I took my daughter to the Gay Pride Parade in Tel Aviv this afternoon. Good vibes, techno beats and body paint reminded me a bit of ‘Hotel LaChapelle‘. Street parties are always a terrific opportunity for pictures but this time, being responsible for a nine-year-old, I was not so free to shoot. Never the less, it was wonderful to see how open minded this city can be, bringing a message of peace, love and tolerance in the midst of all the tension and turmoil Israel is constantly going through. For a moment one can easily forget about everything, grab a beer and have a good time. I thought I remembered this parade used to be a lot bigger in the past but my friends reminded me that I must be thinking about the Love Parade, which is apparently different. I guess I’ve been away from Tel Aviv way too long. Anyway, we had a great time.

Is the NGO distributing micro loans to women in Chhatisgarh actually a front to a new Christian mission in disguise? I have just returned from Raipur, Chhatisgarh, shooting a feature about microfinancing for a German consumer magazine. The shoot was very simple and straight forward, but we have found some remarkable facts about the NGO that distributes the loans.

So the story goes like this; a German company (let’s not mention names here) wants to improve their reputation and decides to spend some money in India to help the poor. They check and find a legitimate NGO that works in the field of microfinancing and contact them. The loans are very small in European standards, but are exactly what people in Raipur need, so all looks well.

The NGO appoints CROs (Client relationship officers) that go to the slums and form groups of women who already have a small business but need some help to grow. The loans will be given to carefully selected women that will be responsible for the other women in the group as well, thus ensuring that the loan will be paid back.

The initial loan given is of Rs 5,000 (€ 72) and the weekly return on this loans is Rs 224 (€ 3.2). This is enough to enable women like Devo Bhagel (48) to grow her small scale business, selling Gupchup, a famous street food savory delicacy, on the streets of Raipur.

Devo Baghel (48) at home, preparing Gupchup, a savory street food snack, that she sells every night on the streets of Raipur.

Devo Baghel (48) and her husband work together at her Gupchup cart on the street of Raipur, Chhatisgarh.

So far so good. Once the initial loan is returned, Devo will be able to apply for another loan of up to Rs 25,000. She already has two helpers and it seems that her business is going in the right direction. So, what else you must be asking? well, this is what happened.
We (myself and a journalist) arrived in Raipur on Sunday night and checked into our hotel, where we also met the NGO coordinator, Vinney Vani. He was a very pleasant man, and obviously very eager to help. We explained what we were looking for and he said he will help locate a woman that could be a good example for the project. “We cannot just go anywhere looking for people” he said, “as people might think we are trying to convert them” (!). Now what would Sigmund Freud have to say about that? I could feel my left eyebrow raised.  Anyway, before we parted, he suggested that we join him and the other office staff at their office in the morning for “Devotion”. “it is a half-hour program” he said, ” we pray and sing for the Lord”. I was not very excited, but could not really refuse.

Vinney Vani from Growing Opportunities (India) Pvt. Ltd. at Devo Baghel's home in Raipur, Chhatisgarh. "My wife is originally from a Hindu Brahmin family, but she had found the Lord"

The morning program was a bit embarrassing. We were seated in front of the twenty or so workers and were garlanded with flowers. Prayer and devotional christian singing followed. As it turns out, Growing Opportunity (India) Pvt. Ltd., a legitimate and reputed organization with a head office in Chennai, seem to be a very religious Christian organization spread all over the country.

I would not want to jump to conclusions here, but a quick internet search brought up a story on the NYTimes Christian-run companies increasing in almost every corner of the globe. NY Times: Their Mission: Spreading the Word Through Business (click to read). An interesting read!

Innocent? incidental? only good people trying to help? I leave it up to you to judge, but it does look a little suspicious.

* Microfinance is the provision of financial services to low-income clients, including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services.

]]> http://www.sephi.com/uncategorized/microfinancing-loans-or-christian-missionaries-in-disguise/feed/ 3 http://www.sephi.com/uncategorized/shiva-parvati-bling-paratha/ http://www.sephi.com/uncategorized/shiva-parvati-bling-paratha/#comments Wed, 23 Sep 2009 08:26:12 +0000 sephi http://www.sephi.com/?p=2675

Lord Shiva and his wife Parvati are probably the most famous couple in India, and although married many thousands of years ago, they still maintain more bling than even Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai :-)

Last night I went to Old Delhi for the Ram Barat procession that went through Sadar Bazar and Chandni Chowk. I wanted to photograph the trucks for the trucking book, but it turned out there were no trucks and the procession was all bullock carts. A bit disappointing, but I did manage to get these fun pictures that I might end up using for my book on Indian weddings. It is just that I couldn’t understand why they were so serious and didn’t even give a single smile. Are they told to be serious, or were they simply boiling inside the costumes? We finished the evening with a quick bite at Paratha wali gali. They still make some mean parathas there :-)

A young boy dressed as Lord Shiva, and a girl dressed as his wife, Parvati, on a carriage during the Ramlila procession in Old Delhi. Why do the have to be so serious? must have been realy hot under this costume . .

Uniformed members of a wedding procession band ride on horses during the Ramlila procession in Old Delhi, September 2009

]]> http://www.sephi.com/uncategorized/shiva-parvati-bling-paratha/feed/ 1 http://www.sephi.com/uncategorized/pdn-editors-choice/ http://www.sephi.com/uncategorized/pdn-editors-choice/#comments Tue, 03 Mar 2009 05:44:09 +0000 sephi http://www.sephi.com/?p=871

Great news to start the day today! :-) I have just received a mail form PDN PhotoServe that I am currently one of the Editor’s Picks for the 10 Featured Portfolios on the portal page! The new page just went up.Here is the link to PhotoServe home page, and the direct link to my PORTFOLIO.

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So Slumdog Millionaire had won the Oscar and suddenly everyone is looking at India and the story of Dharavi slum comes out to light. For this reason alone maybe it is a good thing that this movie won, but will it do anything to help the children still living there? Dharavi slum had never looked so romantic as in Danny Boyle’s movie but it is only a story and life is still the same in Dharavi.

Asia’s largest slum, Dharavi, lies on prime property right in the middle of India’s financial capital, Mumbai (Bombay). It is home to more than a million people. Many are second-generation residents, whose parents moved in years ago. A city within a city, it is one unending stretch of narrow dirty lanes, open sewers and cramped huts. In a city where house rents are among the highest in the world, Dharavi provides a cheap and affordable option to those who move to Mumbai to earn their living. As Dharavi is located between Mumbai’s two main suburban rail lines, most people find it convenient for work. Dharavi also has a large number of thriving small-scale industries that produce embroidered garments, export quality leather goods, pottery and plastic. Most of these products are made in tiny manufacturing units spread across the slum and are sold in domestic as well as international markets. The annual turnover of business here is estimated to be more than $650m (£350m) a year.
The state government has plans to redevelop Dharavi and transform it into a modern township, complete with proper housing and shopping complexes, hospitals and schools.

I have been to Dharavi in August 2007 and spent five days in it’s alleys, talking to people and taking pictures and it was one of the most intensive and emotional assignments I’ve had.

Here are a few pictures from Dharavi slum. A larger gallery is on my website HERE. the entire collection of images from Dharavi is on my ARCHIVE.

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A girl walks on the main water pipe that carries drinking water to Mumbai, as industrial effluent flows next to it. Most of Dharavi homes have no access to piped drinking water.

A boy plays next to the open gutter next to his home in the plastic recycling area in Dharavi, August 2007

A young boy washing. Dharavi, August 2007

Boys play on the giant water pipe that carries drinking water to Mumbai. The recycling area in Dharavi is built on top of the giant pipes but very few homes here have running water.

Namrata (11) in a white dress on the occasion of India's independence day. Dharavi, August 2007

A couple of months ago I was commissioned to document a BrandsMission production and had the pleasure of working side to side with Norwegian chef Geir Skeie, who was at the time holder of the title of best chef in Europe. It was a gala evening at the Norwegian embassy in Delhi and chef Gier Skeie was preparing a dinner for 300 people. It was a fantastic evening by any standard.

The next day, because of my love and passion for Indian street food, Fernando Morales de La Crus from BrandsMission had suggested that we offer Geir Skeie a taste of authentic India. A unique tour to savour the street flavours of India, and where else but in the heart of Old Delhi on Chandni Chowk. Not a regular every day experience for a top chef from Norway, Geir Skeie proved to be a humble man showing respect and admiration to his cooking colleagues on the streets of Old Delhi. see the slideshow HERE

As of January 29th 2009, chef Geir Skeie form Norway is Bocuse d’Or’s Best Chef in the World

I must admit that I was not seriously convinced by the name Shaadi Galore right form the start. It was the first working title of my upcoming book on Indian weddings but somehow never really stuck to the blog.
the new name however, FotoWala, is more about photography and India, ‘wala‘ in Hindi meaning anything to do with someone’s occupation; like chaiwala for the guy making the chai, or sabziwala for the vegetable vendor. This way, being a photographer, I can be the fotowala form now on :-) like it?

Sometime we get some great images that cannot fit into any category. Those images are often forgotten and never see the light of day. PDN photo magazine had recognized the potential in these images and had started a photo competition called GO INDIE that is completely open for any image that cannot find itself anywhere else. here are a couple from a recent event, redefining men’s fashion :-)

I am not so happy to post this but being such an important issue I feel that I have to. Raising awareness and educating people to the copyrights and moral rights of photographers has always been something I put extra attention to.

Every photographer loves a good feedback for his work and I am not an exception. I always love reading nice comments on the blog or by email and have a special pleasure seeing the work published. Never the less, sometimes I am not so happy when I find my work is being used for commercial purposes without obtaining permission.

I am working on the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of my website these days and ran a google search on wedding websites in India only to find a website, rather large one, that have liked my wedding images a little too much. The web designer or the business owners have decided that they could actually use some of my pictures to promote their own website and created a banner with three images taken from the web gallery on www.sephi.com/weddings

Not only that they did not ask for permission for that and didn’t mention my name as the photographer, but they also claim that the images belong to them and cannot be used without permission!!

Needless to say that I have written to them at once and I am happy to say that it seems they are taking action to remove the banner immediately.

here is a screen shot of the banner.

I always get a feeling of a ‘party pooper’ when I have to deal with copyright issues but as they say in ancient China; “a manzgadado what a manzgadado” :-)
what do you think? please leave a comment.

* Latest update as of this morning (21.01.2009), the banner has been removed and another, probably with some other photographer’s stolen images, has been placed instead.

]]> http://www.sephi.com/uncategorized/a-manzgadado-what-a-manzgadado/feed/ 2 http://www.sephi.com/uncategorized/a-photojournalists-point-of-view/ http://www.sephi.com/uncategorized/a-photojournalists-point-of-view/#comments Sat, 15 Nov 2008 14:45:46 +0000 sephi http://www.sephi.com/?p=299

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.

A year after the Tsunami in the Indian ocean, children in Tamil Nadu are no longer afraid of the sea.

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”? What would they say about the wedding photographer and who will they choose?
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 to be the first choice for the parents looking for a photographer to shoot the new couple’s wedding.

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 they end up with is a sad event where the couple miss the best day of their life, suffer for the sake of the pictures for the next generations to see, and get the absolute worst results. 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! :-)