Wendy Marijnissen: A Year In Pakistan

Based in Antwerp, Wendy Marijnissen is a freelance documentary photographer from Belgium, who has a career in looking for, and reporting on, stories with a social context. She completed a long term reportage in Israel and Palestine, using music to show a different part of daily life in this stressful and violent region. She's currently working on a new project about childbirth and maternal mortality in Pakistan, of which some of her compelling photographs can be seen in the above movie.

Another of Wendy's compelling photo essays is on the dai. A dai (or dayah in Arabic) is a traditional midwife or birth attendant in the Middle East, and Pakistan. Midwifery skills are usually passed on from generation to generation and most practitioners have had no formal training.

The unhygienic conditions in which the dai work, their lack of education and the delayed referral to hospitals in case of complications are the major cause for the high maternal mortality rate in Pakistan.

Samih Güven: India & More

Photo © Samih Güven-All Rights Reserved

Samih Güven is a Turkish photographer currently residing in Paris. Despite degrees in political sciences and Turkish language/Oriental civilizations, he practiced photography for over 20 years. His recent voyage to Asia is encouraging him to become a professional photographer, and to take up formal training in photojournalism.

He is also a founder member of a French collective called Phrawup.

Take a look at his India color portfolio from which the above photograph is taken, as well as those of Burma, China and Nepal to name but a few. His galleries are both in color, and black & white.

POV: Photo-Workshops Are Useful, But....

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Scott Bourne, who publishes and writes Photofocus since 1998, has posted an article on photo workshops titled Don't Listen To The Trolls in which he encourages people to attend workshops led by photographers who have work they find inspiring...an encouragement that is both reasonable and logical.

However, let's take this a step or two further because, simply put, there are photographers who market their workshops (and there are many these days) whose work may be phenomenally beautiful and inspiring, but who are unable to lead, who can't/won't teach and are unable/unwilling to share. It's simply not enough that the photographer's work is good...not at all. There are many more factors that come to play in one's decision in choosing a photo workshop.

Obviously, the price of the workshop is one of the first determinants. Celebrity photographers command a hefty premium, and while some are worth it, others are not. In the case of travel photography workshop, I've come across workshops of 10 days starting at $8000, excluding international travel costs and meals. Knowing full well that the real costs of these workshops are in the range of $2000-2500 tells me that the profit margins for such photographers may be in the $5000-6000 range...per participant.

Many believe (or hope) that taking part in such high-priced workshops is worth the price because of the technical knowledge acquired; because of the bragging rights from rubbing shoulders with the famous photographers, and because the quality of their "during and after workshop" image inventory will justify the expenditure.

Maybe. Maybe not.

On the other hand, let's be cautious and do our homework (what bankers and business people call due diligence) by eliminating as many uncertainties as possible before shelling out thousands of dollars. Ask for references and opinions from previous attendees, compare workshops' details to one another, compare itineraries if these are travel photography workshops, ask who really leads the workshop: the photographer or assistants (trust me...the higher up the totem pole the photographer is the more assistants there will be...and the less you'll see of the photographer), figure out how much individual face time the participants will have with the photographer, who responds to your email and/or calls, who created the itinerary if it's a travel photography workshop, is it in a well-trodden tourist circuit or it an off-the-beaten path itinerary, how many participants in the workshop...and lastly what percentage of clients are repeaters.  And let's throw this in as well: if the workshop is marketed by a company because the hot-shot photographer is too busy to do it, that company will get a big bite off the price tag....and naturally you end up paying for it.

Personally, if I wanted to go on a workshop I'd rather go with a grunt...not a celebrity/famous photographer. I'd want to be taught rather than patronized...I wouldn't like being palmed off to an assistant nor do I want to be intimidated. I'd rather be given a candid assessment of my abilities and limitations in plain simple English rather than in a mealy-mouthed babble ....and finally, I want to enjoy myself.

But that's me.

(Photograph made at the Wangdicholing Monastery, Jakar, Bhutan)

Next Week On The Travel Photographer

For the week starting Monday November 8,  the following posts are in the pipeline (not in this order though):

1. A photographer's mini-portfolio of black & white images of the Durga Puja in Kolkata.
2. A wonderful multimedia essay of Tango in Buenos Aires.
3. A The Travel Photographer Point Of View on photo workshops. which may raise hackles (aka piss off people) as my POVs are designed to do...we'll see.
5. A multimedia project on the Day of The Dead...Filipino-style.
6.  Magnum's new Fund for emerging photographers.

PS. Don't you just hate this winter time fall-back?? Daylight Savings Time just sucks.

Book: 'To Cambodia With Love' Is Now Available

Finally! To Cambodia With Love,  the book with my photographs of Siem Reap and its environs has been published. It's available from a long list of booksellers all over the world.

It's described on Amazon as "From a tarantula brunch in the remote Cambodian countryside to a leisurely cyclo ride through the streets of Phnom Penh, To Cambodia With Love is a true collaboration, containing personal essays by more than fifty writers. Among them you will find Angkor Wat expert Dawn Rooney, acclaimed memoirist Loung Ung (First They Killed My Father), and Lonely Planet’s in-the-know Nick Ray. Each essay is paired with a practical fact file so that travelers can follow in the writer’s footsteps. In addition, the book is illustrated with vibrant, full-color photographs."

I am hugely chuffed that a book with my vibrant, full-color photographs is on major booksellers' websites, even if my name is misspelled. It's correctly spelled on the book's cover, which is all I care about. What's a Twefic from Tewfic? Just a W that doesn't know where it ought to be.

I hope readers of The Travel Photographer blog interested in Cambodia will buy this book. If I get free copies, I will come up with a contest of some sort and give away copies to winners.