Daniel Berehulak: Holi

Photo © Daniel Berehulak-All Rights Reserved

Daniel Berehulak documented the kaleidoscopic Indian festival of Holi in the holy city of Vrindavan in February 2010, and the power of his photographs in terms of composition and color is enhanced by his website...large colorful photographs; who can resist?! His photographs are a feast for the eyes, especially to those who love pink!

Many of his photographs were made in the streets of Vrindavan, and in the temple of Bankey Bihari which is virtually subsumed in colored powder thrown by the devotees and the revelers. Holi is the Hindu festival of color, and Vrindavan is especially famous for its observance of the festival since it's said that Krishna celebrated Holi with his consort Radha there.

You can also see Daniel's photographs on The Frame.

Daniel Berehulak is an Australian photographer, who initiated his photographic career in 2000. He started working for Getty Images in 2002 as a sports photographer. In 2005, he assumed a staff position for Getty Images as a news photographer based in London. He's currently based in Delhi, covering South Asia and beyond. Apart from many awards, Daniel's work was featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, The Guardian and other publications.

Joey Lawrence: Omo Valley Portraits

Photo © Joey Lawrence-All Rights Reserved

There's no question that Joey Lawrence (aka Joey L) is one heck of a photographer...travel photographer, ethno-photographer and portrait photographer as well. He recently added more photographs of Lower Omo Valley tribes to his blog that are breathtaking in their simplicity.

These are different than what we come to expect to see from Joey, who had accustomed us to environmental portraits of endangered tribes people, whether in Ethiopia or Indonesia. This latest crop of incredibly beautiful photographs have been posed, and the subjects set against a simple black background. According to Joey, these will be part of a fine art book with all his work from the Omo Valley.

The tribes depicted in this series are the Karo, the Nyangatom, the Mursi, the Daasanac. the Hamer and the Arbore.

Joey used a PhaseOne/Mamiya 646 with a 80mm prime lens, a light setup and a collapsible reflector.  The combination of the medium format and the lighting technique produced these remarkable results. 

The Coptic Man on "Tiananmen Square"?

Photo © Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters

A photograph by Amr Abdallah Dalsh, a Reuters photographer, stopped me in my tracks. It shows an Egyptian young man (presumably a Christian Copt) menacing or hurling a piece of iron at the cowering Egyptian police. This came about as a consequence of the heinous bombing of a Coptic church in Alexandria on New Year's Eve which killed 23 and injured 100.

Egypt is still reeling from the violence, and its government has quickly blamed external Islamist terrorism, promising to bring the perpetrators to justice.  I'm not holding my breath on that eventuality, and neither are the Copts, who have been subject to discrimination at all levels in their very own country.

High on the Copts' grievance list is Egypt's policy to make it extremely difficult for them to build churches.  The country's prime minister recently rejected demands for Copts to be free to build churches, claiming that the government will make sure that there are enough worship places for both Muslims and Christians. A joke.

And this is one of our so-called stalwart allies in the Middle East. Another joke.

But let's go back to the photograph for a minute. A half-naked man confronting a phalanx of well armed, well protected security forces...and seemingly single-highhandedly making them cower like rats. This is truly an example of a picture being worth a thousand words.

Photograph courtesy Reuters Full Focus Blog