Lucknow, Eclipse of Elegance

Ah, Lucknow! The capital city of the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, and a city whose cultural wealth blends Hindu and Muslim cultures co-existing side by side for centuries, sharing similar interests and speaking a common language. A city which owes its unique trait to the secular and syncretic traditions of the Nawabs of Awadh, who encouraged and enhanced its intrinsic traditions.

Lucknow Urdu literature, Muslim poetry, its refined cuisine, music and its dance are examples of its sophistication and cultural refinement. Moreover, Lucknow experienced an influx of Sufi saints, and it has its share of venerated saints such as Sheikh Qawam-ud-din and his disciple Shah Mina who have their tombs in the city. Moreover, Lucknow is reputed to be the home of the delicious galowti kebab*. It's said that the recipe was developed for aging nawab who could not chew meat having lost all his teeth. The recipe is said to have more than 100 aromatic spices.

But I digressed away from the purpose of this post which is to feature the work of Pascal Meunier, which he titles Lucknow, Eclipse of an Elegant Lady. To illustrate this post, I chose his photograph of a ramshackle mansion in Lucknow, and its tattered furniture on which a elderly caretaker is sleeping...under the regal and severe gaze of Queen Victoria. I would guess that this painting hasn't been moved an inch since it was hung in the mid to late 1800s.

Pascal is far from being a newcomer to The Travel Photographer blog. He's one of my favorite travel documentary photographers, and for some 14 years, he has reported on the cultural traditions from Mauritania to Malaysia, passing through Iran, Libya, Yemen and Egypt on the way. The objective of his photography is to capture the cultural heritage and traditions that are swiftly vanishing. He also shows a Muslim world in change, overtaken by modernity, but increasingly anxious to preserve its values. He has photographed my native Egypt in depth...documenting the public baths in Cairo, its night life, its decrepit palaces, and even photographed the gold Sukari mine which has its share of controversy.

* For the record, Anamitra Chakladar, a good friend in Delhi, generously introduced me to the delights of the galowti kebab in a Nizzam Uddin eatery. I've been hooked since.

Rohit Vohra | Stolen Moments

Photo © Rohit Vohra-All Rights Reserved

I do like the phrase 'stolen moments' when it relates to street photography, since I agree that candid photography is a form of 'theft'...after all, it was Henri Cartier-Bresson who chose the phrase of images à la sauvette, which may be translated as "images on the fly" or "stolen images, as a title for one of his books. The phrase was then translated to the more widely known "the decisive moment"by the English publisher of the same book.

And where else other than India can it be most practiced? Actually, in a lot of more places, but India occupies a significant place in the pantheon of interesting countries to photograph in the streets. As I often say, it takes considerable courage to photograph in black & white in India...avoiding the seduction of color that attracts so many of us. That is precisely what Rohit Vohra did in his Stolen Moments galleries...stolen moments in the streets of India in monochrome.

Just have a look at the decisive moment in the above photograph. Possibly made in the chaotic alleys of Old Delhi, a woman gestures with her hand trying to gain passage in front of a harried rickshaw driver, while her child and the driver glare at each other. One could write a short story based on this split second moment.

Rohit Vohra is a street photographer based in New Delhi whose photographs are often about contact with humans and basic living elements. He is also a co-founder of APF Magazine.

The Travel Photographer's The Sacred: Varanasi & Vrindavan

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy

I know the wait has been agonizing, but I'm finally announcing details of my forthcoming photo expedition and multimedia workshop The Sacred: Varanasi & Vrindavan.

This particular photo expedition/workshop is of two-parts. During its two weeks, participants will document (1) the street theaters in two of the most sacred cities in India: Vrindavan and Varanasi, (2) the esoteric cultures of the real and fake sadhus who proliferate these sacred cities, (3) an exemplar of the Sufi culture in the heart of Varanasi, (4) the tradition of widow exiling to ashrams and (5) the exuberance of the Holi festival in Mathura...to name but a few.

During this workshop, participants will merge their still photography and audio to create compelling narratives. While largely for color photography (especially for Holi), black & white is certainly an option.

For those on Facebook who tried to guess the whereabouts of the bottom photograph; it was made on the ghats of Vrindavan, not Varanasi! 

For further details, drop by The Sacred: Varanasi & Vrindavan (for desktop browsers) and The Sacred: Varanasi & Vrindavan (for iPad).

France Leclerc | Nagaland

Photo © France Leclerc-All Rights Reserved

I occasionally discover travel photographers whose work (undeservedly in my view) isn't as widely known as it should be. That said, perhaps it's my own fault I wasn't aware of France Leclerc's recent photography, as it certainly deserves recognition in the world of ethno-photography.

Her blog is really worth spending time on for the quality of her photographs and the background information she provides.

As an introduction, the Seven Sister States is a name given to the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura in northeastern India. Covering about 7% of India's total area, these seven states have a population of about 45 million.

It is to some of these states, namely Assam, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh that France Leclerc recently traveled, and where she made her photographs. She also provides interesting information about the tribes she encountered in these off-the-beaten-path regions.

She also photographed some of my favorite cities in India; Varanasi, and Kolkata and its rickshaw pullers, Kumartuli and the pehlawan wrestlers, and rubbed shoulders with the sadhus at the Haridwar Kumbh Mela. Earlier, she photographed in the ancient city of Lalibela in Ethiopia, and the tribes of the Omo Valley....including the famous (or infamous) jumping of the bulls.

Based in Chicago, France describes herself as a traveler who believes that the more we learn about other cultures, the more accepting and supportive we become of them. 

Charlotte Rush-Bailey | Black & White Spider Awards Nominations

Photo © Charlotte Rush-Bailey-All Rights Reserved

Photo © Charlotte Rush-Bailey-All Rights Reserved

Photo © Charlotte Rush-Bailey-All Rights Reserved

Charlotte Rush-Bailey has been on virtually all my recent photo expeditions-workshops, and has recently had two photographs made during these trips nominated in the Black & White Spider Awards' People Category .

The first top photographs was made at a Vedic school during The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition/Workshop, while the lower top photograph was made during the In Search of Sufis of Gujarat Expedition/Workshop at the Mira Datar Sufi shrine.

The lower photograph of the elephant was made in February 2013 and was awarded a Honorable Mention in the Wildlife Category. Charlotte is a keen proponent of protecting elephants, and had dedicated a website Elephants Forever to discourage consumers from buying ivory.

Charlotte is a photographer who migrated to the world of photography from a corporate career that covered three decades of marketing and communications positions in a variety of global industries including energy, financial services, media, conservation, technology and professional services. This gave her opportunities to work with people all over the world, and to learn to appreciate cultural nuances and the influences of socio-political forces.

POV: Sadhus, Charlatans or Not?

Photos © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Yesterday's post prompts me to elaborate a bit more on the question whether the sadhus in India (and Nepal) are charlatans or a genuine aesthetics.

From my numerous travels in India over the past 10+ years, and from having met innumerable sadhus during my assignments and photographic expeditions, I'm reasonably comfortable in asserting that most of them are a cross between homeless charlatans and spiritual ascetics. The more difficult question is whether they became ascetics because of poverty or because of some form of inherent spirituality. Charlatanism is an integral part of many of them, but they may have resorted to this activity because of need.

With their tilak markings, and their orange cloths, they are certainly photogenic and some of them exploit their appearance to coax money from gullible (and sometimes, not-so-gullible) tourists. Others are more imaginative, and develop an aura of spirituality to generate religious respect and alms from lay people.

Naturally, there are a large number of sadhus who are authentic. For instance, the Naga Babas, whose ceremonial bathing at the Kumbh Melas is a sought after ceremony, belong to the Shaiva sect and are known as 'warrior ascetics'.

In 2006, I've come across authentic sadhus during an assignment in Varanasi. My fixer was from this ancient city, and knew it inside out. Upon learning that I was interested in sadhus, and seeing my disinterest in photographing the "tourist" sadhus basking in the sun on the ghats of Varanasi, he took me to a number of out-of-the-way ashrams for sadhus.

It's there that I met elderly sadhus, living in nothing more than cubicle-like tiny rooms and subsisting on small bowls of dahl and rice. These were true ascetics, who spent their days reading Hindu sacred scriptures, meditating and avoiding contact with lay people as much as possible.

I recall one of them had come to Varanasi because it was where he'd be eventually cremated and cast in the Ganges, thus achieving moksha. That in itself is not unusual, but what was unusual was his background.

He had spent his whole career with the Indian Railways (the largest employer in India), and upon his retirement he chose to become an ascetic, and left his family with their full consent, leaving all his worldly possession and his pension. He came to his ashram, and started to study herbal medicinal plants. Eventually, patients came to seek his advice, and the word spread amongst the poor in Varanasi that he was a healer. He dispensed his advice for free, and occasionally accepted some food as payment for his services.

During my visits to these ashrams, I was never asked for money...no one offered me ganja...and no one asked to pose for my cameras...and certainly no one spoke English. One of the sadhus (the one reading a scripture) never even looked up to acknowledge me as I was photographing him.

Alexis Pazoumian | Sadhu Hundred

©Alexis Pazoumian-All Rights Reserved

Sadhus...depending on your point of view or experience, they can be spiritual ascetics, devout mystics, philosophic vagabonds, or homeless charlatans. I can say that many of the sadhus I've encountered (and I have met a lot during my countless travels in India) are a bit of all these descriptions, but most are charlatans, preying on the generosity, spirituality and superstition of lay people...many of whom are equally poor. That said, they are photogenic and they know it.

It is estimated there are 4 to 5 million sadhus in India, and these belong to two main sects: the Shaiva sadhus, who are ascetics devoted to Shiva, and Vaishnava sadhus, who are renouncers devoted to Vishnu (including Rama and Krishna). Although some sub sects have properties that generate revenue to sustain members, most sadhus rely on donations, and poverty and hunger are realities for many sadhus.

Alexis Pazoumian's Sadhu Hundred is a photo gallery of sadhu portraits; some of which were photographed at the Pashupatinath Temple located on the banks of the Bagmati River in Kathmandu. It's one of the most significant Hindu temples of Shiva in the world.

You'll note the sadhus following Shiva wear a tilak of three horizontal lines across the forehead, while the tilak of Vaishnava sadhus usually include two or more vertical lines resembling the letter U, which symbolizes Vishnu's foot.

Alexis Pazoumaian is a photographer in France who, after completing a two-year course in a graphics school, turned to photography. He spent six months documenting and living in one of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas,  and was finalist in a contest by “Paris Match” for photojournalism students.

His clients include Agence Elan, Premicefilms, Elie Saab, Maje, Hilldale production, Toshiba, Caviar Agency, We love Art, Monsieur White, Société Général, Maison Sauvage, Grand Palais, Groupe Vendôme, and Agence moderne. 

Subrata Biswas | Chhau, Behind The Mask

Photo © Subrata Biswas-All Rights Reserved

India, black and white* photography, storytelling, cultural-religious tradition....what's not to make my pulse race?

This is about the ancient traditional dance form named Chhau. It's a type of Indian tribal martial dance which is popular in the Indian states of Orissa (now called Odisha), Jharkhand and West Bengal. There are three subgenres of the dance, based on its places of origin and development, and these are Seraikella Chhau, Mayurbhanj Chhau and Purulia Chhau.

The Chhau blends dance and martial practices employing mock combat techniques, stylized gaits of birds and animals and movements based on the chores of village housewives. The dance is performed by male dancers from families of traditional artists or from local communities and is performed at night in an open space.

As is often the case with such traditional dance forms, the future doesn't look bright for the Chhau despite it being inscribed in the UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Fewer young people are interested in joining the art form due to the uncertainty of its financial future.

Behind The Mask is a photo essay by Subrata Biswas, a talented visual storyteller and painter from Kolkata. Despite being an IT software engineer by training, he decided to embrace a life as a self-taught painter/artist and photographer/photojournalist. His paintings have been exhibited in various venues India, while his photographs were published in a number of print and online media.

*I don't know why pure black & white images now automatically appear as sepia on Blogger. 

Shuchi Kapoor | The Unreasonables

"Why would someone inflict pain on themselves?"

On the white eight-foot walls of a private building on the corner of Goubert Avenue, close to the statue of Dupleix, in the city of Chennai (India), Shuchi Kapoor is currently exhibiting a collection of super-sized photographs, titled ‘The Unreasonables’. These photographs question the sin cleansing rituals by those who are often labelled as ‘possessed’’ in various parts of India.

The initiative was taken by Pondy A.RT. and intends to fill a section of the sea-facing walls with insightful art which will focus on a theme or issue every month through the medium of photography. It follows the model of movie posters, which are often displayed to the public on walls.

Photo © Gayatri Nair-All Rights Reserved

Shuchi is a photographer currently based in Chennai; quite a distance from her native Gujarat, and who describes herself as a storyteller minus the frills. She worked for a decade in advertising until she found her calling in photography as well as in writing. Some of her stories have been published by Femina, The Sunday Guardian, Marie Claire, The Lonely Planet, Spiceroute, and TAXI.

She also assisted me in Ajmer last May during my Sufi Saints of Rajasthan & Kashmir Photo Expedition-Workshop, which aimed at documenting the Urs of the Sufi saint Moin'Uddin Chisti.

Rasha Yousif | Heaven's Gate

Rasha Yousif was on my Sufi Saints of Rajasthan & Kashmir Photo Expedition-Workshop, and documented the Urs of the Sufi saint Moin'Uddin Chisti which attracts thousands of devotees and pilgrims from the four corners of South Asia, including Pakistan and Bangladesh. She produced an audio-slideshow of the event, and titled it Jannati Darwaza; Urdu for Heaven's Gate.

There's the story, perhaps apocryphal, that whoever crosses the threshold of Jannati Darwaza seven times to circumambulate the saint's tomb, will secure a place in heaven...hence its name.

While most attending the event are of the Muslim faith, there are significant numbers of Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and members of other religious traditions who visit the shrine during this annual observance. 

Moinuddin Chishti is the more famous and revered Sufi saint of the Chisti order of the Indian Subcontinent. He was born in 1141 and died in 1230 CE, and is believed to be a descendant of the Prophet Muhammed. He interpreted religion in terms of human service and exhorted his disciples "to develop river-like generosity, sun-like affection and earth-like hospitality."

Rasha is from Bahrain, where she works in the finance industry. She graduated from the University of Bahrain, and obtained her Masters in Finance from DePaul University.

She's a passionate and prolific photographer, and her work can viewed on her website, and on her Vimeo page.

Kris Bailey | Threads For Prayers

"The highest form of devotion is to redress the misery of those in distress – to fulfill the needs of the helpless and to feed the hungry.” - Moin'Uddin Chisti

Here's a well made audio-slideshow of the annual Urs Festival commemorating the death of the Sufi Saint Khwaja Moin Uddin Hasan Chishti produced by Kris Bailey, a member in my Sufi Saints of Rajasthan & Kashmir Photo Expedition-Workshop. It's the third time Kris traveled with me...the first being on Kolkata's Durga Puja, and the second being The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition & Workshop.

The Sufi Saints Photo Expedition/Workshop's principal objective was to document the death anniversary held in Ajmer (Rajasthan) of Hazrat Shaikh Khwaja Syed Muhammad Moin'Uddin Chisti (1141- 1230 CE), the most famous Sufi saint of the Chishti Order of the Indian Subcontinent. He introduced and established the order in South Asia. He is also known as Gharib Nawaz or ‘Benefactor of the Poor'.

Kris chose to produce the audio slideshow (converted to video) in monochrome to avoid the divergence in colors arising from the harsh sunlight and the shadows created by the canopies in the shrine.

Threads for Prayers is an apt title for this Sufi religious observance, and underscores the syncretic commonality between Hinduism and Islam in South Asia. A Hindu practices is to tie red threads known as kalava or mauli in temples for their wishes to be fulfilled, and it's one of the practices also observed in Sufi shrines.

Apart from being an attorney in Northern California, Kris is a photographer who's keenly interested in South and South East Asia, and is particularly attracted to unusual rituals and religious festivals. She's already been on two of my most intense photo expeditions workshops, and that doesn't seem to deter her in the least.

A number of her projects can be viewed on her Vimeo page.

Charles Meacham | Calcutta's Taxi

Photo © Charles Meacham-All Rights Reserved

I just read in the India Times that the color of the iconic taxis in Kolkata is to be shortly changed from yellow to blue and white.

Imagine! Although there are new models in the taxi business, most of Kolkata's taxis are antiquated yellow painted Hindustan Ambassadors and I wager their owners and drivers are raising hue and cry at the government's decision. To add further insult to injury, the West Bengal government is reported to be planning to introduce a new fleet of 2,000 cabs in the city which could never refuse passengers, citing late hours, inclement weather or whatever pretext.

So perhaps as a swan's song to these venerable workhorses and for the 'fiddled-with' meters, here's Charles Meacham's Calcutta's Taxi, a photo essay on the yellow taxis that crawl around this teeming metropolis.

I often used these yellow taxis to travel from one end of Kolkata to the other during my Durga Puja Photo Expedition-Workshop in October 2011, and I recall an occasion when seated in the front seat alongside the driver, I almost passed out from the heat spewed out by the motor's heat of the old and ill-maintained Ambassador. Obviously there was no air conditioning, nor were the open windows any help whatsoever in Kolkata's heat and humidity.

Charles Meacham was born outside of Philadelphia, and started traveling immediately after high school. Having spent the last ten years photographing, he has received over 30 international photography awards, and attended the 25th annual Eddie Adams workshop. He co-founded the Walk With Pride project which aimed to bring social awareness to LGBT Rights by photographing pride marches around the world.  After 10 years of living in Asia, Charles calls Brooklyn his home. 

Supranav Dash | Trades Portraits

Photo © Supranav Dash-All Rights Reserved

I very much like this type of project. 

Everybody who's been to India knows that many occupations, trades and services are to a large extent linked to the prevailing caste system. For a few hundred of years, members of specific castes were rigidly tied to occupations, and could rarely deviate from them. These occupations, crafts and trade know-how were passed from generation to generation; from father to son...but how long will this continue with the globalization and the erosion of the caste system.

The photographs were made in Kolkata by Supranav Dash between 2011-2013. Kolkata was, of course, the capital of British Colonial India and also the commercial hub of the Indian sub-continent. I came across this work on TIME's Lightbox blog, and learned from the accompanying article by that Ms Jyoti Thottam that Supranav was influenced by Eugène Atget and Irving Penn who documented the trades and professions of London, Paris and New York.

The first photograph on the Lightbox blog is that of a Brahmin with a deformed cow, and those of you who have visited Pushkar will certainly recall such itinerant individuals with similar cows, trying to make meagre earnings by parading these unfortunate animals. 

I seldom read the comments that accompany such projects, but this time I did...piqued by curiosity at how viewers will react to the monochromatic photographs of India. True enough, a commentator didn't like it and described the choice as strange. She proceeded to insult another commentator who disagreed with her. Well, I think these monochromes perfectly fit the subject matter.

Supranav Dash was born and brought up in Kolkata, India. He has a BFA in Photography (Honors) from the School of Visual Arts, NYC. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn. His areas of interest are Fine Art and Social Documentary.

If you're interested in viewing the portraiys along with ambient sound (presumably of Kolkata's streets), drop by Supranav's Vimeo page.

World Nomads' Travel Photography Scholarship 2013

Photo © Divya Agrawal-All Rights Reserved

Following my earlier posts which are essentially critical of photography contests, I stumbled on World Nomads' Travel Photography Scholarship 2013 announcing the first place winner as being Divya Agrawal with her photo essay titled Dotma: In The House I Can Live.

Now, this is a different breed of photo contest from those we usually see, and some of you actually participate in.

This photo contest/scholarship is sponsored by WorldNomads.com and National Geographic Channel, and it's giving one aspiring photographer the opportunity to accompany a National Geographic photographer, Jason Edwards, on assignment in Greenland for 10 days. The original invitation to participate is here. 

Although World Nomads is a travel insurance company, and could certainly use all or some of the submissions for promotion purposes, the contest/scholarship was open for non-professionals only, and requires no entry fees. However, there some other terms regarding the usage of the images made during the assignment that are not totally altruistic. 

That said, I think these terms are reasonably fair since the winner will be traveling to Greenland, and will be mentored during that time, for free.

Another reason I am posting about this Travel Photography Scholarship is that Mohit Gupta, a good friend from New Delhi and an attendee of my multimedia class at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop, has earned fifth place in the contest/scholarship, with his lovely The Art of Pigeon Racing.

The whole photo essay can be viewed on Galli Magazine, with the title of Winged Legacy of Old Delhi, which depicts the art of pigeon combat (known as kaboortarbazi) as practiced on the roofs of this old city. Mohit tells us that his photo essays made in Old Delhi are inspired by William Dalrymple's City of Djinn. Many of us feel the same. 

Photo © Mohit Gupta-All Rights Reserved

Al Jazeera | Bloodletting In Delhi

Photo © Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera-All Rights Reserved

"My family has been practicing this for generations and this is a gift of God."

One of medicine’s oldest practices is bloodletting, and is thought to have originated in ancient Egypt several thousands of years ago. Spreading to to Greece, it was believed that all illnesses stemmed from an overabundance of blood in the patients' bodies. In medieval Europe, bloodletting became the standard treatment for various conditions, from plague and smallpox to epilepsy and gout.

It still is a therapy for a very small number of conditions, and the use of leeches has experienced a revival in the field of microsurgery. It is still commonly used for a wide variety of conditions in the Unani, Ayurvedic, and traditional Chinese systems of alternative medicine.

Al Jazeera has featured a photo essay by photographer Showkat Shafi of practitioners in Old Delhi still practicing this 3000 year-old bloodletting process. These practitioners are of the Unani school (a form of traditional medicine used by some South Asian Muslims), known as Hakim. (See an earliest post with my photographs of a Kashmiri Unani hakim here).

The photo essay shows a Hakim tying the hands or legs of patients with cloths, and making small incisions with a razor blade to allow blood to trickle out of the body, following this ancient medical practice. These practitioners claim they do not charge money for the 'treatment' as they would lose the power to heal if they did so.

The Al Jazeera report mentions that this particular clinic opens at 9am and treats about 40 patients a day. New razor blades are used, and although Delhi has world-class hospitals, people still queue at this open-air clinic to be treated for various ailments through the process of bloodletting.

Charlotte Rush Bailey | Prayers To A Pir

Charlotte Rush-Bailey has been on virtually all my recent photo expeditions-workshops (except for the one in Vietnam), and has completed her multimedia project of Gharib Nawaz's Urs festival during my Sufi Saints of Rajasthan & Kashmir Photo Expedition-Workshop.

Charlotte is a photographer who migrated to the world of photography from a corporate career that covered three decades of marketing and communications positions in a variety of global industries including energy, financial services, media, conservation, technology and professional services. This gave her opportunities to work with people all over the world, and to learn to appreciate cultural nuances and the influences of socio-political forces.

She's the third participant to send me her multimedia work of Gharib Nawaz's Urs festival, which captures the intensity of the event.  Prayers To A Pir was made using Adobe Premiere Pro instead of Soundslides which I favor,  but Charlotte found it to be easier to sequence and sync the audio with the stills.

Kainaz Amaria | On Being Zoroastrian

Here's an interesting, and well produced personal documentary on Parsi Zoroastrianism. As readers and followers of this blog know, I'm interested in documenting world religions...and their various rituals, and Zoroastrianism is a religious tradition that I've never thought of. The personal documentary is a tad long by my standards, but stay with it to witness some footage made inside a fire temple.

Zoroastrianism was founded by the Prophet Zoroaster (or Zarathustra) in ancient Iran approximately 3500 years ago, and is one of the world's oldest monotheistic religions. For 10 centuries, Zoroastrianism was one of the most powerful religions in the world, and was the official religion of Persia from 600 BCE to 650 CE.

Speaking of oldest monotheistic religions, I intrigued by the notion that Akhenaten (ca 1300 BC) of Pharaonic Egypt could've been the first in human history to subscribe to a form of monotheism He declared that Aten was not merely the supreme god, but the only god.

Ms Amaria makes the distinction that her documentary is on Parsi Zoroastrianism, rather than Iranian. The Parsis are members of Zoroastrian communities in India, and ethnically distinct from the Iranians even though both groups are Persian Zoroastrians. Zubin Mehta and Rohinton Mistry are two of the prominent Parsis I know of...but there are many others.

Kainaz Amaria has a B. A. in international relations and political science from Boston University and an M.A. in photography from the School of Visual Communication, Ohio University. In 2010 she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Mumbai, India. Her images and multimedia collaborations have been recognized by contests including CPOY, Women in Photojournalism, Atlanta Photojournalism Conference, the National Press Photographers’ Contest and the South Asian Journalist Association. Her clients include Vogue India, The New York Times, Reuters, National Public Road, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, GlobalPost, Marie Claire (USA), the St. Petersburg Times, US News & World Report, Inc. Magazine & Condé Nast Traveler.

She's a member of the multimedia team at National Public Radio (NPR) and is currently based in Washington, D.C.

Arko Datto | Ladakh In Monochrome

Photo © Arko Datto- Courtesy Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera is not only an Arab television network, but occasionally also features excellent photo essays by established photographers of far flung regions of the world and of obscure festivals.

Ladakh, also known as "land of high passes, is a region of India in the state of Jammu and Kashmir that lies between the Kunlun mountain range in the north and the Himalayas to the south. It's inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent, and is one of the most sparsely populated regions in Jammu and Kashmir.

It's also one of the few regions in India that I have yet to visit.
Arko Datto's Ladakh: Life on India's Northern Frontiers monochrome photographs of Ladakh dispense with the vivid colors associated with Ladakhi cultures, religious dances and way of life.

Arko Datto is an Indian born photo journalist, whose work has been published on BBC World, BBC India, Le Journal de la Photographie, The Times of India, Deccan Herald, DNA, Mumbai Mirror, Photojournale, Galli Magazine, Private Magazine and Kindle Magazine.

Back Story | The Black Coated Fakir

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

The black-coated fakir suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the Sufi shrine of Moin'Uddin Chisti during the annual Urs...in a sense, he was almost an apparition. Clutching a green flag with the numerals 786*, he had a certain gentle presence, a wise demeanor about him...was it perhaps because of his white beard?

Was he just a pankiwallah or was he more than that? I couldn't find out as no one nearby spoke English, but I really didn't mind. I let my imagination roam free, and thought he was also a Muslim "sadhu", a fakir...a wandering mendicant who had renounced all material possessions in order to gain spiritual salvation.

But my imagination would not stop there.

Had this been some centuries ago, this gentle fakir may well have been one of the Sufis who walked from the west (Afghanistan and Persia) to Pakistan and India, and who were instrumental in establishing Islam in South Asia through their liberal attitude, tolerance and kindness towards the poor.

And time-traveling back to the 1200s when the establishment of the first two Sufi orders in India took place, I imagined this black-coated fakir could've stopped and settled in Ajmer after his lengthy wanderings. Had he lived at the time, who knows...he could've become a Sufi saint himself with a dargah bearing in his own name.

Yes, I should've found out his name.

* What is 786? According to Wikipedia and other sources, Muslims in South Asia use 786 as an abbreviation for the Arabic letters of the opening phrase of the Qur'an. 786 is the sum of these letters in the Arabic numeral system.

For more details on Sufis, see my photo essay The Possessed of Mira Datar.

POV: Religious Trances or Mental Disease?

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy- All Rights Reserved- Photo Crop

In virtually all the Sufi dargahs I visited, from the shrine of Bahadur Shaheed in Varanasi to the one of Mira Ali Datar near Ahmedabad, I was stunned by the sight of women (a few men as well) entering into trances in front of the saints' tombs.

I initially thought these trances were caused by the religious fervor of these women, particularly in the ethereal "presence" of a saint...a syndrome colloquially called hajri. Being in a trance signified the entrance of the deceased saint in the body of the entranced person, to rid it from ailments, from jinns and other undesirable symptoms.

From my casual observations, these trances varied in their intensity from person to person. Some were completely oblivious of their surroundings, whilst others screeched and suddenly lunged at anyone who approached them with a camera. Some were accompanied by husbands, sisters and other family members, while others were alone.

At the shrine of Bahadur Shaheed, a woman supposedly in a trance tried to throw a rock at my head, whilst another in Mira Datar shoved me rather violently, and then apologized when she was out of her trance, saying she was unaware she did so.

I witnessed a significant number of women in the shrines of Srinagar sobbing and muttering supplications to the interred saints....but trances are different, and I concluded these are caused by mental disease.

Schizophrenia most commonly expresses itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, which may be what the “hajri” manifestations are. I’ve witnessed seemingly perfectly normal people arrive at these dargahs, socialize with their families and friends…then walking over to an area closer to the tomb itself, and slowly bring themselves to a crescendo of repetitive, and violent, erratic outbursts of physical activity that include rolling on the floor, banging their heads on pillars and walls, and swaying their heads from side to side.

If you look closely at the cropped image above, you'll notice that the arm of the woman in the trance bears scars that must've been caused by self-cutting. Self cutting is a symptom of borderline personality disorder, depression, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and schizophrenia.

In India, poverty-stricken and superstitious people who suffer from mental illness frequently employ faith healing as an alternative to psychiatric treatment, and it is mostly those that I see at these dargahs.