Whether it is writing, photography or artwork, the act of revealing, of stripping away to the very core of a human being or culture can be a violent process. Indeed, some cultures around the world rightfully fear that their soul is being robbed when a camera's lens is focused on them. Compounding this is the use and tone of our language to describe the photographic process. We “shoot” pictures. Then there is the “snap-shot,” or this one – “shooting from the hip,” as if our cameras were six-shooters slung in a pair of holsters.

In Bullet Dodger, I described photojournalist – turned artist – Luc Delahye's work as epic. In Vision of Peace?, I published photojournalist Harikrishna's take on war photography. In his comments to Emerging Photog, he summarily called all war photography as pornographic. I am not sure if that makes all war photographers pornographers, but that pornography is a form of violence is a well-known fact. Perhaps he means that the resulting images from a war are simply consumed by us with sadistic pleasure?

Thanks to Joerg Colberg's blog – Conscientious – I read how Paul Roylance at Melancholy Rhino really goes after Luc Delahye's “epic” work and recent exhibition. In his critique, he says:

“all war photographers are naïve, in the sense that naïveté is a precondition of heroism, and all war photographers are either cast in or aspire to the heroic mould, but most, consequently, are unwitting commercial if not political stooges.”

Remembering Hari's comments, I sent him the link to Paul's post and he promptly asked me to check out an interview on The Brooklyn Rail with David Levi Strauss. While Melancholy Rhino is appalled and very critical of how images from war have become a commodity (under the pretense of art), the Strauss interview is concerned with issues of representation and propaganda during war time.

I am also in the midst of reading Susan Sontag‘s article Looking At War: Photography's view of devastation and death, in the December 9, 2002 issue of The New Yorker.

I am tempted to post this well after I have munched on all of this heavy reading. But let me put this out there. Comments welcome. If you have other readings or interpretations of war photography, please chime in.

The New York Times today, via Agence France Presse reported this:

DHARMSALA, India, Feb. 11 — Indian police beat back a group of 80 Tibetans Wednesday as they started a monthlong march through India to commemorate the day in 1959 when Chinese troops broke up demonstrations in Lhasa set off by rumors about risks to the Dalai Lama.

The police failed to stop the march when it set off from Macleodganj, where the Dalai Lama lives, but beat back the group with sticks after they continued two miles to Dharmsala.

The march, which organizers said would restart Thursday, is due to culminate in New Delhi on March 10.

Beating back a peaceful march. Ironic ain't it in the land of Mahatma Gandhi?

Speaking of Tibet, yesterday I came across The Tibetan Photo Project.

All images are Copyright 2003, Joe Mickey and the Tibetan Photo Project and may not be published without permission.

Photographer and coordinator of the project, Joe Mickey writes:

I have been a photographer for over 30 years and I immediately began to package up point-and-shoot cameras and added the basics rules of good photography to my letters. From Jam Yang Norbu I learned that the camera was a new concept for Tibetans dedicated to rebuilding and preserving their culture.

The first roll of photos was processed in India and I received a set of prints. From the start, Jam Yang Norbu and his friends paid great attention to the basic lessons in photography and produced a series of well-lit but posed images.

On the receiving end, this was still, nothing less than a magic view into another world. More importantly, the view was not being provided by an outsider looking in through a lens and preconceived notions. I was being given the vantage point from the inside.

I immediately sent a small flood of cameras and film and in correspondence we discussed how photography could be used as a tool in their efforts to preserve Tibetan culture if he could record his friends living that culture on film. Again, the monks have paid very good attention and I have been given the gift of rare glimpses into the lives of some of the 2,500 monks of the Drepung Monastery.

What has been revealed in the photos and the letters is a dedicated group of men living and struggling and very often laughing through lives that have very few needs or desires. They work with complete dedication to preserve the best of Tibetan culture.

As the Image Editor of InTheFray.com, I have to tell you about a wonderful black & white photo essay that has just been published. Jennifer Warren, a photographer and Tara Plochocki, Program Coordinator and Assistant Professor for Emory University's Tibetan Studies Program in Dharamsala, India put together a photo essay shot by exiled Tibetans. The 9-10-3 project, as it is called give us a somewhat stark look at a people robbed of their land but not their identity.

From the introduction to the project:

“The stains and scars of the past are covered up by brightly colored prayer flags, and relegated to pieces of literature that the tourists pick up, skim, and shake their head in disbelief upon completion. There are a number of places where the memories ooze out in a somewhat unmarketable way, but for the most part, Dharamsala triumphantly celebrates the Tibetan culture while swaddling the dehumanizing memories in the folds of their robes and tucks of their chubas.”

Via Om Malik

“Well its like ClassMates.com, only for Indians. I like Indians Reunited, especially now that I am in my inching towards what is called middle age in India.”

This should be interesting. Anyone out there who went to school in Madras in the 1970's – Padma Seshadri, Krishnamurthi Foundation's The School or Jawahar Vidyalaya?

Man, I just dated myself. Sigh!

Julia Dean is a dynamic photojournalist and teacher based in Los Angeles, California. Apart from being the driving force behind the Child Labor Photo Project, she also conducts workshops around the world. The most recent workshops have been in Guatemala, Paris and Budapest.

While most of us will travel to a new environment, take a few images and be content by throwing them into a shoe box or relegating them to the nether regions of our hard disks, Julia encourages photographers to actually go through the process of printing the images and exhibiting them. These workshops are extremely popular and the next one is coming to New York City. It will be from April 4 to April 10. The one after that is in Barcelona, Spain, from May 29 – June 5.

This workshop is all about shooting on the streets of New York. It's for those of you who have never been to New York, but always wanted to go, and for those of you who have been there but never found the time to shoot photos all day.

Each day includes shooting, critiquing the work, private consultations, and lectures on various technical topics, such as how to approach people and how to shoot on the street. One of the greatest things about this workshop is that I'll bring in a different New York photographer (and good friend) to help us critique your work and to share their work as well. You'll be meeting photojournalists, commercial photogs, and a wedding and event photographer too.

We're staying downtown — in Greenwich Village — at the Washington Square Hotel. We'll arrive and gather for the first time on Sunday, April 4th. Our last day together will be Sat., April 10th. And yes, we plan to have an exhibit too.

Workshop Fee: $1,995
Includes tuition, double room occupancy for six nights, a classroom (in a terrific gallery space!) , special guests, goodies from Eastman Kodak, and an exhibit opening at the Julia Dean Gallery.

For more information contact Julia Dean's studio:

Julia Dean & Associates
The Julia Dean Photo Workshops
3111 Ocean Front Walk, Suite 102
Marina del Rey, CA 90292
310-821-0909 phone
310-821-0809 fax
email: julia@juliadean.com

Via Sreenath Sreenivasan

South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) and South Asian Women's Creative Collective (SAWCC) present a reading by Samina Ali, author of Madras On Rainy Days at Maharaja Restaurant, 230 East 44th Street, between 2nd & 3rd Avenues on Thursday, February 12, 2004.

Reception at 6.30 pm, following by reading and q&a 7.00-8.30 p.m. $5 for SAJA and SAWCC members, $7 for non-members. Working journalists interested in interviewing Samina can contact her publicist Sarita Varma.

Madras On Rainy Days is a striking novel from a new voice in fiction – the first Muslim Indian woman to be published in the U.S. A. – Samina Ali. Set against the backdrop of the ancient city of Hyderabad and mounting Hindu-Muslim tensions, the novel lyrically evokes the complexities of life behind the chador.

Ali's own experience as woman raised in both the U.S. and in India who must balance the complicated mix of western freedom with Muslim tradition closely mirrors that of her protagonist, Layla. Like her main character, Ali reluctantly agreed to an arranged marriage only to find her mate had comprised something as well – his sexual freedom. In Madras On Rainy Days, she deftly explores the taboo of homosexuality within the Indian Muslim community, as well as the conflicts over freedom of thought and expression that many modern Muslims face.

Samina Ali has written a wonderful, wrenching family story. While it begins in the traditional moral dilemma of whether to submit to an arranged marriage, the story progresses in ways that challenge every stereotype and expectation we might put upon it. The novel deepens with each revelation as her young narrator discovers the truth about the home she left behind and learns the true character of the people who supposedly love her. In the end, she is left with the messy beauty of a real life, one that can't be categorized or controlled, only embraced.

Po Bronson, author of What Should I Do with My Life?

With her debut novel, Madras On Rainy Days, Samina Ali makes a bold entrance on the scene of American immigrant literature. Ali is a compelling storyteller. In language that is at once lyrical and unsentimental, she explores both the upside and the downside of being a first generation Muslim Indo-American woman, trapped between the demands of competing cultural heritages. This is a must read for anyone interested in understanding the multicultural fabric of contemporary America.

Bharati Mukherjee, author of Desirable Daughters

In this beautifully written and fully realized first novel by Samina Ali, a Muslim Hyderabadi wedding serves to illuminate the gulf between the Muslim world and America while also bridging that gulf with the heartbreaking story of how one young Muslim girl becomes a woman. Madras On Rainy Days covers the full spectrum of human conflicts and joys: betrayal, cruelty, despair, and yes–the possibility of redemption and
hope.

About the Author

Samina Ali was born in Hyderabad and was raised there and in the Minneapolis/St Paul area. She received her M.F.A. from the University of Oregon. She lives in San Francisco with her son.