travling photography

Photo � Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved I thought I'd feature an audio file as well as  an image for this post of Beyond The Frame; both which were produced during my  The People of Tay Bac Photo Expedition-Workshop  in September 2014; a trip which planted the seed for my two years book project  H?u �?ng: The Spirit Mediums of Vietnam  (now on Amazon). Th? H� village is about 40 kilometers from Hanoi, and is reachable across the narrow Cau River which we crossed  on a rusty ferry. The village is known for making  rice paper and banh da (rice crackers); its two main exports since 1990. We passed a a row of old houses, and met Vi?t in one of the courtyards. He welcomed us into his house, offering us rice wine in small goblets. Seeing a collection of traditional instruments on his living room's walls, I asked if he played them...and he said yes. Being encouraged to play, he grabbed one of the stringed instruments and started singing a number of traditional Vietnamese songs,

Photo � Alfred Weidinger | All Rights Reserved "The most important thing is to find one king -- when I have one, he will guide me to the others." -  Alfred Weidinger With a couple of exceptions, African kings are traditional rulers who often derive their titles from the rulers of independent states or communities that existed before the formation of modern African states. Although they do not have formal political power, in many cases they continue to command respect from their people and have considerable influence.  There are only three African countries with constitutional monarchies � Morocco, Swaziland and Lesotho -- but there are several hundred traditional monarchs dispersed across Africa in urban, semi-urban and rural communities in independent countries. It is estimated that there are about 70 such African monarchs as well as some 500 tribal leaders, whose dynasties and fiefdoms marked the history of Africa until the middle of the twentieth century.  Austria-based a

Photo � Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved One of my favorite photographs was made in the market town of Bac Ha of northern Vietnam, known as T�y B?c (literally "Northwest"). It consists of six provinces, which include the province of L�o Cai. Vietnam has 54 ethnic groups, giving it the richest and most complex ethnic makeup of Southeast Asia. The majority of the ethnic minorities live in the hilly regions of the Northwest. The region is home to the Hmong, Zao, Nung, San Chay, Cao Lan, Giay, and Lolo, as well as the Tay, and Muong. The photograph was made at the Sunday market in Bac Ha, which hosts around 10 of these ethnic tribes who come to sell or barter their produce and products. Bac Ha itself is a sleepy town that comes alive during the weekend, and when the bartering, buying and selling is done and the tourist buses from Sapa have left, it goes back to bed for the rest of the week. In common with markets all over the world, "pop-up" eateries spring to life

Photo � Mia Haggi | Courtesy MAEKAN Through NEOCHA, I stumbled on an interesting  Hong Kong based  media entity called MAEKAN , which describes itself as a platform for " original storytelling in its purest through captivating audio, engaging words and beautiful visuals " and an " audio-first publication exploring unexpected connections in culture ". A few months ago, I was in Kuala Lumpur photographing various temple ceremonies celebrating the Nine Emperor Gods festival, and being a strong advocate in merging still photography with ambient audio, I consequently was interested in MAEKAN's iPhones For The Dead story. (Don't miss the audio link to the narrated story).  In a Taoist temple in Kuala Lumpur, I recall walking in a warehouse full of paper replicas of money, miniatures of cars and appliances and other luxury items which were destined to be burned as offerings in the memory of Chinese ancestors. Photo � Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved One of Chi

Photo � Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved The Fushimi Inari Shrine (??????) is an important, and very popular, Shinto shrine in Kyoto. It is famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates, which straddle a network of trails behind its main buildings. The trails lead into the wooded forest of the sacred Mount Inari. Naturally, the site is a magnet for tourists, who come here in large groups or individually, to walk its trails and to pose for either selfies or for pre-arranged photo shoots. Not far from the entrance to the shrine, I watched one of these photo shoots in progress, which involved a young couple wearing identical dress being photographed by a photographer and his assistant. They had a chosen a spot that had small replicas of  torii gates hung as souvenirs, and were clearly enjoying their pre-wedding event. I approached the group, and asked permission to photograph as well...and it was readily agreed to by all. It turned out that the couple was from China, while the p

Photo Courtesy PetaPixel I've recently seen a blog post by PetaPixel  (which is one of the blogs I visit very frequently for news on photography), and read that a photojournalist in Bangladesh vented his ire and frustration at non-professional photographers (or non photojournalists...and presumably non Bengalis)) who descend on the country during its largest religious festivals to make "award-winning" photographs. His issue is that these photographers staged scenes to make compelling photographs to enter in photography contests, for a chance of recognition, cash awards and other prizes. He pleads with these photographers to not come to these festivals and ruin his, and other "real' photojournalists, chances at making their own (presumably) non-staged images. I believe it's quite rich for any photographer to take such a position, and while a small part of me sympathizes with it, should the Bangladeshi authorities have no mechanism to only authorize accredited

Being confined indoors for long stretches by the recent horrible winter weather in New York City, I started to choose potential picks for its front cover, and will eventually choose its back cover as well. After all, one has to start somewhere in a photo book, and although others perhaps make the cover choice as their last step in the book creation process, I prefer to start with it. It's common knowledge that people spend an average of 8 seconds looking at a book's front cover and 15 seconds studying the back cover before making a decision whether to buy it or not...so the choice of both front and back covers is obviously critical to the success of Chinese Opera In The Diaspora. The initial short list for the front cover of Chinese Opera of the Diaspora (its tentative title) is as per the above thumbnails. Although this "contact sheet" is skewed towards male performers, I have much more images of female performers for another sheet, however I believe that the final f

Photo � Antoine Schneck | All Rights Reserved Following the recent racist vulgarities uttered by the White House resident describing African, Caribbean and South American nations (among others), I decided to feature photographs of Malians by French photographer Antoine Schneck as a riposte. I have rarely posted about Mali on The Travel Photographer blog and for those of us who need a geographical refresher, it's a landlocked country in West Africa, and is the eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of just over 1,240,000 square kilometres (480,000 square miles). Its population is 18 million, and its capital is Bamako. Setting aside its troubled recent politics, Malian music is glorious, and is derived from the griots , who are known as "Keepers of Memories". Its most well known is the late guitarist Ali Farka Tour� and the Tuareg band Tinariwen, and the wonderful Fatoumata Diawara and Babani Kon�. Schneck tells us that he starts the process of his portrait-making

Photo � Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved Spending a couple of weeks documenting the Chinese (Hokkien) Opera troupes during the Nine Emperor Gods festivals in Kuala Lumpur gave me the opportunity to continue my "Red Qi Pao" project which involves photo shoots in atmospheric interiors that are reminiscent of a 1930 Shanghai. This time, I chose to shoot in a studio setting (a first for me). Along with Stanley Hong, a friend and photographer, we drove from mid town Kuala Lumpur to 512 Studio, Jalan SS 7/26, in Petaling Jaya...a journey that took us about half an hour or so. The studio is owned by Ms Osa Lim, and managed by the ebullient Ms Shay Yap, herself a photographer as well. The small studio is reasonably well appointed, with 4 or 5 separate areas that are decorated in different styles; such as a dark bar with wine glasses, a red room with old Shanghai posters, another in a Japanese style, etc. We were to met Lee Lee; a lovely friend who volunteered to model for us. She

Photo � Christian Berg | All Rights Reserved Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) previously known as Saigon, has a population of about 8.5 million people, making it the most populous metropolitan area in Vietnam. The city's population is expected to grow to 13.9 million by 2025. Its French-influenced buildings earned it the nickname of �the Pearl of the Orient�, especially because of its tree-lined boulevards flanked by grand hotels with wide verandas. Saigon's old buildings also formed the backdrop for �The Quiet American,� the Graham Greene novel set during Vietnam�s war for independence from France in the early 1950s, and for indelible images of the Vietnam War. The city  was full old apartment buildings; built in the 1950s or 1960s while others dating back to French colonial times.  As an aside: Although I've been to Vietnam many times, I've only been to Saigon once back in 2004, and I distinctly recall the Rex Hotel; the old and famed hotel where the United States military wou

Photo � Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved I've immersed myself (not totally...but let's say, up to my waist) in documenting Chinese Opera in its various forms since mid 2017, but have found the project to be daunting because of the complexity of that ancient art form, its diverse types/styles, because of its thousands of tales and because I don't speak or understand Mandarin and/or Cantonese. Notwithstanding these challenges, I started to read on the various types of Chinese opera, and during 2017 attended and photographed various performances in New York City's Chinatown (Cantonese), in Kuala Lumpur (Hokkien) and in Shanghai (Qinqiang). It is a Qinqiang performance in Shanghai that's the subject of this Beyond The Frame blog post. The premier venue for Chinese opera in Shanghai is the Yi Fu Theater on Fu Zhou Lu Road near People's Park. It was known as the largest theater in the Far East, and no opera actor or actress could achieve fame until they performed