travling photography

Photo � Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved I've been in Kuala Lumpur for exactly a week today, and have yet to shake off the dreadful jet lag that comes with traveling from one of the globe to the other...metaphorically-speaking.  There's quite an activity amongst the Taoist community here on account of the Nine Emperor Gods festival; whose observance and rituals occur in KL's temples. The largest of these rituals occurs in the Kau Ong Yah Temple in Ampang...however this post is about the ancillary events of Cantonese Opera that are performed at some of these temples; essentially to entertain these gods on their arrival to earth. The most elaborate performance is held at the Leng Eng Tian Khien Ong Tai Tay Temple (yes, it's that long of a name) in Petaling Jaya, where it's attended by a large number of temple devotees, as well as by photographers who take delight in going backstage to capture the actors' make up sessions and costumes before they come on stage....

Photo � Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved One of the most difficult subject matters I've had to photograph is Chinese Opera, not because of photographic requirements, but because of the sheer diversity of its various types and styles, as well as its thousands of different operatic tales. Qinqiang is one of these regional types, and was performed at Shanghai's Yi Fu Theater on  Fuzhou Road. The opera's tale was about two women; both brides but with different fates. The opera's title is The Qilin Purse (a red purse bearing the symbol or image of the mythical Chinese 'unicorn', meant to bring luck and good fortune to brides at their weddings). Photo � Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved The performance is representative of the  folk Chinese opera of the northwest province of Shaanxi, where it was called Qin thousands of years ago. Its melodies originated from rural areas of ancient Shaanxi and Gansu.  The singing style is described by musicologists as resoundin...

Sh�nghai by Tewfic El-Sawy on Exposure In a few days, I'll be in Malaysia's capital city of Kuala Lumpur to cover the Nine Emperor Gods festival...and returning to my roots of photographing non-mainstream religious events and rituals. The festival is a nine-day Taoist celebration beginning on the eve of ninth lunar month, and will include trances by mediums, processions and Chinese Opera performances. However, this post is to feature my latest street photographs made in the terrific city of Shanghai. In this incredibly modern megalopolis, buzzing with nervous creative energy, with one of most and best subways in the world...and home of more than 24 million people, I found a few incongruities. These are some of them. 

Cantonese Opera by Tewfic El-Sawy on Exposure My taking a few weeks of hiatus from posting was due to long distance travel to Hong Kong and Shanghai which consumed much of my free time, my getting busy with a couple of longer term photographic projects (such as Cantonese Opera, as per above audio slideshow), and being in need to recharge my batteries, and to regroup my long term plans for the type of photography I do. Although I have a number of posts impatiently waiting to appear on this blog, they'll have to wait a while longer until I return from Kuala Lumpur at the end of October, and where I'll be attending and photographing the Ninth Emperor Gods Festival .  The festival is a nine-day Taoist celebration beginning on the eve of 9th lunar month of the Chinese calendar, and it coincides with October 19 this year. My interest in this festival is two-fold: the primary reason is that it involves mediums and trances, and these may have a connection to my earlier wo...