Hanoi Report 6

My stay in Ha Noi is unfortunately nearing its end, but yesterday's hầu đồng was, at least in my view, truly the apex of the practice of this ritual of spirit mediumship practiced in Vietnam.

Having had to travel to Hải Phòng (approximately 60 miles from Ha Noi) was a tiny price to pay to witness such as spectacular performance by one of the leading partitioner of the craft. Less modest than the other performances I've seen before, this one was an extravanagza of costumes, flamboyant gestures, make-up worthy of Hollywood movie making and even extras to give more depth to the proceedings.

I was welcomed as a friend, and shared breakfast and lunch with all the crew and followers. Despite my utter ignorance of Vietnamese except for a few mispronounced words, we managed to communicate with sign language and smiles...and I didn't feel being an intruder. It has nothing to do with luck, but all to do with the relentless efforts of Ms Tu; who made this all possible and convinced all the practitioners of hầu đồng that I was a trusted friend who admired the traditional culture of Vietnam and its depth.

This particular performance struck me as being quite different than those I've seen before. The Hát Tuồng Vietnamese Opera influence appeared to be very strong in the costumes, headgear and some of the mannerisms adopted by the medium. Even the elaborate make-up reminded me of it. Naturally, Hát Tuồng is influenced by Chinese Opera as well.

From a photography perspective, I wished there had been a black curtain to hide the bright sunlight or if this performance had been held at night (of course, I'd have to contend with other light issues then), but one gets what one can.

As I mentioned before, I had some frustrating issues with the focusing for the X T-1. Principally because of the movement of the medium, flickering candles, and light extremes. I tried various techniques to compensate and redress these issues...some worked on occasion, but still frustrating. Ms Tu used a Canon dslr, and experienced more or less the same issues...but appeared more stoic about them, and captured some exquisite shots.

Hanoi Report 5

The past few days were a maelstrom of non stop activity. I determined that traveling on my own without the responsibility of having other photographers in tow was liberating, and thought I could control my own time...wrong! I'm in Ha Noi for a purpose, and that purpose is the one that controls me.

After the exhausting Hau Dong all-nighter (see my previous post) of Friday, I attended another of these ceremonies at a nearby pagoda called Binh Nguyen in Gia Lam. I was invited there by the gracious Ms Mai; owner of the Golden Silk Boutique Hotel, who had learned of my interest in this ritual of spirit mediumship practiced in Vietnam. Not only was I invited (along with Ms Tu) to the ceremony, but we shared a lovely traditional Vietnamese dinner with Ms Mai, her husband and friends.

The ceremony was performed by a Buddhist monk who took the role of the hầu đồng; to my understanding, this is quite a departure from the norm, as the mediums are usually laymen or laywomen. In contrast to the previous ceremonies I've attended so far, this was rather more poised...more sedate, and much wealthier as evidenced by the enormous amount of offerings and by the new bottle of Chivas Regal used for the ceremony's rituals.

As a said note, I was told that the monk (or bonze) had two names; his real name is Đỗ Công Điển while his temple name is Thích Tịnh Đức

I chose this particular photograph (above) to demonstrate the difficult lighting conditions of these ceremonies. A mix of different types of light sources, some quite harsh and suspended at different heights, make it a a tough task to photograph particularly with the limited access we have. Stomping over seated spectators to get a shot is never a good idea, so contortionist skills are mandatory.

This afternoon, invited by Tony Trinh, a hát chầu văn singer, we dropped by another hầu đồng ceremony performed by a woman medium (Bà Đồng). Here the light situation was easier to work with, despite the harsh sunlight coming through the open doors.

In between all these ceremonies, I'm attempting to squeeze a few moments of street photography in the Pho Co (Old Quarter) neighborhood. I still haven't found my groove, but it's slowly coming back. In any event, I still have a few days left in Ha Noi.

Hanoi Report 4

Little did I know last September in Ha Noi that I'd return in 6 months to pursue a personal project...little did I know when I walked in Sapa, heard music originating from a temple and photographed a Đạo Mẫu ceremony that it would kindle an interest in the worship of mother goddesses in Vietnam, and little did I know when I stumbled on a Lên đồng (or hầu đồng) ceremony in Bac Ha that it was part of this cult (for lack of better word) in which followers become mediums for various deities.

I have had the incredible good fortune of meeting Ms Tú Trần Thanh, who's being photographing hầu đồng ceremonies, gaining access through her many contacts with its community, and her friendship with Ms Lê Ánh Tuyết, Mr 'Tony" Trinh, and Ung Anh Tuan to name but a few.

So here I am in Ha Noi for the past week working on this particular project, whose probable apex was yesterday.

I can't recall the last time I pulled an all-nighter (except for the 16 hours flights from NYC to Hong Kong and beyond) but last night was nothing short but incredible.

Driving from Ha Noi to a temple called Đền Tam Phủ in the outskirts of Quang Ninh was not too long, and was well worth the distance. When we arrived for the private hầu đồng ceremony, I realized that there were four of these ceremonies being held at the temple. It seemed March 27 was an auspicious day in the lunar calendar, and the whole day and night would see consecutive ceremonies. The private ceremony I was invited to would start around 11 pm and continue well in the wee hours of the morning.

Yes, hầu đồng ceremonies can last for up to 6 hours. To cut to the chase, we started photographing the ceremonies at around 4:00 pm, and ended at 5:00 am...or thereabouts. Not an easy feat by any stretch of the imagination, especially as the lighting conditions at the temple were challenging (no, make that atrocious), and we had only a few clear and comfortable angles to shoot from.

So it was certainly not a walk in the park. The rapid movements of the mediums (sometimes unanticipated, sometimes slow...others frenetic...not really following a set pattern and perhaps capricious to a certain extent) coupled with the bad lighting make it very difficult.

I mostly used my XF 18mmf/2 R pancake lens mounted on the X-T1, which gave me the angle necessary to capture as much of the scenes that I wanted. I tried to use the XF 56mm f/1.2 R but it was struggling in the low light because of the flickering candles used by the mediums.

That said, I am disappointed that XF 56mm f/1.2 R let me down. It's a gorgeous lens for portraits but it doesn't seem suited for action (even deliberate) shots. I hardly used the XF 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6R LM OIS WR (too slow) or the Zeiss Touit 12mm f/2.8 (too wide).

Am I finished with the hầu đồng project? Not at all. But after the all-nighter, it'd be wiser to pass on today's ceremony in Hoa Lac, and wait for the next one on Sunday.

Hanoi Report 3

Yesterday's photo shoots (as arranged by Ms Tu, aka "the Guardian Angel") were held at the Dinh Kim Ngan Jewellery Communal House, then at the superb Temple of Literature, and the purpose was to photograph two of my newly minted friends 'Tony' Trinh and Ms Lê Ánh Tuyết.

Ms. Lê Ánh Tuyết s a very well known Vietnamese singer, while Mr. 'Tony' Trinh is a Hau Dong singer, teacher and musician.

I was pleasantly surprised that none of the locations we chose required any prior permits or even casual permissions. We just walked in, unpacked our cameras and Ms Tuyết and Mr Tony changed into Vietnamese traditional clothes.

I've mentioned this elsewhere, but my Hanoi experience as a solo traveler/photographer is immensely liberating. No responsibilities but my own...in fact, I'm someone else's responsibility to a certain extent, and the feeling of not having a photographic group to take care of is a little disconcerting.

On these two photo shoots, I felt something was missing and felt they were over incredibly quickly in comparison to my previous workshops. Obviously the feeling was because there was no group photographers taking turns to shoot, and my directing the subjects on their behalf.

On a technical front, I am using the Fuji X-T1 as main camera with a whole range of fixed primes and one zoom, as well as the X-Pro1 as a second body to use when I deem it necessary. I found that my favorite lens for this type of photo shoots is the Fuji 56mm, but I occasionally experienced somewhat of a delay when the camera struggled to find the correct focus.

These two photographs were made with minimal post processing. Perhaps at some point, I'll clone out the yellow electrical cable visible in Mr. Trinh's photograph. I used the Zeiss Touit 12mm for that one.

Hanoi Report 2

The gods of good fortune continue to grace me with their benevolence, and the past few days have been exceptionally fruitful in terms of adding to my self-assigned project.

In Ha Noi, I favor staying at the Golden Silk Boutique Hotel, which I consider my home away from home. I came to know most of its staff by name, and they are exceptionally helpful whenever I need. Its location is perfect as it sits right in the Old Quarter; known here as Pho Co. Around the corner from it is Ly Quoc Su, where the small and inexpensive Pho 10 restaurant offers one of the best pho bo I've ever consumed.

Since my last post, my daily calendar has been filled with photo shoots. Along with the indefatigable Ms Tu, I attended another Lên đồng ceremony performed by quite a famous medium (Ống Đồng) called Phung Minh Tri and an exceptionally pretty female medium (Bà Đồng).

Bà Đồng

This morning, I was expecting to fill the day with some street photography but I had to re-arrange my priorities when advised that Ms Tu and I were expected to photograph a Ca Tru musician in Hoan Kiem. Naturally, the streets of Ha Noi will wait for me....and we drove off to the lake.

We spent couple of hours photographing Ms Hường Đặng, a Ca Tru musician that I met when attending one her performances a few nights ago. In my Facebook post recording this photo shoot, I wrote that I had gone to Heaven for an hour or so. The backdrop of the Ngoc Son Temple in the middle of the lake was just perfect, and the cloudy weather fully cooperated with us.

Hanoi Report 1

I scarcely know where to begin this brief post. From the moment of my arrival at Ha Noi airport this past Saturday, I've experienced the most wonderful of assistance, unstinting help and undeserved generosity from so many people that I am still awestruck.

In a recent Facebook post, I wrote that I must have done something really good in my life because from the moment my feet touched Ha Noi's ground, I've already been warmly welcomed to two incredibly intense religious ceremonies (known as Hau Dong) and treated with the utmost courtesy and friendship.

Much of the credit for all this is owed to Ms Tu; an accomplished photographer herself, she developed significant expertise and established strong contacts in the Hau Dong and Ca Tru communities. A fearless motorbike driver, she navigates the streets of Ha Noi (totally ignoring my freaking out on the back of her machine, and giving me pitying looks if I overdo the freak outs) with aplomb and care...and ferries me where and when she sees fit.

David Yarrow | South Sudan

I'm not in the PR business, so I normally don't advertise gallery openings, but I received a rather floridly-written email announcing that David Yarrow was about to show one of his South Sudanese photographs in full color.

I had never heard of Mr. Yarrow before, so I didn't really know what the big PR fuss is all about, but it intrigued me and I found a video interview with him including a number of his monochromatic photographs made in South Sudan, which are truly splendid and are certainly worth your viewing.

David Yarrow is based in London, and after being named Young Scottish Photographer of the Year, he has since specialized on the natural world to capture its harsh and endangered beauty.

He is the author of two fine-art photography books: Nowhere and Encounter. Many of the monochrome shots that feature in Encounter were captured in East Africa. His photographic travels have given him insights into environmental and geopolitical issues which he has put to use into the leading African conservation charity, for which he is the affiliated photographer.

I particularly enjoyed by Mr Yarrow's Indigenous Communities galleries, which include monochromatic photographs of the Dinka, the Inuit and Omo Valley tribes.

Nour El-Rifai | The Nubians

The Nubians are a distinct ethnic grouping of people of southern Egypt and northern Sudan, settling along the banks of the Nile from Aswan. They have a long history dating back to dynastic Egypt, and founded a dynasty that ruled Upper and Lower Egypt during the 8th century BCE. It is estimated that they number about 300,000.

For many years, many Nubians found employment in the wealthier households of the main Egyptian cities, where their work ethics, and honesty were highly valued. However, for many years after the building of dams and the High Dam in Aswan, many were marginalized and unsuccessful in their efforts to return to their original homeland.

That Nubian displacement began early in the 20th century, when a series of dams built by the British along the Nile engulfed swathes of Nubia and uprooted thousands of Nubian farmers and fishermen from the banks of the Nile.

Egypt's new constitution pledges "to bring back the residents of Nubia to their original areas and develop them within a decade." Now, tens of thousands of Egyptian Nubians feel they might have their chance.

Nour El Rifai's The Nubians is a collection of photographs of Nubians who live on Seheil island about 2 miles (3.2 km) southwest of Aswan.

While Nour El Refai is a self-taught photographer, he also obtained a degree in architecture at Cairo University and is working as an Architectural photographer. His interest in travel made him explore documentary and cultural photography. He worked as a documentary photographer on stories and assignments in Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, India, and Turkey. He taught architectural photography within the academic field in various Egyptian universities; and is currently teaching photography in many cultural and art centers.

My Reasons To Love The World | #1

BBC Travel recently had a brilliant feature titled 50 Reasons #To Love The World in which it asked a range of people, from writers and chefs to musicians and photographers, to share one experience from the last year that truly inspired them. A travel experience that reminded them why they love the world.

It provided me with the inspiration to do my own Reasons to Love The World series, which will consist of photographs of my travel experiences over the past decade or so, that left an indelible impression on me, and that made me love the world we live in.

In no particular order, I started the series with a photograph made in a tango milonga in Buenos Aires during the 2011 Foundry Photojournalism Workshop. I sought to produce a multimedia project of the tango culture in the capital of Argentina, and was fortunate to meet generous people (one was a student of mine) who helped me in understanding the intricacies of the dance rituals.

Whilst photographing in the milonga halls, I imbibed the rhythm and melodies of this incredibly complex and sensuous dance, and although my Spanish is imperfect, I understood the sadness of many of its songs. The rituals followed by both men and women; often strangers, were fascinating...a sort of theater scene in which the protagonists had to follow the rules.

The experience, albeit not profound, filled me with a sense of wonderment, and an absolute love for this world.

More photographs of my Reasons To Love The World will periodically be posted.

The Seduction of Tango multimedia project:

Smithsonian | 12th Annual Photo Contest Finalists

Smithsonian.com announced the finalists of its 12th Annual Photo Contest. These photographs were selected from over 26,500 entries, and were submitted by photographers from 93 different countries.

There are ten finalists per category—Natural World, Travel, People, Americana, Altered Images and Mobile—and it is up to the public to determine the Readers’ Choice winner.

I decided to self-appoint myself as a member of a jury for the entries in the Travel section, and selected two photographs which, in my view, ought to win.

One is by Pham Ty of women in a village near Vinh Hy Bay in Vietnam, busily fixing fishing nets while their husbands are out at sea. The other is by Jorge Fernandez of priests celebrating Orthodox Easter in Lalibela, Ethiopia, in May 2013.

Both Pham Ty and Jorge Fernandez have their work on websites, and very much worth a stop over.

POV | Shortlisted Gear For Hanoi Project

In less than two weeks, I'll be in Ha Noi working on a personal project, and the feedback so far is that the necessary scouting has been done, strong contacts within that special community have been made, and the vital groundwork has been set very well...so I'm very lucky to have been assisted so ably and so reliably by wonderful Vietnamese people.

I have researched all I could find on this project, and also spent -quite enjoyable- hours using the Google Translate tool to understand Vietnamese websites. I have a thick notebook filled with handwritten information, which should be useful if and when I interview people involved with this project.

Naturally, the fearsome Murphy's Law hovers over all arrangements... but crossing fingers, all systems are go.

I don't want to divulge the project details at this stage, but photographing it will occur in different venues and at different times. Consequently, I have to give a lot of thought as to the equipment I will take with me...more so than usual because, as I haven't been to these venues before, I'm literally "flying" almost blind at this juncture.

My choice of equipment at this stage is this:

1. Fujifilm X-T1, along with the XF 18-135mm f3.5-5.6 zoom, the Zeiss Touit 12mm f2.8, the XF 56mm f1.2 and possibly (not shown here) the XF 18mm f2.0.

2. Leica M9, along with Voigtlander 40mm f1.4 and possibly the Elmarit 28mm f2.8 (mostly for the street photography days).

3. A film Mamiya 645 Super with a Mamiya-Sekor 80mm f2.8 as I am toying with the idea of making formal portraits of the project's protagonists.

4. Tascam Field Audio Recorder.

I might swap the Mamiya 645 for a Canon 5D Mark II (and a 24mm f1.4 Canon lens) since I may produce some multimedia, and will need its video capabilities. If so, I'll also include a SONY shotgun microphone.

I will probably change my mind a few times before departure, and regret the choices once I'm there....but that's the upside and downside of such projects.

All of Asia Photo Contest | Winner

All of Asia's Second International Photo Competition has recently announced its winner.

Roberto Fenanti won the “All of Asia”, the second international travel photography competition organised by 1000for1.com with his monochromatic photograph of Bagan in Myanmar, which in the opinion of the judges, captured the perfect moment under a unique light.

In an email, Matteo Vegetti (a photographer himself, and one of the founders/organizers of the contest) graciously asked me whether I concurred with the choice...and having had the chance of viewing the other submissions, I do. It wasn't an easy task though because of the quantity of wonderful photographs, but this one stood out.

The judges also agreed to award four honorable mentions to photographers Jakub Rybicki, Chee Keong Lim, Neil Herbert and Muhammad Mostafigur Rahman.

These submitted photographs aptly convey the sense of Asia, with two scenes of Myanmar, one of Afghanistan and from Bangladesh.

The three members of the jury (aka the judges) were Matteo Vegetti, a travel and documentary photographer, Javier Arcenillas, a humanist freelance photographer and Johnny Miller, the cofounder of Maptia.

Jeremy Suyker | House of Strength

I was introduced to this extremely interesting work recently featured as Editor's Choice on Maptia, and it's from a region I have rarely covered on this blog: Iran.

House of Strength is the body of monochromatic work by photographer Jeremy Suyker, and is about the pahlevani; the traditional Persian system of athletics originally used to train warriors that combines martial arts, calisthenics, strength training and music.

Wikipedia describes it as also merging elements of pre-Islamic Persian culture (particularly Zoroastrianism, Mithraism and Gnosticism) with the spirituality of Shia Islam and Sufism. The traditional gymnasium in which this type of wrestling is practiced is known as the zurkhaneh, or house of strength.

The implements used by the pahlevani are a pair of wooden clubs, a bow, a shield and a bar.

The Persian pahlevani influenced the virtual identical traditional wrestling practiced in India known as Pehlwani or Kusti. This wrestling style was developed during the Mughal Empire by combining native wrestling techniques and the Persian pahlevani. I've photographed the pehlwan wrestlers in Delhi, Varanasi and Kolkata, and the styles seem very similar.

Jeremy Suyker is a French photographer and reporter specialized in sociocultural issues. He reported on the aftermath of the Sri Lankan civil war, and on the historical changes in Myanmar.

He has been to Iran on several occasions since 2013, and is pursuing personal projects around the Black Sea region, Central Asia and Istanbul. His works can be found in publications like Geo, Washington Post, Newsweek Japan, Der Spiegel, L’Equipe magazine, Le Temps, Figaro, 6Mois, l’Actualité, A/R magazine and Vice.

Khari Baoli | Exposure | Leica M9

I've just published Khari Baoli on the Exposure platform, using a post processing workflow on the photographs by combining Alien Skin Exposure 6 and Color Efex Pro 4. The photographs were made with a Leica M9 with an Elmarit 28mm 2.8.

Old Delhi's Khari Baoli is the largest wholesale spice market of Asia, but it's the small and medieval-looking Gadodia Market that is the subject of this gallery. This small circular courtyard is perpetually crowded with traders, and wholesalers looking for the best and cheapest spices, such as turmeric, ginger, saffron, and pepper. Few people can enter the area without sneezing, coughing and tearing up. The laborers who load the heavy sacks of turmeric and ginger seem immune to the pungent smells that assail the senses.

The market is also up on the first floor, but the dark stairs are sometimes slippery with phlegm spat by the laborers and porters who continually walk up and down carrying the heavy sacks of spices.

The larger Khari Baoli market was established at the time when Fatehpuri Masjid was built in 1650 with the patronage of Fatehpuri Begum, who was one of the wives of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan.

As a footnote; my Leica M9 is not artificially weathered. It's weathered for real. See my previous post regarding the newly announced Leica.

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