Robert van Koesveld | Geiko and Maiko of Kyoto

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I rarely if ever, feature crowdfunding campaigns for photography projects, because I don't want to field requests to publicize them before their funding is completed. It's a principle I adhered to since I started the blog many years ago, and since then I've refused to have The Travel Photographer blog feature work in progress that require funding. There are other blogs and websites that can do that better than I can.

With Robert van Koesveld's Geiko and Maiko of Kyoto book, I waited until it overshot its stated goal of raising $3460 to have it published, and can now feature it as an exemplar of a well done job of photography, and marketing. I'm certain the 160 pages hardback book itself will be a worthwhile addition to anyone's library. This book project started about three years ago and has evolved through several iterations.

Geiko is a Kyoto term, and are traditional Japanese female entertainers who act as hostesses and whose skills include performing various arts such as classical music, dance, games and conversation, mainly to entertain male customers. Maiko are young geiko, or apprentices, ranging in age from 15 to 20 or 21 years old.

According to the book's description, it starts with an essay giving context to the images and shares some of Mr van Koesveld's education in his study of the geiko and maiko, and his interviews of some key people. This is followed by photographs of eleven different maiko and geiko, with an intervening picture essay about an evening with maiko. 

With my photo book still being a work-in-progress, I easily emphasize and identify with Mr van Koesveld's intensive work on his. It's an extremely challenging task, but provided the passion is there, it's also an indescribable pleasure, from inception to completion and beyond.

Jan Møller Hansen | The Raute of Nepal

Photo © Jan Møller Hansen-All Rights Reserved 

The Raute are the last hunter-gatherers of Nepal and are only a handful of societies that still do so around the world. It is estimated that they are less than 150, and are the last nomadic people of Nepal. The forests that were their traditional home have more or less disappeared, but they still follow their ancient way of life, staying in one place for a few weeks, then moving on.

Despite pressures of modernity, they wish to remain full-time foragers and reject assimilation into the surrounding farming population. They subsist by hunting langur and macaque monkeys, and gathering wild yams, rice and a few kinds of vegetables traded from local farmers.

The Raute are constantly on the move. They hold no jobs, or and no one goes to school. They grow no crops of any kind and have no livestock. Largely dependent on government handouts, they resist conformity, and remain intractable, secretive and deeply suspicious of outsiders. This, they believe, will preserve their identity and ensure their survival as a distinct community.

The Last Hunters and Gatherers of the Himalayas is an exhaustive photographic gallery of the Raute consisting of 253 photographs by Jan Møller Hansen.

Jan Møller Hansen is a self-taught photographer, who works in visual story telling and social documentary. He lived four years in Nepal (1991-1995), four years in Vietnam (2000-2004), five years in Bangladesh (2007-2012) and worked in short-term diplomatic and international development cooperation assignments in a number of Asian and African countries. 

He currently resides and works in Kathmandu, Nepal. When time permits, he works on various themes in Nepal and in the Himalayan region. He speaks Nepali and has in-depth knowledge about Nepal and the region. In 2015, he published the photo book "Images of Nepal" and was recognized as IPA People Photographer of the Year 2015.

Paul Levrier | Red Hmong | Visions of Asia

Photo © Paul Levrier -All Rights Reserved

This blog post features one of the most enjoyable compilations of South East Asian photographs, and a "gift" to everyone who appreciates this part of the world.

Out of the many impressive photographic galleries, I chose Paul Levrier's Portraits of the Red Hmong to showcase here for two reasons: they are in monochrome and they're square in format.

These are Red Hmong women of Dien Bien Phu province, who adopt the long standing custom of collecting and saving hair from their parents and grandparents, and weave them into enormous wigs that are worn during specific days and on special events such as anniversaries, festivals and religious rituals.

The Hmong are an ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Hmong are also one of the sub-groups of the Miao ethnicity in southern China. This hair collecting tradition is also shared by these Miao women. Within the Miao, the hairstyle of one subgroup has earned them the name "Long Horns."

Paul Levrier is the founder of Visions of Asia, this magnificent digital image bank/library. He is in a perfect position to photograph all over South East Asia and in particular in Indochina. He's the managing director of a travel company specializing in Vietnam and Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

Mustafa Dedeoğlu | Ashura

Photo © Mustafa Dedeoğlu-All Rights Reserved

I've seldom featured the work of Turkish photographers on this blog, but to redress this oversight here is the powerful photographs of Mustafa Dedeoğlu with monochromatic images of Ashura. It's also
about time that I featured black & white imagery after a surfeit of color that my blog has seen for the past few months.

Ashura is an Islamic holiday observed on the 10th of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic year. It's scheduled for October 12th in 2016. The word itself is derived from the number "10," denoting the date of the holiday. For the Shias, it commemorates a day of mourning for the death of Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, at the battle of Karbala. Shias consider Hussein the third Imam and the rightful successor to Muhammad, and the grief for his death is demonstrated by the self-flagellation in parades and other venues.

For Sunni Muslims, Ashura is occasionally observed by fasting as the Prophet Muhammad did, to commemorate the day when Moses and his followers were saved from the Pharaoh by God by creating a path in the Red Sea.

I'm itching to photograph Ashura in India, and was on the verge of setting out to do just so a year ago, but I've had to postpone it for another time due to conflicting schedules. It is one of the religious festivals that is intense, possibly blood curdling and not for the faint of heart. 

Mustafa Dedeoğlu was born in Istanbul and studied industrial engineering in Cyprus. His interest in photography started in 2006, and with time it has become his passion. Mustafa's work is published in various local and foreign titles on art. He also shares his creations through exhibitions, and has shown it in Russia, Spain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, Macedonia, America, Tehran and France.

Book Trailer: Hầu Đồng: The Spirit Mediums of Viet Nam

Here's a trailer of my work in progress book project; Hầu Đồng: The Spirit Mediums of Viet Nam, on which I've been working for the past year, and whose fieldwork will be completed by summer of 2016, if all goes to plan.

I estimate the photo book in its final form will have around 100 full-color photographs of Hầu Đồng ceremonies, of its rituals, of its mediums, its religious paraphernalia and much more. In addition, it'll have no less than 25-30 pages of text explaining the ancient syncretic religion of Đạo Mẫu, its history, its mythology and its pantheon of deities, along with a narrative of my personal experiences documenting it in Vietnam.

The trailer is a conscious attempt on my part to set a firm timeframe for the book's publication. Otherwise, this documentary project might never finish. As I've written in an earlier post, I could be victim of the matryoshka dolls (aka Russian nesting dolls) syndrome; a metaphor for discovering more and more opportunities every time I probe the Hầu Đồng world and its community.... and this project could go on and on like the Energizer Bunny.

Since I worked on this personal project, I’ve experienced a resurgence of excitement, not only for photography, but a spike in my intellectual interest in syncretic religious traditions, occult cultural customs and practices, Asian history and languages, to mention just a few. And I can say that working on this project has given me a sense of direction, and the expression "as happy as a pig in mud" comes to mind.

The experience of researching the material needed for this book project, whether in Hanoi or New York City, whether in live conversations or in emails/messages with the generous Vietnamese who are helping me or in my office using the available internet search engines to gather as much information as possible... whether succeeding or failing... whether finding the ceremonies and people or not... experiencing highs and lows, whether experiencing disappointments or success, it was worth every second, and it ain't over yet.

Gary Draluck | Burning Man

Photo © Gary Draluck-All Rights Reserved

Brace yourself for over 100 unique photographs of the incredible Burning Man 2015 festival by photographer Gary Draluck, and set some time aside to view scenes that are so unusual that I thought these were from another planet.

According to Wikipedia, Burning Man is an annual gathering that takes place at Black Rock City—a temporary community erected in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. The event is described as an experiment in community and art, influenced by 10 main principles, including "radical" inclusion, self-reliance and self-expression, as well as community cooperation, gifting and (sic) "decommodification", and leaving no trace.

Some describe the Burning Man festival as a socialist utopia; bringing thousands of people to an empty desert to create an alternative society. Money is banned, advertisements are taboo, and this creates a gift economy. Others are critical of it, describing it as a week-long art party in a handmade city in an inhospitable environment, and that is being taken over by the rich Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

Whatever side of this divide one belongs to, the fact remains that Burning Man is wonderfully photogenic, weird, alien...almost extra terrestrial, and has a Mad Max-style environment.

Gary Draluck is a multi faceted photographer from Oakland, California, who's enamored with music and musical photography, with emphasis on tango, and naturally on Burning Man which he visited many times. He's also an alum of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop (Chiang Mai chapter).

Nomads of Mongolia | Brandon Li

With the temperature in New York City in the teens today, I thought I'd feature a documentary about the Nomads of Mongolia by Brandon Li, a talented peripatetic movie maker.

The Mongolian pastoral herders are one of the world's last remaining nomadic cultures. For over 3000 years, they have lived on the steppes, grazing their livestock on its grasslands, and move in the search of better pastures and campsites. They live by and for their livestock, including their horses.

About half of Mongolia’s population is still roaming the vast plains living in the traditional ger, and moving their campings several times a year. Nomadic life may seem to us to be extraordinarily hard, but Mongolians have developed, over the centuries, strength and resilience that are essential for survival in this harsh nature.

However, modernity, bringing a new economic system, opportunities in mining, and the effects of overgrazing and climate change are pushing this ancient nomadic culture to adopt a more urban, settled lifestyle. Many Mongolian herders believe their traditional way of life is over, and some have already broken the ancient tradition of passing down the family herd to the youngest child.

Enrico Martino | Believers

Photo © Enrico Martino-All Rights Reserved

With the advent of 2016 and for the first blog post of the year, I thought I'd feature the personal work of veteran photographer Enrico Martino, which he titled "Believers".

It's a collection of 77 photographs of various religious (conventional and not so conventional) traditions, including Jewish worshippers celebrating Bar Mitzvah in Jerusalem, the Peruvian procession of “Señor de los Milagros”, Lord Krishna's birthday in India, rituals in the Islamic wonders of Old Cairo and Coptic pilgrimage sites, Spain's Camino de Santiago, and and many others.

Enrico Martino is a documentary and travel photojournalist, writer and multimedia storyteller, who has worked in more than sixty countries. He's a contributor to important Italian and international magazines and exhibited in international expositions, covering political and documentary assignments in Italy, Europe, Middle and Far East, Africa, USA and Latin America. Recently, he specialized in travel photo and texts reportages. He is also member of Nuestra Mirada, the website of many Latin American photographers.
I originally came across Enrico's work before I traveled to Buenos Aires in 2011 to teach at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop. I wanted to produce a short multimedia photo-film about tango, and his wonderful work Tango Soul came up during my search.

He produced a number of short movies, but I reckon that Tango Soul is the one that influenced me the most. Don't leave his website and not view it. You will not regret it,a nd you'll view it many times.