Tewfic El-Sawy | Interview | Langly

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy - All Rights Reserved

"I’ve visited India over twenty times over the past 16 years, and every time I visit I discover a new layer. Discovering India is like peeling an onion, one layer at a time reveals another layer, and there are probably millions of layers." 

I was recently interviewed by a staff member of Langly; a manufacturer of camera bags started by Evan Lane, a working photographer and director based out of Los Angeles. The camera bags are said to have been inspired by the life of the freelance photographer, nomadic professionals looking for something to protect their gear and look good doing it.

You can read the full text of the interview here.

I gather the Langly people saw my Exposure website, and liked what they saw...especially the photo essay on the Northwest India, and suggested an India-centric interview.

Langly camera bags was funded through a Kickstarter campaign, and successfully raised $88,000 from the public in summer of 2012. Although Langly bags appear to be fine products, I was not asked to endorse them nor was it suggested that I get remunerated in any way for this interview to appear on its website.

The photograph on this post of this unblinking girl is probably one of my many favorites of India. These three girls were part of a nomadic family in the Rann of Kutch, and sold tribal jewelry. 

Northwest India | Tewfic El-Sawy

I've recently published Northwest India on the Exposure platform, with some of the photographs I made during one of my photo expeditions-workshops in a corner of northwest India; a region that is rife with tribal communities.

The Dungarpur-Poshina- Baneshwar-Bhuj region of Southern Rajasthan and of Gujarat‘s Rann of Kutch is sufficiently distant from the mainstream tourist circuit that compelling photographs and great photo-opportunities can be made in the small rural villages scattered in that geographical quadrangle.

I've chosen to feature portraits more than anything else in this gallery; portraits of members of tribal communities such as the Bhils, Banjara,  Gowdia and Garacia, and Rabaris.

I've also chosen to process the digital images using Nik Collection's Analog Efex Pro 2 filters, which gave them an analog look.

The photographs I made in the tiny village of Madhwa (midway between Bhuj and Bhachau) are those that stayed with me the most. The village is home to charcoal makers, living in abject poverty and were rather reclusive... however, when seeing cameras the women of the village quickly changed into their finest and cleanest, and stood with the poise of experienced models the minute when lenses were pointed their way.  Handsome people, with beautiful dark eyes...and yet dealt the harshest of cards in the desolate shrubs of the Kutch.

Khari Baoli | Exposure | Leica M9

I've just published Khari Baoli on the Exposure platform, using a post processing workflow on the photographs by combining Alien Skin Exposure 6 and Color Efex Pro 4. The photographs were made with a Leica M9 with an Elmarit 28mm 2.8.

Old Delhi's Khari Baoli is the largest wholesale spice market of Asia, but it's the small and medieval-looking Gadodia Market that is the subject of this gallery. This small circular courtyard is perpetually crowded with traders, and wholesalers looking for the best and cheapest spices, such as turmeric, ginger, saffron, and pepper. Few people can enter the area without sneezing, coughing and tearing up. The laborers who load the heavy sacks of turmeric and ginger seem immune to the pungent smells that assail the senses.

The market is also up on the first floor, but the dark stairs are sometimes slippery with phlegm spat by the laborers and porters who continually walk up and down carrying the heavy sacks of spices.

The larger Khari Baoli market was established at the time when Fatehpuri Masjid was built in 1650 with the patronage of Fatehpuri Begum, who was one of the wives of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan.

As a footnote; my Leica M9 is not artificially weathered. It's weathered for real. See my previous post  regarding the newly announced Leica.

The Vedic Disciples | "Wet Plate" | Exposure

I've just published The Vedic Disciples on the Exposure platform, using a digital wet plate preset to give the monochromatic photographs an ancient appearance which befits the location.

The photographs (originally in color) were made at the Vadakke Madham Brahmaswam Vedic Institute in Thrissur, and is of the activities at an ancient Vedic 'gurukul' (or training/boarding school; very similar to the Buddhist monasteries for novitiates), where the young students follow this way of teaching sacred Vedic scriptures.

There are four Vedas: Rig Veda, Atharva Veda, Sama Veda and Yajur Veda. The Vedas include more than 100,000 verses and additional prose.

It is an ancient Indian educational system; currently being rejuvenated with the assistance of the Indian government. The young boys who populate the Vedic school belong to a caste of Keralan Brahmins, and 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...and how Jewish worshipers sway during their prayers. 

The tradition of Vedic chanting is often considered the oldest unbroken oral tradition in existence, while the Vedic texts date to roughly the time of Homer. It is said that the Vedas -as they are called- are a vast collection of hymns that were heard by ancient Indian sages when they were in a deep meditative state.