Photo ©2012 Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Before going to Chiang Mai for the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop, I researched locations and venues for muay thai (the Thai kickboxing), and the most prominent ones were unappealing for what I had in mind.

Despite its ancient history as a self-defense martial art akin to kickboxing, I had read that muay thai had gone through a rough patch. It was revived some years ago as a popular glitzy sport activity and held in large modern arenas...but it wasn't what I wanted. I wanted the bouts that had been relegated to seedy areas, surrounded by gambling and other nefarious activities. It was this side of muay thai that I had in mind.

It wasn't difficult to find what I wanted...the area known as Loi Kroh Road was the setting: a rundown gym with a decrepit ring amidst a "mall" of girlie and ladyboy bars, the boxing ring patched up with duct tape and tarted up with adverts for Jack Daniels Whisky, play-acting fights, the actual smell of sweat and the ambience of the sex for hire, ...and of course, shady nak muay, as the sport's pugilists are known.

I bought a front seat row for my first evening there, and subsequently discovered I could have a drink at one of the bars instead, walk a few steps to the ring and photograph at will. At some point, I wasn't very popular with a half-sober and rather beefy European spectator, who (rightly) claimed I was in his (and his -possibly underage- girlfriend's) line of vision, but the tense moment soon passed.

So here's The Art Of Eight Limbs, a collection of monochrome photographs made at the Loi Kroh arena, and made with the Fuji X Pro-1.

I've said it earlier, but I'm very pleased with the Fuji X Pro-1's performance, especially under the conditions I was shooting under. As one can imagine, photographing a fast-paced sports such as muay thai in dim conditions and under uneven lights is tough for any camera, but the X Pro-1 didn't let me down, except for an occasional slip with its slow focusing or because its auto-focus was fooled by the action.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Whilst teaching at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop the past week or so, I've also managed to set aside some time to fit some of my favorite style of photography, and shooting from the hip with the Fuji X Pro-1 has been high on my list to do, especially at night.

Here's LK Road, a collection of street photography scenes made in one of the grittiest mainstream streets in Chiang Mai; Loi Kroh Road. The photographs are grouped under the title page of Katoey Or Not?, but I chose not to title this post with that particular name to avoid having visitors being referred to it by search engines for purposes other than photography.

Loi Kroh in Thai means "washing one's troubles away", and it's one of Chiang Mai haunts for tourists principally for the preponderance of girlie bars on its approximately one-mile length...some of these bars are staffed by young women, and/or ladyboys known as katoeys.

Apart from the bars, Loi Kroh Road hosts some restaurants, massage parlors for tourists with aching legs and feet, and tattoo shops. That said, I found its ambiance a little sad and melancholic despite the blaring large screen television sets then showing some Olympics sport event, the occasional clicks of billiard balls, the forced laughter of the young women (or ladyboys) working the bars and the ubiquitous and hopeful "sawasadee...massage?" yells at every corner.

The areas seemed to me to be way past its prime...perhaps it was the off-season as well...but the bars were less than half-empty, even when there were muay thai fights held at the seedy boxing ring. Most of the fights seemed (at least to me) to be staged, with spectators generally consisting of drunken middle-aged European men.

I was asked why I chose to shoot from the hip on Loi Kroh Road, and if it was because it was risky. Not at all...although I imagine some of the bar clients wouldn't relish being photographed. The real reason is the same as whenever I choose to shoot from the hip: it allows me to capture the subjects unawares with natural expressions.

Lastly, the ladyboy in the above photograph, extroverted and very "sociable", reminded me of Ru Paul. I was super prompt in buying her a drink to get rid of her unwanted and rather heavy-handed attentions.

Finally, the Fuji X Pro1 performed extremely well at night, and I have nothing but praise for its performance. Its auto-focus let me down a few times, but its overall performance at high and very high iso is nothing short of spectacular.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

I was very glad to have attended a late night Muay Thai at the Loi Kroh dingy and grubby boxing ring. I had access to wherever I wanted to go, which included chatting up the bar girls (and the ladyboys) who work at the bars and drinking spots surrounding it. The most incongruous was a store selling Muay Thai paraphernalia such as gloves and shorts at the entrance of the area, and owned by a veiled Muslim woman. She didn't seem to be fazed by the going ons at the abutting girlie bars.

I had my Fuji X Pro1 fitted with the 18mm lens, and used it whenever the fighters came close to the edges of the ring such as the one above. I also had my Canon 7D with a 70-200 as reserve when I needed the reach.

I am buzzed by the scene in that area....the hardness of the Muay Thai fights and the "softness" of the bar girls...two extreme, and probably motivated by the same thing; the need to make money.

I've added a couple of galleries to my recently published website: www.telsawy.com. One of the galleries groups photographs of The Sufis, while the other has a grouping of Theyyam performers.

Red is the color of fire and blood, and associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, courage, desire, and love. And it's used in many religious rituals and festivals in India, and worn by religious practitioners such as the Theyyam of Northern Malabar and the Vellichapads (or Oracles) of Kodunggallur.

Theyyam is a living cult with several thousand-year-old traditions, rituals and customs, it includes many of the castes and classes of the Hindu religion in the Malabar region. The word Theyyam is a corrupt form of Devam or God. People of the region consider Theyyam itself as a god and seek blessings from them.

Another of my Theyyam photo essays is Theyyam: Incarnate Deities.

As for the Oracles of Kodungallur, they celebrate both Kali and Shiva at an intense festival that lasts about a week.In their thousands, these red-clad devotees perform self mortification acts by banging on their heads with ceremonial swords repeatedly until blood trickle down their foreheads, and daub the wounds with turmeric. A photo essay titled Agony & Ecstasy documents the Oracles religious event.

And yes, I do like the color red.

"Tewfic El-Sawy is a blogger, travel photographer and champion of increasingly popular photography expeditions. He talked to Auto de Fe about what photography means to him, the much discussed death of photojournalism and what the future holds for lovers of the still image."

I am gratified that Auto de Fe magazine has featured my In Focus interview on its website, after launching its very first issue for the iPad a few days ago.

So have a read to find out what I think of the so-called 'death of photojournalism', the democratization of photography and how I came to set up my photo expeditions-workshops.

Auto de Fe describes itself as a cross-platform magazine of inquisitive journalism and intelligent photography. It showcases compelling writing, investigative reporting and visual documentary projects from around the world.

Note: This is a very quick post as I'm working on my images from yesterday's Coney Island's Mermaid Parade.

I am very pleased to appear as the first photographer for the In Focus feature in Auto de Fe's magazine for the iPad.

The feature carries an interview with me, along with some of my favorite photographs that I made over the course of my 12 years career. The interview was conducted with Jack Laurenson, the magazine's Executive Editor.

What is Auto de Fe? Well, it's a cross-platform magazine of inquisitive journalism and intelligent photography. It showcases compelling writing, investigative reporting and visual documentary projects from around the world. ADF is a unique magazine for the 21st century and is available as a fully interactive digital app on the iPad. Other devices will follow. It'll also be online and in print. Its digital & print format will allow many mediums of storytelling and bring some truly spectacular reportage.

I've downloaded the Auto de Fe's App from the Apple Store, and it's truly magnificent on the iPad. I don't have the new iteration of the iPad with the Retina display, but I know people who have it, and they say it's eye-popping! So get it!!!

I would be remiss if I don't mention the photojournalists/photographers whose work appear on the inaugural issue of Auto de Fe. These are Sean Power with 40 Commando, Meredith Alexander with London's Olympic Shame, Sean Hawkey's reports from the mines of Guatemala and Nicaragua, Carole Alfarah's Waiting For Change and Lisa Wiltse's The Charcoal Kids.

Finally, I urge emerging photojournalists and visual storytellers to view Auto de Fe's raison d'etre, and consider the opportunity that it offers as per its "What Do We Offer Our Contributors".

Well, as it was raining almost all day in New York City, I managed to finish the first phase of my new personal website (www.telsawy.com).

It's flash-based, iPad and iPhone-friendly and I think it looks really cool with a very large image of a Kathakali dancer, whose put-on scowling face is a perfect fit for welcoming viewers! 

More seriously; I've started the website with 5 galleries...The Oracles of Kali (my latest photo essay), Canang (Bali), Kolkata, Tsechu (Bhutan), and The Kutch. The images chosen for these galleries are a mix of documentary photography and pure travel photography. 

The website's opening spread also has direct links to The Travel Photographer's blog, my Twitter feed, my Facebook page and my Vimeo multimedia page.

I will start the second phase of the website in a couple of weeks.

This new website is separate from The Travel Photographer which features my photo expeditions and workshops, photo essays, multimedia, and books. 

So bookmark both if you're interested, and keep an eye open for more galleries in the weeks to come!

One of the highlights of my Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition-Workshop this past March was spending half a day at a Kathakali school near Thrissur, and documenting the preparations and performance of this ancient art. It was totally distinct from the usual superficial performances shown at the various tourist hotels, and the professionalism of the performers was breathtaking. Apart from the talent of the performers, I was especially struck by the singing which you hear on this "photo-film".

Kathakali is one of the oldest theatre forms in the world, and originated in Kerala. It's a group production, in which actors-dancers take various roles in performances based on themes from Hindu mythology, such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

The elaborate make up sessions often take longer than the performances themselves, and follow a certain ritual.

I chose to process the photographs in sepia (DxO Labs), which were made with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Leica M9, with the ambient audio recording on a Tascam DR40.

You can also watch it in HD on Vimeo.

This is the second of my multimedia (audio slideshows) projects of stills, audio and video made during my The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition/Workshop™. It's of the activities at an ancient Vedic 'gurukul' (or training/boarding school; very similar to the Buddhist monasteries for novitiates), where we were treated to a demonstration of this way of teaching sacred Vedic scriptures.

It is an ancient Indian educational system, which is currently being rejuvenated with the assistance of the Indian government. The young boys who populate the Vedic school usually belong to a caste of Keralan Brahmins, who are responsible to carry on the age-old tradition of chanting Vedas during religious rituals or functions. The chanting is learned by practice, and nothing is written down.

The rhythm of the Vedic chants is followed by the young boys' moving their bodies in cadence to the verses, which reminded me how the Buddhist novices recite their mantras, or how the Islamic students recite the Qur'an at their madrasas.

You can watch The Vedic Disciples on Vimeo as well.

Living in New York City means that space is at premium, and while my office walls are literally covered from ceiling to waist-level with my photographs, paintings, etc., I still have a spot where a 20x24 inch frame can fit....but it has to be a vertical frame!

People who photograph with me know that I much prefer landscape/horizontal format, but a vertical space is all I can find on my crowded office walls. I like the above photographs equally so I need your involvement in choosing the one.

The top photograph is of a posed full length portrait of a Kathakali artist, while the lower one is of a trio of Oracles who I persuaded to stop their trances, and pose for us. Both were made during The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition/Workshop™.

I plan on having the elected photograph printed commercially on Kodak Professional Glossy paper then in a dark wooden frame...either black or dark brown depending on the photograph.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy- All Rights Reserved

 I barely have the time to post this today since the internet connection is somewhat iffy, but the day's photo shoot was at the Mahadeva temple for the Thirunakkara Utsavam festival. This is where I spotted this family of pilgrims. I'm uncertain of which sect they belong to, but I'll find out and edit this post shortly.

Note: These are members of a family on a pilgrimage to Sabarimala Temple, some 150 kilometers from Kochi, and they're adherents of Ayyappa.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

"hello sir,

i'm a 18yr old from india

i've dropped my college for my passion of travelling ,writing n photography!

your work have quite inspired me continue it!

n just wanna thank you!

your blog is quite a source of inspiration for me!

thank you"

It's a leap year, and what better way to end this February's 29 days!

This wonderful email from a young Indian woman was waiting in my inbox...and while I frequently get complimentary emails on my photography and blog from readers, this one was so enthusiastic, and so full of hope for the future, that I had to feature it here.

Naturally, I urged her to remain in college, get a degree and pursue her passion at the same time. I hope she does.

I occasionally meet with young people seeking my advice as to how to forge a career in travel photography. It's always a difficult task to balance youthful aspirations and hard-core reality...but one of my principal pieces of advice is to stay in college (if they don't have a degree...and get one), and take up a profession that can pay the bills for a while.

I've just uploaded my first Cowbird story titled The Sufi Itinerant of Qutb Uddin.

While working on the photograph of Miskine, the Sufi in my post of yesterday, I realized I had a recording of him briefly telling me his life story. Coincidentally, I was invited to join Cowbird, which describes itself as "...a small community of storytellers, focused on a deeper, longer-lasting, more personal kind of storytelling than you’re likely to find anywhere else on the Web."

Cowbird seeks to feature incredible stories by some of the world's finest storytellers, and present them in the most beautiful storytelling environment on the Web. Its community consists of journalists, photographers, writers, artists, filmmakers, designers, explorers, and many others.

"incredible stories by some of the world's finest storytellers"

It allows members of its community to produce multimedia stories, incorporating text, photos, sound, subtitles, roles, relationships, maps, tags, timelines, dedications, and characters, thus mixing elements of traditional storytelling with elements of technology.

I'm excited to have joined Cowbird, and will upload new single image stories as time permits. I've seen that Aaron Huey, a fantastic photographer has also joined Cowbird, and already has a number of stories on it. This one of Zahoor is especially wonderful!

Readers of this blog who feel, as I do, that this is an exciting venue to display their storytelling talents, request an invite from Cowbird...as I did.

I had neglected my Tumblr blog for a while, and recently realized there was a lot more themes available. One of those is HD Exhibit free theme which is, frankly speaking, just gorgeous and displays large sized (1200 pixels by 800) photographs really beautifully.

So I've worked quite diligently during the past two days to rejig my The Travel Photographer's Tumblr blog which now features some of my own favorite travel photographs. From here onwards, it will be the repository of some of my photographs (more travel than documentary) which I have archived over the past years, as well as those I intend to make on my forthcoming trips and workshops.

So follow my The Travel Photographer's Tumblr blog for your fix of travel photography!!!

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Only 5 weeks to the start of The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition & Workshop™!!!

All participants flights and arrival times in Kochi (where the workshop starts) have been set, hotels rooms are booked, itinerary rejigged, and my multimedia presentations are currently being updated...

The participants in this photo expedition/workshop (7 in all, which is my ideal group size for such a workshop) are from the United States, Ireland, Bahrain and Australia...an international mix I am certain will prove to be quite interesting, since each will probably bring a varying point of view.

I am eager to start the workshop off with a couple of days of intense street photography amongst the spice godowns and alleys of old Mattencherry...The street activity of the area is a virtual live theater, with bazaar-like alleys, traditional godowns and stores stocked with all types of rice, dark brown nutmeg, red and green chillies, earthy ginger, black pepper and other spices. Not only people photography of traders, merchants, porters, but also we'll photograph details, age-old textures, peeling wall colors (or discolored) of indigo blue and ochre...etc.

I am eager to return to Mattencherry, especially after I revisit my Traders of Kochi gallery.

I mentioned Holy War before on this blog, and I am pleased it turned out to be well suited for this forthcoming adventure. It's a chronicle of Vasco Da Gama's voyages to reach the Indies; and seize its markets in spices, silks and gems from Muslim traders in Calicut and Kochi. Perfect!

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

During my Kolkata's Cult of Durga Photo Expedition/Workshop, I chanced upon a group of traditional wrestlers near the Armenian Ghat on the Hooghly river. These were Kushti wrestlers, about to practice their sport in a small area, which was being carefully prepared for their bouts.

While I had known of Kushti being practiced in Delhi and Varanasi, I hadn't heard of it in Kolkata and after watching these wrestlers for a while, I concluded that it was different here. In contrast with the ground being moist (as in Delhi), the wrestling area (known as an akhara) here was dry, was swept with young tree branches then covered with bits of leaves, which I believe were from neighboring neem trees (which have medicinal properties).

Kushti is India's traditional wrestling, and is an ancient form of wrestling. It was held in great importance in Indian societies, but its popularity has dwindled over the years, although there are concerted efforts to revive it. Kushti practitioners face grueling daily training, a strict diet and celibacy.

The Armenian Ghat is probably the most interesting of all of Kolkata's ghats. It was built by a merchant of Armenian origin in 1724. Armenians dominated has spice in gem traders in ancient Kolkata. The Kolkata station and Ticket Reservation Room of Eastern Railways was situated in the Armenian Ghat from 1854-1874.

For those who're interested in tech stuff, I used a Leica M9 with an Elmarit 28mm 2.8.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved (Click To Enlarge)

On the penultimate day of the Kolkata's Cult of Durga Photo Expedition/Workshop this past October, some of us rode one of the famous Kolkata trams on one of its routes. As far as I recall, we chose the Esplanade to Shyambazar route, which is about 5 kilometers. Kolkata is India's only city to have a tram network, which is operated by Calcutta Tramways Company.

These are slow-moving cars, battered from many years of hard service. There are 170 trams running on the streets of Kolkata on a daily basis. The cars are single-deck articulated cars and can carry 200 passengers. When we rode ours, it was off-peak and seats were readily available.

At the Shyambazar depot (end of the line), I photographed the conductors (who were amused by my presence) in their small restroom, while they were having tea and cigarettes. I explored the idle tram cars and photographed inside the cars. The engine was made in Japan by Fuji Electric. All my exploration and photographing was observed by one of the conductors seen in the photo above.

I haven't decided yet if I ought to produce a photo gallery of the Kolkata tram "project"...perhaps an audio slideshow since I managed to record some great audio of the traffic, the clang of the tram's bell, etc.

My main project that came to be from the Kolkata's Cult of Durga Photo~Expedition & Workshop™ which I led and organized is The Cult of Durga.

In contrast to my previous audio slideshows that on average are 3 minutes in length, The Cult of Durga is long...it's just over 5 minutes. I also broke a few of my own rules with it. Using the Ken Burns effect on a couple of occasions is one of the most obvious. I decided against a tighter edit,  thinking that reducing the number of photographs would've eliminated some important components. So I left it as I produced it in Kolkata.

Durga Puja is an annual Hindu festival in South Asia that celebrates worship of the Hindu goddess Durga. It's the most important religious and social event in Kolkata. It involves a series of rituals which start from the production of effigies, building of the pandals, offerings of flower and worship, and then finally immersion of the effigies in the Ganges.

The Durga Puja event is celebrated over no less than ten days, but it's the last four days – Saptami, Ashtami, Navami and Dashami – that are celebrated with considerable joy and fanfare when the ten armed goddess riding the lion and slaying evil is worshipped with immense zeal and devotion.

This documentary audio slideshow starts with the fashioning of the effigies of Durga which is supervised by certain rites and rules, which include that the clay used for these effigies must be collected from the banks of the Ganges. It then follows the transport of the effigies to the pandals and homes. I also photographed the dhakis, the traditional drummers who accompany the effigies to the pandals, then it was the "kala-bau" snan processions to the Ganges where banana plants are cleaned and draped in a cloth along with nine types of leaves, and on to the last day of the festival when the Durga effigies are brought back to the river for their final immersions symbolizing the goddess' return to her abode in the Himalayas.

And for those who are interested in that kind of stuff, I used a Leica M9, a 5D Mark II and a 7D. The audio was recorded with a Marantz PMD 620.

"It is at these religious events that one connects with humanity at its basic denominator, and with the nobility of the human spirit."

That's a quote from a longer statement I made to accompany a handful of photographs published in the December issue of the Asian Geographic Passport which can be partially previewed here.

I am waiting for a hard copy of the issue to be mailed to me from the publishers, so that's all I can show at this time.

In any event, the religious rituals I submitted photographs of are the Theyyam rituals of Northern Kerala and of the Tsechus of Bhutan. The photographs are included in my Theyyam: Incarnate Deities and Tsechus!.

I am influenced by Sebastiao Salgado's philosophy which he described by saying: "if you take a picture of a human that does not make him noble, there is no reason to take this picture. That is my way of seeing things.". This is my way of seeing things as well...I find it impossible to photograph otherwise.

Most of the big picture blogs and news outlets such as The WSJ Photo Journal, Boston's Globe's The Big Picture, The Denver Post's PBlog and Reuters' Full Focus, amongst many others, will soon feature their version of the best photographs of 2011. So taking their lead, I am featuring what I liked best of my own photographs made during the past 12 months. I'm not saying these are the best photographically speaking of all my 2011 images, but I like them...and I suppose that counts for something. They are a mix of pure travel photography and documentary/reportage style.

The 20 or so images were made during my two 2011 Photo Expeditions/Workshops to Gujarat and Kolkata. I've added traditional Turkish music to provide the accompaniment to the slideshow.

I know...I ought to have chosen some Indian sitar music instead, but I couldn't find a track in my library that matched my mood today. My apologies to the purists.