Photo District News announced that the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund has awarded a $5,000 Fellowship Grant to Kalpesh Lathigra for his project, Brides of Krishna: Indian Widows.

London-based Kalpesh is a friend. I am incredibly happy for him and proud of his achievements. Wishing him many more feathers in his cap. Congratulations!

Via Melanie Light

“The lecture by Sebastião Salgado, Fred Ritchin and Ken Light at the UC Graduate School of Journalism is sold out. Fotovision will sell signed copies of Salgado’s Sahel: End of the Road at the lecture. The books are $45 each. However, I have had word that there will be an “overflow” space in Pimental Hall on the UC campus where people can watch the lecture on closed circuit TV. I will post details about getting tickets to this overflow space as soon as I have them. This event will also be aired *live* on the journalism school’s webcast site. On the day of the lecture, October 27th [Wednesday], go here.”

Yes, yes, it's been kinda slim. No real postings here for about a week. There is a reason for just about anything isn't there? This one happens to be valid. I am swamped with other work – work that requires more of my attention cuz it pays the bills.

I had to design an advertisement for my wedding photojournalism business – PIPAL PRODUCTIONS. This is what I came up with. It will appear intermittently in The Gujarat Times. Feel free to snag this image and circulate it among your friends. I would really appreciate it.

I also was busy putting the finishing touches to an article for SHAADI STYLE, a magazine based in Boston. The article was about what brides and bridegrooms ought to know about ordering high end photo albums. Coincidentally, I received two copies of the Fall issue of Shaadi Style that carried my first article for them on the merits of hiring a wedding photojournalist. Yes, it hints at self-promotion, but I wasn't pitching just my company. I happen to believe that staged, canned photography has no place at a wedding when the entire event is so spontaneous (I am talking about desi weddings, mind you).

I'll post links to both those articles in a couple of days. In the Fall issue was also my first ever advertisement. Here it is in all its glory. Which one do you prefer, the one on the top or the one below? Do tell.

“Noted photojournalist Mosharraf Hossain Lal Bhai died of old age complications at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) here yesterday at the age of 75.”

I receive a rather cryptic link about a photojournalist based in Dhaka who had died. His name – Mosharraf Hossain Lal Bhai.

What perplexed me is this line in the short article: “Prime Minister Khaleda Zia expressed her deep shock at the death of Lal Bhai.”

Shocked over the death of a 75-year old man who was ailing? Surely this is PR-speak.

Via Payvand

Kaveh Golestan Annual Photojournalism Award announced. The actual site isn't quite complete, but I am intrigued that the Iranian community would so openly celebrate photography. The surprise is in that photography is deemed as an act that objectifies the human body and thus runs contrary to the tenets of the Quran. Contrary thoughts on this welcome.