Andrea Orioli | Thaipusam

Photo © Andrea Orioli-All Rights Reserved

The Thaipusam ritualistic event occurs 13 kilometres outside the Malaysian capital city, Kuala Lumpur in a sacred Hindu shrine called the Batu Caves.

The festival of Thaipusam was brought to Malaysia in the 1800s, when Indian immigrants started to work on the Malaysian rubber estates and the government offices. The festival is celebrated mostly by the Tamil community, and commemorates the occasion when Parvati gave Murugan a spear to vanquish the evil demon Soorapadam.

On the day of the festival, devotees shave their heads and undertake a pilgrimage along a set route while engaging in various acts of devotion, notably carrying various types of heavy burdens, while others may carry out acts of self mortification by piercing the skin, tongue or cheeks with skewers and sharp hooks.  The devotees perform “Kavadi”, an act of faith where they suffer the pain of dozens of hooks and spears piercing their body during the 272 steps that bring them to the cave temple.

Andrea Orioli photographed Thaipusam, and provides us with yet another view of these not-for-the-faint-of-heart rituals. He is  a biologist working in Switzerland, and has had the good fortune of traveling widely and making photographs. Far more interested in people and cultures than anything else, he's passionate about documenting endangered cultures before they disappear.

He also has featured interesting galleries on his website, including one in Sumba (Indonesia) and another in Kyrgyzstan.

Chris McGrath | Thaipusam

Photo © Chris McGrath-All Rights Reserved

I've posted about Thaipusam a few times already, but I never tire to view the varying angles and scenes that various photographers have featured on their websites.

Chris McGrath is one of the photographers who attended the version of this Hindu festival in
Singapore, rather than Malaysia where it's held annually 13 kilometres outside its capital city, Kuala Lumpur.

In Singapore though, the preparations for Thaipusam begin early in the morning at the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple in Little India where the devotees start to perform the necessary rituals. Once these done, the procession moves through central Singapore to another Hindu temple about 2 miles away. The festival occurs on the full moon during the Tamil month of Thai, which occured on February 7, 2012.

On the day of the festival, devotees shave their heads and perform various acts of devotion, notably carrying heavy burdens, and carry out acts of self mortification by piercing their skin, tongue or cheeks with skewers and sharp hooks. 

Chris McGrath is a staff photographer with Getty Images, specializing in editorial and commercial assignments. His images are published in Stern, Newsweek, Time, Sports Illustrated, The Independent, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, ESPN the magazine, The Guardian, L'Equipe and on daily news and sport websites worldwide. His work has also been recognized with many industry awards including, POYi, NPPA, CHIPP, AIPP, The Atlanta Photojournalism contest, PX3 and the New York Press Photographers Association.

Thaipusam is on my bucket-list, but until I get the time and photograph it myself, I'm happy to feature images of this festival from various other photographers.

Captain Tristram Speedy: Travel Photography At Bonhams

Why would I mention Bonhams, an auction house, on The Travel Photographer's blog?

Well, it's because Bonhams is holding an auction of a rare photographic album of 180 Ethiopian images by Julia Margaret Cameron, Felice Beato and others. These images include a number of self portraits of Captain Tristram Charles Sawyer Speedy(1836-1910), a well-known English explorer and adventurer during the Victorian era, who was also known by his Amharic name 'Báshá Félíka'.

He was a fascinating character who was an Indiana Jones of his time, with a long association with India, Ethiopia and Sudan.

Born in Meerut (India), Captain Speedy was a red-haired bearded man 6'5" tall, who learned to speak Amharic, adopted Ethiopian native dress, and was photographed by Cameron in various guises such as a Bedouin chief, a Nubian chief, a Nubian warrior and much more. He was the inspiration for a number of popular books.

I am enormously interested in news like that because it merges history, Africa, Asia, adventurism, exploration and photography. Despite my abhorrence of colonialism, I consider men such as Richard Francis Burton and now, Tristram, as quintessential eccentric explorers, as orientalists and ethnologists, and as remarkable linguists with an extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures.

They just don't make men that way anymore.

For those who don't know Julia Margaret Cameron: she was a British photographer born in Calcutta, known for her portraits of celebrities of the time. Her photographic career was short, spanning eleven years of her life (1864–1875), and got her first camera when she was 48 as a gift from her daughter.

As for Felice Beato (1832-1909), he was an Italian–British photographer, and one of the first people to take photographs in East Asia and one of the first war photographers. His work provides images of such events as the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the Second Opium War.

KL Photo.BOM: Asia By Asians

One of The Travel Photographer blog's objectives has always been to provide a modest platform to further the exposure of emerging travel and documentary photographers from all over the world, so it's a distinct pleasure to feature a slideshow of photographs by KL Foto.BOM, a collective of documentary photographers from Asia/Malaysia. The actual slideshow presentation was held at The Leica Store Malaysia, Avenue K on 2 September 2012.

The photographs/photo essays are by Andri Tambunan,  Adli Ghazali,  Maika Elan, Edward Khoo,  Lim Paik Yin, Binh Dang, Azahari Salleh, Ahsan Qureishi, Ridzki Noviansyah, Mervyn Leong, Azreen Madzlan, Izzat Yahaya, Khairil Safwan, Vignes Balasingam, Rahman Roslan, Javad Tizmaghz, and Hanif Maidin. 

Some of these photographers are alums of The Foundry Photojournalism Workshop and others of the Angkor Photo Festival...and some of both. Accomplished photographers and photojournalists, they have varying styles and different visions...but all of them are united by the common thread of creativity and dedication to their craft.

The slideshow can also be viewed directly on YouTube