Tag: reportage

The Kumbh Mela

 

As you will by now no doubt have seen (by the tsunami of images generated) humanity’s greatest gathering is taking place on the banks of the River Ganges  in Allahbad, India. The Kumbh Mela, a bathing festival for Hindus that draws millions of devotees (and photographers and tourists) to bathe in the confluence of the Ganges and the Yamuna has just started.

This year, up to 100 million people are expected to attend.  I last covered it in 2001 when there were ‘only’ 70 million in attendance. I’d also shot one in 1995 – an Ardh (or half) Kumbh so I sort of knew what I was letting myself in for. They both feel a long, long time ago. I remember that in 2001 I was working a good deal in medium format and all I took with me were two Mamiya 6s and an old Vivitar flashgun. I remember shooting the entire set on Kodak colour neg film (I used to be sponsored by Kodak). It felt like I was trying to do something different, something new.

On that trip I travelled up to Allahabad with Kalpesh Lathigra and Jason Eskanazi. I seem to remember bumping into Stephen Dupont and the late Tim Hetherington (then at Network with me). Bruce Gilden saved me from getting beaten with a lathi by an Indian policeman (a long story…) and I remember being freezing cold every day before dawn as I rose from my inadequate sleeping bag. My fondest memories are reserved however for another fellow Network photographer, Nikolai Ignatiev, who died tragically a few years later. A very talented journalist, Nikolai had a colourful life story to say the least. Sadly, few traces of his work – nor indeed of Network Photographers – remain online (but see here for an archived obituary) but good memories.

Some pictures and thoughts of absent friends.

 

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India – Allahabad – Pilgrims stream into the Maha Kumbh Mela grounds across pontoon bridges

 

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India – Allahabad – A man dressed as Hanuman the monkey god shows an act of self-mortification

 

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India – Allahabad – A saddhu and his Western disciple

 

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India – Allahabad – Ropes cordoning off bathing grounds at the Kumbh Mela

 

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India – Allahabad – Pilgrims crossing pontoon bridges over the Ganges at the Kumbh Mela

 

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India – Allahabad – Pilgrims bathing in the Ganges

 

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India – Allahabad – Naked saddhus prepare to process to the bathing grounds at dawn

 

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India – Allahabad – A man peers into a slidehow at the Kumbh Mela

 

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India – Allahabad – A man and wife bathe in the Ganges during the Kumbh Mela

 

India - Allahbad - Stuart Freedman and Nikolai Ignatiev © Kalpesh Lathigra
India – Allahbad – Stuart Freedman (L) and Nikolai Ignatiev © Kalpesh Lathigra

 

And just because I feel nostalgic today, here are a couple of my favourite images from the Ardh Kumbh way back in 1995…

 

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India – Allahabad – Saddhus after their bath in the Ganges during the Ardh Kumbh Mela
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India – Allahabad – Devotees on a boat on the Ganges

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories Blog, photography

The new Swampy… and the second battle of Hastings

 

It seems that the road lobby is on the march again (or should that be driving…). A link road planned between Bexhill and Hastings has meant a whole new generation of young eco-protesters (known as the ‘Combe Haven Defenders’) have taken to the trees in order to thwart the chainsaws and the bailiffs. The road will destroy the unspoilt Combe Haven Valley damaging an ancient woodland home to protected species.

It takes me back to the mid/late 1990’s when I did a few assignments for magazines (including I remember one for the Independent on Sunday Magazine on the Land is Ours group) about the environmental protests taking place under a previous Conservative government. My abiding memory is of descending a ramshackle tunnel somewhere under Twyford and crawling on my belly for ten yards underground to photograph a young man who’s arm was secured into a concrete pillar (see below). I never realised that I was a tiny bit claustrophobic until that point and was very relieved to get the picture and retreat the way I had come.

Here are some images from the archives.

 

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UK – Berkshire – An environmental protester plays a guitar outside his tent at Twyford Down in a protest camp opposing the building of the M3 motorway

 

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UK – Berkshire – A protester cemented into an underground chamber to prevent the M3 motorway development

 

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UK – London – An eco-protester from the group The Land is Ours on a squatted site in Wandsworth owned by Guiness

 

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UK – Berkshire – A protester in a tree protesting the M3 motorway development

 

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UK – London – An eco-protester from the group the Land is Ours salutes the sun  on a squatted site in Wandsworth

 

 

 

 

 

Categories Blog, photography

Tearsheet – Laverbread – eating seaweed

 

Here is a recent tearsheet from the wonderful Effilee Magazine for whom I  wrote and photographed a really interesting story about seaweeds – an important and potentially significant food source across the world. I focused on the Welsh tradition of Laverbread and had the most wonderful time experiencing Welsh hospitality and a delicious new food.

I’ll be posting (as usual) the 5000 word text on my website in due course.

 

 

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Categories Blog, photography, Writing

Oscar Niemeyer as a backdrop…

 

Very sad to hear of the passing of the extraordinary Modernist Brazilian architect, Oscar Niemeyer this morning.

A few years ago, while on assignment for a magazine in Rio, I was told by my fixer about some young capoeristas that practised outside a wonderful modernist landscape in Niteroi. We took a ferry across the bay and sure enough found some young men sparring in front of these great blocks of colour and shape. I chose two lads to work with but could only spend an hour or so there as we had to be back on Copacabana beach to shoot some models at dusk. I am ashamed to say that I never really had a chance to look around properly but the buildings as a backdrop were breathtaking: swooping colour and line that were perfect for the fluid movements of the capoeristas.

Here are three of the images.

 

Brazil – Niteroi – Two young Capoeiristas practicing Capoeira outside a Modernist theatre designed by Oscar Niemeyer. Capoeira is a mixture of martial arts and dance that originated in Brazil created and developed by African slaves during the 16th century. Participants form a roda (circle) and take turns playing instruments, singing, and sparring in pairs. Enormously acrobatic, Capoeira was for most of it’s existence, banned by the Brazilian authorities. It is now seen as a national sport.

 

Brazil – Niteroi – Two young Capoeiristas practicing Capoeira outside a Modernist theatre designed by Oscar Niemeyer.

 

Brazil – Niteroi – Two young Capoeiristas practicing Capoeira outside a Modernist theatre designed by Oscar Niemeyer.
Categories Blog, photography

Walking in Addis

 

A couple of hours walking the streets of Addis Ababa.

Looking for colour.

Making images for the sheer novelty of it.

The light of an African afternoon.

 

 

Ethiopia – Addis Ababa – A man removes his jacket in the heat of the day

 

Ethiopia – Addis Ababa – A woman looks at jobs advertised on a wall

 

Ethiopia – Addis Ababa – Men read rented newspapers on the street for a few coins

 

Ethiopia – Addis Ababa – A woman waits on a street corner

 

Ethiopia – Addis Ababa – A street boy

 

Ethiopia – Addis Ababa – Men pray at St George’s Church
Categories Blog, photography

The Classic Cafe… in Addis…

 

I’m in Addis Ababa for the first time in eight years on a writing job but stumbled across a beautiful place seemingly frozen in time. If you’ve read this blog before you’ll know of my obsession with the Delhi Coffee House and all those sadly missed palaces of melancholy, the Classic London Caff.

It’s always a pleasure to stumble on a place like this – officially known as the Ras Mokonnen Pastry shop in Piazza – especially when I can’t find any mention of it online. The elderly owner, Mr Lubo tells me he bought it from a Greek man ‘about thirty five years ago’. He’d had it for at least ten years before that and he wasn’t the first owner…

Perfect macchiato, perfect baklava. A moment in time that I wasn’t expecting to find.

Many thanks to my excellent translator, Lily, (Simegnish Yekoye) not least for putting up with my excitement…

You can find it in Piazza – there’s no sign…

 

 

Ethiopia – Addis Ababa – A waiter in the Ras Makonnen pasty and coffee shop

 

Ethiopia – Addis Ababa – A period table and chair in the Ras Makonnen pasty and coffee shop

 

Ethiopia – Addis Ababa – The barista in the Ras Makonnen pastry and coffee shop

 

Ethiopia – Addis Ababa – The Ras Makonnen pastry and coffee shop

 

Ethiopia – Addis Ababa – Empty coffee cups and plates in the Ras Makonnen pastry and coffee shop

 

Ethiopia – Addis Ababa – A waitress in the Ras Makonnen pastry and coffee shop
Categories Blog, photography

The Art of Getting By – BBC radio and images…

 

Just returned from a lovely week in Jersey opening the Human Rights week with my exhibition. Great response and a pleasure to be involved in Amnesty’s work and education programme. I spoke at half a dozen schools and also to BBC radio Jersey about my work. You can hear the interview here.

Prints by John Cleur at Metro looked extraordinary. Many thanks to everyone that came  along, listened and looked.

 

 

 

 

Categories Blog, photography

Aleppo

It’s with great sadness that I read of the destruction of parts of Aleppo in the fighting that has engulfed Syria. Tragically, the Souk, a World Heritage site, has been badly damaged. It is almost ten years to the day that I photographed Aleppo on assignment for British Airways Highlife Magazine. I liked Aleppo – and indeed Syria – very much. The Baron Hotel was then a decaying but beautiful nod to a more glamourous and decadent past while the Souk was dark, mysterious and wonderful. I still have a bar of olive oil soap from a stall there and as I smell it now, Aleppo comes back to me.

 

 

Syria – Aleppo – The view into Aleppo from the Citadel

 

Syria – Aleppo – Men walk though the ancient Souk in Aleppo

 

Syria – Aleppo – A woman in the Souk

 

Syria – Aleppo – A boy working on a stall in the Souk

 

Syria – Aleppo – Two men in a hammam in the Souk

 

Syria – Aleppo – The Citadel reflected in a shop window

 

Syria – Aleppo – A man walks the narrow alleyways behind the Souk, darkness bisected by pools of brilliant sunlight

 

Syria – Aleppo – A waiter carries drinks into the bar of the Baron Hotel, a favourite haunt of stars and politicians of the early twentieth century

 

 

Categories Blog, photography

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