Photo © Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters

It’s surreal to be at the cusp of starting on a photo~expedition while my country of origin is experiencing an unprecedented massive popular uprising to get rid of the current regime of Mubarak, the Egyptian president….who announced that he would remain as its leader but sack its government.

There are a number of thoughts that come to mind. This is a real organic grassroots popular uprising in Egypt against an extremely unpopular and corrupt regime. The Egyptians participating in the uprising are secular, young, educated and less so, and are technological-savvy. There are no signs of religious ideology, of Islamist influence, in these demonstrations.

I sensed that many of the Western pundits are shocked (and possibly disappointed) that there is no whiff of Islamic extremism in the demonstrations…this pulls the rug from under the Western (and the current Egyptian leadership) interests who would like to characterize the uprising as another Iran.

While Mubarak signaled his decision to stay in power, it’s not up to him any longer. It’s the Egyptian youth who will decide the course of the nation…as it should be.

It’s an unparalleled opportunity for the United States to support the Egyptian people in its quest for democracy, and eliminate all anti-Americanism feelings in the whole region by doing so. Imagine if the US administration unequivocally declares its support for the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt!

Incha’ Allah there will be a new dawn for Egypt and its people.

(Posted from Delhi)

Subscribe to The Travel Photographer

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Frederic 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 him

Between 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 (north-eastern France).

His Tibet gallery has 44 photographs, with a number of lovely portraits like the one I chose above…but don’t miss those of the famous Tibetan wide open spaces, and of the Tibetan pilgrim praying in a sort of crude shelter made of stones. The photographs span the four seasons; a testament to Frederic’s dedication to the region.

Subscribe to The Travel Photographer

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Saiful Huq Omi is a Bangladeshi photojournalist, whose photos appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Time and Asian Photography, among others. His work has been exhibited in galleries from Zimbabwe and Russia to Japan and his home country. He received a number of awards, including the All Roads National Geographic Award, and an emerging photographers grant from the Open Society Institute.

I thought his recent interview with the World Press Photo ** was one of the most honest I’ve seen in a long time. Saiful Huq spoke candidly, and tells his interlocutor something which resonates with many emerging photographers in the world…

“…the world has seen us through the eyes of white photographers from the west..”

Well said, Saiful Huq! That’s true, but these days are now gone, never to return. It’s now the time for local photographers to show us their cultures, their countries and their creativity…as indeed you and many others like you have already done…and will continue to do.

His Rohingya project gained him a grant from the Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund. He is represented by Polaris Images, and published his first photo book, Heroes Never Die – Tales of Political Violence in Bangladesh, in 2006.

** (The direct link may redirect you to the main World Press photo website. If so, you’ll have to navigate to its multimedia library and then to “Meet its Participants”)

Via Duckrabbit.

Subscribe to The Travel Photographer

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

For the week starting Monday November 8,  the following posts are in the pipeline (not in this order though):

1. A photographer’s mini-portfolio of black & white images of the Durga Puja in Kolkata.
2. A wonderful multimedia essay of Tango in Buenos Aires.
3. A The Travel Photographer Point Of View on photo workshops. which may raise hackles as my POVs are designed to do…we’ll see.
5. A multimedia project on the Day of The Dead…Filipino-style.
6.  Magnum’s new Fund for emerging photographers.

PS. Don’t you just hate this winter time fall-back?? Daylight Savings Time just sucks. 

Subscribe to The Travel Photographer

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

NPR’s The Picture Show recently reported that a part of Tibet’s history recorded through old photographs was auctioned in London. The photographs (consisting of 70 platinum prints and 2 folding panoramas) were taken by British political officer John Claude White during a 1903 British mission to Tibet, and were sold for £38,400 (or about $60,000).

I love news like that because it fuses history (military), Asia, adventurism and photography. John Claude White was part of the British expedition led by Francis Younghusband who, under orders from George Curzon, was to settle disputes over the Sikkim-Tibet border. In reality, the expedition was to establish British hegemony in Tibet, and morphed into an invasion and occupation of Tibet. This was one of the many chess pieces in The Great Game between Great Britain and Russia to control Central Asia.

Younghusband is subject of a well-documented biography by Patrick French, titled The Last Imperial Adventurer. A fascinating man (comparable in my view to Sir Richard Francis Burton…another incredible adventurer), Younghusband is said to have experienced revelatory visions in the mountains of Tibet, toyed with telepathy in Kashmir, and eventually espoused a sort of atheism, even though he was brought up as an Evangelical Christian.

I always think photojournalists (especially those who work in Iraq and Afghanistan) to read up on history instead of believing the crap we see on television…they’ll have a better grasp of what’s still going on. The Last Imperial Adventurer is one of those books.

I know…I may be wasting my breath.

Subscribe to The Travel Photographer

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The photographers are, amongst others, Chris Rainier recommending New Guinea, Carolyn Drake recommending Xinjiang, and Andrea Pistolesi recommending Sicily.

Jaipur was recommended as one of the best places to photograph but in my view, that city pales in comparison to a hundred of other more picturesque places in India.

I could have easily straighten that out had I been asked.

And what about Nepal, Bhutan, Bali, Vietnam, Ethiopia….?

Subscribe to The Travel Photographer

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Our days in Bali have been long, with back to back photo shoots at temples ceremonies. The best are those which are small and intimate and held by families, rather than communities where rules, more likely, prevail.

Subscribe to The Travel Photographer

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

A few days ago, I posted an opinion piece (or POV) on a renowned photographer about to engage in a project which I deemed unrelated to his travel documentary specialty.

As a consequence, I was criticized by a half dozen people in the blogosphere who, perhaps having misread the gist of my opinion, disparaged my photography, my prior career, my being Egyptian-born (as if that made me unfit to speak my mind), etc. Bah.

I was reminded of Jean-Jacques Rousseau who said: “Gratitude is a duty which ought to be paid, but which none have a right to expect” when I noticed some of the disparaging remarks on that blog were made by the very same people whose photographic work was frequently lauded, applauded and supported on my blog. Double Bah.

I don’t know for sure why these people resorted to abusive ad hominem, but one of my guesses (and I have a few) is that they sought to get back at me for not being a lemming, for being an iconoclast of sorts, for not sharing their “gods”, golden calves and icons, or to force me into a mold of their choosing. People simply don’t like people who are not like them and don’t act like they do…it’s small-minded tribalism.

So move on boys and girls…I don’t need you to tell me what to think and say, nor do I kneel to your golden calves. Get it?

Just so we’re clear: A few expressed their disagreement with my view, but did not resort to insults. To those, I say thank you for your point of view…and let’s agree to disagree.

Subscribe to The Travel Photographer

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Ed Kashi’s objectives were to show how the people of Punjab live, and how millions of Pakistanis just try to live their lives despite the threat of religious fundamentalism, especially as it’s also home to the peaceful sect of Sufism.

I had the pleasure of meeting a number of young Pakistani women photographers at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Istanbul just last week or so, and I was amazed at how they just lived their lives to the fullest, worked and crafting their impressive body of work seemingly unperturbed by the events that get reported in our mainstream media.

The above photograph was made at the mosque of Badshahi in Lahore, which is the second largest mosque in South Asia and the fifth largest in the world. The way Ed Kashi photographed the scene by slightly tilting the camera seems to be giving motion to the barefooted man and his cane. Nicely thought out and it gives a different perspective to the mosque which must’ve been photographed countless times.

Subscribe to The Travel Photographer

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

It will involve photographing tribal life in western Gujarat, the hijras at the famed Bahucharji temple, document the syncretism between Sufi Islam and Hinduism in various shrines and sacred sites in Gujarat’s southern peninsula, and the African Indian Mystics of Gujarat, with their distinctive music and rituals.

This photo~expedition™ is limited to a maximum of 5 photographers, and its details have now been sent to my newsletter recipients.

It promises to be another exciting experience especially as it involves so many off-the-beaten-path documentary opportunities…Sufi and Hindu syncretism, eunuchs, the Indian Sufi mystics, and Gujarat’s tribals! Not the faint of heart or for first-timers to India, it’s a visual and intellectual itinerary which will offer immense opportunities to self-starters interested in documenting the complexities of conflicting traditions and ways of life in one of the most interesting countries of the world.

Subscribe to The Travel Photographer

Related posts:

1. World Travel Guide-Search for holiday destination The World Travel Guide grants all sort of information on...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.