travling photography

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...

Remembering Shanghai: Trailer This post has nothing to do with travel photography, but has a lot to do with 1930's Shanghai; an era and a city that has kindled my imagination for quite some time, and recently influenced me to produce a couple of my 'fashion' themes stories such as The Red Qi Pao and The Girl of Nanjing Road. However, this post is more about how to publicize a book...in this case, a memoir not a photo book, albeit with illustrations and photographs.  The joint memoirs are by Isabel Sun Chao and her daughter Claire, and tell of their recollections. As Claire says:   "My ancestors were a cast of eccentrics who lived in tumultuous times, and thankfully my mother did not resist writing an insider tell-all. There�s a bank heist, a kidnapping, a feud with Shanghai�s top gangster, a trek across China and a date on a Harley-Davidson. In between the adventures, we learn about mahjong, calligraphy, silkworms, Beijing opera and Shanghai dumplings." I...

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...

In the afternoon of November 9, 2016 I was welcomed at the studios of VTV International (VTV4) at 43 Nguy?n Ch� Thanh Street by Ms. Ho�ng Th? Thu Trang (Head of VTV's English Division) and by Ms Duong T. Tran (host of Talk Vietnam) to record an in-studio interview  and to talk about my  recently published:  H?u �?ng: The Spirit Mediums of Viet Nam  photo book. VTV4 upload ed it on You Tube. It is also currently is streaming on VTV4's website  in broadcast HD qualit y. In my jet-lagged condition, I was a ball of nerves before the interview, and being faced with three TV cameras, and hearing the call "Action!" did not make things better...but Ms. Tran was very gracious and her questions put me at ease. I had received the proposed script earlier in the day, and I had rehearsed as much as I could. The interview took 1-1/2 hours. 

The Vi?t beliefs in the Mother Goddesses of Three Realms, also known as �?o M?u, was inscribed  on December 1, 2016 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. And the inscription comes as an important chapter in my 18+ months journey documenting this indigenous belief system which I stumbled across during a photo expedition in northern Vietnam in September 2014. It also serves to underscore the importance of this tradition to the millions of Vietnamese who flock to it for their spiritual needs, and to gain help in achieving good health and success in their communities, occupations and social circles. I am proud to have launched my photo book  H?u �?ng: The Spirit Mediums of Viet Nam  in Hanoi just 3 weeks before the formal announcement, and contributed in a small way to the anticipatory buzz of  the mystical world of �?o M?u and H?u �?ng. My three photo talks and my photo book were written of in more than 18 different n...

I'm very pleased that Hanoi Grapevine has featured news of my photo book  H?u �?ng: The Spirit Mediums of Viet Nam   on its popular portal. Hanoi Grapevine describes itself an important and active promoter of the arts in Vietnam. It provides bilingual content of high-quality art and culture happenings in the contemporary landscape of the country and offer reviews by interested, informed and opinionated commentators.  It has also announced that Hanoi�s expats and local citizens will have chance to talk to me about �?o M?u and H?u �?ng when I am in Hanoi in early November for a number of appearances at different photo talk venues. Fuller details will be announced on this blog once I have the firm dates. The venues are in central Hanoi and are popular for art, photography and music events.

All Photographs � 2016 Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved I remember  September 12, 2014 very well. I was in Sa Pa, the famous hill station in northern Viet Nam, and despite the early morning humidity, the Black Hmong vendors were already waiting for tourists. I was walking on Fansipan Road, bantering with some of them, when I heard religious music wafting from a nondescript building. I asked the vendors and was told it was a temple. I walked in and met women dressed in red traditional clothes who, through sign language, told me that a ceremony would start at 9:00 am. This is how my two-year long journey into the world of  �?o M?u, the indigenous Vietnamese mother goddess religion and h ?u d?ng , the  ritual of spirit mediumship, started. Totally by accident. Serendipitously.  I was flabbergasted that I hadn't heard of  �?o M?u before. My so-called specialty as a travel photographer is/was ethno-photography with special interest in esoteric ...

For My Personal Blurb Bookstore, Click on Above Image I am pleased to announce the official publication of H?u �?ng: The Spirit Mediums of Viet Nam; a 170-pages photo book. I've been working on this book over the past two years, during which I traveled to H� N?i no less than six times to attend and photograph various ceremonies, conduct interviews and research the tradition and its impact on Vietnamese society. I am the only non-Vietnamese photographer to have photographed H?u �?ng ceremonies in such depth. H?u �?ng is one of the main rituals of �?o M?u, the worship of mother goddesses in Vietnam. During these rituals, the mediums go into trances to allow their bodies receive the spirits of various deities. The journey of the spirits into the bodies of the mediums is an incarnation, and the process involves the spirits briefly hovering then moving into the mediums. The mediums change their costumes to indicate which deity has entered their body Vietnam submitted The Mother Goddesse...

Available for a limited time! Get an exclusive first run advance copy of H?u �?ng : The Spirit Mediums of Viet Nam H?u �?ng : The Spirit Mediums of Viet Nam US$ 235.00 (This exclusive price is for one advance copy. It's on a first come first served basis. The price includes USPS shipping to an address within the contiguous United States.) . (Image-Wrap hard cover) 170 pages 13 x 11 inches/33 x 28 cms Printed on Proline Pearl Photo Paper (Semi-Gloss/Best Quality 190 gsm) Book weight approx 5.6 lbs/3 kgs A large coffee-table format photo book with over 100 large color photographs and more than 60 pages of text, " H?u �?ng : The Spirit Mediums of Viet Nam " explains the ancient Vietnamese syncretic religion of �?o M?u, its rituals, its pantheon of deities, along with a narrative of my own experiences documenting it in Vietnam since late 2014. H?u �?ng is a ritual of �?o M?u, and involves mediums being possessed by deities-spirits. It combines trances, spirit worship, s...