Wedding Invitation: it’s Yummy Yummy

Social networking is everywhere. I have had an account on facebook for quite some time and have recently started twitting as well. still learning but it has some really cool things about it.
anyway, I was on facebook today and came upon this really cool looking website called firstfera.com that offers you to get a personal wedding website, which I think is a really cool thing to do. I then found they have a blog and checked it out to find this really fun story about cool wedding invitations with pictures of the coolest invitation I came across ever since I started looking they have some nice stuff to go through so definitely worth checking them out.

Here is a wedding invitation, and I hope you like chocolate

On the streets of Kolkata

i’ve just come back from Kolkata (previously known as Calcutta) form a shoot for a couple of Australian magazines. Not my usual thing actually, a kind of a celebrity shoot in India for women’s magazines. it is funny how these things happen. Anyway, we spent some time doing our thing but both magazines wanted some ‘genuine’ images of India and the celebrity in the ‘real life’ scenario, so we headed out to the streets.
I always love to go out into the mess of India and manage to get these ‘clean shots’ that still have so much character of the place. this is what i am trying to introduce in India for the engagement shoots. Stop this horrendous thing of posing for the photographers on your wedding day will you! lets go out and have some fun on the streets!

So here are Isabel Lucas, a young Australian actress now based in LA who is definitely star material, and Camilla Franks who is a star fashion designer and a seriously fun person to hang out with

A Kashmiri Pundit Wedding

Anuradha and Nikhil were married this weekend. This was an arranged marriage as so often is the case with Indian weddings and the wedding took place on that specific auspicious day when more than fifteen thousand (yes, yes!) couples got married in Delhi alone. The city was full with marriage processions and I was shooting the last wedding for my book on traditional Indian weddings. Anu and Nikhil both come form Kashmiri houses and it was a Kashmiri Pundit wedding. I was a little surprised to see so many differences exist between this Hindu wedding and other ones that I have covered over the last year or so, and I’m still editing the pictures. This will be one of the larger chapters in my book and the selection process is a long one.
I’ll be heading out to Kolkata on Saturday night for five days so this will have to wait but I’m posting a few pictures already so not to wait so long.
more to come . .

A photojournalist’s point of view

Like all good young ‘professional’ photographers, I was raised to mock wedding photography and all that it represented and never even thought that I would do it. “Wedding photographer” always seemed to be a bit uncool, to put it lightly. No one thinks twice if you say that you’re a commercial photographer, or a photographer who shoots nudes, or a photojournalist. Friends will be somewhat interested on the commercial front; be really excited about the nudes; and ask you again and again on your latest assignment as a field photographer. In fact, for years when I went to parties I used to always hear that I had the coolest job. Wedding photographers, needless to say, have never inspired such levels of envy. Never the less, in the past few years, a whole new breed of wedding photographers has emerged determined to give the reputation of this line of work a serious makeover.
For me weddings are like a documentary project with a twist; it is always happy and the happiness of the people rubs on it is nice from time to time to get a break from the harsh side of life in India and the reality of weddings, or escape from the reality would be more accurate, is fun.
I also shoot food, recipe books (Italian Khana/Random House was the last), portraits for various magazines, commercial work for advertising agencies and a lot of documentary work.

Here are a few portraits from a project I finished a couple of weeks ago for UNDP (United Nations Development Program). I call it ‘Displaced’ and it is about people who have been evicted form their homes and villages as their land was given to newly constructed industrial projects. I thought that covering it through a series of portraits will help give this project a ‘face’ and bring it closer to us.

all Images © 2008 Sephi Bergerson / UNDP India

'Displaced' was commissioned by UNDP and shows people who have been displaced form their villages as their land was allotted for newly built industrial projects. This is a part of a coverage of UNDP's Resettlement & Rehabilitation (R&R) project in Orissa, India. Bhoi Oram (80) and the chimneys of the industrial project towering over the resettlement colony at Jharsuguda, Orissa.

Children at the playground of the resettlement colony at Jharsuguda, provided as a part of the benefits as per Orissa R&R policy 2006, initiated by UNDP.

Bijila Oram (25) cutting paddy at his own field. Bhalutudhia village will soon be relocated to a resettlement colony as it’s land was allotted to an industrial project.

Rukuni Oram (40) cutting paddy at her own filed. Bhalutudhia village will soon be relocated to a resettlement colony as it’s land was allotted to an industrial project.

A Hind-Jew wedding in Delhi

wow, I’ve been away for so long that it feels like another life almost. there was an assignment for the UN in Orissa right after the Ladakh shoot and then there was David & Monika’s wedding in Delhi after which I directly went to Hong Kong and only just came back. long month.

So David is a nice Jewish boy from Sydney Australia who met Monika, a beautiful Indian girl who’s parents had moved to London quite a few years back, on a trip he made in South America some years ago. They became friends and kept in touch and . . . here they are today, a happily married couple

The wedding was a happy and funny one with many friends form all over the world who gathered in Delhi for this mixed cultural wedding. there was a Hindu ceremony and right after that David had put on a boot and broke the glass according to the Jewish tradition. they called it a HinJew wedding. I kind’a like the name

here are some pictures from that wedding. hope you like them . .

And what about the parents?

I have just come back from a long assignment in Orissa for the UN and have not been able to post anything new for a while, so apologies for that.
What I want to talk about is something that is huge deal to everyone but it is even a bigger deal in India, or so it seems. it is the big ‘P’ what would the Parents say?
say about what you might be asking yourself as it is obvious that we are talking about a sensitive aproach and good imagery, right?
WRONG!
almost every family I have met so far have a ‘family photographer’. some older contact from the times of the Raj that has been shooting all the family’s events since the time before independence and is most likely the first to be nominated to shoot the new couple’s wedding.
Now, the couple on the other hand, are well traveled and know what they want. they want the new documentary approach and not to be forced to stand the attacks of the photographer directing them into the strangest positions on their own wedding. they want to see the magic and they cant get it. why? because although the venue might cost a Zillion dollars and the flowers alone cost enough to feed a medium size village for a year or more, the photography should cost about Rs 20,000 (about $400) and the parents cannot be convinced otherwise. they know the price as everyone in the family have been using the same guy since ever, and they KNOW they can ‘trust’ him :-))
what you end up is a sad event where the couple miss the best day of their life for the sake of the pictures for the next generations to see but they get the absolute worst results and suffer for it.
I am not upset. it is just an observation of someone who is free of all these bondages and sees the whole cultural thing in a more objective eye. I think the majority of the young couples in India would agree with me but in this society, at this point in time, it is what it is and that’s it!
what do you think?

And since no post is good without pictures, here are a few more from the Buddhist wedding in Ladakh.
They did not have a problem with photography. they simply do not hire a photographer as they only care about the present and not the memories Live in the NOW!

A Buddhist Wedding in Ladakh

So i’m back from Ladakh where I finally manged to photograph a local wedding for my book, and what a surprise it was. Turns out that the couple have been together for more than ten years and have two children already, a nine year old daughter, and a four year old son. This, i am told, is not an unusual thing in Ladakh, as a wedding is a much simpler event than it is in other places. A couple does not need a third person, a priest or a Lama, to be married, it is simply their own decision. they let the parents know that they have decided and then if they want they can have a small party of close relatives and some blessings. Later on, and this could be a month, a year, or more after they have decided, the pressure starts coming from the neighbors and family that actually want to bless the couple. then they have a ‘Bagston’ which is a wedding in the local language. The Bagston is a social event and not a religious one. The couple wear the traditional Ladakhi outfit and all the village people come to celebrate and witness their union by putting the sacred scarf, the ‘Kathak’ on the couple and the parents as a symbol of blessing.
Lots and lots of salt butter tea and local food, some traditional dance and ‘Chang’ the local barley alcohol, and a very cool and relaxed day. nothing loud and fancy like a wedding in any other place I’ve ever been.
It all started in the late morning and went on till the afternoon when the guests have left to return to their homes in the village. everyone had returned in the evening for another round of the same thing and a chance for the people that did not give the ‘Katakh’ to do it now.
The presents were mainly butter, sugar, wool, and other useful gifts that are carefully registered so that they could be returned with interest when an event is celebrated with the giver’s family. this is a way to collect the village ‘loan’ to the young couple to help them start a new life. later on when they are financially stronger they will return this loan little by little to all the people that came to their Bagston.
The couples children where present naturally, and this was a combined ‘Bagston’ and ‘Ldun’, which is the celebration for the new child. Never mond that he is already four years old

Here are a few pictures that I have selected. more will come in my book next year.
enjoy

Interview on ConnectedWeddings.com

Wedding Belles: How to make your dream wedding come true, From the creators of ConnectedWeddings.com and published by Random House India is now available in stores across India.

For the release of the book Connected Weddings are running an interview with me about weddings and about my upcoming book ‘Shaadi Galore - Traditional Weddings in Modern India’. check it out HERE

For a sneak peak of the book go HERE

From the book. A Bridegroom's barat at the Leela Kempinski hotel in Kerala

Tibetan Buddhist Wedding in Ladakh

This is really exciting I’m heading up to Leh, Ladakh the day after tomorrow to photograph a local Tibetan Buddhist wedding for my book. I’ve been looking for a Buddhist wedding for a while now and finally found a good contact in Ladakh who arranged for me to come and shoot.
I will go on the 3rd, rest and let myself get used to the thin air for a couple of days, after all it is located at a height of over 3,500m, and then shoot the wedding on the 5th and 6th of October. I can’t wait! Ladakh was the first place I visited in India on my very first time here in 1996 and I haven’t been there since.
It is not the tourist season now and I expect the temperatures to be rather cold but I’m sure I will manage. I have this really funny cap that I got in Dharamsala a few years back so I will be able to keep mu head warm.
stay tuned for the pictures as soon as I return by the end of the week. . .

Those extra ‘Non-Wedding’ images

So, here is an option to the standard shots that almost every couple in India will have from their wedding. Those embarrassing posed pictures on the wedding night with the army of photographers standing over your head and making you smile like this and like that funny ha? sure it is, but not when it is your own wedding.
why don’t you consider this? we can usually find a dramatic location near your wedding venue that will provide us with opportunities to get some incredible images. It will take a few hours of concentrated time without the worry of attending a wedding and so really must happen on a different day from the wedding. This shoot is extremely fun and rewarding and you can be prepared to come away with images that will knock your socks off! . . .

An afternoon on the Delhi-Jaipur highway