travling photography

Photo � William E. Crawford | Courtesy The New York Times I don't recall writing a blog post about an article that appeared on The New York Times' Lens feature, but I could not let the wonderful photography of William E. Crawford on Hanoi Streets go without giving it its due merit on the pages of this blog. One of the photographs that I couldn't stop looking at is of this Vietnamese general. I have no idea who he is or what his history may have been...but I've met Vietnamese men (and women) of his age with similar facial expressions, whose astounding gentleness and courtesy to me -as a visitor to their country- are the most rewarding experiences I took away from my travels in Vietnam. In the Lens article, Mr. Crawford is quoted as saying  "despite the embargo and the wounds of the American War there was no obvious anti-American hostility ... the lack of hostility towards Americans, at least in the North, was a relief to me." This is so true! Everywhere I went...

Photo � Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved The H'mong, estimated at about 1 million people, constitute one of the largest ethnic group in Vietnam and one of its tribal group, known as the Black Hmong, are reputed for their handicraft and indigo blue clothes made of hemp. The women  wear long blouses over short trousers, and wrap long scarves around their legs. They wrap their long hair around their head covered by a turban. The H'mong came to Vietnam from South China some 300 years ago, during the Ming and Qing dynasties.  The majority live in northern Vietnam's Lao Cai province.  Their spoken language belongs to the H�mong�Dao language family, and although their writing was Romanized in 1961, it is not widely used. The back story on the top photograph: I was walking in a Black H'mong village (I don't recall  its name, but it was at a short drive from Sapa), and chanced upon a woman sweeping her porch. She was used to tourists, and didn't seem perturbed when I...

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 I was rummaging through my archives to pull photographs suitable for my forthcoming photo talk in Shanghai, and picked this one of a Vietnamese mourner at a roadside funeral. I thought it was be appropriate to feature in this Beyond The Frame post since it will soon be T?t (or T?t Nguy�n ��n as the Vietnamese Lunar New Year is called) during which families visit their ancestors� tombs and clean grave sites.  Unsurprisingly, the Chinese also have an identical tradition known as Qingming or Ching Ming Festival (Tomb-Sweeping Day) which is regularly observed as a statutory public holiday in China. In fact, the timing of my photo talk in Shanghai was brought forward to avoid the festival as many people would be traveling to cemeteries at that time.  This photograph was made at a roadside funeral while I (and other photographers on my  Vietnam: North of the 16th Parallel Photo Expedition/Workshop )  was returning...

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 � 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 � 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...

In March 2015 I had just started researching and photographing the cult of Mother Goddesses in Hanoi, and was introduced once again to the ancient art of Ca Tr�. I had attended one of its performances already during one of my photo expeditions in 2012. The performances were held in a small, but very atmospheric, old Vietnamese house on Hanoi's Hang Buom Street. It is during these performances that I met Ms. �?ng Th? Hu?ng, a Ca Tr� singer and musician, who played the traditional Vietnamese three-stringed lute, amongst other instruments. She was keen to be photographed in a traditional Vietnamese dress at a different venue such, and we chose �?n Ng?c Son, the Temple of the Jade Mountain, on Lake Hoan Kiem. 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 s...

Readers of this blog will know that I've been interested in adding another arrow to my quiver  -photographically speaking-  for quite a while, and I'm now earnestly starting a "chinoiserie" phase  in my photographic trajectory.  As I wrote in an earlier post , " ..it is not really about fashion and/or attractive models (although it's obviously nice to include them), but about a theme. The theme of "Shanghai-1940" is one that I seek to recreate through still photography and audio, and weave a narrative into stories...akin to short movies. " Whilst in Kuala Lumpur in 2016 participating in the annual Travel Photographer Society event,  I was introduced to The 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 pa...

It certainly seems like my photo book H?u �?ng: The Spirit Mediums of Vietnam and the subsequent inclusion of �?o M?u (the Mother Goddess religion) in UNESCO's List of Intangible Heritage has ushered an increased awareness and interest in this indigenous faith-based tradition in Vietnam and elsewhere (excluding New York-based Asia Society's shameful and incomprehensible cold shoulder).  Many local and foreign artists are embracing this wonderful ancient tradition, and some are emerging from the "wilderness" they had been in because of the past disapproval of the Vietnamese government towards it. It took time for this attitude to soften, and �?o M?u is currently no longer under a cloud. I thought I'd feature two distinct art forms celebrating �?o M?u and H?u �?ng. The first is an eclectic project by two Vietnamese artists; Le Thanh Tung and Ngoc Nau as per the above short movie of a wireframe of Ngoc dancing in a 3D environment. The purists and traditionalists mig...

Photo �  Christian Rodriguez - All Rights Reserved I've always thought that circus performers had sad lives. Perhaps it was becasue of the clowns with their tragic-comical faces and makeups. So I'm not all all surprised that Hanoi�s prestigious state-run circus, a relic of Vietnam�s Marxist past, lost a third of its budget and will have no government funding at all by the end of the decade. It is reported that a majority of circus artists suffer occupation-related illnesses.Common conditions include broken limbs, fractured bones, spine curvature, and stomach ailments, while bruises and bleeding occur on a daily basis. And circus artists in Vietnam are paid poorly, face numerous health risks, and even suffer life-threatening, debilitating conditions from their lifelong dedication to their profession. Christian Rodriguez brings us close to the backstage lives of these Vietnamese circus performers in his compelling Xi?c photo essay. He spent eight months in Vietnam over the ye...

Readers and followers of The Travel Photographer blog are probably well aware of my immense disappointment at the inertia demonstrated by the Asia Society in NYC in acknowledging my letters suggesting it recognizes the Vietnamese Mother Goddess religion as an important event in this Asian nation. As background; I had sent over the past 60+ days two letters to specific high-placed staff members highlighting that the indigenous Vietnamese Mother Goddesses religion (known as �?o M?u) and its rituals (known as H?u �?ng and/or L�n d?ng) had been included on the UNESCO's List of Intangible Heritages, and urging the Asia Society to recognize this by organizing some sort of event at it New York City (or elsewhere) location. However, there was no reply, no acknowledgment, no reaction of whatsoever nature emerging from the Asia Society. Not even a "thank you, but we are not interested" email or voice mail. And certainly no event or recognition of any sort was held...not even, a sho...

As readers of this blog know, I spent the better part of the past two years on a wonderful project documenting/photographing/researching the indigenous Vietnamese Mother Goddesses religion (known as �?o M?u) and its rituals (known as H?u �?ng and/or L�n d?ng) in H� N?i and in the northern regions of Vietnam. A few weeks after the birth and publication of my photo book H?u �?ng: The Spirit Mediums of Viet Nam , �?o M?u was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritages of Humanity. This prestigious acknowledgement was received in Vietnam with enormous nationalistic pride as it honors its heritage, and I was privileged to have had the opportunity to give three talks and multiple television interviews about my book, the project and how a non-Vietnamese was able to acquire an expertise in these rituals. On returning to New York City, still reeling from the euphoric feeling of having done a meaningful project, I decided I would try to interest one of the p...

Photo � Viet Ha Tran-All Rights Reserved My previous blog post dealt with the question as to whether the Fujifilm X-Pro 2's capabilities mitigates my "need" for acquiring its medium format GFX 50S to seriously indulge in my interest in "fashion-lifestyle-travel" photography. I concluded the jury was still out, and that most probably the X-Pro 2 was more than capable of producing exquisite images without the weight and cost associated with its medium format cousin. As I was checking Google News for recent updates on my photo book H?u �?ng: The Spirit Mediums of Viet Nam  in the Vietnamese newspapers, I chanced on an article lauding the work of a Vietnamese phot ographer, whose name I was not familiar with, and who wasn't in my extensive Facebook network. Some of the work I viewed exemplified what I am interested in pursuing (to a certain extent). I chose the lovely photograph above, which is one of many in Ms Viet Ha Tran's The Soul of Vietnam gallery,...

Myanmar, or Burma (as I occasionally prefer to call it) is a wonderful country which I had the pleasure of traveling in some time before its recent "modernization". Its people consist of a mix of settlers and invaders from all sides; the Mon and the Pyu are thought to have come from India, while the now dominant Bamar migrated through Tibet, and by the year 849, had founded a powerful kingdom centered in Bagan.  For the next millennium, the Burmese empire grew through conquests in Thailand and in India, then shrank under attacks from China and due to internal rebellions. Photo � Nhi Dang-All Rights Reserved I am often on the look out for young talented travel photographers to feature on this blog, and, because of my own background, I'm especially partial to those who left the "comfort" of a corporate career for a life of creativity, travel and cultural affinity. My current feature is about such an individual; Nhi Dang who describes herself as a videog...

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...

The Autumnal Nymph by Tewfic El-Sawy on Exposure (scroll down on cover image to view the gallery)  Yes, I've been absent from updating my blog for almost a month...but as I've explained in my earlier post, I've been extraordinarily busy setting up three photo talks in Hanoi. These took place for November 5, 11, and 12 at well known and popular venues in the capital's art scene, and were attended by Vietnamese TV stations and its newspaper media. More about that later. I used the little downtime I had to try my hand at street fashion photography. I accidentally met Zhang Mansi near Hanoi's Hoan Kiem Lake, and asked her to pose for me during the few free hours I had. Mansi is a native of Dali, one of Yunnan's most popular tourist destinations in China. She is a third year student in Hanoi University. She reminded me of Luo Shen, a mythical figure of ancient China, who became popularly known because of a poem, Ode to the Nymph of the River Luo (Luo Shen Fu), comp...