Sufi Soul | William Dalrymple

In anticipation of my soon to start The Sufi Saints of Rajasthan & Kashmir Photo Expedition-Workshop, which I described in an earlier post as  the first and only photo expedition-workshop whose objective is to record the commemoration of the death anniversary of a Sufi saint, I thought I'd feature the first part of William Dalrymple's Sufi Soul which appeared on Channel 4 in Britain, and which traces his personal journey into the mystical and musical side of Islam as he describes traditions of Sufi music in Syria, Turkey, Pakistan, India and Morocco.

It starts rather brusquely and clumsily with snippets of Western media reports on radical Islam; presumably to highlight the disparity beween this and the pacifist nature of Sufism.

For the followers of Sufism, music is a way of getting closer to God. The documentary traces the shared roots of Christianity and Islam in the Middle East, and presents Sufism as a peaceful and intellectual offshoot of Islam. It features many acclaimed performers, including the legendary Abida Parveen and Youssou N’Dour. 

Sufism is deeply rooted in Islamic cultures across the globe -- the Middle East, North Africa and the Indian subcontinent particularly -- and in each region has local characteristics.

Islamists ban singing, dance and musical instruments and regard them as diversions from devotion and subservience to Allah. In contrast, Sufi cultures are rich in these traditions, and few are better qualified to present this than writer, historian and longtime resident of New Delhi, William Dalrymple.

My thanks to Stephanie Ravel for having shared this with me.

Denver Post | Victims of the Taliban

Photo © AP/Muhammed Muheisen

It shouldn't be any surprise to anyone following international news to realize that the real danger to Muslims around the world is the terror, intimidation, repression and genocide committed by fellow Muslims. Whether it's Sunni violence against Shi'a Muslims (or vice versa), or Sunni Muslim against fellow Sunnis...whether its by the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Jamjaweed or the Mali Islamists (to name but a few), it is Muslims who suffer the most.

The Denver Post's photo blog featured poignant portraits of a handful of Pakistani victims maimed by the Taliban. Their stories are rarely heard in Pakistan, but they're all against any reconciliation with the Taliban, and the mere idea of negotiating with people responsible for their pain is abhorrent.

The photographs are by photographer Muhammed Muheisen.  He was born in Jerusalem in 1981 and graduated with a degree in journalism and political science in 2002. He is currently based in Islamabad, as the Associated Press chief photographer of Pakistan.

Since 2001, he has been covering major events in the Middle East, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the Iraqi conflict, as well as events in Saudi Arabia, China, Afghanistan, Yemen, Egypt, Syria, and France. He received several international awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News in 2005, a POYi in 2007, an APME Journalism Excellence Award, and first prize in the 2012 National Headliner Awards.

Jan Schlegel: Pain & Beauty Redux

Photo © Jan C. Schlegel-All Rights Reserved

Oh, followers and readers of The Travel Photographer blog will like this!

Ethnophotography, traditional process, photographs made with a 4x5 field camera (Ebony SV45 Ti) on Kodak Tmax 400, and negatives developed in Kodak D76 Developer 1+1 dilution...then selenium toned. What's not to like?

"None of the people photographed wear special make-up or were specially dressed before the photos were taken. They were all captured in their own habitat — at the market, in the village square, or simply on the roadside." Jan Schlegel

Jan C. Schlegel is a German photographer, whose ethno-photographic work is in the tradition of Phil Borges.  In 1998, he began traveling throughout Asia and Africa with the objective of photographing diverse people groups and tribes, and has so far traveled to 61 countries and is still in pursuit of the beauty and diversity of the nations.

The quality of these photographs are just remarkable. His website claims that he succeeds in not only creating artistic photographs, but in documenting the uniqueness of his subjects...the people who posed for him. Absolutely.

And I have a lot of respect for a photographer who doesn't follow the fad of making demeaning portraits of Ethiopian tribal people wearing ridiculous ornaments. Speaking of ornaments, take a look at the magnificent jewelry of the Himba women...and don't miss the beautiful eyes of the Kalash women.

I had posted Jan's work some years ago here, but it seems he changed his website, and added much more work.

Abdul Waheed, The Music "Doctor"

Here's a delightful "human interest" audio slideshow featured on CityFM89 (a FM station in Pakistan, which promotes the rich musical heritage of the region while offering a wide variety from pop to world music, from jazz to house music) about Abdul Waheed, the owner of Waheed Music Shop in Karachi.

Waheed Music Shop is tiny store full of musical instruments; acoustic guitars, tablas, flutes and banjos are crammed on the floor, waiting to be sold or repaired. The piece tells us that Abdul Waheed has been doing this work for over 40 years, and has had renowned artists visit his shop for all their musical needs. I'm certain that the Pakistani qawwali musicians have found their way to his shop.

It can also be viewed on Vimeo.

While I can't speak Urdu as such, it gave me pleasure to hear a few words in Abdul Waheed's narration that I could understand...ustaz, muhtaram, janab...all Urdu words with strong Arabic roots, and virtually similar in pronunciation. It also reminded me of living in Karachi many years ago, when things weren't as complicated as they seem to be now.

Although I liked this audio slideshow very much, I thought the panning was excessive but some people seem to like it. To me, it's just superfluous and distracting.

My thanks to Sitwat Rizvi who sent me the link.

2012 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest Finalists

Photo © Cedric Houin-All Rights Reserved

In Focus, the superlative photo blog of The Atlantic, features the winners of the 2012 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest in a much more satisfying format than the National Geographic. The finalists' photographs are shown in a 1280 pixel size; a size that will fill the largest monitors.

The winners consist of a group of 10 photos plus one Viewer's Choice winner. These images were chosen from more than 12,000 entries submitted by 6,615 photographers from 152 countries. The winners are from four categories: Travel Portraits, Outdoor Scenes, Sense of Place, and Spontaneous Moments.

First place went to Cedric Houin with the above photograph of the inside of a family yurt in the Kyrgyz lands of the Wakhan Corridor. We are told by the photograph's caption that the tribes living in the area are weeks away from any village by foot, and although located at an altitude of 4,300 meters in one of the most remote areas of Afghanistan, solar panels, satellite dishes and cellphones are prevalent.

It's not often that I agree with results of photography contests, but the judges' choice in this one is spot on. The richness of the reds of the yurt's interior, and the facial expression of the main protagonist along with the smaller details make a story out of that photograph. 

Cedric Houin is a French & Canadian documentary photographer, and a visual storyteller.

As for the Wakhan Corridor, it's an area of far north-eastern Afghanistan which forms a land link between Afghanistan and China. It's a long and slender area, roughly 140 miles long and between 10 and 40 miles wide. It also separates Tajikistan in the north from Pakistan in the south.

Rebecca Conway: Exorcising The Jinn

Photo © Rebecca Conway-All Rights Reserved

Readers of my blog and others in the photography community know that I'm fascinated by the syncreticism, or the combination of conflicting beliefs, in South Asia especially between Sufism and Hinduism. So I was doubly pleased to view Rebecca Conway's Exorcising The Jinn photo gallery of images made at the shrine of a Sufi saint, Hazrat Abdullah Shah Ashabi, in Thatta, in the Sindh province of Pakistan.

Rebecca is a British freelance photojournalist with Global Radio News, Reuters, in Pakistan. She has also photographed for PBS' Frontline.

I also liked her photo essay on the Kailash community who are indigenous people residing in the Chitral District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

Sufis brought their brand of Islam to the Indian subcontinent by walking from the west; from Afghanistan and Iran. These Sufi ascetics walked around India, and eventually settled in towns and villages, counseling and helping people. These ascetics became saints or “pirs” as they’re called. When the ascetics died, their tombs became dargahs, or sacred shrines. It's at one of those shrines that Exorcising The Jinn's photographs were made.

Notwithstanding what our current Western beliefs are, the jinn (or genies) are supernatural creatures  mentioned in the Qur'an, and often referred to in Arab folklore and Islamic mythology.

Sam Phelps: Train Portraits In Pakistan

Photo © Sam Phelps-All Rights Reserved

Let me venture a guess...we all love a long train journey in an exotic land.

If I'm right, you'll love Sam Phelps's wonderful portraits of Pakistanis sharing a train journey with him. If I'm not...you'll still love them.

The portraits were made on the Khyber Mail, a Pakistani mail and passenger train that travels from Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and ends in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city at the southern tip of the Sindh province on the Arabian Sea. The train journey involves 35 hours of travel.

My favorite portrait is of Joman, an 80 year-old Sufi. He is from Nowabshah, Sindh Province, and has two wives and twelve children. He has been a beggar all his life.

Sam Phelps has a background of fine arts study in Sydney, and is now increasingly working with NGOs including the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, as well as taking assignments for clients including Der Speigel, Time, Newsweek Pakistan and the Times UK. He is also a registered photographer with Getty Images Global Assignment.

He traveled the mountainous roads to Leh, the capital of Ladakh in northern India, and photographed the lives of people along the route. He undertook a four day trip on a train meeting and documenting pilgrims' experiences traveling from Tehran through northern Iran, across Turkey and south to the Syrian capital of Damascus to pray at the Umayyad, the Great Mosque of Damascus.

Khalil Shah: The Sufi Singer

Photo © Khalil Shah-All Rights Reserved

I don't post much from Flickr unless it virtually hits me in the face...and this magnificent portrait of a Pakistani Sufi singer (or minstrel) by Khalil Shah did exactly that.

I was perusing Sobia Ali's article Voices of Pakistan in the Huffington Post, and one of the photographs included in the article was the one of this Sufi singer.

"...many so-called "non professional" photographers (some with little experience) can give well known photographers a run for their money."

There's no doubt in my mind that this portrait is as good, if not better, than those I've seen published so many times by well established photographers in the National Geographic or GEO, to name but two magazines. It also reinforces my long held opinion that many so-called "non professional" photographers (some with little experience) can give well known photographers a run for their money...and sometimes more. And let's not forget that many do not have the resources that the professionals have in terms of photographic tools, fixers and research assistance.

Khalil Shah is an art professional with experience in conventional and contemporary forms of art including web and graphic designing. He started photography in 2005 at a digital photography workshop at the National College of Arts, Lahore, Pakistan.

Wendy Marijnissen: A Year In Pakistan

Based in Antwerp, Wendy Marijnissen is a freelance documentary photographer from Belgium, who has a career in looking for, and reporting on, stories with a social context. She completed a long term reportage in Israel and Palestine, using music to show a different part of daily life in this stressful and violent region. She's currently working on a new project about childbirth and maternal mortality in Pakistan, of which some of her compelling photographs can be seen in the above movie.

Another of Wendy's compelling photo essays is on the dai. A dai (or dayah in Arabic) is a traditional midwife or birth attendant in the Middle East, and Pakistan. Midwifery skills are usually passed on from generation to generation and most practitioners have had no formal training.

The unhygienic conditions in which the dai work, their lack of education and the delayed referral to hospitals in case of complications are the major cause for the high maternal mortality rate in Pakistan.

Akhtar Soomro: Pakistan

Photo © Akhtar Soomro/Reuters-All Rights Reserved

Full Focus, Reuters photo blog, seems to be regaining its footing amongst the remaining other large image photo blogs, and has recently featured the work of Pakistani photojournalist Akhtar Soomro.

Born in the Lyari neighborhood of Karachi, Pakistan, Akhtar graduated from the Government College of Science and Technology with a degree in engineering but photography beckoned, and he started working for a studio covering fashion, industrial and interior design, and subsequently for an advertising agency.

He has since shot assignments for local and international newspapers, magazines and stock agencies around the world. In 2009, he was part of a New York Times' team that won a Pulitzer for its reporting from Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Most of Akhtar's impressive photographs in the Reuters feature are of refugees of the floods, and of displaced people from the Swat Valley...but it's the one above that caught my eye. Its caption informs us that a flood victim baby sleeps in a hammock as a man reads the Koran during Eid-al-Fitr celebrations while taking refuge in a relief camp for flood victims in Sukkur in Pakistan's Sindh province on September 11, 2010.

Reuters: Best of the Year Photojournalism

Photo © Adrees Latif/Reuters

It seems that we're at the time of year when many of the news magazines, and large photo-blogs will soon be featuring their "best of the year" photographs. The first of the bunch is Reuters which is showcasing some 55 photographs.

Reuters photographers produce over half a million images every year. Some pictures define an event, others capture a moment revealing an aspect of the human condition. What's really neat this time is that each photographer describes the event which he/she photographed along with technical details.

My favorite photograph is the one above by Adrees Latif made during relief supplies being delivered to flooded villages in the Muzaffargarh district of Punjab in Pakistan. It's one of these photographs that tells is all...the struggle for survival, the physicality of despair...

By the way, Adrees tells us that the elderly man with a white scarf around his neck, managed to hang on to the hovering helicopter and was pulled to safety.

MediaStorm For CFR: Pakistan

Here's Crisis Guide: Pakistan (click on image), a magisterial multimedia production featured by The Council of Foreign Relations and produced by MediaStorm.

As we all know, Pakistan is critical, if not the most critical country, to the national interests of the United States, and yet it's misunderstood and viewed through a prism of apprehension and, from some quarters, of distrust.

The concern over its stability with the current escalation of drone attacks on its tribal areas, the horrific human toll following the recent floods and its geographical and ideological positioning underscore its importance. The New York Times reported last night that international lenders estimate that the floods in Pakistan caused $9.5 billion in damage to its infrastructure, agriculture and other sectors.

According to MediaStorm's web page on the project, it was challenged to create an immersive website, which allowed the user to focus on the complex history of Pakistan and the issues facing the country.

One of the CFR interviewees makes the point that Pakistanis fault the United States' support of Afghan insurgents to battle the Soviet in the 1980s, who fled to neighboring Pakistan when the US invaded Afghanistan in retaliation for the 9.11.2001 Al Qaeda attacks.

I found this is a production that cannot be assimilated, nor reflected on, in a single sitting...it's best viewed over time...bookmark it....it's worth keeping it and returning to it every now and then. Having said that, no production (whether immersive or not) can really explain the complex intricacies that are at play in Pakistan. It's facile for pundits (whatever their political and ideological agendas) to postulate their views...but these will still fall short of reality.

NYT: Pakistan Floods By Tyler Hicks

Photo © Tyler Hicks/NY Times-All Rights Reserved
The catastrophic flooding of the Indus is considered as Pakistan's worst natural calamity, which has ruined almost every infrastructural aspect that connects the country together — roads, bridges, schools, health clinics, electricity and communications. The destruction is also estimated to set Pakistan back decades, will weaken its feeble civilian administration and add to the burdens on its military.

The New York Times has recently featured Tyler Hicks' compelling photographs of the disaster in Pakistan's Floods, as the one above of two young girls quenching their thirst at a water pump in Sukkur. It's said that 20 million people have been affected by the floods; a number of people equal to the population of New York State.

According to the New York Times, a joint study from Ball State University and the University of Tennessee, puts the total cost of the flood damage at $7.1 billion. That is nearly a fifth of Pakistan’s budget.

I sense an apathy amongst the Western and Islamic nations to assist Pakistan in its difficulties. Is it because of the widespread perception (or knowledge) that the Zardari's government is riddled with corruption and cronyism, and thus may divert some of the aid? Or is it Islamophobia? Or is simple donor fatigue after Haiti? I tend to think it's all of the above and perhaps more.

And while I'm on the subject, is it only me who now increasingly relies on foreign cable news like China Network Television (CNTV) and RT (the Russian 24/7 English-language TV) for in-depth international news??? The added bonus of course is that these stations have no interest in Glenn Beck and the repellent clowns of his ilk as does CNN, MSNBC, et al.

NPR: Ed Kashi On Pakistan

Photo © Ed Kashi/National Geographic-All Rights Reserved
Apart from joining the agency VII, Ed Kashi was also featured on NPR's The Picture Show in a piece titled On Photographing Pakistan. He also has more of his photographs on the National Geographic blog.

Ed Kashi's objectives were to show how the people of Punjab live, and how millions of Pakistanis just try to live their lives despite the threat of religious fundamentalism, especially as it's also home to the peaceful sect of Sufism.

I had the pleasure of meeting a number of young Pakistani women photographers at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Istanbul just last week or so, and I was amazed at how they just lived their lives to the fullest, worked and crafting their impressive body of work seemingly unperturbed by the events that get reported in our mainstream media.

The above photograph was made at the mosque of Badshahi in Lahore, which is the second largest mosque in South Asia and the fifth largest in the world. The way Ed Kashi photographed the scene by slightly tilting the camera seems to be giving motion to the barefooted man and his cane. Nicely thought out and it gives a different perspective to the mosque which must've been photographed countless times.

NPR: The Grand Trunk Road

The Grand Trunk Road played an important role in India's history at every step of its way. Some 3500 years ago, with the Aryan invasion of the subcontinent, it served as a corridor starting at the Khyber Pass winding eastward between the Himalayas and the Thar Desert onto the Gangetic plain. Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Buddhism spread through it, and Muslim proselytizers traveled on it. Since 1947, Pakistan controls the 300-mile segment between Peshawar and Lahore, while the remaining 1,250 miles link six Indian states, making it lifeline of northern India.

Nowadays, the road used by Alexander the Great, Ibn Battutah, Mughals invaders and other conquerors and the just curious, is ruled by truck drivers roaring through countless tiny villages.

NPR features a hybrid multimedia project in which its journalists travel the route and tell the stories of young people living there, who make up the majority of the populations in India and Pakistan.

Marc Wattrelot: Balochistan

Photo © Marc Wattrelot-All Rights Reserved
Here's a timely feature brought to us by Foto8 showcasing the work of photojournalist Marc Wattrelot titled Divided Desert: Balochistan.

The blurb that accompanies the slideshow informs us that Balochistan extends over 350,000 square kms (approximately the size of Germany) and is the largest province in the Pakistan Federation. About 7 million people live in Balochistan; a mixture of consists Iranians, Pakistanis and Afghanis.

It's the often-heard story: a region rich in natural resources, its people among the poorest, the Punjabi central government rife with corruption and nepotism, give rise to a resistance movement striving for autonomy.

It's timely because the remnants of Al-Qaida may well migrate to the hinterlands of either Pashtunistan and Balochistan. All the ingredients for major trouble exist in this region in the coming months and years to come, so as I said, a timely feature. I don't always agree with Robert D. Kaplan's political slant, but he has penned a thought-provoking article on the Baluchi issue in the May 2009 issue of The Atlantic, which explains the volatility of this region.

Interesting photographs, but irritatingly repetitive audio...!!!

Foto8 describes itself a space to share, comment and debate photography.

LENS: Tyler Hicks & The Tabligh

Photo © Tyler Hicks/NYT-All Rights Reserved
It's been a while since I featured a war-related photojournalism piece, so I thought The New York Times LENS blog brought us a couple of days ago an interesting On Assignment gallery from Tyler Hicks on the Tabligh Jamaat.

I like the clever way the photographer framed the above image, as he had to photograph surreptitiously and very quickly because photography was banned from the Tabligh gathering for religious reasons.

Wikipedia describes the Tabligh (which means "conveying of message") movement as an apolitical religious movement, whose principal aim is reformation of Muslims, and was founded in India by Muhammad Ilyas as a voluntary, pacifist and independent movement.

The New York Times reports that it's "a missionary movement that spreads revivalist Islam through its followers, who travel the world on preaching missions. The movement convenes in Raiwind, Pakistan, once a year. Attended by as many as 1.5 million people, it is the largest gathering of Muslims outside the annual pilgrimage to Mecca."

American authorities believe the movement incubates "jihadists".

For further reading, The New York Times has a 2007 article here.

Note: For stereotype busting, have a look at Matthieu Paley's fascinating coverage of the annual Lal Shabaz festival when over one million Sufis, devotees and onlookers, join this chaotic pilgrimage which cannot be more different than the austere Tablighi gathering.

Yes, folks...one person's Islam is not another's, even within neighboring countries.

WIRED: Kanepari & Ferguson

Photos © Adam Ferguson (L)/Zackary Canepari (R)-Courtesy WIRED

"The photojournalist has long been known as the lone wolf, traveling solo to the far-flung corners of the world to document experiences few are capable of seeing. By function, it’s often a solitary quest, lonely and alienating; rarely as romantic as the photographs make it appear."

What a great start for the Raw File article written for WIRED by Bryan Derballa!

The article deals with the friendship and healthy competition between Adam Ferguson and Zackary Canepari, two immensely gifted photojournalists working in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. It appears that they helped each other, and edited one another’s work, always hoping to improve its quality.

WIRED's Raw File's article is in essence two interviews: Ferguson giving his views on Canepari's work, and vice-versa. Quite an interesting read...naturally, they pat each other on the back, but that's what friends do, especially those whose camaraderie withstood difficult circumstances.

Both photojournalists are content to be doing what they want to do at this time. Canepari is back in California pursuing personal projects, while Ferguson is still shooting in Afghanistan.

Zackary Canepari was featured on TTP a few times, and Adam Ferguson's work in Orissa was featured here.

Tyler Hicks: The Battle For Pakistan

Photo © Tyler Hicks/NYTimes-All Rights Reserved
A superb photojournalism feature published by The New York Times of photographs by Tyler Hicks appeared on its website late last night.

The title of the multimedia feature is The Battle For Pakistan; a title which I find rather exaggerated, as it really is about South Waziristan. Having said that, the area which may well be the toughest challenge for the Pakistani military in its war against an insurgency.

South Waziristan is home to Baitullah Mehsud, who -according to the accompanying article, leads the Taliban in the area and has engineered many suicide bombings in recent years.

The article by Sabrina Tavernise (and Ismail Khan) ends with an ominous quote by a top bureaucrat for the tribal areas, who says: “Militancy is like a monster. Even if only the tail is left, it will grow again from there.”

Pakistani Cinema: Zackary Canepari

Photo © Zackary Canepari -All Rights Reserved
TIME Magazine features a photo essay by Zackary Canepari titled The Last Days of Pakistani Cinema.

It's a welcome change from the current run of the mill photojournalism which we normally see in the mainstream media. I've had enough of seeing photographs of frightfully scary Islamic mullahs, with black beards and betel-stained teeth, which seem to delight photo editors, and are standard fare in our newspapers. So I cheer when I see diverse photo reports such as this one.

It seems that in its heyday years, during the 1970s, the movie studios of Pakistan churned out around 200 movies a year, but that has dwindled to a fraction because of the growing accessibility of Hollywood and Bollywood films. It is also threatened by the increasing potency of the Taliban in the northern parts of the country.

Zackary Canepari's toned photographs are always interesting, and he has done it again with this collection. I found some of the actors' photographs hilarious.