Vivian Maier: Street And Yes, Travel Photographer

Photo © Vivian Maier-All Rights Reserved

Much praise has been deservedly written and said about Vivian Maier, and of her photography. The story of this nanny and her photography has impressed the world, and now she (through the work of John Maloof) has a dedicated website.

Maier’s work was discovered in 2007 by John Maloof at a local thrift auction house on Chicago’s Northwest Side, while researching material for a book on that area of Chicago.

Whilst I knew that Maier's work was principally in street photography, I found out that she undertook trips on her own to Canada in 1951 and 1955, in 1957 to South America, in 1959 to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, in 1960 to Florida, and in 1965 to the Caribbean Islands. Amazingly, she traveled to India (as evidenced by her portraits in Cochin) and to Yemen in 1959.

The website gathers many galleries of her work; street photographs of New York and Chicago, her travel portfolio (Yemen, India, Canada, France, etc).

I have always maintained that there are no amateur photographers....the work of Vivian Maier validates my point of view.

Chhandak Pradhan: The God Makers

Photo © Chhandak Pradhan-All Rights Reserved

Chhandak Pradhan is an editorial photographer and freelance journalist based in Kolkata, who started his career as a reporter at 22. He currently specialises in interviews, editorial, multimedia, documentary, corporate and fashion photography. He is part of Babel Images, an international collective of documentary photographers and is represented by Barcroft Media (UK) and OTN Photos (Italy).

He was selected as a participant in the Angkor Photo Workshop 2009, and assisted Ed Kashi, Jonathan Torgovnik and Cheryl Newman during their workshops in Kolkata. He is also assisting Steve Raymer, former National Geographic magazine staff photographer and Associate Professor of journalism at Indiana University.

His various galleries are mostly editorial, and I feature his lovely The God Makers images documenting the clay artisans of Kumartuli in Kolkata who "bring gods to life" for the Durga puja. I also strongly recommend viewing, among others, his tender Living In Memory, a short photo essay on his grandparents.

It's a great pleasure that Chhandak will join and assist in my Kolkata's Cult of Durga Photo~Expedition & Workshop™.

"Thumbs Up" For Leica M9

I've been slowly getting used to my Leica M9 over the past weeks and I, coming from a line of Canon DSLRs, found its handling to be rather challenging. The Leica M9 is sleek and aesthetically beautiful but it didn't rest in my hand as well as I would've liked. I had to really grasp it well because there's nothing on its body that I could get a grip on...nothing like the hand contour in the Canons for instance.

Poking around the internet, I found that the Leica M9 hand grip was sold at B&H for $250, and poking around even further landed me on Steve Huff's Leica blog and his praise for the ThumbsUp which is a thumbs grip manufactured by Tim Isaac of match Technical Services.

There are a number of styles available for the ThumbsUp thumb grip, and I chose the Thumbs Up EP-1. Receiving a quick response to my inquiry from Tim that he was out of stock but who provided me a list of stockists, I chose PopFlash.Photo in California, and I ordered it on Monday for the grand total of $130.88.

It arrived today! Very well crafted, the Thumbs Up EP-1 fitted perfectly in the Leica's hotshoe, and enormously improved the camera's handling. I feel the M9 is more securely grasped in my hand with it. I look forward to leave it on the M9 as long as I use it.

I have no relationship with either match Technical Services or PopFlash.Photo. I like the EP-1 and its quality, and both companies delivered excellent service.