I am taking some liberty here by departing from my usual posts about writers and photographers. Vijay Iyer, a pianist, and Rudresh Mahanthappa, an alto-saxophonist, are two terrific jazz musicians who are making a name for themselves in New York City. No easy feat. So, I hope you will lend them your support and go out and listen to them.

The duo collaborates under the name Raw Materials and has been peforming around the world since 1996.

When: SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13 Sets at 8 and 9:30 pm

Where: INHOUSE PERFORMANCE SPACE , 474 Greenwich Street (NOT Greenwich Ave!) 5th Floor, below Canal Street, NYC.

For more info contact: 212-925-8534, inhouseconcerts@earthlink.net

The Vagriyar tribes in South India are an ubiquitous presence – surprisingly so even in a large metropolitan city like Chennai. They lead a marginalized and eccentric lifestyle. They are hard to miss. Around temples they carry their wares and press them into the hands of visitors, hoping to make a sale. They walk around in small groups foraging for things that you and I would have casually thrown away. I remember once insisting on buying a catapult from one of them camped in Adyar. The white wood came from the trees they slept under, the rubber bands slit from strewn bicycle tires. We were told the gypsies kidnapped children, ate parrots for dinner and lived in filth.

N. Prasanna Kumar, a 24-year old award winning photographer has created a body of work documenting the lives of several of these gypsy tribes and in the process breaks some stereotypes.

I met this quiet and somewhat shy photographer with a couple of his friends at the Alliance Francaise in Chennai. Over a cup of hot lemon tea, a favorite of the locals I was told, we exchanged pleasantries and introduced ourselves. We dove into a body of work that Kumar and his friend Syed had somehow cajoled onto their two-wheeler.

The images from the Vagriyar tribes Kumar is following were the best of the lot. One can clearly see the passion for documenting this misunderstood group of people in each of those images. His images prompted me to gush out the name of another wonderful documentarian, a Magnum photographer, who has photographed gypsies in Europe – Josef Koudelka. A straight comparison of the two styles would be grossly unfair but the themes are similar.

Kumar's printing was interesting too. Some images were forcibly printed yellow or red, striking departures from the ordinary. Kumar called them “experiments.” He is a post graduate student at the College of Arts and Crafts and, presumably, has access to all sorts of nifty ideas and influences.

I have invited Prasanna Kumar to display his series on the Vagriyar tribes here on Tiffinbox. So, I do hope you will all get to see them for yourself.

Photo District News, the trade publication I urge all to subscribe, has this for student photographers:

Attention students: Want to shoot for PDN?

PDNedu is holding its first competition for students, with help from Epson. PDN Edu is looking for your pictures of “people,” “places” and “things” printed on Epson paper. You could win a photo assignment from Photo District News.

Slow connections on the road, a busy schedule meeting relatives and oh yeah getting married in India all contributed to the trickle of blog posts these last few weeks. But I am back.

New Internationalist magazine displays some fascinating photography. Friend and mentor Shahidul Alam promotes the work of photographers “from the majority world” through his column SOUTHERN EXPOSURE in the magazine. This month, Alam highlights Dominic Sansoni from Sri Lanka.

Kataragama, a town in the southeast of Sri Lanka, is probably the most important centre for pilgrimage on the island. Based around a shrine to the god of the same name, this small jungle site is now a
bustling town. It is unique in that there is also a Buddhist temple and a mosque. The main festival time is July or August when pilgrims from across the country, of all denominations, flock to the town for
the big festival. It culminates with firewalking at night and a `water-cutting' ceremony in the Menik Ganga River on the last day.

For many years I have been photographing the way we wrap cloth around our bodies in Asia. A sari, a sarong, a shawl, a versti… Frequently the pictures are details – one series shows only torsos. This is the torso of a man on pilgrimage in classic red and white, the colours for homage at the shrine to Kataragama. Beautiful in its simplicity and great style.

Dominic Sansoni, Sri Lanka

There is good reason why I haven't posted anything for a week. It has taken me that long to shake jet-lag. I am visiting Chennai for a couple of weeks.

Notice anything different about the site? In the right hand column you'll find the new FEATURES section. I have Gerik Parmele at Photocolumn.org and the kind folks at Badmash.org to thank for the links they have provided. I hope you'll visit both sites, and often.

Gerik's site showcases some fine photographers who have also taken the time to pen a few personal thoughts. If you visit Tiffinbox on a regular basis you'll now notice that the image changes on a weekly basis. Click it to be taken to a larger version of the image and an extended caption.

Badmash.org is a fun site – worthy of a weekly laugh. I highly recommend it. It is, to my knowledge, the first site of its kind to address the South Asian lifestyle in the West.