Sebastián Belaustegui: Guardians of Time

Image Copyright Sebastián Belaustegui
Sebastián Belaustegui was born in 1969 and although from Argentine, is currently living in Tepoztlan, Mexico. He has been an independent documentary photographer since 1991, and dedicates himself to photographing the native world of Latin America.

Sebastián’s work is exquisite, and can be seen in his gorgeous book Guardianes del Tiempo (Guardians of Time), which group his photographs of indigenous peoples of Central and Latin America. My favorite is of a Peruvian couple sitting in their room, a hamster peeking at the photographer between their legs.

His photographs appeared in National Geographic, Camera Art, Planet, and Gatopardo, as well as in newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times and the Sunday Times.

His website is here, and I urge you to visit his Personal Work section and his Guardians of Time gallery. I expect his book is available at bookstores.

Beyond The Frame: Hard Core Sufi?

From The Sufis of the Darghas-Copyright 2007 Tewfic El-Sawy
During my photography travels, I constantly despair at the sight of local people wearing baseball caps (sometimes back-to-front!) and gaudy t-shirts instead of their beautiful native dress, and in so doing mar the image of their cultures and heritage. So imagine my joy when I saw Ali Shah Jalil Shams Uddin walking into the shrine of Nizzamuddin in Delhi, an impressive beard jutting out of his handsome face, head topped by a traditional turban, and bejeweled with bracelets and necklaces made of carnelian beads.

Yes! There was a man with a story to tell...a paragon of authenticity and most probably a genuine Sufi to boot. Barely containing my excitement, I approached him along with my trusted fixer in Delhi, Joginder, to photograph him during his prayers and for an interview. He had composed an ode to the saint Nizzam Uddin, and not a wallflower by any means, belted it out in the center of the shrine. Flattered by the attention, he jumped at the chance to talk especially since a small crowd, sensing an event of some sort, had now formed around us.

I photographed while Joginder asked him questions about his life and background. He revealed that he had been a devout Christian, but had converted to Islam over 25 years ago, and had since then lived as a recluse in a cave in Madras, dispensing Islamic sermons and advice to the faithful. He was a Sufi ascetic, who traveled to Delhi to visit the shrine of Nizzam Uddin and pay his respects to the preeminent Sufi saint in the Indian subcontinent. He told the attentive crowd that he frequently wore a vest made of chains and padlocks as penitence for the sins of mankind.

I was in heavens...photographing as quickly as I can, trying to capture his incredible expressions as he orated to the now awed crowd...my thoughts racing with images of his ascetic way of life...until I heard the ring of a cellphone. My initial irritation at being distracted by a cellphone owned by someone in the crowd was quickly replaced by utter disappointment. My expectations were compleltely shattered....it was none other but Ali Shah who had reached in his robe's pocket for a Nokia cellphone. According to Joginder, Ali Shah was having a conversation with his wife, who was still in Madras. You can even see the blue cord of his cellphone dangling from his neck, along with the rest of his necklaces.

Ah, well...at least he wasn't wearing a baseball cap.

Travis Fox: Video Journalist

While this is about television photojournalism rather than photography, I think it's worthwhile to mention that the National Press Photographers Association awarded Travis Fox first and second place in the in-depth online photojournalism category of its Best of Television Photojournalism contest.

Readers of TTP will recall my earlier posts on multimedia features produced by Travis Fox for the Washington Post. One of these posts covered the excellent feature on Darfur and another on Islamic Numerology.

Al Thompkins on Poynter On Line has an interview with Travis Fox, and says this: "The Washington Post's Travis Fox has done it again. Travis is a backpack journalist who travels the world documenting stories with video for the Post's Web site. He is just home from Darfur, and the work he brought home with him may be his best yet."

Read the whole article here.

Anand Khokha: South & South East Asia

Scriptures & Incense (Bhutan) - Image Copyright 2006 Anand Khokha
Not only is Anand a regular participant in my photo expeditions, but he is a peripatetic traveler for both business and leisure purposes. He accumulated an impressive inventory of travel photographs of India, Cambodia, Bhutan and Thailand on his delightful website, which I believe is a joint production with his creative son. His forte is people photography, capturing candid expressions, and registering human interactions. I have also seen his recent landscape photographs of Bhutan, and I can vouch that they are as good as his candid images.

Anand's keen eye and photographic flair are obvious, and his altruism in dedicating the proceeds from the sale of his photographs to St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Tamil Nadu, South India, a deserving charitable institution, also speaks for itself. Here's Anand Khokha's website.

Jehad Nga: The Faces of Africa

Image Copyright © 2006 Jehad Nga
I have recently admired and commented on Jehad Nga's fabulous work which appeared on the pages of the New York Times. I posted in early February about his work on Ethiopia's Stone Churches, and today I bring his latest multimedia gallery Faces of Africa, in which you'll see images of Somali and Kenyan café patrons made in the dark, only a single ray of sun highlighting the individuals themselves; an arresting collection of images by a master photographer.

Here's Jehad Nga's New York Times gallery: The Faces of Africa. (you'll probably need to adjust the size of the window).