RAMAYANA TATTOOS

Photo © Andrew Newey-All Rights Reserved

Andrew Newey has been virtually everywhere. He is a documentary travel photographer based in England, and started travelling the world in his early 20′s, and went to college to study the craft, after which he went on a round the world trip to put the theory work into practice. He began his photographic career supplying landscape and travel imagery to the stock photography industry and now focuses on commissions, workshops and personal projects documenting traditional cultures around the world.

He was exhibited at the Royal Geographical Society in London for the 2010 Travellers’ Tales Festival. Some of his clients include Microsoft, Qantas, Bauer Media, Wanderlust, Thai Airways, The Sunday Times, Lonely Planet, P&O Cruises, Rough Guides, AA Media, Imagine Publishing, and Tesco.

Andrew has divided his website portfolio over three main galleries, and the images (although smaller in size than what I love to see) are extraordinarily colorful, and are unadulterated travel photographs. These range from Mongolia to the Mentawai Islands, from Laos to Nepal, from Morocco to Malaysia, from China to India, and from Tibet to Thailand.

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Labels: Indonesia, Photographers: Travel

Photo © Asit-All Rights Reserved

Another instance of a talented photographer who neglects to provide full background information on his or her website is Asit. It's a shame because I am certain that photo buyers may want to get in contact with Asit. Having a contact form is insufficient, since a biography provides background information to the buyers and editors. A pseudonym is fine (if warranted) but having no background information signals a disinterest in marketing.

Most of Asit's photographs appear to have been set up very carefully, with meticulous attention and effort given to details, lighting and, in some cases, make up. It's more akin to fashion photography than travel photography.

Photo © Asit-All Rights Reserved

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Labels: Indonesia, Photographers: Travel

Photo © Francisco de Souza-All Rights Reserved

The website of Francisco de Souza is populated with galleries of India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam...large images which grab viewers the way images should. None of this silly small photographs to "protect my work" from Francisco. He wants to show his images, and he does.

His biography tells us he was born and raised in Zimbabwe, where he started to photograph his Shona tribal neighbours since he was eleven. Subsequently displaced from his Zimbabwean home, he travelled to many developing countries in Africa, the Indian Subcontinent, and South East Asia. It is there he started to actively work with and support Non Government Organisations in Indonesia, India and Zimbabwe.

Francisco's work has been shortlisted in the Digital Photographer of the Year competition in 2009, and he received a Diploma in Photography from The Photography Institute of New Zealand in 2010.

In his India gallery, Francisco features an elderly woman in a red sari, possibly a Gujarati or Rajasthani tribal judging from her tattoos, being helped unto the back of a truck...a perfect capture in time and motion.

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Labels: India, Indonesia, Nepal, Photographers: Travel, Vietnam

Tom Bourdon was recently in Java, Indonesia where he photographed a traditional Dayak dance near Borobodur. He captured the ambient sound with the new and popular Zoom H1, and put together this audio slideshow. You can also view it here.

The Dayak are the native people of Borneo, who live principally in the interior of Borneo, each with its own dialect, customs, laws, territory and culture. Dayaks also live in Indonesia, and have their distinct culture as Tom Bourdon documented.

The Dayak were animist in belief, however many converted to Christianity, and more recently to Islam. Estimates for the Dayak population range from 2 to 4 million.

Tom is a documentary travel photographer specializing in recording cultural festivals & celebrations across the globe. His work has been published in the national & international press as well as guide books & numerous online locations.

I thought I'd add this review of the Zoom H1. It's by B&H, and while it's short and to the point, it gives a reasonable appraisal of the device.

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Labels: Indonesia, Multimedia, Photographers: Travel

Photo © Diego Verges-All Rights Reserved

Ludruk is a theatrical genres of East Java in Indonesia. It's a form of traditional performance presented by a troupe of actors on a stage, re-telling the life stories of everyday people and their struggles. Most of the characters were performed by male actors who take the roles of women, but more recently, the sketches and farces feature mostly contemporary domestic stories, and have become commercial entertainment popular with urban and rural working-class audiences.

Diego Verges (featured many times of The Travel photographer blog and one of its Favorite 2011 Photographers) has produced a comprehensive photo essay on the Ludruk, with black & white (and color) facial portraits, and as well as environmental portraits and scenes of these performers.

Ludruk is a must-see for my readers as it merges portraiture, documentary and travel-ethnography photography, and also visually documents an art for that could well vanish in the years to come.

Note: I encountered a similar kind of performance in Bali where it's called Arja. This type of performance enacts old stories in a farcical manner and uses dialogue understood only by Balinese-speaking audiences.

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Labels: Indonesia, Photographers: Travel

Photo © Vincent Prévost-All Rights Reserved

 I occasionally receive emails from photographers such as the one from Vincent Prévost that make the work of maintaining The Travel Photographer blog feel really worthwhile.

Vincent tells me he's been a regular reader of The Travel Photographer blog for about 2 years, and that it has been a source of inspiration to him. He cites my two posts on Grenville Charles and Diego Verges, who documented tribes of West Papua,  as triggering his own photo expedition "Highlands Encounters" to this remote part of the world.

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Labels: Indonesia, Photographers: Travel, Photojournalism