[iwanttogoback]

follow this link to the website of fazal sheikh, a photographer involved in trying to promote international human rights.

the following is taken from the website:

'FAZAL SHEIKH INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS SERIES

About Fazal Sheikh

It is one thing to photograph a group of people, it
is another to try to understand them. For that you need time, and patience, and an innate respect for difference – the gulf between your own religion, politics, economic status, language, and those of the person in front of you. Trying to bridge that gulf with a camera invites suspicion and mis-representation. But at a time when traditional photographic coverage is often limited to a brief stopover and a search for sensational images, the need to take time and represent and understand the people whose lives and values are very different from our own is greater than ever.
To travel, and to observe carefully and with sympathy the people whose lands he travels through, has been Fazal Sheikh’s practice from the beginning. Most often his work has been with displaced people driven out of their homelands by civil wars, drought and famine, struggling to survive for years in refugee camps where the traditional balance of their lives has been entirely destroyed. He has worked in camps in Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania, where people fleeing conflicts in Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Mozambique and Rwanda were gathered. In the mid-1990s he found Afghan refugees living in camps, who had fled after the Soviet invasion of their country. At the end of that decade he returned to the camps in Kenya where Somali refugees had been living for a decade. He found children he had photographed ten years before, now grown into adolescents, who knew nothing but life in the camps. Since then he has worked in Mexico, Cuba, Brazil and, most recently India, where his latest book, Moksha, examines
the lives of India’s dispossessed widows. In all these communities, the photographs that result are not dramatic nor do they attempt to shock. They are contemplative and respectful: the product of a watchful intelligence. Fazal Sheikh not only makes pictures, he interviews the people he photographs about their lives, transcripts of which appear in his books and exhibitions, to which he adds his own commentary on the people, their country, and the situation in which he finds them.
In 2000, so that this work might be more freely available, he established the International Human Rights Series, which, in collaboration with international galleries, institutions and human rights organizations, uses publications, exhibitions and the Internet to reach a much wider audience.

About the International Human Rights Series

In 2001 Fazal Sheikh conceived of a series of projects that would engage an international audience, furthering their understanding of complex human rights issues around the world. The projects would take a variety of forms – books, films, exhibitions – and be disseminated as widely as possible, using means that offered an alternative to traditional publishing and distribution. As part of the ideology behind the series, where possible the projects have been offered in their entirety on-line, where they may be read free of charge. Books are also available in bookshops at a subsidized price and for sale over the Internet. Proceeds from sales are being donated to the International Humanitarian Fund (IHF) established in conjunction with the Volkart Foundation, Switzerland, for the benefit of the communities represented.'

if you follow the links the books are available online, either to browse or to purchase. there are two about india:
   -'moksha' about the widows of vrindavan, and
   - 'ladli' which explores prejudices against young females in contemporary india.

there are also books on mexican immigrants in america, somalian refugees, afghanistan and more.

i haven't looked at them all, but the ones i have are stunning: absolutely sensational photography with accompanying text. they are also available, on line, in english and other languages. 'moksha', for example, is available in english, bengali, urdu and french.

well worth a long browse.

[priya]

I've tried a number of times to open that link, iwtgb, but I'm not having any luck.  

Anyone else having the same problem?

[iwanttogoback]

priya, there is a slideshow happening on the home page of that website, i suspect that the problem is with your internet connection speed.

unless anyone else is having problems as well, but i've opened it easily at work and home, both of which have broadband.

[Hyderabadi]

I have no problem with the site too.

Some really great B&W photographs there! Specially the faces.

I must confess though, that some of the pictures  are a bit too abstract for my taste... he makes an effort to take blurry pictures. I don't, they just happen, that may be the reason.  

[Somerset]

Very powerful combinations of images. I haven't seen something like this before. Thanks for posting it.

[jyotirmoy]

Once widows from Bengal mostly belonging to the sect of Krishna worshippers were the majority in Brindaban(Bengali spelling)... their main contribution was in the field of devotional music called "Kirtan"
But that wonderful percussion instrument "Khole" didn't travel out of Bengal in those days.

[Hyderabadi]

I like Diwan Manna's experimental photography:

Quote

A Diwan Manna photograph raises questions about itself and what it represents.

He combines images with objects, moving within a consciously chosen space in order to create a multimedia reality. Coming from a painting and theatre background his work depicts the possibility of crossing boundaries between photography, painting, acting and the body arts. He seeks to search for a sense of belonging in order to illuminate and valorize life as it is. The effort is simply to attract and enhance attention to the momentary, which is the very basis of the permanence.

He tries to come to terms with the insidious and unrecognized forms of the degradation of our sense of life and honour within ourselves as well as in others. He is not merely interested in presenting images of destruction of human goodness, courage and beauty, but tries to tap the unsuspected and as yet unrealized sources of tenderness, fortitude and humanity in us.

Diwan is a thematic photographer. His themes however do not override the aesthetics of these pictures. How he frames them, structures them and works out their textures is the source of strength of his kind of photography.

His pictures have been surprising art viewers for the last twenty years for their extra medial character.

Exhibitions of his work have been held at various prestigious art galleries and museums in Europe and India.

Galleries: http://www.diwanmann...m/galleries.php

[dzibead]

Thanks for posting this, iwtgb.  It'll be getting a long browse this weekend.

[iwanttogoback]

thanks hyderabadi, something to browse over the weekend.

[priya]

Hyderabadi, on Sep 4 2008, 05:09 PM, said:

I like Diwan Manna's experimental photography:



Galleries: http://www.diwanmann...m/galleries.php

I've been going through these images for hours, and not only are they thought provoking, but say so much.  I was impressed with his dramatic b/w imagery - especially the dhaba series.  His introductory comments in each of the series are exceptional.

(Now I'd better do some work )

[cyberhippie]

Henk Braam is a favourite of mine.

You'll find his photos HERE

[AlanD]

One of my favourite photographers working in India at the moment is Claude Renault.

You can view his photos on Flickr