Jake Marsico - Blue Tram (detail)

Jake Marsico just wrote in to let us know about his new project “Blue Tram.” The pictures are interesting, and the presentation is especially worth a look. It reminds me a bit of some long photos we’ve featured previously. I asked Jake a bit about the photos and the project.

Jake Marsico: The Alexandria tram system runs the length of this city and is used extensively by the middle and lower classes. I’ve been living in/visiting Alexandria for the past four years and it has become one of my favorite cities on earth. Unlike Cairo, Alexandria is extremely laid back, especially during the winter (I’m guessing the constant sea breeze helps calm people’s nerves).

As for choosing the tram, i feel like it’s a good representation of the city as a whole; it has resisted change (still only about 5 cents a ride) and it’s in a state of a constant, but elegant decay. Most of all, it’s a window into the communal nature of alexandrians: this is a city that lives on the streets – everyone seems to know each other, even when they’ve just met. Unlike the States, it’s perfectly acceptable for an old man to sit next to you and rest his hand on your leg as a father would, and talk to you. There’s one frame in here that i particularly like, it’s of an old man speaking to a younger guy. It looks like a great story and the younger guy seems to be enjoying it greatly.

dvafoto: Why shoot it this way?
Jake Marsico: I had been experimenting with different ways to shoot the tram – from different angles, with natural light, with strobes. I ended up shooting this way for two reasons, for one it was the easiest way to be consistent: straight on, set up the camera and light and just wait for trams to pass. The other reason is that i wanted to present the tram in a unique way online. I’ve been in the process of learning basic html coding and i’ve seen horizontal scrolling before on several of my favorite photo websites, i thought this would be a great way to utilize horizontal scrolling in a unique way. I also like the dirty effect you get when using strobe on moving subjects.

In the end, it’s about getting a shot of someone in their most natural state. Alexandrians are so hospitable that natural, unintrusive street photography is nearly impossible. If they notice a camera is pointing at them, they’ll almost inevitably look straight at the camera and smile, then invite you for tea. It’s such a warm gesture but makes for boring, unnatural photos. These images also show the city’s residents in a rare down time between work life and home life. Most of them are just staring out the window, deep in thought.

Amsterdam’s Foam Photography Museum announced this week that Alexander Gronsky has won their Paul Huf Award for 2010. I’ve heard his name before but this is the first time that I’ve really seen his work. Its spectacular.

(c) Alexander Gronsky

A friend of mine recently sent this Guardian article on World Press-winning photos of a stoning in Somalia to me. It starts off with a typical Sontag quote, but it’s worth a read. I’m not sure if Colberg’s excellent recent post (on the recently-redesigned Conscientious) Why We Must See is a direct response to the Guardian piece (it does mention the photos in question), but it might as well be:

To say that we want to read, but not see… That just seems like an easy way out. Seeing is not the same as reading. What I read about I can file away, because it is being processed while I take it in. What I see – there is a lot of processing, but there also is the unbearable immediacy. -Jörg M. Colberg, “Why We Must See”

Rob Haggart at APhotoEditor.com has been on a roll lately: Ask Anything – Does a photographer need a rep and do they really get you work?, The Value Of A News Photograph, Ask Anything – Should You Tell Your Clients If You Are Pregnant Or Have A Life Threatening Illness?, the editorial staff’s perspective on Negotiating The Editorial Contract, Ask Anything – How Do You Get Started Photographing Fashion?, Photographers- How To Deal With Infringements, a survey of Commercial Photographer Income, Ad Agency Guide To Photography Usage Terms, Ask Anything – Should Photographers be Unionized?, Ask Anything With Amanda And Suzanne – How Not To Blow The Face To Face Meeting, Ask anything with Amanda and Suzanne – How Much Money Do Commercial Photographers Make?, and especially the most recent post, Stop Accepting $200 Assignments. All well worth a read, discussion in the comments usually is worth a look, too.

The NYT Lens Blog posted today some of the only unembedded conflict photography from Iraq or Afghanistan that I can remember seeing in awhile (can you think of other examples? send them my way). Moises Saman was on assignment for the New York Times in the town of Marja in the aftermath of a recent offensive. It is strong work and provides something of a different view of the conflict there, though quite a few images do feature soldiers in the field. The perspective though, as the photographer is not working with them, is an interesting wrinkle and Saman explains how he got some of the images in the accompanying text.

This piece on Lens is a nice counterpoint to a piece published a few days ago with NYT Photographer Tyler Hicks who was embedded with a US unit which was conducting the operation/offensive in the same town days before Saman arrived. I think it is great that there are two angles on the same story by the same publication, especially from the perspective of being with and outside the military. I hope to see more, especially from the ‘outside’ perspective. I wonder how they played off of each other in the actual editions (online and print) of the paper. Again, anyone know?

The Copyright Corner

I haven’t gotten a chance to look through the site too much, but it looks like The Copyright Corner will be a useful resource. From the site:

As an artist or designer, you are passionate and serious about your work. You should be just as serious about learning about copyright, because copyright allows you to protect your work, or to share it with others, if that is your preference. This site, dedicated to the creative spirit, aims to be a source of accurate information, and a corner for debate and dialogue about copyright and other important intellectual property issues.

File this next to Stanford’s Copyright and Fair Use Information Center, Carolyn E. Wright’s Photo Attorney blog (and see her recent guest post at A Photo Editor on dealing with infringements), The Copyright Zone, and Matt Slaby’s Legal Left, Meet Creative Right column.

SW!PE Magazine is created by and features the work of former and active guards at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Favorite Jason Eskenazi is one of the founders of the project and gives word that The New York Times has published an article about the magazine’s first issue and opening exhibition. Check out the article for more background and a nice gallery of various works that are featured in the magazine. You can buy a copy of the first issue “Guards’ Matter”, which sold out at the opening, through their website.

“In September, the Robert Frank photography exhibit “The Americans” came to the museum and Mr. Eskenazi requested a transfer to its gallery. “Being inside that maze of photos was like a meditation,” he said, adding “but a torture knowing that I should not be here guarding art but making it. ” In November, he left to concentrate on his art.”

Another great example of artists (and workers, as they point out) taking matters in to their own hands and getting their work out there and in the form they want. Congrats to everyone involved in this project, I hope to see a copy of the magazine sometime soon.

And speaking of Eskenazi you should have a look at this gallery of his work and writing at globalpost.com if you haven’t already.

We’ve mentioned photographer Rob Hornstra and his unorthodox and perhaps revolutionary ideas on funding his book projects before. He is currently working on a project about Sochi, Russia and the run-up to the next Winter Olympics, funding the trips via crowd-sourced donations (see link for more info). He discusses his ideas and methods about funding his own project on the New York Photo Festival’s website, and its a nice thing to hear. Inspiring.

Page from Rob Hornstra and Arnold van Bruggen's promo for The Sochi Project

I’ve written before about Carolyn Drake and her work about water issues in Central Asia, but Pete Brook on his auxiliary blog Photography Prison just pointed me to a new narrated slideshow Drake has done for Orion Magazine. Have a look at “Return to the Center of the World: Following two storied rivers through Central Asia”

(c) Carolyn Drake

In America’s mass consciousness, Central Asia has transformed from being part of a powerful communist Cold War enemy into a place where the threat of Islamic extremism is imminent—all within the short span of my adult lifetime. Amid the clutter of preformed judgments that surface during the course of this work, it is always a comfort to return to the rivers. No matter how many different names they have been given, or empires have ruled them, or canals have been made from them, I can still see the rivers. Traveling along them offers the closest thing to truth that I can find.

We welcome you to have a look at Indian photo agency Trikaya, who been in touch with us to display some fine work from the subcontinent. “Trikaya Photos was founded in the year 2007 in Chennai, India, as a platform for photographers to express their individual vision in a journalistic way. This agency functions like a cooperative. It’s an association of photographers who have the liberty of choosing their subjects and the way of approaching them.” (link)
M. Scott asks a few questions and Nancy Boissel Cormier from Trikaya answers.

Rollover for navigation

Day of Ashura, Bangladesh, 2009. Copyright Adnan Wahid / Trikaya Photos.

A Karen villager. Hunting wildlife for food is part of the daily routine. Along the Thai-burmese border, 2009. Copyright Olivier Sarbil / Trikaya Photos.

Kashmiri police and CRPF throw stones at local youths in Maisuma area, following the disappearance of Asrar Mushtaq Dar, Srinagar, Kashmir, India, 2009. 
Copyright Yannick Cormier/Trikaya Photos.

Jallikattu is the South Indian version of the taming/running of the bull. It is held in the villages of Tamilnadu on the eve of Pongal (Harvest) festival. 
Almost five hundred bulls are participant in this event; an agitated bull is set to run in an open space. Several unarmed people, try to tame it and reach the boundary by controlling its horns with bare hands where Currency & Silver Coins is generally tied to the horns of the bull. India, 2006. Copyright Senthil Kumaran / Trikaya Photos.

The tiny non-descript South Indian village of Kulasekarapattinam wakes up to the world of colour and noise during the ten-day Dasara festival. More than a million people converge in this coastal temple-town to celebrate the triumph of good over evil. Dasara Festival, 2009. Copyright N.Jaisingh/Trikaya Photos.

TRIKAYA means three body or three dimension. We choose this name because the first idea was that the third dimension is the dimension of reality, which we try to catch through photography. It is also the union of three photographers who desire to create a cooperative in India.

dvafoto: How did Trikaya start? Why did it start?

Trikaya in an history of meeting between a French and two Indian photographers in 2005. They were travelling together to catch stories about Indian festivals of different faiths. They made an exhibition together in Chennai, and decided to formalize their work trough an agency. This project resulted in 2007. They decided to create this agency to show their work without any concession.

dvafoto: What makes Trikaya different?

Trikaya is the first cooperative of photographers which was created in India. Generally the Indian photographers are affiliated to magazines or are independents. It is the first structure in India which allows photographers to choose their subjects, without relying on the editorial line of the Indian press or international big agencies.
The photographers of Trikaya are also able to show rare festivals and rituals which are disappearing in India and which were not previously photographed as we know. Trikaya is also the only author’s agency which is present in India and which can be contacted for assignments by the international press.

dvafoto: Where is Trikaya’s work being published? Do you have any luck getting your work in front of editors in New York, etc.?

This is the beginning of the story. Trikaya has being published for example in Ojodepez, and some on-line photo magazines like 100 Eyes. Trikaya made the bet to be published in the international press, but this takes time and Trikaya has experienced the crisis of the press like any other agency.

dvafoto: Historically, international photography has been European and American photographers going out into the rest of the world. Lately, there’s been a shift toward local photographers, both for wire work (AP, Reuters) and for freelance work. Do you see that shift? Has Trikaya benefited from that shift?

Trikaya hasn’t benefited from that shift yet, but this agency was also created in relation to this movement while retaining his own artistic integrity: magazines can contact the agency directly for orders in India, Bangladesh and Thailand as our photographers and structure are there.

dvafoto: Are you able to get assignment fees and dayrates comparable to what foreign photographers get?

As Trikaya is based in India, we are able to to get assignment fees and dayrates at a lower cost for magazines. It makes us competitive without breaking market prices

dvafoto: How is the local market? Is there a culture of photojournalism and documentary work in the Indian market?

The local market is changing because of the internet. As everything is being transformed we do not know what leads us for the rights and the survival of photographers. We are in a economy of globalisation and everything is standardized. But photographer’s profession remains extremely precarious in India.
Of course, there is a culture of photo journalism in India even if it is recent, but the problem it is the support and the rights of the photographer. There is no structure (competition, scholarships, local agencies) to help them.
There is also a new wave of talented photographers in Bangladesh and in India who appeared these last years.

dvafoto: What other photographers/magazines/blogs/agencies/etc. from India should we know about, especially those producing and publishing great photography?

The magazine Tehelka has a good editorial and a great quality and rigour in the writing and the stories. Some well known photographers like the Magnum correspondent in India Raghu Rai and the new generation of photographers as Sohrab Hura and Zishaan Latif that we like.

dvafoto: What stories has Trikaya covered that the international media should be paying attention to?

The story about Kashmir, and all the stories about the festivals which are put in danger of disappearance in modern India. At present Senthil Kumaran is making a work on the Tamil refugees of Sri Lanka in the South of India. Trikaya welcomes also these days Olivier Sarbil, based in Thailand, who makes a work about the Karen resistance in Burma, and who works at present on the insurgents in the South of Thailand.

The new team of Trikaya Photos in 2010 consists in the team of 5 photographers :
Yannick Cormier, India
N. Jaisingh, India
Senthil Kumaran, India
Adnan Wahid, Bangladesh
Olivier Sarbil, Thailand