Thomas Cristofoletti: Day of the Dead

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Here's a movie made of still photographs by Thomas Cristofoletti on the singular tradition in the Philippines which occurs on the Day of the Dead. The stills were made in Tandag, Surigao del Sur and document the tradition of caring for the tombs on November 1.

Tombs are cleaned up, repainted and spruced up by relatives. Candles are lit and flowers placed. Many families spend a night or two near their loved ones' tombs in remembrance. Card games, eating, drinking, singing and dancing are common activities at the cemeteries during the holiday.

In the Philippines, the day of the dead is known as Araw ng mga Patay; one of the traditions imported from Spain during the country' colonization. Of course, El Dia De los Muertos is a well known tradition in Mexico, as well as in other countries where the Catholic faith is practiced. The observance coincides with All Saints Day and All Souls Day.

Thomas Cristofoletti is a freelance photographer and art director currently based in Madrid, who is a proponent of the decisive moment and of candid photography.

Thomas Cristofoletti: Day of the Dead

.
Here's a movie made of still photographs by Thomas Cristofoletti on the singular tradition in the Philippines which occurs on the Day of the Dead. The stills were made in Tandag, Surigao del Sur and document the tradition of caring for the tombs on November 1.

Tombs are cleaned up, repainted and spruced up by relatives. Candles are lit and flowers placed. Many families spend a night or two near their loved ones' tombs in remembrance. Card games, eating, drinking, singing and dancing are common activities at the cemeteries during the holiday.

In the Philippines, the day of the dead is known as Araw ng mga Patay; one of the traditions imported from Spain during the country' colonization. Of course, El Dia De los Muertos is a well known tradition in Mexico, as well as in other countries where the Catholic faith is practiced. The observance coincides with All Saints Day and All Souls Day.

Thomas Cristofoletti is a freelance photographer and art director currently based in Madrid, who is a proponent of the decisive moment and of candid photography.

Evan Abramson: When The Water Ends

Ethiopia's government is building a new dam in the Omo river projected to be the largest hydropower project in sub-Saharan Africa. Almost 50% of its electrical output has already been sold to neighboring countries, but it will reduce the water flow to the Omo River and threaten the lives of some 500,000-800,000 nomadic pastoralists.

Evan Abramson's When The Water Ends photo essay examines the impact of such a massive infrastructural on the lives of the Omo Valley tribes.

Evan's photographs were also used in a 16-minute video When the Water Ends produced by Yale Environment 360 in collaboration with MediaStorm. It tells the story of the increasingly dire drought conditions facing parts of East Africa, and the eventuality of conflict.

Evan Abramson is a 32-year-old photographer and videographer based in New York, who spent two months in the region, living among the herding communities. His project focuses on four groups of pastoralists — the Turkana of Kenya and the Dassanech, Nyangatom, and Mursi of Ethiopia — who are among the more than two dozen tribes whose lives and culture depend on the waters of the Omo River and the body of water into which it flows, Lake Turkana.

Quite a number of photographers have photographed the tribal people of the Omo Valley, and I'm certain they, as well as many non-photographers, are lamenting the change that will befell the region.

Evan Abramson: When The Water Ends

Ethiopia's government is building a new dam in the Omo river projected to be the largest hydropower project in sub-Saharan Africa. Almost 50% of its electrical output has already been sold to neighboring countries, but it will reduce the water flow to the Omo River and threaten the lives of some 500,000-800,000 nomadic pastoralists.

Evan Abramson's When The Water Ends photo essay examines the impact of such a massive infrastructural on the lives of the Omo Valley tribes.

Evan's photographs were also used in a 16-minute video When the Water Ends produced by Yale Environment 360 in collaboration with MediaStorm. It tells the story of the increasingly dire drought conditions facing parts of East Africa, and the eventuality of conflict.

Evan Abramson is a 32-year-old photographer and videographer based in New York, who spent two months in the region, living among the herding communities. His project focuses on four groups of pastoralists — the Turkana of Kenya and the Dassanech, Nyangatom, and Mursi of Ethiopia — who are among the more than two dozen tribes whose lives and culture depend on the waters of the Omo River and the body of water into which it flows, Lake Turkana.

Quite a number of photographers have photographed the tribal people of the Omo Valley, and I'm certain they, as well as many non-photographers, are lamenting the change that will befell the region.

Jan Sochor: Nukak-Maku

Photo © Jan Sochor-All Rights Reserved
Jan Sochor has documented the Nukak Maku people, a nomadic indian tribe from the Amazon, who were driven out of the jungle by the Colombian guerrilla and paramilitary squads. More than half of the Nukak population have died of western diseases like flu. In refugee camps, the Nukak are taught from (mainly Christian) aid workers concepts and habits that were never part of their tradition.

Jan is a freelance photographer, working between South America and Europe. He lived and worked in Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Spain and the Czech Republic during the past five years. His photographs and stories have appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers and websites, including Sunday Times, National Geographic, Reuters, Burn magazine, Foto8, 100Eyes, UNESCO, Boston Review, PDN online,and others.

I've always considered proselytizing by any religious group to be an abhorrent practice...hand in hand with racism and bigotry.

Found via The Click

Jan Sochor: Nukak-Maku

Photo © Jan Sochor-All Rights Reserved
Jan Sochor has documented the Nukak Maku people, a nomadic indian tribe from the Amazon, who were driven out of the jungle by the Colombian guerrilla and paramilitary squads. More than half of the Nukak population have died of western diseases like flu. In refugee camps, the Nukak are taught from (mainly Christian) aid workers concepts and habits that were never part of their tradition.

Jan is a freelance photographer, working between South America and Europe. He lived and worked in Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Spain and the Czech Republic during the past five years. His photographs and stories have appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers and websites, including Sunday Times, National Geographic, Reuters, Burn magazine, Foto8, 100Eyes, UNESCO, Boston Review, PDN online,and others.

I've always considered proselytizing by any religious group to be an abhorrent practice...hand in hand with racism and bigotry.

Found via The Click

The Travel Photographer's Motion

I set up The Travel Photographer's Motion as a parallel portal (using the F8 Graph Paper Press theme) for my audio slideshows, which are originally produced in the SoundSlides format, and subsequently converted to mp4s, then uploaded to Vimeo. I have no real preference between Vimeo or YouTube, and I'll eventually have these mp4s uploaded on both.

The current line-up consists of Baneshwar: Pind Daan (the annual rite of remembrance for Rajasthan tribals), White Shadows (my favorite! The sad life of the widows of Vrindavan), Debates at the Sangha (Buddhist debates in a Bhutanese monastery...much more animated than those in our Senate), Gnawa (the rhythmic Sufis of Morocco), The Street Chinese Opera (intense musical cacophony in NYC's Chinatown) and Cham! (the tsechus of Bhutan).

More of my audio-slideshows converted to mp4s are in the works.

Both Vimeo and YouTube’s have adopted the HTML5 video element (although the former is restricted and the latter is in beta), which permits most browsers (not Firefox, I think) to bypass the Flash plug-in and use video native to the browser’s player. That will prove useful for such movies to be seen on the iPad.

The Travel Photographer's Motion

I set up The Travel Photographer's Motion as a parallel portal (using the F8 Graph Paper Press theme) for my audio slideshows, which are originally produced in the SoundSlides format, and subsequently converted to mp4s, then uploaded to Vimeo. I have no real preference between Vimeo or YouTube, and I'll eventually have these mp4s uploaded on both.

The current line-up consists of Baneshwar: Pind Daan (the annual rite of remembrance for Rajasthan tribals), White Shadows (my favorite! The sad life of the widows of Vrindavan), Debates at the Sangha (Buddhist debates in a Bhutanese monastery...much more animated than those in our Senate), Gnawa (the rhythmic Sufis of Morocco), The Street Chinese Opera (intense musical cacophony in NYC's Chinatown) and Cham! (the tsechus of Bhutan).

More of my audio-slideshows converted to mp4s are in the works.

Both Vimeo and YouTube’s have adopted the HTML5 video element (although the former is restricted and the latter is in beta), which permits most browsers (not Firefox, I think) to bypass the Flash plug-in and use video native to the browser’s player. That will prove useful for such movies to be seen on the iPad.

Jonas Bendiksen: The Places We Live

Jonas Bendiksen began his photography career as a 19-year-old intern in the London office of Magnum Photos. Eventually leaving office life to travel through Russia and pursue his own work as a photojournalist, he worked on numerous projects throughout the world, including his ongoing project about the world's slums.

The installation for "The Places We Live" project was developed and produced in cooperation with the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway, where it was launched a year ago.

From 2005 to 2007 Jonas Bendiksen documented life in the slums of four different cities: Nairobi, Mumbai, Jakarta and Caracas. The Places We Live is the result.

Jonas Bendiksen: The Places We Live

Jonas Bendiksen began his photography career as a 19-year-old intern in the London office of Magnum Photos. Eventually leaving office life to travel through Russia and pursue his own work as a photojournalist, he worked on numerous projects throughout the world, including his ongoing project about the world's slums.

The installation for "The Places We Live" project was developed and produced in cooperation with the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway, where it was launched a year ago.

From 2005 to 2007 Jonas Bendiksen documented life in the slums of four different cities: Nairobi, Mumbai, Jakarta and Caracas. The Places We Live is the result.

Thiago Bahia: Amazonia

Move over Ian Wright (Lonely Planet/Globe Trekker) and Michael Palin...you have a talented competitor who'll run circles around you.

Thiago Bahia is one of the hosts of Amazonia; a travel documentary soon to be aired on PBS that features the natural beauty of Belém, a city on the banks of the Amazon estuary, in the northern part of Brazil and capital of the state of Pará. Wach the 10 minutes documentary to appreciate Thiago's innate abilities to relate to the natural wonder of his birthplace.

Although his employment in a major financial institution is here in New York City, Thiago's heart (and possibly his mind as well) belong in Belém, and he is most comfortable as far away from concrete jungles as possible. Counting this talented young man as a personal friend, I have no doubt that he'll astound us even more.

Boa Sorte Thiago!

Thiago Bahia: Amazonia

Move over Ian Wright (Lonely Planet/Globe Trekker) and Michael Palin...you have a talented competitor who'll run circles around you.

Thiago Bahia is one of the hosts of Amazonia; a travel documentary soon to be aired on PBS that features the natural beauty of Belém, a city on the banks of the Amazon estuary, in the northern part of Brazil and capital of the state of Pará. Wach the 10 minutes documentary to appreciate Thiago's innate abilities to relate to the natural wonder of his birthplace.

Although his employment in a major financial institution is here in New York City, Thiago's heart (and possibly his mind as well) belong in Belém, and he is most comfortable as far away from concrete jungles as possible. Counting this talented young man as a personal friend, I have no doubt that he'll astound us even more.

Boa Sorte Thiago!

8 Photographers : Access To Life

Photograph © Paolo Pellegrin-All Rights Reserved
The Global Fund is a unique global public-private partnership dedicated to attracting and disbursing additional resources to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.

Here's a truly magnificent multimedia production for The Global Fund, and featuring work by Magnum Photos photographers such as Paolo Pellegrin, Alex Majoli, Larry Towell, Jim Goldberg, Gilles Peress, Jonas Bendiksen, Steve McCurry, and Eli Reed.

In Access to Life, these 8 Magnum photographers traveled to 9 countries, photographing people before and 4 months after they began antiretroviral treatment for AIDS.

This multimedia production must be one of the best I've seen, and ought to be studied by photographers wishing to learn about multimedia, and how to excel at producing them.

8 Photographers : Access To Life

Photograph © Paolo Pellegrin-All Rights Reserved
The Global Fund is a unique global public-private partnership dedicated to attracting and disbursing additional resources to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.

Here's a truly magnificent multimedia production for The Global Fund, and featuring work by Magnum Photos photographers such as Paolo Pellegrin, Alex Majoli, Larry Towell, Jim Goldberg, Gilles Peress, Jonas Bendiksen, Steve McCurry, and Eli Reed.

In Access to Life, these 8 Magnum photographers traveled to 9 countries, photographing people before and 4 months after they began antiretroviral treatment for AIDS.

This multimedia production must be one of the best I've seen, and ought to be studied by photographers wishing to learn about multimedia, and how to excel at producing them.

BBC's Human Planet

The BBC's Human Planet is a landmark series that marvels at mankind's incredible relationship with nature in the world today. Each episode takes you to the extremes of the planet: the arctic, mountains, oceans, jungles, grasslands, deserts, rivers and even the urban jungle.

A word of caution...exploring the Human Planet website will take you a while. I've barely scratched its surface so far.

Human Planet crews have filmed in around 80 locations, bringing us stories that have never been told on television before. The team has trekked with HD cameras and state of the art gear to film from the air, from the ground and underwater.

For more on Human Planet offerings, check Human Planet Explorer Collections

One of the forces behind Human Planet is Timothy Allen. Timothy's work focus is on the remaining indigenous societies, and he devotes his time to documenting the diversity of humanity’s cultural heritage. He writes a blog for the BBC documenting his photographic work around the world for Human Planet.

In case you're interested to see what the cameras used by Timothy look like, here they are:

Photo Courtesy Timothy Allen

BBC's Human Planet

The BBC's Human Planet is a landmark series that marvels at mankind's incredible relationship with nature in the world today. Each episode takes you to the extremes of the planet: the arctic, mountains, oceans, jungles, grasslands, deserts, rivers and even the urban jungle.

A word of caution...exploring the Human Planet website will take you a while. I've barely scratched its surface so far.

Human Planet crews have filmed in around 80 locations, bringing us stories that have never been told on television before. The team has trekked with HD cameras and state of the art gear to film from the air, from the ground and underwater.

For more on Human Planet offerings, check Human Planet Explorer Collections

One of the forces behind Human Planet is Timothy Allen. Timothy's work focus is on the remaining indigenous societies, and he devotes his time to documenting the diversity of humanity’s cultural heritage. He writes a blog for the BBC documenting his photographic work around the world for Human Planet.

In case you're interested to see what the cameras used by Timothy look like, here they are:

Photo Courtesy Timothy Allen

Voice-Over Artist

Photographers who produce multimedia photo essays are notoriously voice-over calamities...flat, unfunny...you name it. I ought to know...I break into a cold sweat whenever I have to do a voice-over (which is rare).

Audio will make or break a multimedia photo essay, so a lifeless or unattractive voice-over (when needed) will doom one's product.

But here's a natural talent who ought to be employed as a voice-over artist by photographers, in radio or even on television. So here's a chance to do good and employ this man!

Via Duckrabbit.

Voice-Over Artist

Photographers who produce multimedia photo essays are notoriously voice-over calamities...flat, unfunny...you name it. I ought to know...I break into a cold sweat whenever I have to do a voice-over (which is rare).

Audio will make or break a multimedia photo essay, so a lifeless or unattractive voice-over (when needed) will doom one's product.

But here's a natural talent who ought to be employed as a voice-over artist by photographers, in radio or even on television. So here's a chance to do good and employ this man!

Via Duckrabbit.

Nagore Sessions: Sufi Song

A recent article appearing in The New York Times on music used in some of the city's yoga centers led me to the Nagore Sessions. These are Sufi chants accompanied by percussion from the Middle East and contemporary Western instruments.

While the musicians are from many different nationalities, faiths and backgrounds and came together to produce the Nagore Sessions, the singers (Abdul Ghani, Ajah Maideen and Sabur Maideen Babha Sabeer) are Sufis from India. They usually perform at religious and social ceremonies at the Sufi shrine of Nagore Dargah in coastal Tamil Nadu.

This song follows the qawwali style as it includes verses praising God, but I'm also told that it's sung in Tamil. Traditional Qawwali songs are mostly sung in Urdu and Punjabi, and a few in Persian.

Finding this is timely, as one of the highlights of my forthcoming In Search of the Sufis of Gujarat Photo Expedition™ is to document the Gujarati Siddis who have retained their Sufi heritage.

One of my long-term projects involves the various Sufi traditions in the Middle East and South Asia, and the Nagore Sessions reminds me of my work with the Gnawa (aka Gnaoua) of Morocco. These are also traditional Sufi music performers, albeit with African roots. During the Essaouira Gnawa festival, a number of international performers played fusion music alongside the Gnawa musicians....incredible mind-blowing stuff!!

I've produced a multimedia photomovie Gnawa: The Sufis of Africa of some of the performers at the 2009 festival.

Nagore Sessions: Sufi Song

A recent article appearing in The New York Times on music used in some of the city's yoga centers led me to the Nagore Sessions. These are Sufi chants accompanied by percussion from the Middle East and contemporary Western instruments.

While the musicians are from many different nationalities, faiths and backgrounds and came together to produce the Nagore Sessions, the singers (Abdul Ghani, Ajah Maideen and Sabur Maideen Babha Sabeer) are Sufis from India. They usually perform at religious and social ceremonies at the Sufi shrine of Nagore Dargah in coastal Tamil Nadu.

This song follows the qawwali style as it includes verses praising God, but I'm also told that it's sung in Tamil. Traditional Qawwali songs are mostly sung in Urdu and Punjabi, and a few in Persian.

Finding this is timely, as one of the highlights of my forthcoming In Search of the Sufis of Gujarat Photo Expedition™ is to document the Gujarati Siddis who have retained their Sufi heritage.

One of my long-term projects involves the various Sufi traditions in the Middle East and South Asia, and the Nagore Sessions reminds me of my work with the Gnawa (aka Gnaoua) of Morocco. These are also traditional Sufi music performers, albeit with African roots. During the Essaouira Gnawa festival, a number of international performers played fusion music alongside the Gnawa musicians....incredible mind-blowing stuff!!

I've produced a multimedia photomovie Gnawa: The Sufis of Africa of some of the performers at the 2009 festival.