Ta-Tung | Rooe | Storehouse

Photo © Rooe | Courtesy Storehouse

I'm always intrigued by out of the mainstream religious traditions and rites, and was often able to photograph and document them wherever they occurred. This is how I have been working for the past 18 months on my forthcoming photo book Hầu Đồng: The Spirit Mediums of Việt Nam.

Cap Goh Meh is a festival celebrated in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore on the fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar. It officially ends the Chinese New Year celebrations. In Singkawang, Kalimantan, Tatung performers - people believed to be possessed by the spirits of ancestors – perform various ancient rituals, during the festival, the performance has similarities with Dayak rituals and is also performed by local Dayaks.

The Dayak are the native people of Borneo, and were feared for their ancient headhunting tradition.

Tatungs are mediums who exercise their craft during the Cap Go Meh ritual to ward off evil spirits, and cleanse the town and temples from evil and bad luck. During the Tatung rituals, participants enter into a trance and perform many bizzare actions, such as stepping on a sword, or piercing steel wires or nails into their cheeks or through their tongues.

The Intermediary is a photo essay by Indonesian photographer Rooe on the Tatungs published on Storehouse.

Louise Porter | Infrared Tribal

Photo © Louise Porter | All Rights Reserved

Infrared photography is a different technique that will appeal to those of us who have an adventurous streak, and seek to present an alternative vision to their audience. Infrared photography provides a new way to see what we like to photograph because our eyes cannot see infrared light as it is beyond the "visible" spectrum that humans can detect.

Using digital cameras modified to shoot infrared reveals photographs that are different from what we are used to see. Everything is different; colors, skies, clouds, faces, textures, and skin to mention just a few. The infrared "look" cannot be duplicated with post-processing software despite filters and techniques. Some photographers have converted their digital cameras by having the sensor's infrared blocking filter removed, and substituted with one that allows only infrared light to pass through.

One of those photographers is Louise Porter, whose infrared galleries Infrared Tribal Travel and Infrared Niger are lovely examples of this techniques. Readers of this blog post might be tempted to try this style of photography after viewing them.

Photo © Louise Porter | All Rights Reserved

Louise Porter has been a documentary and travel photographer for over 20 years. She trained at New York'sWorld Photography International Center of Photography, and has traveled to Myanmar (Burma), Vietnam, India, Laos, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Bhutan, Ladakh, Iceland, Cuba, Barbados, Ireland, Bali, Sulawasi, UK and other European countries. Her work was included twice in the 2013 and 2014 SONY World Photography top 10 short list for People along with another selected infrared photo in the Commended category.

Joana Chomali | Resilients

Photo © Joana Chomali-All Rights Reserved

Perhaps because of my work-in-progress documenting the spirit mediums of Vietnam, which involves colorful exotic and ethnic costumery, my appreciation of "ethno-fashion" portraiture has grown exponentially during the past few months of my travel photography path.

This explains my attraction to the portraits made by Joana Chomali, a photographer born and raised in Abidjan (Ivory Coast), of young, professional African women who -like her- were having difficulty to connect with their families' traditional past. According to The New York Times, each portrait session involved research on how the clothes, jewelry, skin and hair needed to be styled based on the specific tribe the models' families were originally from.

Resilients is a gallery of 9 wonderful portraits of women wearing their traditional dresses of colorful silk fabric; some with circular tribal markings on their skins, and wearing layers of beaded jewelry. The backdrop and the studio lights used by Ms Chomali are designed to give an Old Master feel to the portraits.

Joana Choumali is a fine art photographer based in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. She studied Graphic Arts in Casablanca (Morocco) and worked as an Art Director in an advertising agency before embarking on her photography career. Much of her work focuses on Africa, and of the myriad cultures around her.

POV: The Fuji X-Pro2 And Red

All Photographs © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
(click on photographs for larger versions)

These are my very first photographs made with the Fuji X-Pro2 and a Fujinon 18mm f2.0 lens. I had gone for a walkabout in New York City's Chinatown, and stopped in front of a brick wall recently painted a glorious deep red color.

I planted myself there for about an hour, barely budging even when a crew of photographers arrived for a photo shoot with a male model. I waited for people and residents to walk by against this superb backdrop, and shooting from the waist so as to capture them in their natural demeanor, I managed to get a range of different frames.

Although red is also the color most commonly associated with heat, activity, passion, sexuality, anger, love and joy, it is the color of happiness in China and other Asian countries. Being in Chinatown, I though it appropriate to choose this wall.

These photographs are not SOOC, but have been post processed with some vignetting using Color Efex Pro4.

During the initial few hours I used the new X-Pro2, it performed flawlessly. That said, I haven't yet tested much of its settings but will do so in the coming few days, especially the new film simulation options. The only downside I noticed was the battery life (which was fully charged) is really short. Perhaps because I "chimped" more than usual, but it seems I need to carry another battery during future walks. That wasn't the case with my X-Pro1.

Visual Storytelling | Foundry Photojournalism Workshop

During the 2015 Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Bali, I was pleased to join seven renowned instructors who spoke with PhotoWings about the art and importance of visual storytelling.  And to add to the privilege, I open the session with a few words.

PhotoWings describes the piece as: "With a wealth of experience between them, they discuss what it means to them, how they do it, and what they are able to accomplish with it."

It was created from interviews PhotoWings made about storytelling at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop this past summer with the photographers Ron Haviv, Andrea Bruce, Kael Alford,Thorne Anderson, John Stanmeyer, James Whitlow Delano, Henrik Kastenskov and myself.

Also included are a few photographs made by these photographers which, to their minds, tell visual stories. These can be seen here.

Unfortunately, due to conflicting time demands on me,  I cannot join the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Cape Town in July as I've done since its inception in 2008. However, I shall be there in spirit.

Hà Nội Report | Đền Thờ Bà Chúa Liễu Hạnh

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Ensconced way too comfortably in the Cathay Pacific lounge in Hong Kong's airport, I have the time to write of my last few days in Hà Nội.

The final Hầu Đồng ceremony I photographed was at the temple of Princess Lieu Hanh, to which I had never been before. The medium was a Hầu Đồng practitioner named Do Thi Bich Huong, and she had quite a presence. Some of her performances were new to me, including one where her incarnated spirit wore a flat straw hat and a shoulder pole, and sold small towels to the audience that had the photograph of President Obama and Mr Truong Tan Sang of Vietnam on their wrappers!

At the end of the two weeks of photographing Hầu Đồng Ceremonies, I've amassed the princely sum of VND 960,000 (about $43). This money is given to me by the various mediums officiating at the ceremonies I attended, and represent "blessed" gifts. I could probably retire on this income if I really wanted!

I also dropped by Hanoi's Centre of the Old Quarter's Culture Exchange to view Hàng Trống wooden-block paintings which depict rituals of ancestor worship, and various saints of the Đạo Mẫu (Mother Goddess) religion. The one in the above photograph is of General (and top saint in its pantheon of gods) Trần Hưng Đạo. He led the Đại Việt armies that repelled three major Mongol invasions in the 13th century, and his fame earned him a top spot in the Mother Goddess pantheon.

I had the idea of buying a commercial reproduction of a Hàng Trống painting for my forthcoming photo book Hầu Đồng: The Spirit Mediums of Việt Nam, but I had no time to find a gallery that carried them. 

Hà Nội Report | Tây Thiên

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved

As a break from photographing Hầu Đồng ceremonies, I thought it would be interesting to travel the 50 or so miles north of Hà Nội to visit Tây Thiên, considered to be the birthplace of Vietnamese Buddhism, and an important footnote -to say the least to my research for my forthcoming photo book Hầu Đồng: The Spirit Mediums of Việt Nam.

Leaving my hotel at 7:30 am with my favorite acolytes, helpers, interpreters and fellow photographers, we reached the temple complex by mid-morning. The temple complex of Tây Thiên is located atop of a 600 meter-high mountain in the Vinh Phuc province. It is dedicated to Mẫu Năng Thị Tiêu, one of the seven spirits dispatched to earth by the Jade Emperor to treat diseases and to save humanity. She was conferred the title of Quốc Mẫu Năng Thị Tiêu, as mother of the country.

The complex consists of many temples but the must-see one is accessible by foot (around 4 miles) or by cable car. Naturally we chose the latter despite the incredible crowds. Vietnamese women (mostly from rural areas) don't take no for an answer, don't appreciate queues and lines, and, like mice, can go through the narrowest of gaps. This talent is very useful to find openings between people standing for their turn.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved

Naturally, because this is Vietnam, there were hundreds of small places where pilgrims (and we were pilgrims too) can have meals. While I was busy photographing a musical troupe, my two companions ordered lunch of chicken.

The troupe was performing a pseudo Hầu Đồng in an open air setting, not in a temple and without the spirituality associated with such ceremonies. The male performer was merely acting as a medium would in a ceremony, including changing into various costumes to the tunes of a Chầu Văn band. It was stunning to see how much money pilgrims gave the performer who just kept smiling and dancing. I don't know if there was any significance to this spectacle other than to relieve the pilgrims of their hard earned cash.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved

With Tây Thiên being the birthplace of Vietnamese Buddhism, it reminds me of an encounter I had the day following our trip.  Naturally, I knew that there were Vietnamese Buddhist monks and nuns, I didn't realize that some take to the streets of the capital to collect alms. I came across two of them in Hà Nội's Old Quarter, walking in small alleys and stopping at each shop or tiny restaurants...standing there for a few moments until someone gave them a few notes, or not.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved