Monday, November 2, 2009

Nacho Hernandez: Children of the Clouds


Nacho Hernandez is a Spanish photographer who takes assignments worldwide, and has easy access to the Southeast Asia and Asia-Pacific regions from his current base in Manila. Nacho graduated from the Washington School of Photography and also holds a MA in International Relations and Development from Georgetown University.

His interest is in international documentary, travel photography and photography with a humanitarian focus. As an example, he produced a long-term project on the Sahrawi people, and which was exhibited at the US Congress in Washington DC. It is this Children of The Clouds which I chose to highlight on TTP.

According to Wikipedia, Hassaniya Arabic speaking tribes, of Arab-Berber and pure Berber/Tuareg heritage, mainly living in Mauritania, Western Sahara southern Morocco, western Algeria, Mali and surrounding territories, form a large part of the population of countries in the area of the Western Sahara.

Western Saharan pro-independence groups have utilized the term Sahrawi to give a their movement a nationalist connotation. Morocco controls most of the territory as its Southern Provinces, but the legality of this is not internationally recognized, and is disputed militarily by the Polisario Front.

GEO Magazine Closes NY Office

Photo © GEO. Courtesy PDN

It's a real shame that the German GEO Magazine has closed its New York office effective yesterday. Nadja Masri, GEO's New York bureau chief, and Tina Ahrens, a photo editor in the New York office, both well-known in the photo circles here in NYC, will leave the magazine.

Its office was a regular venue for documentary photographers to show their portfolios, especially as the magazine was known for publishing lengthy photo essays, often devoting 20 pages to a story.

While GEO NY will no longer have a physical presence here, its photo editors in Hamburg will continue to work with U.S. photographers.

Via PDN online.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Multimedia Work: Debates At The Sangha

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

I'm pleased to share a multimedia gallery of new photographs made during my recent Bhutan: Land of the Druk Yul Photo Expedition.

The "Debates At The Sangha" slideshow is of photographs (and audio) of the weekly Buddhist debates at the sangha of the Kharchhu Monastery near Chamkar town, in the very heartland of Bhutan.

The Lhodrak Kharchhu Monastery is a recent addition to the Bhutanese pantheon of monasteries, and its venerated abbot is Namkhai Nyingpo Rinpoche. Over 300 monks and novices live at the monastery, and animated debates are held twice a week to hone the mental skills of the qualified monks.

Most of the debates are held in the open air, and are expressed in Sanskrit through loud vocalization of the various points of view and punctuated by hand slapping for emphasis.