Eric Kruszewski: Tibet

Eric Kruszewski: Tibet

Eric Kruszewski is a Baltimore-native, who started traveling internationally in 2005. He is drawn to new cultures, faces, practices and daily life. His website features galleries from Tibet, Mongolia, India, Georgia, and closer to home, Alaska and the American West. Spend some time at Eric's Mongolia gallery, which has some nice photographs of the Naadam festival.

The above photograph is of Tibetans prostrating themselves in Lhasa. Prostration is an important expression of Tibetan Buddhism. It's said that Tibetans are expected to prostrate themselves 100,000 times a year. Although they prostrate themselves at temples, some pilgrims cover the entire 33-mile route around Mount Kailas by repeatedly prostrating themselves.

The first time I saw a Buddhist pilgrim prostrating himself in such a way was at the Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu, about 10 years ago. He wore a full-body leather apron, and wooden "clogs" for his hands, and he circumambulated the stupa for as long as I was there.

Christian Bobst: Tibetans In India

Christian Bobst: Tibetans In India

Photo © Christian Bobst - All Rights Reserved

Christian Bobst is a Swiss photographer based in Zürich who originally studied graphic design, and became interested in documentary photography.  While working for advertising agencies, he won several national and international advertising awards.  At this time, he works as a freelance art and creative director as well as a documentary photographer.

Dharamsala, or more accurately Mcleod Ganj, is the home of the Dalai Lama and the exiled Tibetan government. The Tibetan settlement of Dharamsala began in 1959, when the Dalai Lama had to flee Tibet, and was allowed to settle in Upper Dharamsala or McLeod Ganj. It's sometimes known as 'Little Lhasa' after the Tibetan capital city.

Christian's photo gallery of the transplanted Tibetans who live in Dharamsala explores the Tibetans' way of life in this small town in north India in their homes, stores, at the doctor and their places of worship. Even if you've never been to Dharamsala, these photographs will give you an excellent insight on the small Tibet enclave in north India.

The above photograph is a classic street photography gem. The Indian woman in the traditional shalwar kameez eying the passing Tibetan in her own dress.

NPR: Tibet 100 Years Ago

NPR: Tibet 100 Years Ago

Photo Courtesy Bonhams

NPR's The Picture Show recently reported that a part of Tibet's history recorded through old photographs was auctioned in London. The photographs (consisting of 70 platinum prints and 2 folding panoramas) were taken by British political officer John Claude White during a 1903 British mission to Tibet, and were sold for £38,400 (or about $60,000).

I love news like that because it fuses history (military), Asia, adventurism and photography. John Claude White was part of the British expedition led by Francis Younghusband who, under orders from George Curzon, was to settle disputes over the Sikkim-Tibet border. In reality, the expedition was to establish British hegemony in Tibet, and morphed into an invasion and occupation of Tibet. This was one of the many chess pieces in The Great Game between Great Britain and Russia to control Central Asia.

Younghusband is subject of a well-documented biography by Patrick French, titled The Last Imperial Adventurer. A fascinating man (comparable in my view to Sir Richard Francis Burton...another incredible adventurer), Younghusband is said to have experienced revelatory visions in the mountains of Tibet, toyed with telepathy in Kashmir, and eventually espoused a sort of atheism, even though he was brought up as an Evangelical Christian.

I always think photojournalists (especially those who work in Iraq and Afghanistan) to read up on history instead of believing the crap we see on television...they'll have a better grasp of what's still going on. The Last Imperial Adventurer is one of those books.

I know...I may be wasting my breath.

Dani Salva: Tibet's Kham

Dani Salva: Tibet's Kham

Photo © Dani Salva-All Rights Reserved
I can only guess that Dani Salva is a Spanish (possibly Catalan) photographer from his website, but there's no biography that I could find. It's a pity because I am sure that photo editors would like his work (they probably do already) but, except through his blog, he doesn't make it easy to know a little bit of him.

He has quite a few galleries and projects on his website, and while all of them are visually interesting, I can strongly recommend the one on Tibet's Kham, and the one in Bolivia...the Potosi Mines is also another gallery you want to drop by and see how the miners work in this nightmarish environment.

As is evident from the above image from Dani's Tibet's gallery, he's enamored with shadows, and likes contrast. I also liked his Tibetan vertical portraits...simple and effective.

Dani also features a number of photo essays and projects on his website, dealing with wines, olives, pork slaughtering, rice and shepherds.

In The Shadow of Everest At RMA

In The Shadow of Everest At RMA

Photo © Tom Wool-All Rights Reserved
The Rubin Museum of Art in New York City is showing the photographs of Tom Wool in an exhibition In The Shadow of Everest, which runs until July 26, 2010.

Coming from a fashion photography background, Tom Wool has devoted himself to work for humanitarian organizations. Using a medium format Hasselblad, he photographed Tibet's Rongbuk Valley and its inhabitants in May 2001.

The valley stretches about 30 miles from the base of Mount Everest on the north side, and is home to some 3,000 Tibetans. It's considered sacred, with deep religious connotations to the Tibetans. The valley is home to the Rongbuk Monastery, the highest of any in the world at 17,000 feet above sea level.

Jamie Williams: Tibet

Jamie Williams: Tibet

Photo © Jamie Williams-All Rights Reserved
Here's some really terrific imagery of Tibet by photographer Jamie Williams, who's based in Sydney, Australia.

His biography is unfortunately sparse, and apart from dividing his time between photographing editorial and commercial imagery, and pursuing his own personal projects, we know that he won quite a impressive awards to include Honorable Mentions in Prix De La Photographie (Paris), and that he worked with many publications to include Australian Airlines Magazine, In Style, World Expeditions, etc.

There are quite a few of photographs in Jamie's Tibet gallery that I ought to mention; the juxtaposition of the prayer scrolls and the Mani stones images, the Tibetan woman with the prayer wheel in silhouette (above), the woman cradling a baby near a pile of Mani stones, and the woman walking underneath prayer flags in a village...just to mention a few. The gallery consists of 47 images, so you'll need a few minutes to enjoy them. And the photographs are big...really big! The size that photo editors want and like.

His travel galleries also include imagery from Nepal, India, Kashgar, Kyrgyzstan, his native Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Alfredo Bini: Monlan Festival

Alfredo Bini: Monlan Festival

Alfredo Bini has always taken photographs, and found his own personal form of expression in reportage photography. He concentrates on documenting stories of social relevance, and hopes that his images increases public awareness on these issues.

I thought of featuring Alfredo's work of the Monlan festival at the time when China is publicly positioning the Panchen Lama as the legitimate representative of Tibetan Buddhism, and to undermine the popularity of Tibet's exiled leader, the Dalai Lama.

Monlam is also known as The Great Prayer Festival, falls on 4th-11th day of the 1st Tibetan month. It is greatest religious festival in Tibet, when thousands of monks gather to perform religious rituals at the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa.

Alfredo's reportage "Water and Land in Sahel the case of Burkina Faso", won the title of "Runner-Up" in the "Travel Photo Of The Year", run by The Independent and Wanderlust, and has won 2nd place in the IPA Awards (NYC) for the Political category as well as 2 mentions of honor in the Environmental and Feature Story categories.

His Transmigrations reportage has been published as cover story by the Corriere della Sera Magazine and Alias (Il Manifesto), and has also been published by the BBC and Avvenire.

Terri Gold: World Imagery

Terri Gold: World Imagery

Photo © Terri Gold -All Rights Reserved

“I believe images that share our stories can have a positive impact on our world.” - Terri Gold

Terri Gold is an award-winning photographer and artist based in New York City, and has built an impressive reputation for her rituals, rites of passage, festivals, celebrations and portraits from all over the world. Her ongoing personal project “Still Points in a Turning World” focuses on Asia’s vanishing tribal heritage, and has been widely exhibited.

In January 2009, she was chosen as the Lightroom Featured Photographer in Photoshop User Magazine. She has won numerous awards and has been published on book covers for Random House, Penguin Putnam and Henry Holt. She is represented by Picture Arts and Archangel Images and has taught at the Cape Cod Photo Workshops and is a member of ASMP and National Association of Photoshop Professionals.

On her assignments, Terri tells us that she wears up to four cameras around her neck; a digital camera, a digital camera converted to infrared, a XPan with cross-processed film (or B&W), and a Mamiya 7. She also uses a Zero image pinhole camera and a Diana. As can be seen from her websites, she's an expert infrared photographer, worked with polaroid transfers, hand-painting and is a lith printer as well. Terri digitally recreates these techniques.

To see more from this highly accomplished and impressive artist-photographer, Terri's commercial work can be found on Terri Gold Imagery and her travel portfolios on Terri Gold World Imagery.

WSJ: Dalai Lama's Birthday

WSJ: Dalai Lama's Birthday

Photo © Saurabh Das/AP -All Rights Reserved
Another photograph from the must-see WSJ Photo Journal, in which performers wearing traditional ornaments waited to greet the Dalai Lama at a meeting held to celebrate his birthday in New Delhi earlier this week.

The Dalai Lama turned 74, remarking lightheartedly that the prayers being said for him by his followers might help him live at least 100 year. The photograph is by Saurabh Das.

Bhanuwat Jittivuthikarn: Tibetan Smiles

Bhanuwat Jittivuthikarn: Tibetan Smiles

Photo © Bhanuwat Jittivuthikarn-All Rights Reserved
Bhanuwat Jittivuthikarn is an emerging visual artist who works in all cross-disciplines, including photography. He graduated from the School of Creative Art (University of Melbourne) with a combined degree in International Politics. Returning to Thailand in 2006, he joined SNF Sathirakoses-Nagapradipa Foundation, a grassroots empowerment organization in Asia. He worked on community development projects such as the Post-Tsunami Art Project in Thailand, a visual art training in Sri Lanka, documenting life of Tibetan refugee in India, and fund raising for an art project for young novices in Burma.

Between 5-18 January 2009, Bhanuwat traveled to Saranarth in India, to photograph 45 elderly Tibetan refugees, who were meeting the Dalai Lama for the first time in their life. His photographs of smiling and laughing Tibetans are a tribute to the fortitude of the Tibetan people; many of whom have lived in exile for so long.