travling photography

Photo Courtesy Hanfugirl   Readers of this blog know of my "chinoiserie" phase in my photographic trajectory, which ranges from photojournalistic projects such as documenting various types of Chinese opera to what I call "fashion themed storytelling'. It's the latter that led me to discover the work of Ms. Gong Pan Pan, a Singaporean whose passion is to re-enact the ancient/traditional Chinese female�s way of dressing, either through modeling the dresses herself or relying on friends to do so. Ms Pan Pan's delightful blog is The Hanfu Girl , and she pens a number of historically and visually interesting posts about her passion. One of specific interests at this time is the Hanfu style. Hanfu is the term for traditional clothing worn by the Han Chinese before the 17th century. Of the 56 different ethnic groups in China, the Hans are the largest, and make up approximately 90% of the population in China. In a recent interview, she estimated that she has betwee...

Photo � Delphine Blast | All Rights Reserved And for a total change away from Asia, I'm featuring photography out of South America,; a continent I've visited a number of times but neglected on this blog. A French photographer, Delphine Blast was on a two month journey in Bolivia, and met dozens of cholitas;  Aymara and Quechua women in layered skirts and shawls, with the distinctive bowler hats atop their heads, and learned of the social and racial discrimination they had faced for as long as anyone could remember. She decided then to produce a series of portraits in a gallery titled The Cholitas Project to feature these women's identity affirmations and to reflect the social changes in the country following the 2005 election of Evo Morales, the country's first indigenous president. A possibly apocryphal tale about the bowler hats worn by these indigenous women is that in the late 1800s, two brothers in Manchester were manufacturing a line of bowler hats, and plann...

Photo � Justin Hession | All Rights Reserved Enough already with China, I heard you say? Well, here's a post on the famed Kumbh Mela in Allahabad in India. There are different kinds of Kumbh Melas...the so-called "Maha Kumbh" melas are the largest  kahunas of these Hindu religious festivals, and the second* Maha Kumbh of this century at Allahabad (also known as Prayag by observant Hindus) concluded with a magnificent ritual bathing on the occasion of Mahashivratri on March 10, 2013...and it is this religious gathering which influenced photographer Justin Hession to publish his stunning  Pilgrims of the Kumbh  portraits on Exposure.  Justin tells us he spent two weeks in a makeshift tent studio, making portraits of pilgrims drawn to these rivers' confluence. He chose a different perspective from the hundreds of photojournalists who came there to document the event, and opted to create studio style portraits against a plain black backdrop.  The Ku...

Photo �  Victoria Knobloch | All Rights Reserved I can make no apologies for the recent spate of China or Chinese related posts. As this blog's readers know, I'm currently neck-deep in a new long term project revolving around the traditional Chinese opera (and its various styles) amongst the Chinese diaspora in South East Asia and elsewhere. So here's the work of Victoria Knobloch which she has titled China Charm . Many of her monochromatic images are of simple portraits, with some more complex environmental portraits (including the cormorant fishermen of the Li River), along  with some landscapes.  Aside from her portraits, I was mostly attracted to her work depicting men in traditional Chinese interiors (presumably rural tea houses) and walking cobblestoned old villages. She has also a number of other galleries worth stopping by; those of Tibet, Tibetans in exile and Kham stand out and reaffirm Ms. Knobloch's fascination in Tibetan Buddhism.  V...

Photo � Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved (GFX50s) At the end of every trip, whether I had been giving a workshop or working on a project, there's one (or perhaps two) frame(s) that I specifically fall in love with. This never fails to happen. I believe it's about developing an instant emotional bond for the subject(s) in such frames. As I often tell those who attend my workshops...the photographer has to fall in a semblance of "love" with his or her models. Whether posed or candid photo shoots, successful imagery depends on the mutual bonds that develops between these parties.  I was in Kuala Lumpur last month during the Nine Emperor Gods festival; an important Taoist religious festival which begins on the eve of 9th lunar month of the Chinese calendar.  While the festival itself with its unusual rituals and religious processions is a veritable feast for the eyes, for the senses and naturally for photography, I was there to photograph the performances and back s...

I was raised in a household in which French was the predominant language, and the cuisine was primarily Mediterranean...not surprising as Egypt's culinary roots were (and still are) influenced by Turkey...and to some degree, Greece, Italy and France. Ottoman Turkey and its antecedents ruled Egypt from 1517 to 1914, following the defeat of the Mamlukes, and its culinary influence is still pervasive to this day. This, perhaps a convoluted way, explains the fact that I consider it as my "comfort" food; one with which my taste buds are very familial with, and one that reminds me of growing up in a household where Osta Hassan, the loyal family cook, would prepare for us aromatic kebabs, dolma, and imam bayaldi (the famous Turkish aubergines). So it was with considerable pleasure that I received Istanbul & Beyond , a Turkish cookbook by Robyn Eckhardt & David Hagerman. I haven't had the chance of meeting the two-time Saveur award winner Robyn Eckhardt, but I know D...

Photo � Chen Haiwen-All Rights Reserved Whilst in Shanghai, I was very pleased to meet with Mr Chen Haiwen; a master photographer, the founder of Shanghai Museum of Antique Cameras, the recipient of the highest photography award in China twice in a row and Vice Chairman of the Shanghai Photography Association.  He and his family were a model of gracious hospitality and assistance. Between the summers of 2008 and 2009, he and his support teams  visited 28 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, 554 cities and counties of China (and Taiwan), to produce  The Family Photos of China's 56 Ethnic Groups. Mr Chen and his team took 57,228 family photos of 1,125 cultural heritage  ethnic group representatives. These are analog images that provide a complete ethnographic record of China's 56 ethnic groups. Using a VIP invitation to the Shanghai PhotoFairs, I posed in front of one of Mr Chen's large format images. At Shanghai PhotoFairs Aside from his masterly wor...

I'm not exactly sure where my interest in Shanghai erupted, but I do know that my  c hinoiserie "phase" has been bubbling for quite a while. Although it was influenced by my travels over the past two years to Hanoi and Kuala Lumpur, it was triggered by a couple of visits to the Malaysian capital's Old China Cafe; an atmospheric eatery in its Chinatown's vicinity. It was at this Old China Cafe; an old caf�-restaurant that serves a combination of Straits Chinese and Malay dishes, and whose untouched pre-war ambiance and large traditional feng shui mirrors gave me the idea of constructing a fantasy story about a beautiful Chinese woman dressed in a clinging red  qi pao  (or  cheongsam)  appearing   to an opium-addled Western photographer. Another another influence is In the Mood for Love , the 2000 Hong Kong film directed by Wong Kar-wai, starring Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung. It's moody theme is especially inspiring.  Fast forward to earlier ...

Photo � Robert van der Hilst | All Rights Reserved While in Shanghai some weeks ago, I had the good fortune of meeting Mr Chen Haiwen (whose work will be featured here in a forthcoming post) for the very first time at his impressive offices in the Xuhui District. I was happy receiving  Robert van der Hilst's  ' Chinese Interiors ' coffee-table photo book as a gift from Mr. Chen, who told me he and others had helped  the author/photographer during his travels which resulted in this very handsome tome. Robert van der Hilst is certainly a world traveler. He studied photography in Amsterdam and started traveling in his late teens. These travels took him to France, North and South America, and China. During the past 20 odd years, he focused much of his efforts on China, and he produced many personal work as well as taking on assignments for well-known international magazines. In 2004 until 2008, he started his seminal personal work titled Chinese Interiors. He tells us th...

As readers of this blog know, I've spent roughly two weeks in Kuala Lumpur to photograph the Taoist Nine Emperor Gods Festival with particular interest in its concomitant Chinese Opera performances. The latter are presented primarily to entertain the gods and spirits, and secondarily for humans.  I was privileged to be introduced to, and then guided through, the ritual labyrinths of the nine days long festival by Cheryl Hoffman who is not only a long time resident of Kuala Lumpur and a formidable photographer, but is also an " �minence grise " in all matters related to the religious and cultural DNA of Malaysia.  Although Cheryl's website provides fascinating galleries of her photographs made during various festivals (including an "almost" official guide to the Nine Emperor Gods festival), I thought I'd feature her most recent audio slideshow The Flow And The Fire which she describes as  "...on the eve of the Nine Emperor Gods Festival, space is t...