Fred Canonge: Pehlwan of Benares

Photo © Fred Canonge-All Rights ReservedPehlwani (also known as Kushti) is a traditional style of wrestling popular in the sub-continent of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The wrestler is known as pahlawan which, interestingly for those who are etymologists, is the colloquial Arabic word meaning "clown". I wouldn't tell this to these wrestlers, as...

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Books By Participants In TTP's Photo~Expeditions™

A few weeks ago, I wished here that more of the participants who join my photo~expeditions would, not only feature their work on their websites as most do already, but also publish their images in book form. It's not an easy task to prep and publish a book, but the eventual satisfaction is just sublime. I know first hand because I self-published Bali:...

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Next Week On The Travel Photographer

For the week starting Monday November 29,  the following posts are in the blog's pipeline:1. The work of a photographer with a ton of images of India, including one of the wrestlers of Benares. I had planned to post it last week.2. The work of another photographer with a lot of images of Buddhism. All black & white square format with a Hassleblad....

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NPR: Cairo And The "Disconnected"

This touches on photography/multimedia only tangentially, so unless you're into Middle Eastern-international politics, you may want to skip all the stuff below and just click on the movie.A number of media outlets are gingerly covering Egypt's political scene due to the imminent parliamentary elections. I say gingerly because Egypt is a so-called major ally in the "war against terror" or whatever it's called these days, so it wouldn't be politic or in our national "interests"...

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Kares Le Roy: Tibet & More

Here's the photographic work of Kares Le Roy, a French photographer and graphic designer. Unfortunately, his bio is very limited on his web site, but he traveled and photographed in Tibet, Nepal, India, Bali, Cuba, Cambodia and Morocco...returning with quite an inventory of photographs which he categorizes as Portraits, Life, Street and Landsca...

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Black Friday: Get My Book!!!

On this Black Friday, my new photo book Bali: Island of Gods is still available from Blurb. You can choose between two main versions of the book (82 pages of black & white photographs): one is a large (13x11 inches) landscape hardcover version and the other is a standard (10x8 inches) landscape version. More details are available on a page of my...

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Thanksgiving Wishes

All the best from The Travel Photographer on this Thanksgiving Day! There may not be a post tomorrow...I'll be flying back to New York, probably feeling very fu...

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Apratim Saha: Varanasi

Apratim Saha is both a pharmaceutical executive and a photographer, whose work has been featured in the National Geographic and other publications. He's also a contributor to NationalGeographicStock.comWhile I've liked Apratim's Varanasi gallery in which the above photograph of the sadhu is fetured, there's a photograph of a holy man, possibly after...

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Michelle Frankfurter: Destino

Photo © Michelle Frankfurter- All Rights ReservedHaving read Cormac McCarthy’s, The Crossing, Michelle Frankfurter started to photograph along the US-Mexico border, and focuses her photo essay Destino featured on Burn magazine on undocumented Central American migrants who travel across Mexico in an attempt to reach the United States to work.It's a...

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Akhtar Soomro: Pakistan

Photo © Akhtar Soomro/Reuters-All Rights ReservedFull Focus, Reuters photo blog, seems to be regaining its footing amongst the remaining other large image photo blogs, and has recently featured the work of Pakistani photojournalist Akhtar Soomro.Born in the Lyari neighborhood of Karachi, Pakistan, Akhtar graduated from the Government College of Science...

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POV: Weeding The Subscribers: It's Time Again

It's the time of year when I have to start weeding (a more delicate term than 'purge') inactive subscribers from my newsletter mailing list. I have to do this about twice a year now.Campaign Monitor tracks the number of newsletters opens for each subscriber, so it's easy to determine the rate of open of each. If that rate is less than a certain percentage,...

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Raphael Nguyen: Vietnam

Photo © Raphael Nguyen-All Rights ReservedPhoto © Raphael Nguyen-All Rights ReservedRaphael Nguyen is a French-Vietnamese photographer, who moved to Vietnam in 1999. He lived Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and finally in Hoi An in the very center of the country. He travels within the country, uses either film or digital cameras; Nikon FM2, Nikon F3 and Nikon...

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Next Week on The Travel Photographer

For the week starting Monday November 21,  the following posts are in the pipeline:1. The work of a part-time Indian photographer with multi galleries, including one on Varanasi.2. A Vietnamese photographer's gallery of Vietnam's daily life. I didn't manage to post it last week as planned.3. The work of a photojournalist on Pakistan's Swat Valley...

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The Big Picture: National Geo Contest 2010

Photo © Ario Wibisono-All Rights ReservedThe Boston Globe's photo blog The Big Picture is showing off some of the submissions to The National Geographic annual  photo contest. The deadline for the submissions is November 30. The Big Picture editor chose 47 images from the three categories of People, Places and Nature.No one asked me for my opinion,...

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Olivier Laban-Mattei: Award Winner Paris Match

Photo © Olivier Laban-Mattei- All Rights Reserved Olivier Laban-Mattei was awarded the 2010 Grand Prix Paris Match for his recent coverage of Haiti. This prize was created in 1980 and all French professional photographers can compete. Every two years, the prize is decided by an international jury, with the winner receiving 8,000 euros.The prize...

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Paul Kowlow: Japan (and Geishas)

Photo © Paul Kowalow-All Rights ReservedPaul Kowalow's website on Zenfolio is sparse with his biographical details, but I thought I'd nevertheless feature his work of Japan here. You'll see that his gallery of Japan has a large number of portraits of not only geishas but also of young women adopting the punk style of fashion, which I thought is a jarring...

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Win A Copy of "To Cambodia With Love"

I have a bunch of copies of To Cambodia With Love....the travel guidebook to Cambodia with some of my photographs. These will be given out as prizes to 5 readers of The Travel Photographer blog who correctly answer the three following questions.  The winners will be picked randomly out of a hat provided they have a US mailing address where the...

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Paul Levrier: Visions of Indochina

Photo © Paul Levrier -All Rights Reserved Paul Levrier is in a good position to photograph all over South East Asia and in particular in Indochina. He's the managing director of a travel company specializing in Vietnam (where he's been based for the past 14 years) and Cambodia. He's also the founder of Visions of Indochina which is a digital image...

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Reuters: Best of the Year Photojournalism

Photo © Adrees Latif/ReutersIt seems that we're at the time of year when many of the news magazines, and large photo-blogs will soon be featuring their "best of the year" photographs. The first of the bunch is Reuters which is showcasing some 55 photographs.Reuters photographers produce over half a million images every year. Some pictures define an...

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Dan Bannister: East Africa

Photo © Dan Bannister -All Rights ReservedDan Bannister is a commercial, industrial and editorial photographer based in Calgary, Canada, who having joined my recent Bhutan: Land of the Druk Yul Photo~Expedition™ last year, recently traveled to East Africa to further expand his inventory of travel imagery. His new gallery of East Africa includes a broad...

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Eid El-Adha

Photo © Muhammed Muheisen/AP (courtesy Lens Blog New York Times)Muslims around the world are celebrating the Eid El-Adha or  the"Festival of Sacrifice" in commemoration of the belief that Ibrahim (Abraham) was willing to sacrifice his son Ismail to God. Observant Muslims celebrate it by slaughtering animals to commemorate God's gift of a ram...

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My Book: Bali Island of Gods: Now Available

I'm excited to announce that my new photo book Bali: Island of Gods is now available from Blurb. There are two main versions of the book (82 pages of black & white photographs) on Blurb's bookstore. A large (13x11 inches) landscape hardcover version and a standard (10x8 inches) landscape version. All the details are available on a page of my website...

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The Haj In 1885 And Now

CNN has featured an interesting clip of images and audio dating from 1885 of Mecca and of the Haj ritual. It's accompanying article tells us that Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, a Dutch scholar of Oriental cultures and languages, and an advisor to the colonial government of the Netherlands East Indies, visited Mecca in 1885 taking photos and making sound...

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Mohamed Hassan: Photojournalist

Photo © Mohamed Hassan- All Rights ReservedMohamed Hassan Abd El Aal (Mikko Hassan) lived and worked in Cairo, and graduated from the Akhbar El-Yom Academy with an honor degree in Journalism. He worked as a press photographer in the daily newspaper El-Shorouk El Gedid. Apart from covering political issues, protests and demonstrations, he was interested...

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Erika Larsen: Lavvos & Reindeer

Photo © Erika Larsen- All Rights ReservedErika Larsen is a photographer and film-maker who's recently been doing work in the Scandinavian Arctic with families of Sami reindeer hunters. She worked as a magazine photographer since 2000 specializing in human-interest stories, cultural issues and the daily life of people connected to the natural world....

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LATimes' Framework: Chhath Festival

Photo © Narendra Shrestha/EPA The Los Angeles ' Times large image photoblog Framework has featured a number of lovely photographs from around the world this past week. I liked this one by EPA photographer Narendra Shrestha of a Nepali woman staring while offering fruits and coconuts to the setting sun during the Chhath festival in Kathmandu.The...

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Next Week on The Travel Photographer

For the week starting Monday November 14,  apart from off-the-cuff posts, the following is in the pipeline:1. A photographer's multimedia photo essay on the Sami people of the Scandinavian Arctic.2. A photographer's gallery of his freshly-minted photographs of East Africa.3. The work of a Vietnamese photographer of his homeland.4. Another interesting...

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Thomas Cristofoletti: Day of the Dead

.Here's a movie made of still photographs by Thomas Cristofoletti on the singular tradition in the Philippines which occurs on the Day of the Dead. The stills were made in Tandag, Surigao del Sur and document the tradition of caring for the tombs on November 1. Tombs are cleaned up, repainted and spruced up by relatives. Candles are lit and flowers placed. Many families spend a night or two near their loved ones' tombs in remembrance. Card games, eating, drinking, singing and...

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WSJ Photo Journal: The Haj

Photo © Hassan Ammar/Associated PressThe Wall Street Photo Journal is one of the first of the large picture blogs to publish a photograph to commemorate the Haj (or Hajj, as it spells it). The caption reads "Tens of thousands of Muslim pilgrims prayed inside the Grand Mosque, during the annual Hajj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The Islamic pilgrimage draws...

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My Book: Bali Island of Gods Update 2

I've received the full version of my book Bali: Island of Gods from Blurb, and I'm happy with it. The variations in tone have been evened out, and the photographs are much better looking than in the sample I got last week. Phew!I will have two versions of the book (82 pages of black & white photographs) on Blurb's bookstore. A large (13x11 inches)...

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Marc Riboud: Magnificent Traveler

Afghanistan 1955 Photo © Marc Riboud- All Rights ReservedAnnick Cojean, journalist at Monde, says it well about Marc Riboud:"This man is free. This man is passionate. He's a magnificent traveler which the world continues to amaze. He loves life and intensely photographs it", which underscores what Riboud says of himself: "Rather than a profession,...

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POV: Face Covered, Women Only...Must Be Islamic!

Photo © Gali Tibbon/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images But it's not. The caption as per the WSJ Photo Journal is this:"A member of the religious group Women of the Wall wore the traditional Jewish prayer shawl of men called the tallit during a prayer service at the women’s section of the Western Wall in Jerusalem Monday."So the traditional Jewish...

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Enrico Martino: Tango Soul

Here's a wonderful multimedia essay by the talented Enrico Martino on the ageless, eternal and graceful dance of Argentina, the tango. Originating in Spain or Morocco, the tango was introduced to the New World by the Spanish settlers, freed African slaves and gauchos in Buenos Aires around the 1880s.Tango is not a dance, but a particular way of seeing and enjoying life...it's a way of life, where seduction by both sexes is disguised by dance moves and steps. But no one is...

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Dilla Djalil-Daniel: Kolkata's Durga Puja

Photo ©Dilla Djalil-Daniel- All Rights ReservedPhoto ©Dilla Djalil-Daniel- All Rights ReservedPhoto ©Dilla Djalil-Daniel- All Rights ReservedPhoto ©Dilla Djalil-Daniel- All Rights ReservedPhoto ©Dilla Djalil-Daniel- All Rights ReservedDilla Djalil-Daniel is a photographer currently living in Jakarta, and just returned from Kolkata where she photographed...

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In Support of Joao Silva

The New York Times contract photographer Joao Silva, one of the major conflict photojournalists of our time, stepped on a mine while on assignment in Afghanistan a couple of weeks ago, and as a consequence his legs have had to be amputated below the knees. He is now recovering at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, DC.His friends have set...

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POV: Photo-Workshops Are Useful, But....

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedScott Bourne, who publishes and writes Photofocus since 1998, has posted an article on photo workshops titled Don't Listen To The Trolls in which he encourages people to attend workshops led by photographers who have work they find inspiring...an encouragement that is both reasonable and logical.However, let's...

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Book: 'To Cambodia With Love' Is Now Available

Finally! To Cambodia With Love,  the book with my photographs of Siem Reap and its environs has been published. It's available from a long list of booksellers all over the world.It's described on Amazon as "From a tarantula brunch in the remote Cambodian countryside to a leisurely cyclo ride through the streets of Phnom Penh, To Cambodia With...

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Next Week On The Travel Photographer

For the week starting Monday November 8,  the following posts are in the pipeline (not in this order though):1. A photographer's mini-portfolio of black & white images of the Durga Puja in Kolkata.2. A wonderful multimedia essay of Tango in Buenos Aires.3. A The Travel Photographer Point Of View on photo workshops. which may raise hackles...

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Ken Hermann: Sadhus of the Kumbh

Photo ©Ken Hermann-All Rights ReservedKen Hermann is a photographer based in Copenhagen, Denmark and is a member of the Behance Network. He has a personal website, but I get a no access message when I try to view it. No matter, his portraits of Sadhus made during the 2010 Kumbh Mela in Haridwar can be seen on here. Sadhus attend Kumbh Mela festivals...

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Human Rights Watch: Burma Defenders

The Human Rights Watch feature Burma Defenders is timed to coincide with the first elections to be held in the repressed country in more than 20 years. Burma has been run by a junta of army generals who have silenced any opposition to their brutal regime with human rights abuses and by silencing any dissent.Political observers are awaiting the elections...

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Panasonic's Lumix DMC GF2

Aaaaargh! It seems that engineers love to spoil a good thing. Panasonic has just announced the Lumix GF2, the updated version of its excellent mirrorless, lens-swappable GF1.According to WIRED's Gadget Lab, the new GF2 comes with an updated image processor for a maximum ISO to 6400, a do-all touch-screen control, and an upgrade to the HD video mode.The...

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Evan Abramson: When The Water Ends

Ethiopia's government is building a new dam in the Omo river projected to be the largest hydropower project in sub-Saharan Africa. Almost 50% of its electrical output has already been sold to neighboring countries, but it will reduce the water flow to the Omo River and threaten the lives of some 500,000-800,000 nomadic pastoralists.Evan Abramson's...

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Jimmy Williams: Music Makers

Photo © Jimmy Williams - All Rights ReservedI couldn't find much in the way of background on Jimmy Williams except the brief biography on his website which tells us that he's a narrative storyteller. That is true, but to me he also captured the essence of the remarkably talented southern music makers.The series began with an assignment and led to an...

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My Bali Island of Gods Book: Update

I've been working on my book for a few days now, and I've just sent it to Blurb for publishing. I've chosen for it to be in large format landscape 13x11 inches, and with 82 pages of black & white photographs, it'll be a large coffee-table style book.I fixed the variations in tone, sharpened the "soft" photographs and those that seemed "muddy"...

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Maya Elise Joseph Goteiner: Dia De Los Muertos

Photograph © Maya Joseph-Goteiner -All Rights ReservedI just saw lovely photographs by Maya Joseph-Goteiner on PDN Photo of The Day, and thought I'd feature her work from Oaxaca and elsewhere relating to the Dia de los Muertos festivities, which was featured on PDN here as well. You can also see more of Maya's work on her blog.The Dia de los Muertos...

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