Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Jørgen Johanson: Kham & Amdo (Tibet)

Photo © Jørgen Johanson -All Rights Reserved

Jørgen Johanson went on his first trip to Asia in 1982, and completed the Annapurna circuit in Nepal. He was hooked from that moment on travel, photography and on Asian cultures.

He's a software development engineer for companies Norwegian companies, and recently took a 2-3 years sabbatical just to travel. Most of his travel has been trips to Asia, but also made some trips to Africa, where he photographed in Ethiopia and Niger. He's also enamored of India and China...but it's the Tibetan culture and the Himalayas that really fascinate him.

Take a look at Jørgen's Kham & Amdo photo galleries (he's got two on his website), and explore the other galleries which include Myanmar (some good shots of the fishermen of Lake Inle) and Bhutan (stop by the lovely photograph of Wangdi Phodrang Dzong in the mist).

Jørgen also self-published a book "Kham And Amdo" which is available on Blurb, which you can preview in its entirety.

Nguyen Thanh Hai: Hanoi

Photo © Nguyen Thanh Hai -All Rights Reserved

Nguyen Thanh Hai is known as Maika Elan, and is a young Vietnamese freelance photographer based in Hanoi whose work is just delightful.

Maika was a selected participant in the Creative Economies workshop at the Asia Europe Forum for Young Photographers in Malaysia, and at the 2010 photojournalism workshop with the Indochina Media Memorial Foundation (IMMF), where she received awards for the best photo essay and best single photograph.

I was initially drawn to her gallery of classical drama, and then to her photographs of Inside Hanoi...which I strongly encourage you to peruse. Maika's sense of color and compositional skills will impress you. I also urge you to visit her Lomography section, which she lets her color affinity loose.

In my view, Maika has an extremely bright future in photography.