POV | Mediocrity And Cronyism

Photo © This Cannot Be Mine. Take It...Steal It!

"INDIA TOLD THROUGH THE COLORFUL PHOTOS OF..."

A reasonably well known travel magazine branding itself as "the multi-platform travel media brand that inspires and guides those who travel the world to connect with its people, experience their cultures, and understand their perspectives', and  published in San Francisco, recently featured on its website a bunch of photographs made of India by the creative director of a fashion-lifestyle website.

It is virtually impossible to make a bad photograph in India, but these were really bad. They were more aptly described as 'snaps' by photographers who know their craft. And their captions were even worse....but these might have been the work of clueless copy writers.

Here's the thing: many talented upcoming and young travel photographers would love to be featured in this magazine...but may have an uphill struggle to get their work considered by the magazine's photo editors.

But the 'creative director' of a fashion-lifestyle website had not trouble in getting her ridiculously mediocre photographs seen and featured.

So why feature mediocre photographs on the website of a seemingly professional travel multi-platorm?

One of the answers probably lies in old fashioned parasitical cronyism.

The fashion-lifestyle website appears to have over 500,000 Instagram followers, while the creative director's Instagram is followed by over 100,000...the later being almost double that of the travel magazine's followers.

So in a possible bid to enhance its audience, the decision-maker(s) at the magazine may have gritted their teeth, and featured these talentless photographs. 

Of course, there may be different reasons...such as friendship, or whatever. It could have been as simple a reason as the creative director returning from a shopping trip or honeymoon or holiday to India, and asking her travel magazine friends if they'd publish her stuff.

It happens all the time, and I understand how such things work in the real world, but I also know that in this particular case, the photographs really suck and reduce the value and respectability that this travel platform tries to achieve. And the way to enhance a travel magazine's value is to publish thoughtful, compelling, beautiful photographs by talented photographers who take pride in their craft.

And pay them.

Jacob Maentz | The Mansaka

Photo © Jacob Maentz -All Rights Reserved

The Mansaka live in the provinces of Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley in the region of Mindanao in the Philippines. Essentially farming people, they are choosy as to there they cultivate their lands, and seldom encroach on other lands.  Their name means “the first people upstream,” derived from man (“first”) and daya (“upstream or upper portion of a river”).

The Mansaka are known for their distinctive costumes and ornamentation, involving tie-dyed textiles and embroidery. Their farming practices slash and burn cultivation. They live mainly on rice, various tubers, and bananas. Houses, which may contain up to three family units, are organized into kinship-based neighborhoods and always placed within eyesight of each other.

Jacob Maentz documents the lives of the Mansaka in his 'The Mansaka of Compostela Valley' photo story, in which he tells us that the Mansaka; although many are Christians, still embrace many of the traditions and beliefs passed down to them over time.

His lovely portrait of Datu Sucnaan (above) is of one of the last few Balyans or priests of the Mansaka Tribe. I encountered a number of Balians (or Balyans) on the island of Bali, and these, like Datu Sucnaan, are faith healers who are extremely well regarded by the Bali islanders, and who are often the primary go-to for medical treatments instead of hospitals and clinics.

You shouldn't miss Jacob's essay with much larger photographs on Maptia, one of my favorite storytelling platforms. You can find it here.

Jacob Maentz is a documentary and travel photographer based in Cebu, Philippines. He's keenly interested in documenting issues related to the human condition, culture, and humanity’s interactions with the natural world. He has worked with corporations, humanitarian organizations, publishers and advertising agencies and his work appeared on television commercials and billboards to magazine and book covers. Much of his documentary work is represented by Corbis Images.

Tu Tran Thanh | Lên Đồng

Photo © 2015 Tu Tran Thanh-All Rights Reserved

Some of my readers will recall my March personal project in Ha Noi which centered on documenting the rituals of Hầu đồng -also known as Lên đồng-, when I was provided invaluable assistance by Tu Tran Thanh; a photographer who also discovered and eventually shared my interest in these traditional Vietnamese rituals.

For decades, Lên đồng was restricted by French colonial and Vietnamese leaders, but the tradition is currently enjoying a strong resurgence in popularity since restrictions were relaxed a decade or so ago. It takes some effort to find and attend the authentic Lên đồng ceremonies. since these are not widely publicized, are often performed at the virtual drop of a hat and are dependent of availability of the pagodas allowed to hold such ceremonies.

I think it is about time I feature Tu Tran Thanh's photographic work "Lên đồng: Spirits' Journeys of Vietnam" which was published on the visual storytelling platform Exposure. There is quite a number of her fabulous photographs of the various ceremonies which she attended before, while and after I was in Ha Noi. It is not an exaggeration that Tu Tran Thanh is now seen by many Hầu đồng mediums as a trusted photographer for their ceremonies.

I am glad Tu Tran Thanh's role is assisting me is far from over. She's also helping me to complete my own ongoing Hầu đồng book project.

Kares Le Roy | Buzkashi

Photo © Kares Le Roy -All Rights Reserved

Buzkashi! The word just fills the mouth with an exotic flavor, doesn't it?

It literally means "goat dragging" in Persian, and is is a Central Asian sport in which horse-mounted players attempt to drag a goat or calf carcass toward a goal. Originally, free-for-all games could last for several days, but in more regulated tournaments, the games are time limited.

It is popular in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Some mistakenly attribute the game of polo as having its origins in buzkashi, but the two are two separate types of horse riding contests. The goat (ideally, a calf) in a buzkashi game is normally beheaded and disemboweled and has its limbs cut off at the knees. It is then soaked in cold water for 24 hours before play to toughen it. Occasionally sand is packed into the carcass to give it extra weight.

Kares Le Roy was in Tajikistan, and features his Buzkashi gallery on his website.

Kares travelled for 2 years through a dozen countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Asia, Central Asia and Middle East.  The countries he photographed in range from Tibet, Nepal, India, Bali, Cuba, Cambodia to Morocco. He traveled through 56 000 km of land and humans: faces, smiles, eyes, monuments, cultures, and events. He has recently started his travels again, and we look forward to see more of his extraordinary work.

Fabien Astre | The Goroka Festival

Photo © Fabien Astre-All Rights Reserved

The Goroka festival is probably the best known tribal gathering and cultural event in Papua New Guinea. It's held every year close to the country's Independence Day on 16 September in the town of Goroka, the capital of the Eastern Highlands Province. About 100 tribes arrive to show their music, dance and culture. This traditional festival is called a sing-sing, and is the biggest of its kind in the world. 

The feathers of birds of paradise are heavily featured in the festival, either used for decorative head gear or ceremonial dress, and it is often noted how extraordinary that so many feathers can be squeezed on a traditional headdress. The dances and songs during the festival reflect the behavior of the birds of paradise in the wild, which represent beauty and seduction to the tribes.

Fabien Astre documented the Goroka festival, and his colorful photographs appeared in a number of publications such as The Daily Mail, Rough Guides, and Bored Panda amongst others.

Fabien is a French photographer who started traveling in earnest about 10 years ago. He worked in
New Caledonia and backpacked his way in both Australia and India. Returning to Australia, he became interested in travel photography, and currently spends most of his time in Asia and in the Pacific. Currently living in the Solomon Islands, he's combining travel, diving and photography.

Nigel Morris | Tribes of South Ethiopia

Photo © Nigel Morris-All Rights Reserved

I've criticized, on a number of occasions, a handful of photographers who feature images of tribes in south Ethiopia and the Omo Valley, depicting them in elaborate (and contrived) headdress, and setting them up to freeze in front of their cameras in awkward poses, and in so doing rewarding them with lavish gifts of money for every photograph made. I traveled to the Omo Valley in 2004 at a time when this was the exception rather than the norm, and when the tribes were willing to have their photographs taken against a modest donation being made to the heads of their villages.

With a very few exceptions, the recent photographic work I've seen has been of overworked imagery, with the Omo Valley tribespeople overly made-up and fetishized by making them wear incongruous head gear and unnatural accessories. So it's with pleasure that I stumbled on Nigel Morris' Tribes of South Ethiopia on PDN (which led me to his website) since his portraits are free of these artificial accoutrements which, in my view, are demeaning. 

According to the PDN interview,  Nigel Morris's gear during his two week long trip to Ethiopia was a Phase One 645DF with my P40+ digital back and 80mm LS lens; two small cameras, a Fuji X100s and Fuji XT1; one flash unit, a Profoto B1; three light modifiers, an Elinchrom Rotalux 69-inch OctaBox, a Paul C Buff Soft Silver Para, and a Westcott Apollo; and two light stands. 

He tells us that he mainly photographed four tribes—the Daasanach, Mursi, Hamer and Bodi. He employed a fixer and a driver, and just rolled in the Omo Valley. He is a portrait and editorial photographer from Brooklyn, New York.

Hanoi | Bali (Foundry Photojournalism Workshop)

Well, it's the time of year again when I finalise travel plans to join the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop's faculty, as I have done since its inception in 2008 in Mexico City (with one exception, Sarajevo which I had to miss to other commitments). This time it will be held in Bali from July 19-25 and it promises to be another roaring success.

I shall teach "The Travel Documentary: Sound & Image"; a multimedia class that allows its participants to concentrate on the story, rather than on the application. The purpose and aim of the class is to show photographers how to make quick work of slide show production (rivaling in content and quality the more complicated processes), using their own images and audio generated in the field, to produce a cogent travel documentary under the simulation of publishing deadlines.

I plan to drop by Hanoi for a few days to do some further research into the practices of Hầu Đồng, and to add to my already existing inventory of images of these unusual ceremonies.

As my readers know, I am also working on what I hope will be an interesting photo book on Hầu Đồng and its mediums, whose cover will resemble the above tentative mock-up. It potentially could be printed in Hanoi, but it is still premature to determine the location of its production at this stage.

All this makes for an exciting summer 2015!

Jean-Christian Cottu | The Holy Men

Photo © Jean-Christian Cottu-All Rights Reserved

"The Holy Men" is a collection of arranged and posed portraits made by photographer Jean-Christian Cottu in the ancient city of Varanasi. Although these photographs have yet to be uploaded to the photographer's website, he asked me to feature them on this blog on an individual basis, so I chose a few that I liked.

Photo © Jean-Christian Cottu-All Rights Reserved

On Cottu's website, there's a section featuring videos showing the photographer and his assistants during photo shoots, which is quite interesting as it shows the degree of preparation and gear he has to schlep during such shoots.

Photo © Jean-Christian Cottu-All Rights Reserved

As readers of this blog know, I am always highly skeptical of the "holiness" of the photogenic individuals who roam the ghats of Varanasi and elsewhere. I photographed some of them myself, and know full well they are about as holy as I am. That said, they are extremely photogenic, look authentic and play the part marvelously well, provided the monetary reward is in line with current market rates. Now, there may be exceptions to this, and I'd be happy to stand corrected it indeed there was. The fellow in the above photograph holding a stick with a skull is probably taking the role of an ascetic Shaiva sadhu known as Aghori.

Nonetheless, and authenticity cast aside, the portraits of these photogenic characters are lovely and atmospheric. I have previously featured Cottu's work in the Nagaland here.

Between Bordeaux, France, where he lives and the other side of the world, Jean-Christian COTTU defines himself as a wandering photographer. When travelling, he carries his equipment in a sealed trunk containing a portable photo studio and a light box connected to a generator.

Asher Svidensky | The Yin-Bou Fishermen Of China

©Asher Svidensky-All Rights Reserved

I recently took part in judging Travel Photographer Asia photography contest, and one of the winning images was that of an elderly fisherman using the cormorant fishing technique, photographed by Magnus Brynestam.  While the cormorant fishermen with lanterns at dusk is a consistent favorite in such photographic contests, and has been photographed countless times, the judges saw it fit to award this photograph a place in the top five submissions.

Coincidentally, I chanced on Asher Svidensky's The Yin-Bou Fishermen which features gorgeous photographs of these fishermen, along with interesting information of this technique. It seems that during the 16th century, the unique technique of “Yin-Bou” fishing to the Li river of Xing-Ping village in South China.

Wikipedia tells us that the technique is prevalent in Guilin, where cormorant birds are famous for fishing on the shallow Lijiang River. To control these birds, fishermen tie a snare near the base of the bird's throat. This prevents the birds from swallowing larger fish, which are held in their throat and brought back to the fishermen.Though cormorant fishing once was a successful industry, its primary use today is to serve the tourism industry.

Asher Svidensky is a freelance photographer with a strong passion for documentary and storytelling.
Conscripted into the Israeli military in 2009, he served as a photographer. His photographs have been published in magazines and newspapers around the world, including the BBC, National Geographic, The Times Newspaper, Metro Newspaper, GEO, AD (Netherlands) and more. In 2014 he also had the privilege of giving a TEDx talk.

POV | Jimmy Nelson | A TED Talk

Many of us travel and ethno-photographic and documentary photographers have heard of Jimmy Nelson and of his photographic work.

His photographs, the publicity buzz surrounding the publication of his book and his self-promotion (albeit helped by a veritable array of PR professionals) have engendered a strong backlash from a variety of sources, whether these are from other photographers, from NGOs and the like, and environmentalists who saw it as an affront to the way of living of his subjects. Others have even gone so far as accusing Nelson of being exploitative, and have expressed strong reservations and an unease (to put it mildly) at the over-the-top PR promotions, and the self-aggrandizement tactics adopted by Jimmy Nelson and his entourage.

Another part of the equation is that it seems Jimmy Nelson managed to convince an wealthy investor to fund this project to the tune of $500,000 and his books are selling for $150 whilst the special limited editions sell for $8750.

I liked a number of his photographs that were featured on the internet, and whilst most of them are posed and pre-arranged, they do depict life ways that are disappearing quite quickly. I also admire Nelson's energy, perseverance and courage in pursuing this project. He ventured in places that are really tough to get to and to live in for the duration of his shoots. He must've endured quite a lot of difficult situations...so for that, he ought to get respect.

That said, I watched the TED talk he gave. And I must say, Nelson is no Salgado. The gist of his talk was superficial, and he worked way too hard at being sensationalistic and enthuse the audience. I also thought the choice of his group photograph (Omo Valley) and its backstory to be mundane and uninteresting. He tried hard, but he's not a charismatic raconteur and although he must have incredibly interesting stories to share, he came through as unconvincing to me.

It's a shame because it's a perceptual kind of thing. None of his critics, nor I, know whether Nelson -apart from his over-the-top PR campaigns to sell his books- has exploited his endangered photographic subjects. Knowing whether  a portion of his royalties were (and will be) used to support the very tribes he photographed, would be interesting... and would go a long way to convince his critics that he's a 'good guy'.