Palani Mohan: Kolkata's Rickshaw Pullers

Courtesy Getty Images' ReportagePalani Mohan describes the rickshaw pullers of Kolkata as "human horses" who work for 18 hours a day, hand pulling/carrying people and goods for a pittance. There are over 18,000 rickshaw wallahs in Kolkata, and although the state government declared this "inhuman" and "barbaric", and tried to ban rickshaws from the city's streets. This was rejected by the pullers themselves, and huge protests ensued. Most of the rickshaw pullers are impoverished Biharis, who come to Kolkata to earn money to feed their families back in Bihar. Some describe their lives as "cursed"....

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Books: Robert Van Koesveld's Bhutan Heartland

Robert Van Koesveld has published a wonderful book on Bhutan, and entitled it Bhutan Heartland. The details of the book are available on a sub-section of Robert's website. When I got it, I experienced a twinge of envy at Robert's talents as a photographer, and how well produced this book was. Joining Robert in the task of putting this book together is his wife Libby Lloyd. Bhutan Heartland explores the culture, history, beliefs and dazzling Himalayan landscapes of this wonderful country, known as Druk Yul...and where smoking in public places is against the law! Nine chapters make up this hardback...

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Cropping...What's That?

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedPhotographers who've accompanied me on my photo~expeditions, have photographed alongside me and perhaps those who've seen my galleries, know that I don't crop my images except in-camera. I don't know if that qualifies me as a purist or not, but in general terms, I'm loath to remove what is already in the frames I've captured. Naturally, if there's an offending finger creeping in the side of a frame, I'd crop a few pixels out of the frame to remove it (or very very rarely use the clone tool instead)...however depending on the subject/scene and its intended...

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Eirini Vourloumis: Latino Muslims

Photo © Eirini Vourloumis-All Rights Reserved Eirini Vourloumis is a freelance photographer who has recently been featured on The New York Times' LENS blog for her photo essay on Islamic communities in the United States. She is a graduate of Parsons and the Columbia Journalism School, and her work has been published on Lens and in The New York Times, New York Magazine, FT magazine and The Village Voice. She also attended the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Istanbul where I met her this past summer. There are an estimated 200,000 Latinos in the United States who have converted to Islam. Most...

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Photo Matters: An Educational Resource

Jon Sachs is the creator of Photo Matters, an educational resource for photographers who want to learn about creative photographic variables. Most of my readers are professional and semi-professional, and may consider an educational website such as this one to be for beginners...but that would be a mistake. Photo Matters is different, and aims at all levels of photography proficiency.It's true what Sachs says on his website. Many times, we reach for a lens, or adjust the shutter speed/aperture value without even thinking...and can't explain it. We just know...or just feel it. However, Photo Matters...

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Daniel Berehulak: Holi

Photo © Daniel Berehulak-All Rights ReservedDaniel Berehulak documented the kaleidoscopic Indian festival of Holi in the holy city of Vrindavan in February 2010, and the power of his photographs in terms of composition and color is enhanced by his website...large colorful photographs; who can resist?! His photographs are a feast for the eyes, especially to those who love pink!Many of his photographs were made in the streets of Vrindavan, and in the temple of Bankey Bihari which is virtually subsumed in colored powder thrown by the devotees and the revelers. Holi is the Hindu festival of color,...

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BBC's Human Planet

The BBC's Human Planet is a landmark series that marvels at mankind's incredible relationship with nature in the world today. Each episode takes you to the extremes of the planet: the arctic, mountains, oceans, jungles, grasslands, deserts, rivers and even the urban jungle. A word of caution...exploring the Human Planet website will take you a while. I've barely scratched its surface so far. Human Planet crews have filmed in around 80 locations, bringing us stories that have never been told on television before. The team has trekked with HD cameras and state of the art gear to film from...

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The Coptic Man on "Tiananmen Square"?

Photo © Amr Abdallah Dalsh/ReutersA photograph by Amr Abdallah Dalsh, a Reuters photographer, stopped me in my tracks. It shows an Egyptian young man (presumably a Christian Copt) menacing or hurling a piece of iron at the cowering Egyptian police. This came about as a consequence of the heinous bombing of a Coptic church in Alexandria on New Year's Eve which killed 23 and injured 100. Egypt is still reeling from the violence, and its government has quickly blamed external Islamist terrorism, promising to bring the perpetrators to justice.  I'm not holding my breath on that eventuality, and...

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Joey Lawrence: Omo Valley Portraits

Photo © Joey Lawrence-All Rights Reserved There's no question that Joey Lawrence (aka Joey L) is one heck of a photographer...travel photographer, ethno-photographer and portrait photographer as well. He recently added more photographs of Lower Omo Valley tribes to his blog that are breathtaking in their simplicity. These are different than what we come to expect to see from Joey, who had accustomed us to environmental portraits of endangered tribes people, whether in Ethiopia or Indonesia. This latest crop of incredibly beautiful photographs have been posed, and the subjects set against a...

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Next Week On The Travel Photographer

What's on tap for the week starting Monday, January 10? Here's what:1. The work of an emerging photojournalist featuring Muslim Latinos in the United States.2. A very well done educational resource website for photographers. Whether advanced or not, you'll find this resource very useful.3. The work of an interesting photographer/photojournalist on Holi.4. An inside view as to how a young photographer sets portraits of members of tribes in Ethiopia. There'll also be some "shooting from the hip" posts...I'll also be touring the incomparable (and gigantic) B&H on an exclusive visit, and getting...

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Ed Kashi's Interview (Silber Studios TV)

Screen Capture Courtesy Silber StudiosEd Kashi is of course a well known photojournalist with a list of awards and achievements as long a man's arm, and then some. I thought his interview with Marc Silber would be of interest to my readers if they haven't caught it before I did.In this video-interview,  Ed shares some ideas (tips if you prefer) on advancing one's photography. He makes many interesting points such as describing himself as a long form visual storyteller, and uses the phrase "candid intimacy" to describe his work.The blurb accompanying the video interview mentions that when...

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Jashim Salam: Celestial Devotion

Photo © Jashim Salam-All Rights ReservedJashim Salam is a Bangladeshi photographer, who's currently working for Driknews international photo agency. He was recognized with a Jury Special Award in the 6th Humanity Photo Awards 2009 Contest, sponsored by the China Folklore Photographic Association, the Guangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee and UNESCO. He also received awards in the 69th International Photographic Salon of Japan (Asahi Shimbun) in 2008, a honorable mention in the USA Legatum Center Photo Contest in 2009, a special award in the People & Planet photo contest 2009 in Australia,...

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Frederic Lemalet: Tibet

Photo © Frederic Lemalet-All Rights ReservedFrederic Lemalet is a French travel photographer who, evidenced by his focus on Tibet, is in love with that region. He traveled to Alaska, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, China, and Nepal...but it's Tibet that seduced himBetween 2003 and 2009, Frederic spent 3 years in Tibet, documenting its culture which may soon disappear. Distributing his time between his native France and Tibet, he's currently working on publishing books, and displaying his images in exhibitions. The last exhibition was "Himalaya" and held in Montier-en-Der...

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POV: More Branding For Free

I think I knew very early on in life that one of the most critical and fundamental factors in any business, whether online or not, was branding. As I entered the online world for my photography business, I realized that online personal branding was key to generate a distinctive internet personality/presence, and that's how I snagged The Travel Photographer label...for my blog, a backup blog, website(s), social media such as Twitter, Facebook and everything in between including an email address, business cards, and even items of my own clothing. If I had a penny for each time I hear other travel...

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Voice-Over Artist

Photographers who produce multimedia photo essays are notoriously voice-over calamities...flat, unfunny...you name it. I ought to know...I break into a cold sweat whenever I have to do a voice-over (which is rare).Audio will make or break a multimedia photo essay, so a lifeless or unattractive voice-over (when needed) will doom one's product. But here's a natural talent who ought to be employed as a voice-over artist by photographers, in radio or even on television. So here's a chance to do good and employ this man!Via Duckrabb...

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Nagore Sessions: Sufi Song

A recent article appearing in The New York Times on music used in some of the city's yoga centers led me to the Nagore Sessions. These are Sufi chants accompanied by percussion from the Middle East and contemporary Western instruments. While the musicians are from many different nationalities, faiths and backgrounds and came together to produce the Nagore Sessions, the singers (Abdul Ghani, Ajah Maideen and Sabur Maideen Babha Sabeer) are Sufis from India. They usually perform at religious and social ceremonies at the Sufi shrine of Nagore Dargah in coastal Tamil Nadu.This song follows the qawwali style as it includes verses praising God, but I'm also told that it's sung in Tamil. Traditional Qawwali songs are mostly sung in Urdu and Punjabi,...

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Elizabeth Herman: Durga Puja

Photo © Elizabeth Herman-All Rights ReservedElizabeth Herman is a photographer and a recent graduate of Tufts University. She's currently residing in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where she is a Fulbright Fellow. At Tufts, Elizabeth intertwined her studies with her passion for photography through "Exposure", the Tufts’ student-led documentary studies group.Whilst in Dhaka, Elizabeth documented the annual Durga Puja. The annual event is an Hindu festival in South Asia that celebrates worship of the Hindu goddess Durga. As far as Bangladesh is concerned, Durga Puja is its largest religious festival for Bengali...

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Sophie Gerrard: The Coal Cycle Wallahs

"I load the bike then push it for 50 kilometers. It takes me 2 days."Here's The Coal Cycle Wallahs story; the work of Sophie Gerrard, a British freelance documentary photographer in the UK and India who specializes in environmental and social issues.The Coal Cycle Wallahs documents the impoverished men who haul coal along Jharkhand's steep and twisting forest roads. As the Indian Government owns all the resources under the land, these coal-wallahs are technically stealing the coal from mines...but the authorities turn a blind eye.Jharkhand is a state in eastern India, carved out of the south Bihar in 2000. It shares its border with Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and West Bengal. It's home to the largest coal belt in Asia, but is...

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January? Must Be TTP's 4th Year!!!

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedAs I'll be traveling on January 24 when it's officially The Travel Photographer blog's fourth birthday, I thought why not observe it today...?I started this blog on January 24, 2007 with a post on the Ardh Kumbh Mela, which was being held in Allahabad in that year.  Since then, I've posted over 2116 posts, posted about no less than 900 photographers and ranted, pontificated, expressed considered and unconsidered opinions on issues, important and trivial....gleefully aroused the ire of a dogmatic few and provoked the generous compliments of many.I...

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Next Week On The Travel Photographer

What's on tap for the week starting Monday, January 3? Take a look:1. The work of a French photographer/photojournalist featuring  Tibet and Kilimanjaro.2. A photomovie by a Scottish photographer...on the Coal Wallahs of India.3. The work of an emerging photographer on the Durga Puja.4. An interview with an award-winning photojournalist, along with his tips and techniques. Plus potential "shooting from the hip" posts....who knows what the first week of 2011 may bring!As a footnote: a reader wrote me the other day complaining that the Next Week On The Travel Photographer posts were a waste...saying...

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