Chico Sanchez: Andalucian Flamenco

Photo © Chico Sanchez-All Rights Reserved
Here's another lovely audio slideshow by Chico Sanchez, a freelance photographer based in Mexico City. Chico worked in Venezuela, collaborating with Reuters, European Pressphoto Agency, Agencia EFE, and freelances for various newspapers and magazines.

The title of this audio slideshow is The Angel.

This time, Chico documents the spiritual side of Flamenco, whose mystical, almost religious origins, are almost forgotten by the admirers of this genre of music and dance. Chico is well placed to do so...he's a native Andalucian, a musician and was involved in flamenco himself.

I would have loved to see a flip book effect in Chico's work...various shots of a dancer (or singer for that matter)...and arranged in such a way that playing the slideshow would have animated these almost-identical stills.

The well-known flamenco style of music and dance is emblematic to the culture of Spain, although it is actually native to only one region: Andalusia.

Gypsy, Sephardic, and especially Arabic musical influences are found in flamenco. For me, one of the best flamenco singers is Diego Ramón Jiménez Salazar, known as El Cigala, whose album Lagrima Negas fusing Cuban rhythms and flamenco vocals, made it an international success.

Chico Sanchez: Mexican Bullfighting

Photograph © Chico Sanchez-All Rights Reserved
I've featured Chico Sanchez's work on a number of occasions (links below), and he's back on TTP with his SoundSlides slideshow on Mexican Bullfighting. The audio is well chosen, and weaven quite nicely into the slideshow with narrative, ambient sound, etc.

Although the subject matter may offend many who (in my view, justifiably) oppose this gruesome and cruel activity, there's also the consideration that it is a tradition, and part of Mexican history. The Spanish occupation of Mexico led to the rise of bullfighting which is locally known as la fiesta brava.

The justifications for this controversial tradition in some the slideshow's captions are rather puerile but whether we like it or not, it has been one of the most popular "sporting" events in Mexico for the last 400 years

Chico Sanchez is a freelance photographer based in Mexico City. Chico worked in Venezuela, collaborating with Reuters, European Pressphoto Agency, Agencia EFE, and freelances for various newspapers and magazines.

Previous posts of Chico Sanchez's slideshows are (here, here, and here).

Chico Sanchez: Lucha Libre

Photograph Chico Sanchez-All Rights Reserved
It's been a while since I posted a SoundSlides project, so here's Mexican Lucha Libre from Chico Sanchez, a freelance photographer based in Mexico City. Chico worked in Venezuela, collaborating with Reuters, European Pressphoto Agency, Agencia EFE, and freelances for various newspapers and magazines.

The slideshow is sub-titled as the fight between good and evil; a concept which is at the very heart of the Lucha Libre. The luchadores are traditionally divided into two categories, rudos ("bad guys")), who bend or break the rules, and técnicos (the "good guys"), who play by the rules, and whose moves are much more complex and spectacular.

It brings to mind Claudia Wiens' Las Luchadoras project at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Mexico last June.

Previous TTP posts of Chico Sanchez's slideshows are here and here

The Travel Photographer's 2010 Favorite Image Makers (Part 1)

First, let me render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s...this post was suggested by travel photographer Paolo Evangelista. He suggested I ought to post some of my favorite photographers whose work I've featured on this blog over the year....great idea!

So here's the first 5 of the 10 travel and/or documentary photographers (listed in no particular order) whose work was posted on this blog, and whose photographs were my favorites during 2010. The remainder (Part 2) will be posted tomorrow.

As I always say to whoever is interested; deciding which is a visual favorite amongst the hundreds of photographers I've shown here in this blog is a highly subjective and personal choice...nothing more or less. Every single photographer whose work was featured on my blog is worthy of praise and admiration.

I decided against grouping these photographs in a slideshow, so this is going to be a rather vertically long post:

1. Matjaz Krivic:

Photo © Matjaz Krivic-All Rights Reserved

This photograph is part of Matjaz's gallery of the Pir-e Shaliar festival in the Kurdish area of Iran. I posted Matjaz's work here.

2. Raphael Nguyen:

Photo © Raphael Nguyen-All Rights Reserved

This photograph is part of Raphael's gallery of super saturated photographs of Hoi An. I posted Raphael's work here.

3. Chico Sanchez:

Photo © Chico Sanchez-All Rights Reserved

This photograph is part of Chico Sanchez's audio-slideshow of Flamenco dancers. I posed Chico's work here.

4. Jehad Nga:

Photo © Jehad Nga-All Rights Reserved

This photograph is part of Jehad's Turkana exhibit at the Bonni Benrubi Gallery in NYC, and was also included in the Daily Telegraph article on his photographs. I had posted Jehad's work a number of times here.

5. Richard Murai:

Photo © Richard Murai-All Rights Reserved

This photograph is by Richard Murai, who recently won the Travel Photographer of the Year contest in the World in Motion category. I had posted an image by Richard Murai here.

Chico Sanchez: Lady of Guadalupe

Photograph © Chico Sanchez-All Rights Reserved
With the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop starting in Mexico City this coming Monday, I had the good fortune of stumbling on the work of Chico Sanchez, a photojournalist based in Mexico City. He produced a slideshow on the pilgrims visiting the church of the Virgin of Guadalupe, which is one of the projects I intend to work on with some of the students enrolled in my multimedia course.

Chico Sanchez worked in Venezuela, collaborating with Reuters, European Pressphoto Agency, Agencia EFE, and freelancing for various newspapers and magazines.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is known in Mexico as "La Virgen Morena", and her festival day is celebrated on December 12, commemorating her appearances to Saint Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac near Mexico City from December 9 through December 12, 1531. The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City is the second most visited Roman catholic shrine in the world after the Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican.

Chico Sanchez: Virgin of Guadalupe

Image © Chico Sanchez-All Rights Reserved
Another Soundslide-based slideshow from photojournalist Chico Sanchez, who this time documents the Virgin of Guadalupe's annual festival on December 12 in at the main Basilica in Mexico City, and titled The Empress of America.

Not only are the photographs well-chosen, but Chico has seamlessly woven various audio tracks into the slideshow; the ambient sound of a local flute and mini-drum, a couple of interviews, a live mass at the Basilica, organ music and even a mariachi band. A very nice production.

Chico Sanchez: Island of the Dolls

Photo © Chico Sanchez -All Rights Reserved
Here's an audio slideshow on the SoundSlides' platform by photographer Chico Sanchez with the audio production by Leslie Mazoch titled The Island of the Dolls.

The island of the dolls is in the heart of the Xochimilco's canals, and has an unusual history. It is said that since the early 1950's, Julián Santana Barrera began collecting discarded dolls. He lived on this tiny island amongst the canals of Xochimilco and according to his family, these dolls kept evil spirits away.

The 1990s saw a program to clean up the canals, and Mexican style boats called trajineras vied its canals.

I posted quite a number of Chico's slideshows on this blog. One of the lastest was The Virgin of Guadalupe found here.

Chico Sanchez: Chinelos

Photo © Chico Sanchez-All Rights Reserved
Here's another SoundSlides slideshow by photographer Chico Sanchez, featuring the dance of the Chinelos. Chinelos is a traditional dance performed in the state of Morelos, Mexico in which colorfully dressed dancers dance and wave flags accompanied by traditional tunes played by a brass band.

According to Wikipedia, the town of Tepoztlán is known for its chinelos but the dance exists throughout Morelos in towns like Yautepec, Coacalco, Cuautlixco, Atlahuahuacán, Oaxtepec, Jojutla and Totolapan, as well as in certain towns in the state of Puebla.

Many of Chico Sanchez's documentary/travel photography slideshows have been featured on The Travel Photographer blog; latest of which was The Island of Dolls and others.

Chico Sanchez: Day of the Dead

Photograph © Chico Sanchez-All Rights Reserved
Chico Sanchez brings us once again a nicely-done Soundslides feature of the El Dia de Los Muertos from the Mexican towns of Xochimilco and Toluca. He combined a well chosen ambient audio and music to create an interesting soundtrack to his photographs.

The Day of the Dead is a holiday celebrated mainly in Mexico, and focuses on family gatherings and friends to pray for and remember loved ones who have died. The celebration occurs on the 1st and 2nd of November, in connection with the Catholic holy days of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day.

Traditions include building private altars honoring the deceased, using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts. Scholars trace the origins of the Day of the Dead to indigenous observances dating back thousands of years.

Chico Sanchez's other features on The Travel Photographer's blog are Lucha Libre, Lady of Guadalupe and Holy Week.

WTF?! The Entitlement (or The Me Me) Syndrome

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Perhaps fearing I had mellowed, I was prompted by a number of readers to write an acerbic rant, a pontificating diatribe, a raging soliloquy about something and/or stuff that irritated me. I really had an embarrassment of choices...I could've ranted about the tourists who abruptly stop and just gawk on the narrow sidewalks of the West Village...I could've raged about the mindless people who walk while texting on their Blackberries and bump into me...or I could've complained about the combative mothers/nannies who propel their prams/strollers into my shins because I hadn't promptly jumped out of the way when we meet on the same sidewalks....or of course, about the dog owners who encourage their best friends to take gargantuan dumps near my building but don't clean after them; perhaps hoping that the unobservant step on it.

But these are small annoyances that are part and parcel with living in New York city, and are undeserving of a monumental rant...and also have nothing to do with photography.

No, my plump and juicy rant is on a misplaced sense of entitlement that some established photographers seem to have.

Let me begin with this preamble....I've started The Travel Photographer's blog four years ago, and since then, it attracted a healthy number of readers and visitors. It established itself as a blog to read amongst a certain segment of the photography industry, and earned me the attention of many photographers (pros, semi-pros and non pros),  photo retailers and industry experts.

It's no secret that I use this blog to publicize my photography and my photo~expeditions, however I mainly use it to give exposure to emerging photographers. Like me when I started some 10-12 years ago, these emerging photographers, especially if they're not Westerners, have a difficult time getting recognition for their work, especially in the environment we find ourselves in.

I knew no one in the photo industry when I started my photography...I knew very few photographers when I started The Travel Photographer's blog...and I started The Travel Photographer's Photo~Expeditions on a whim, not really knowing what I was getting myself into. To this day, I never asked a photographer or photojournalist for help in promoting my business....I never asked any of the hundreds of the participants who joined my photo~expeditions to refer my trips to their friends, family members, etc. I never uttered/wrote the words "if you know a friend or two who's interested in my trips or my photos, pass my name/website along". All I've done is slowly build the brand brick by brick.

I have no sense of entitlement...I am not entitled to anything...I do my own thing without burdening people with requests for introductions, for referrals, for links to my website/blog on others', for freebies, etc. With the exception of being part of the terrific Foundry Photojournalism Workshop "family", I haven't joined collectives...I haven't joined pseudo-clubs. I could have...but didn't. I am perfectly content with what I am doing and achieved so far.

It's perhaps because of this that I find the attitude of a few photojournalists-photographers to be really puzzling. They ask me to feature their work on The Travel Photographer blog...which I gladly do. Then they ask again...and again. And I do and do again. But then it hit me...why do they think it's okay to ask me to feature their work, to spread the word about their photo workshops and their inflated resumes...but have no intention of ever reciprocating that courtesy in any fashion? Is it because they have an overdeveloped sense of entitlement, a narcissistic personality disorder? Is it because they think they're doing me a favor? Is that what they think 'networking' is? I just don't get it.

Let me be very clear...the likes of John Stanmeyer, Gary Knight, Ron Haviv, Phil Borges, Maggie Steber, etc are the most gracious photographers I've come across (and none of them asked me for anything)....and I've had immense pleasure to showcase their incredible work whenever I come across it, and to learn from it....and I'm happy to continue doing so.  Many photographers (Chico Sanchez is one of those) are equally generous with links and coverage of my work on their own websites and blogs, and many others are appreciative of being featured on my blog. No, this is about a few others...some I met personally and others I didn't...who seem to think that I am somehow obliged to show their work, expected to praise it, and publicize their workshops/activities. This sense of obtuse entitlement drives me bonkers.

I repeat: I Am Not Obliged To Feature Your Work And Your Photo Workshops Because You Think I Ought To.

What I mostly do on this blog is publicize and give exposure to the work of emerging photographers...some of whom are in Bangladesh, India, Egypt, Indonesia, Palestine, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, etc....it's the work of those photographers that I care about, and what my readers appear to be interested in. And if I do feature the work of established and renowned photographers and/or photojournalists, once, twice or a million times, it's because I'm impressed by it.

Capice? Good...now let's move on.

End of rant.