Hanoi......and the rain keeps falling......

More Holga

The sun came out......if only for a little while.

Digital Holga

Apologies.

Been having a few geopolitical issues with accessing my blog .I could go into a long detailed rant about why, my opinion on it and how frustrating it is not to be able to get to my own content, but i didn't create this space to talk politics.

So back to the images.

Been playing around with the Holga that mounts straight onto a Canon DSLR. Have found the lens pretty impressive so far. The dreamy look of a Holga seems to transfer to digital well, and although it needs LOADS of light, between the torrential downpours that have turned Hanoi into a swamp this week, I've managed to get out and do some shooting.

Parvati Valley - Manikaran

 Some images from the Parvati Valley and the town of Manikaran. As always in India, there are a lot of  legends and myths surrounding the town and the valley, too many too list here, but it's an important pilgrimage spot for both Hindus and Sikhs, with the temples lying side by side.

The hot baths keep people coming too, and inside the temple plenty of Sikh men take the opportunity to wash their hair in the holy water. Above the temple in the mountains lie meditation caves, holy shrines and plenty of local Sadhus taking time out to ponder on the beauty of the hills and smoke their way through copious amounts of the local produce.

Buddha Purnima

It’s Buddha’s birthday today, so I spent a bit of time this morning at the main temple in town, mingling with the monks and nuns. A lot had come in from surrounding monasteries for prayers, big groups of them waiting downstairs to be called to their particular service. Funny to watch them gossiping and mucking about like kids on a school trip, and then this turn to reverence as they attended their prayers. Once the prayers were done, I spotted some of the younger ones outside buying stickers and looking at Hello Kitty flasks.

The Dalai Lama’s in town and everyone’s trying to get a look at him. Every day there’s a new rumor about a service He’s holding, a particular place He’s going to be, but all the speculation so far has come to nothing.  It seems He’s holding private meetings for international groups, and camera toting tourists aren’t on the guest list.

I asked at the temple information desk where I could catch a fleeting glimpse of Him; “Where are you from?” asked the security guy, “England” I replied. Beaming, the guy was sure he’d found the solution, “Oh Great!” he tells me “Then you can see him in Manchester in June.”

Still in India.

Dharamsala mourns Tibet Deaths

Mass prayer last night in Dharamsala for  two Tibetans who committed suicide in protest against the Chinese occupation. There's been a lot of self immolations in the last twelve months, including one in Delhi in March, which made it onto the front pages of most papers. Those happening in China get little or no press coverage.

Locals were handing out candles, with many Indians and foreigners taking part in the march around town of Mcleod Ganj.
The leaflets they were distributing reads as follows :

Fire rages in China occupied Tibet

Two young Tibetans set themselves on fire in Dzamthang area of Eastern Tibet to protest China's occupation around 1pm Tibet Time. According to Tenpa Dhargyal, who has been in touch with people in Dzamthang Choephak Kyap, 20 (son of Geykor Songthar and Pema) and Sonam, 20 ( son of Semkyi) self-immolated near Jonang Tsangwa Gonchen Monastery.


Tenpa said that the Self-Immolations happened at the same time and at the same spot. He said: my friends told me that the two self-immolators are related by blood, but it was a complete shock to the passersby in Dzamthang market".


Eye witnesses in Dzamthang informed Tenpa that the tow young men set themselves on fire around 1pm Tibet Time today. " Just as the two young men went up in flames Tibetans in the market immediately surrounded the protesters. The large Tibetan gathering was able to protect the self-immolators from being taken away by the Chinese security forces, but they are both dead now." Tenpa said.


Although the bodies of the tow self-immolators are in possession of the Tibetans and being kept at the Dzamthang Monatesry, the Chinese security forces are putting tremendous pressure on the monastery administrators demanding them to get the two bodies cremated by this evening. At the time of writing this report hundreds of monks have gathered at Dzamthang Monastery saying prayers for the martyrs.


"As survivors of self-immolators suffer unending sequence of interrogations and beatings at he hands of Chinese security forces in police custody Tibetans in Tibet have to today recognize victory in the immediate death after the protest by fire." said Lobsang Sopa, General Secretary of Regional Tibetan youth Congress, Dharamsala.


"Dharamsala stands in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Tibet, and to protest Chinese brutality we are organizing a mass prayer and public procession here in Dharamsala today" said Karma Yongdue, President of Regional Tibetan Women's Association.


The last rites for the brave freedom fighters are expected to be performed this evening in Tibet.


Regional Tibetan Youth Congress
Regional Tibetan Women's Association
19 April,2012,  Dharamsala 

Rajasthan

In the mountains now. Nice to escape the heat of India, sit and watch the rain for a few days, and a good chance to go through some of the images from the last couple of weeks. I'll be working on a couple of pieces in Dharmasala this week, so will post more when they start to take shape.

Below some shots from Rajasthan.

Tikam Chand: Street Photographer

Most photographers start on the streets. To Tikam Chand, it's his studio. Using an old Carl Zeiss box camera manufactured in 1860, he takes portraits for tourists outside the Hawa Mahal, Jaipur. His 'one minute photos', as he call them, are processed on the spot using the dark room built in to the back of the camera and a bucket  he keeps next to him on the pavement.

His Grandfather used the same camera back in the days when not everyone and his monkey had a DSLR slung over their shoulder, and a lot of locals would come to have souvenir photos taken of their trip to the pink city or for identity cards and official documents. The man's an artist, you can see in his movements, his love for his equipment, how he precisely positions his subjects in front of the black sheet he has hanging against a crumbling wall, how he manually exposes the shot by covering the lens for a fraction of a second. Everything this guy does is controlled, calculated.

He got me thinking.It's pretty easy to go out and blast off a memory card in an afternoon in the hope that a few good shots come out, that a couple of moments are captured in the hundred. But is this what photography's about? Has the capacity of digital cameras made us better, or just lazier? One thing's for sure, when Tikam gets home from a days shoot he doesn't turn on his laptop and spend the rest of the night trawling through images over cups of coffee and packs of cigarettes.

To be honest, I envy him.

Having spent the last five years divided between living in Hanoi, with trips to Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, India and Bangladesh I've seen a lot of things, met a lot of interesting people and travelled a lot of kilometres. Some more comfortable than others. But each new place has given me something of worth. Something to remember.

I've decided to try to put some of this into words.

Hopefully, this will be a space to share these encounters, my own reflections and the photos I've taken along the way. Feel free to comment, criticise, or just say what you think. Any feedback is much appreciated.

The last two weeks have been pretty special, wandering through Madhya Pradesh, India, visiting temple towns lying on holy rivers, chatting with Babas, laundry women, train inspectors and a whole host of inquisitive Indians. Being pretty much off the tourist route, foreigners are still a curiosity, and the locals I've met along the way have been both welcoming and affectionate. For me, there's nowhere in the world that can compare with India for dealing out surprises on a daily basis, every day like an empty page waiting to be filled.

Below are some images from the trip.