RAMAYANA TATTOOS: Bali

Showing posts with label Bali. Show all posts

Johannes P. Christo: Tajen; Ritual & Pleasure

Johannes P. Christo is an Indonesian self-taught photographer who has been developing his own vision in visual storytelling. Currently based in Bali, Johannes works as a freelance photographer for editorial, documentary and portraiture projects.

His work has been published in The Jakarta Globe, The West Australian, National Geographic Indonesia, National Geographic Traveler (Indonesia), Travel and Leisure Magazine (Thailand), TEMPO Magazine English Edition (Indonesia), Forbes Indonesia Magazine, Wall Street Journal Photo Blog, Agence French Press, Reuters, ZUMA Press, etc. and he has been recognized with various awards.

I met Johannes in Istanbul where he attended the 3rd Foundry Photojournalism Workshop on a scholarship, and subsequently in Bali where he shared with me his projects which are currently shown on his website. I highlight Johannes' well composed black & white photo essay on cockfighting in Bali, which he titled Tajen: Ritual & Pleasure.

An extremely talented photojournalist, with an interesting collection of photo essays, which, while eschewing color, captures Bali's exotic and ancient traditions in edgy black & white photographs.

0 comments

Labels: Bali, Photographers: Photojournalists

Carl Valiquet: Blood & Incense

Carl Valiquet is a photographer and a movie-maker who lives in Montreal and Bali, and has produced Blood And Incense, a movie whose trailer shown here is a spectacular fusion of still photography with motion from video, and a remarkable back and forth segue from cock fighting to Balinese religious rituals.

In Bali, certain religious ceremonies require that blood be spilled to pacify the evil spirits, and cockfighting (known as Tajen) is a tradition that is mixed with such religious rituals. Cockfights are required at temple and purification ceremonies.

“In Bali, during certain ceremonies, blood must be spilt to pacify the bhutas, the evil spirits that live underground. A cockfighting arena is built next to the temple. The judge strikes a gong; the fighting starts."

Although Indonesia has legally banned cockfighting because of gambling, some temples in Bali still hold tajen or cockfighting bouts. The local police is loath to prevent such bouts since the prevailing belief is that these are protected by the deities of the temples. There are ancient texts proving that the cockfighting ritual has existed for centuries, so Balinese police can legitimately look the other way.

I have photographed a tajen, a cockfight, in Bali last August and produced Tajen, Bali Cockfights, an audio slideshow, which is also on Vimeo.

Via Steve Huff's Blog

0 comments

Labels: Bali, Multimedia, Photographers: Travel

The Dancer & Name Branding

As I've posted a few days ago, I've been fiddling with the trial version of Flare, an app that describes itself as "a fast, easy, and beautiful darkroom for your desktop".

With Flare, one can apply interesting photographic effects to photographs, and it comes with more than 20 presets. It's a matter of drag and drop...mere seconds to get the preset look one likes. The above photograph (click to enlarge) of a traditional dancer I made in Bali last year got a Flare preset treatment, which includes a grungy border.

In all candor, I am beginning to like Flare a lot. I also happen to be a fan of Lightroom's presets...and a fan of anything that reduces the time I spend in post processing images to a minimum. And if this 'anything' is simple enough for a 2 year old to master, it's a hit as far I'm concerned.

In any event, it's fun to be able to use applications such as Flare and others, accepting that these degrade the quality of the images.

But wait, didn't I title this post to include Name Branding? This is important...If you ask any marketer how to set yourself apart from the rest, they’ll all tell you to the same thing, establish and secure your brand.

"I now have a lock on The Travel Photographer as a brand name on most popular blogs...this includes my domain brand name, my Twitter account and my Facebook page."

Keep reading and you'll see what I mean. For a couple of more examples of my photographs fiddled about with the Flare app, drop by The Travel Photographer on Tumblr. Yes, I have various blog platforms such as Posterous, Wordpress and Tumblr with The Travel Photographer brand name....and here's some useful advice: if you have a brand name (your name can be a brand name), you ought to do the same. I now have a lock on The Travel Photographer as a brand name on most popular blogs...this includes my domain brand name, my Twitter account and my Facebook page...and I'm keeping an eye out for any new ones.

As a footnote: I have no relationship whatsoever with Flare. It's just a fun application.

0 comments

Labels: Bali, Innovative Stuff, My Work, Photo Techniques

John Stanmeyer: Volcano Gods

No one connected to the world of photography and photojournalism is not familiar with John Stanmeyer's work and career. He's a photojournalist whose career is dedicated to international social and political issues, and is a co-founding member of VII Photo Agency. Working regularly for National Geographic Magazine, he was on contract with Time Magazine for over 10 years and had garnered countless awards.

John lived the Far East for over twelve years, documenting changes that affected the entire region. He has also focused on the plight of refugees from the Ugandan civil war, spent months chronicling the effects of the 2004 Tsunami and documented the mental healthcare crises in Asia. He also covered the conflict in South Sudan, Eastern European social change after the fall of Communism, as well as numerous visits to Haiti to record the social tragedies plaguing the island nation.He has documented the spread of HIV/AIDS through every country in Asia.

It was tough to choose what to feature of John's work because all his work is truly spectacular, but I decided on his Volcano Gods, which he shot for the National Geographic.

The photographs as displayed on his website are large monitor-sized and are breathtaking in their composition. I'm not much of a landscape fan, but these volcanoes are just stunning. The gallery mixes these landscapes with the mysticism of the ancient Balinese rituals which are held to this day to appease the volcano gods.

John is also a "musicphile", and perhaps a ethnomusicologist...you can read all about his love for world music in his blog entries. Bookmark his blog...if you're like me, you'll visit often.

0 comments

Labels: Bali, Photographers: Photojournalists

Four Photographers Document Cockfights

Here's a feature which groups individual photo essays of cockfighting by four photographers. I thought of grouping these essays, and also mention my own. Two of the cockfights occur in the Philippines, one in Haiti and the fourth occurs in Bali.

Photo © Julie Batula-All Rights Reserved
The first photo essay is Julie Batula's One Way Out; a photo essay of black & white photographs of cockfighting or sabong as it's called in the Philippines, where it's one of the oldest and most popular sports.

As Julie says: "Roosters continue fighting because they cannot escape, regardless of how exhausted or injured they become. It is a routine where they are forced to fight or die, and where death is the only way out."

Julie Batula is a Manila-based artist and documentary photographer, who is influenced by the works of Sally Mann and Nan Goldin.

Photo © Mitchell Kanashkevich-All Rights Reserved
The second photo essay (it's more of a multi-photo blog post) is by one of my favorite travel photographers: Mitchell Kanashkevich. He tells us he was riding a motorcycle to the city of Dumaguette in the Philippines and came by an area where cockfights were from morning till midnight everyday for a few days.

Mitchell Kanashkevich is a travel/documentary photographer, and is represented by Getty Images. He's been featured on this blog a number of times.

Photo © Swoan Parker-All Rights Reserved
The third photo essay is by Swoan Parker who features a 16 color photographs in a photo essay titled "Place Your Bets" of cockfights in Haiti.

Swoan Parker is a freelance photojournalist based in New York City available for global assignment. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA TODAY, The Los Angeles Times, Newsday, TIME, and National Geographic Traveler among others.

The final photo essay is mine, and is titled Tajen. It was photographed on the island of Bali last August.