: Haridwar Kumbh Mela and Holi. I liked the colors (as befits a country such as India) and the tremendous energy which the movie imparts. I wish there was a different soundtrack to it, but the stills and the movie make up for that.

Luciano is a Nature & Travel photographer, and teaches digital photography in various photography schools in Madrid.

Holi is a festival of color and was recently celebrated all over India. It's an exuberant festival which aims at infusing fresh hope to people as it marks the end of the winter days and the start of summer. The Kumbh Mela in Haridwar is a three month-long bathing festival along the Ganges river which occurs every 12 years, and about 50 million Hindu devotees performing their prayers and washing away their sins in river's waters are expected in this holy city.

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Julie Jacobson: Afghans' Opium Addiction

Photo © Julie Jacobson/AP-All Rights Reserved
It is estimated that Afghanistan supplies nearly all the world's opium, the raw ingredient used to make heroin, and while most of the deadly crop is exported, enough remains in it to feed a cycle of addiction among its population. It's also estimated there are at least 200,000 opium and heroin addicts in Afghanistan.

It's a fact of life that many rural areas in Afghanistan have no access to basic medicine such as aspirin, so whenever a villager needs a painkiller for a minor ailment, they are given opium instead.

Julie Jacobson is an Associated Press Writer and Photojournalist, who produced a video on opium addiction amongst a family in Afghanistan. In many of Afghanistan's remote mountain villages, opium addiction has infected toddlers to old men.

Julie has also written an interesting article published by Nieman Reports titled Crossing The Line: From Still To Video, which includes these four main guidelines:

"Some moments should be captured in photographs only. With those, be true to your photography and don’t worry about video."

"Remain as true to your photography while capturing video imagery. Make good “pictures” in your video".

"Some moments and events clearly call for video. But it isn’t possible to be everywhere and to get everything, so don’t try".

"When shooting stills and video, anticipate moments carefully. If they’re not there or time doesn’t permit, then make sure to be complete in shooting only one or both will suffer."

A worthwhile read to photographers and photojournalists facing this transition.

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Ryan Pyle: Chinese Turkestan

Here's a feature by photographer Ryan Pyle on Chinese Turkestan, which touches on the Uyghur people and their efforts to preserve their cultural and religious practices in China.

Chinese Turkestan is now known as Xinjiang, and is an autonomous region of mainland China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and borders Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, has abundant oil reserves and is China's largest natural gas-producing region.

Its major ethnic groups include Uyghur, Han, Kazakh, Hui, Kyrgyz and Mongol.It also has a documented history of at least 2,500 years, and a succession of different peoples and empires vying for control over the territory.

Ryan Pyle obtained a degree in International Politics from the University of Toronto, moved to China permanently in 2002 and began taking freelance assignments in 2003. He became a regular contributor to The New York Times covering China, where he documented issues such as rural health care, illegal land seizures, bird flu and environmental degradation. He also has published magazine work, such as the Sunday Times Magazine, Der Spiegel, Fortune, TIME, Outside, Forbes and Newsweek.

Normally, the Muslim call to prayer is melodious but the one chosen for this piece's soundtrack is not, so perhaps you may want to turn the audio off.

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Jan Sochor: Nukak-Maku

Photo © Jan Sochor-All Rights Reserved
Jan Sochor has documented the Nukak Maku people, a nomadic indian tribe from the Amazon, who were driven out of the jungle by the Colombian guerrilla and paramilitary squads. More than half of the Nukak population have died of western diseases like flu. In refugee camps, the Nukak are taught from (mainly Christian) aid workers concepts and habits that were never part of their tradition.

Jan is a freelance photographer, working between South America and Europe. He lived and worked in Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Spain and the Czech Republic during the past five years. His photographs and stories have appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers and websites, including Sunday Times, National Geographic, Reuters, Burn magazine, Foto8, 100Eyes, UNESCO, Boston Review, PDN online,and others.

I've always considered proselytizing by any religious group to be an abhorrent practice...hand in hand with racism and bigotry.

Found via The Click

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Canon 5D Mark II: ATR6250 Microphone

Further to my post on microphones for the Canon 5D Mark II, and having decided to add one to my audio equipment, I walked over to B&H (see note below) today and bought the Audio-Technica ATR6250 Stereo Condenser Video/Recording Microphone.

This is an extremely affordable stereo microphone, and I thought it would be ideal for use either on my Canon 5D Mark II or with my Marantz audio recorder. It has a bunch of accessories, most of which I don't think I'll use, except for the hot shoe adapter.

In my earlier post, B&H recommended a couple of microphones such as the Rode VideoMic, Stereo VideoMic, and the Sennheiser MKE 400. The latter in particular seems to be quite popular with photographers, however it costs $200 whereas my new ATR6250 is only $32. I compared the specifications, and what I made of the differences were not enough to warrant the increased cost as far as I am concerned...except for the coiled cord (which the ATR doesn't have).

Naturally, I will continue to record audio with my Marantz PMD620, but use the microphone when I need to shoot video since the Canon 5D Mark II built-in microphone just doesn't cut it. I will post my impressions as soon as I can.

* I'm not affiliated with B&H in any way. The Audio-Technica ATR6250 is also available at many other stores, on-line and otherwise. I only mentioned B&H because that's where I got it.

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CNN: Haridwar Kumbh Mela

CNN brings us this short video, which was produced by Alex Zolbert, who traveled by train north of Delhi to witness and photograph the Dvitya Shahi Snan, or Second Royal Bath, on March 15, at the Ardh Kumbh Mela.

Photographs by Palani Mohan are included in the piece. Palani's photographic career started at the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, and since then he has been based in London, Hong Kong, Bangkok, and now Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia.

As I wrote on my earlier posts about the Hardiwar Kumbh Mela, exuberant hyperbole (and imaginative press releases) describe it as the largest gathering of humanity. It is not. The distinction belongs to the Maha Kumbh Mela which occurs after 12 'Purna Kumbh Melas', or after every 144 years. It was held at Allahabad in early 2001, and was attended by over 60 million people, making it the largest gathering in the world. I would also say that, in my opinion and having been to both Allahabad and Hardiwar, that the latter is an unappealing city and its ghats are not photogenic.

Whether it's over-hyped or not, all of the photographers who attended it over the past few weeks had a wonderful time, and captured magnificent images.

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Ashley Gilbertson: Bedrooms of the Fallen

The New York Times Sunday Magazine has featured The Shrine Down The Hall: Bedrooms of America's Young War Dead, a powerful photo essay in slideshow format by photographer Ashey Gilbertson (VII Network), which looks at some of the empty bedrooms of the over 5000 U.S. military personnel killed in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Dexter Filkins starts his accompanying article with the words "Just kids". The ages of these military fallen range from 19 to 25...indeed, just kids.

George McGovern in 1969 speaking about Vietnam said:

"I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in".

Now of course, it's also women who die in combat, as indeed Karina Lau did. Her bedroom still has a stuffed teddy bear and floppy-eared rabbit on top of her floral bedspread. She was killed seven years ago when insurgents shot down her helicopter in Falluja, Iraq. She was 20 years old.

In my view, this slideshow should be mandatory viewing by every politician who supported our senseless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I just read that George W. Bush is visiting Haiti. How about visiting these bedrooms first?

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A Journey Through Asia: Canon 5D II

a journey through asia from ivan vania on Vimeo.

Here's a short movie shot with a Canon 5D Mark II titled "A journey through Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The photography/videography (and editing) is by Ivan Vania, a filmmaker from Italy. The lens was a 24 mm-70mm 2.8, while the software was Final Cut Pro.

Simple and effective...and an increasingly important component of travel photography. I think that ambient audio (instead of the current soundtrack) would have strengthened it considerably. And better titling would have been nice too.

My thanks to Ralph Childs for sending me this.

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Ron Haviv: Haiti

Let's move away from the insignificance of photojournalists conducting photo tours to Haiti (and wherever else there is human misery), and contemplate the work of Ron Haviv of VII Agency who, less than 24 hours after the earthquake hit the island on January 12, 2010, arrived in Haiti without fanfare to chronicle the ensuing devastation and human suffering.

Ron Haviv's photographs will be showing at an exhibition and fundraiser on March 4, 2010 at VII Photo Agency in Brooklyn, New York. VII is also releasing a book on the Haitian disaster. All the proceeds will go to Partners in Health.

This multimedia presentation was produced by telegraph21 and the VII Photo Agency.

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NPR: The Mekong, A River

Here's a wonderful multimedia piece The Mekong: A River And A Region Transformed, which is produced by NPR, as only a sterling institution such NPR would know how.

It documents the Mekong through a 3,000-mile journey from the river’s source on the Tibetan plateau to its mouth at the South China Sea, relying on Michael Sullivan and photographer Christopher Brown examine the turbulent history and uncertain future along the Mekong.

The Mekong is one of the world’s major rivers, and is its 12th-longest, and the 7th-longest in Asia. According to Wikipedia, its estimated length is 4,350 km or 2,703 miles, running from the Tibetan Plateau through China's Yunnan province, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

I've traveled to most countries through which the Mekong runs, and it was at its most spectacular at Khone Phapheng, in southern Laos with its borders with Cambodia, during monsoon season.

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Quinn Ryan Mattingly: Puja

Puja from Quinn Ryan Mattingly on Vimeo.

Quinn attended the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Manali last summer, and photographed (and videographed) one of the rituals occuring right at the heart of this northern Indian town. Rajasthani families descend on Manali during the summer season looking for work and to escape the torrid heat of their state. Naturally, they bring their own rituals, which include daily prayers when some the devotees enter into trances, transported by the music and the chants. His multimedia essay merges stills and video, and brings you to the scene extremely well. I have seen the ritual first hand, and I must say that it's almost as if I was there again.

Quinn Ryan Mattingly is a documentary photographer currently based in Saigon, and most of his work aims at giving voices to those who are unable to be heard, and is working with former and current street children in Saigon.

Some of his other documentary stories are from Vietnam, and Nepal (as well as a book on Blurb). His photography essays can be seen here, and he also has a blog that chronicles some of his photography as well.

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Greg Constantine: Ardh Kumbh Mela

The Ardh Kumbh is being held in Haridwar from January 14 to April 28, 2010, and knowing that a number of photographers are making their way to attend it, I thought it opportune to post Greg Constantine's Ardh Kumbh Mela audio slideshow which was held in Prayag in 2007.

The main objective in attending the Kumbh Mela is to bathe in the Ganges. It is said that bathing in sacred rivers during Maha Kumbh or Ardh Kumbh breaks the circle of life & death, and liberates Hindus to attain moksha. Pilgrims & sadhus will descend in large numbers from India and elsewhere on Haridwar to bathe in the Ganges during these three months.

To underscore the importance of such events, it is estimated that more than 17 million Hindu pilgrims took part in the Ardh Kumbh Mela at Prayag over 45 days beginning in January 2007. On January 15, 2007 which was the most auspicious day of the festival, more than 5 million participated.

I attended and photographed the 2001 Maha Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, which was attended by approximately 60 million people, making it the largest gathering in the world.

Greg Constantine is based in Southeast Asia since early 2006. His photo essays have been internationally published in various publications (IHT, The NY Times, CNN, Stern, The Economist and PDN to name but a few), and he also has been the recipient of a number of international awards.

My own slideshow of the 2001 Maha Kumbh Mela is here.

For the sake of completeness, there are a number of posts on the Kumbh Mela on The Travel Photographer's blog (do a search), but here's an outstanding one of the Ardh Kumbh Mela 2007 produced by BFC.

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Recent Kudos To The Travel Photographer

I think the British are great...read on and you'll know why I say this.

Adam Westbrook is a freelance multimedia journalist, blogger & lecturer with several years experience in television, radio and online. His blog is one the best multimedia-biased on the internet, and if you haven't bookmarked yet, you should.

He recently published a free e-book titled 6×6, wich is a series of six blog posts giving advice to the budding multimedia journalists. This is a must-read e-book for anyone who's interested in getting started into journalistic multimedia, and one that I shall use in my own teachings of the subject.

In his Best of the Blogs 2009, Adam kindly lists The Travel Photographer in the Photojournalism category saying "Tewfic El- Sawy niftily picks up the best photojournalism from around the world and showcases it. A forward thinking blog, the Travel Photographer also presents new multimedia from photogs." It shares this recognition with Livebooks' RESOLVE and The New York Times' LENS...an august company indeed.

Also from Great Britain is Ian Furniss, a photographer whose website showcases his remarkably luminous landscape work of the United Kingdom and Eastern Europe. Despite having faced sad personal circumstances in 2009, he wrote an uplifting blog post titled The Inspirational World, which lists a number of his favorite photographers. I am one of those, and I'm indebted to him for writing such a generous opinion about my work.

"I should emphasise that there is no particular order to this list but the next photographer i’d like to introduce you to, if you haven’t been already, is Tewfic El-Sawy, otherwise known as The Travel Photographer. I came across his work through his blog which in turn I came to through Gavin’s site. His blog was a revelation for me at the time because I was so wrapped up in learning about photography, that I had no idea it could be anything other than serious work. Tewfic El-Sawy manages to put humanity back into photography in a way that i’ve yet to come across anywhere else. His photography is nothing short of stunning and each image is captured with the same honesty & humanity you feel reading the words of his blogs. I’m sure there are many who could tell you all about the technical skill, but for me what is important is the feel of an image and these are images you feel right through to your bones."

As I said...the Brits are great.

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NYT: 2009 The Year in Pictures

Photo © Tyler Hicks/New York Times -All Rights Reserved
The newspaper version of the New York Times's Week In Review yesterday was a real fillip for photojournalism. The totality of the first page was of Tyler Hicks' superb blurry photograph of a US soldier in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley, and much of the section was filled with the remarkable photographs by Emilio Morenatti, Moises Saman, Jehad Nga and Rita Castelnuovo.

On the section's second page, I paused at the editor's decision to publish two photographs by Tyler Hicks of the utter devastation of the Gaza Strip and the terrific loss of innocent lives, and the nearby positioning of a third photograph by Rita Castelnuovo showing a group of Israeli soldiers grieving over the loss of a colleague. I imagined the editor's cerebral gymnastics as to how to present a "balanced" view of the Gaza atrocity with a couple of photographs. Ah well...

As I said, the Week In Review section this week is a job well done. You can see it as a slideshow on the NYT's website.

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