travling photography

Photo � Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved Ca Tr� (pronounced �ka tchoo�) is a complex form of sung poetry found in the north of Viet Nam using lyrics written in traditional Vietnamese poetic forms. It flourished in the 15th century when it was popular with the royal palace, and was a favorite activity of aristocrats and scholars. It was later performed in communal houses, inns and private homes. In 2009 Ca tr� singing was inscribed on UNESCO�s Intangible Cultural Heritage �Urgent Safeguarding List.� Its performances involve at least three people: a female singer ( d�o nuong ) who both sings and plays the clappers (known as the ph�ch) , an instrumentalist (k�p) who plays the d�n d�y (three-stringed lute), and a �praise drummer� known as quan vi�n who beats the tr?ng ch?u . Historically, when spectators (usually male) entered a Ca Tr� performance, they purchased bamboo tally cards. In Chinese, Tr� means card, while Ca means song in Vietnamese, and thus Ca Tr� means tally car...

Photo � Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved Amir Khusrow Dehlavi (1253 � 1325 )  was a Sufi musician, poet and scholar from the Indian subcontinent, who was quoted as saying of Kashmir: �If there is a heaven on earth, it's here, it's here. (� Gar firdaus bar-rue zamin ast, hami asto, hamin asto, hamin asto. �) It is also said that it was Emperor Jehangir who said these words...whoever said it (and my money is on Khusrow), Kashmir is indeed beautiful. I'll set aside political views on the current (and recent) political events in Kashmir, and dwell on its beauty and spirituality....and its photographic magnetism. Historians are united that Hazrat Bulbul Shah was the first saint who sowed the seeds of Islam in Kashmir in 1301, and he might have come from Samarkand or from Bukhara. It was he who convinced Rinchan, the then ruler of Kashmir to convert to Islam, and Sadruddin Shah (as he became known) was the first Muslim ruler of Kashmir. He ruled Kashmir from 1320 to 13...

 A shuchang in Qi Bao. Photo � Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved Six months ago the words Qi Bao (totally distinct from qi pao , which is also known as cheongsam ) and Shuchang would've been totally unfamiliar to me; yet during and after too short a trip to Shanghai this past September, they've become part of my vocabulary as I am planning my return to this exciting megalopolis at the end of next month. Shuchang is a traditional teahouse where storytelling called " shuohua" is performed.   Storytelling was one of the major forms of entertainment in the medieval cities of the Song period (906-1279), and contained both spoken and sung performances, and many of the themes told are still part of today's storytellers' repertoire.  It's in the old water-town of Qi Bao  (???) that I walked in such a teahouse, and experienced a  shuoshu storyteller performing his art of  talking, joking, singing and acting; all accompanied by his three-stringed lute (pipa or...

Photo � Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved The Beyond The Frame posts on The Travel Photographer blog are currently its most popular feature, and I'm glad to have recently restarted it after a long (and inexplicable) hiatus. However, I intend its posts to not only be photographically  informative, but  also to include snippets of culture that may not be widely known, and which I frequently either intentionally seek or stumble upon on my photo journeys. While  wandering at the back of the stage  of a Hokkien (Chinese) opera troupe in Klang (near Kuala Lumpur) taking photographs of the performers applying their intricate makeup and putting on their costumes, I noticed a young woman in an unusually constructed dress, nervously pacing to and fro, rehearsing her lines which she read off a scrap of paper. She wasn't part of the troupe, so I engaged her in a conversation to find out how she fitted in the upcoming show. She informed me that she was the 'warm-up' show for t...

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...

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...