RAMAYANA TATTOOS

Durga Puja: The Idol-Makers Of Kumartuli

Photo © Dibyangshu Sarkar—AFP/Getty Images

It's less than a month to my forthcoming photo-expedition/workshop Kolkata's Cult of Durga Photo~Expedition & Workshop™, whose primary aim is to photograph the innumerable rites associated with the Durga festivities, documenting some of the ornate pandals (platforms on which the deities are displayed), and ultimately their immersion in the city's Hooghly river.

Coincidentally, Time's LightBox featured the above photograph of artisans work on semi-finished clay statues of the Hindu goddess Durga in Kumartuli, a neighborhood of Kolkata famed for its clay idols. It seems that ongoing monsoon rains have made it hard for idol makers to finish on schedule.

Also coincidentally, the Photo Blog of MSNBC has a gallery of photographs by AFP photographer Dibyangshu Sarkar , who paid a visit to Kumartuli, the village of the idol-makers in Kolkata.

It seems that in the past, wealthy families would invite the idol-maker artisan to their homes and fashion the idol there, instead of at a workshop. According to the narrator, "the most intriguing part would be the painting of the third eye of the Goddess. The artisan would sit in meditation sometimes for hours and then suddenly in one swift stroke of his paint brush, it would be done."

In April, I posted Chhandak Pradhan's The God Makers, a gallery also documenting the clay artisans of Kumartuli in Kolkata.

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Labels: India, Photo Tours, Photojournalism

POV: Is Leica Making A Micro Four Thirds?

I am not in the prediction business, and I'm not a technophile...I'm just a camera user, who just a few months ago, bought a Leica M9 as a street photography tool, and use a Panasonic GF1 for everyday photography. I'm also a long time Canon cameras user, but those I use for my travel photography business.

Having laid down my iron-clad qualifications for being an "fallible predictor", I read with interest many of what has been written in blogs by people with more industry insight and technological expertise than I, and who predict the advent of a Leica M10 (and possibly a new series of more advanced M lenses AF capability) and others who say that a smaller new mirror-less design is in the offing.

I throw my hat with the latter. The electronic viewfinder interchangeable lenses cameras offer the image shooting quality and flexibility of a digital SLR and the portability of a digital point and shoot....and have been a huge hit with consumers, pro-consumers and professionals. Why wouldn't Leica seek to enter that market?

The current line-up for Leica digital cameras are the S2 DSLR ($23,000), the M9 rangefinder ($7000), the X-1 ($2000), the D-Lux 5 ($800) and the V-Lux 30 ($750). I can see a gap between the X1 and the M9 in terms of price point...a $3500 Micro Four Thirds could fit very well in that gap.

Naturally, it would require a couple of new AF lenses...could they'd be manufactured in Japan? I know. That's the weakest link in my predictive chain.

That being said, I really feel there's an enormous market for such a camera in Leica's line up. It would not cannibalize sales from the range finder crowd, and would induce the buyers of the point and shoot models to spend more to acquire a more versatile tool.

How much would I bet that Leica will announce such a product at Photokina? About $5.

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Labels: Leica, POV

Darkness Visible Afghanistan

I occasionally post on projects that I believe ought to be supported by the public at large, and one such project is Darkness Visible Afghanistan by photojournalist Seamus Murphy, whose aim is to raise $10,000 to create a documentary movie based on his many years traveling and photographing in Afghanistan.

"My mission is to promote an understanding of this mysterious, complex and fascinating culture."

Seamus Murphy has been photographing Afghanistan since 1994. He published a book, also titled A Darkness Visible: Afghanistan, as a chronicle of the country and its people over those tumultuous years. For two decades, Seamus has also worked extensively in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America and most recently, America. He has won 7 World Press Photo Awards and a World Understanding Award (POYi) for his work from Afghanistan.

Of the book Darkness Visible, Afghanistan, Philip Jones Griffiths wrote that "Seamus Murphy was a poet with a camera who captured the essence of life in one of the oldest countries in the world. It is a humanistic view of a misunderstood country and a rare glimpse into the nation's soul."

Many of the documentaries on Afghanistan that I've read about are focused on war, on the Taliban and its excesses...so I'm happy to dedicate a post to Mr Murphy's project...a documentary that hopes to promote its culture, its history and its people.

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Labels: Afghanistan, Photojournalism

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