Stephanie Keith | Vodou Brooklyn

Photo © Stephanie Keith-All Rights Reserved

The Guédé are the spirits of Haitian Vodou that include the powers of death and fertility. These spirits include Ghede Doubye, Ghede Linto, Ghede Loraj, Ghede Masaka, Guédé Nibo, Guédé Plumaj, Guédé Ti Malis, and Guédé Zaranye, and the festival of Fete Guédé is the Vodou religion’s version of Day of the Dead on November 2, however the Haitian spirits are more playful and lively.

Vodou believers observe Fete Guédé by laying out gifts such as homemade beeswax candles, flowers and bottles of rum stuffed with chilli peppers. It is in November that vodouists celebrate Gede, the spirit who embodies death and resurrection. Gede dances to the drums, blesses people, drinks liquor rubs talcum of his face.

Every November in Brooklyn, Guédé parties occur on weekends, and photographer Stephanie Keith entered the world of vodou by photographing these parties in the cramped basements of Canarsie, East Flatbush and Red Hook.

Stephanie Keith is an award-winning photographer/photojournalist whose work has taken her to all corners of the 5 boroughs plus the Middle East, South America and Norway. She has a degree in Anthropology from Stanford University, a certificate in photojournalism from the International Center of Photography, and received a Master’s of Photography from NYU in 2003. The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Time magazine and The Washington Post have all published her photos and photo stories. One of her photos was chosen by Time Out NY as one of the 50 most iconic photos of NYC.

The Caribbean Studies Press has just published her photos about Vodou as a book, entitled: “Vodou Brooklyn: Five Ceremonies with Mambo Marie Carmel.”

An interesting interview "The Vodou They Do in Brooklyn" describes how Ms Keith's fascination with vodou led her to these photographs and the book.

Viviana Peretti | Happy Pride

Photo © Viviana Peretti-All Rights Reserved

I was out of town so this was the second time in a row that I've missed photographing the annual New York City's Gay Pride parade. The neighborhood I live in witnesses the end of the parade, and the cornucopia of characters who participate in it, as well as those who come to watch it, provide incredible images to those photographers who prefer to shun the parade itself, and congregate in the West Village for more close and personal street photography...as I did in 2012.

That said, I'm glad to have seen Viviana Peretti's Happy Pride iPhone photographs of the event, which are much more personal than those I've seen so far of the event.

For those who don't know, June was chosen as LGBT Pride Month to commemorate the Stonewall Inn riots, which occurred at the end of June 1969. As a result, many pride events are held during this month to recognize the impact LGBT people have had in the world. The Stonewall is a gay bar at 43 Christopher Street in New York City, and is traditionally where the parade comes to its end.

Viviana Peretti is an Italian freelance photographer based in New York where in 2010 she graduated in Documentary Photography and Photojournalism from the International Center of Photography (ICP).

In 2000, after graduating Magna Cum Laude with a BA in Anthropology from the University of Rome, she moved to Colombia where she specialized in photojournalism and spent nine years working as a freelance photographer.

Viviana has received fellowships and awards from the International Center of Photography, the Joannie M. Chen Fund in New York, CNN, the Fondation Bruni-Sarkozy in France, FotoVisura, the University of Salamanca, the Spanish Embassy in Colombia, the Photo Museum in Bogota, and the Colombian Ministry of Culture. In 2010 she has been selected for the Eddie Adams Workshop, Barnstorm XXIII. In 2013-2014 Viviana has been an Artist-in-Residence at L’École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie (ENSP) in Arles, France.

Her work has been published in a number of international media outlets including The New York Times, Newsweek, BBC, CNN, L'Oeil de la Photographie, New York Magazine, Le Journal de la Photographie, and L'Espresso.

Dustin Cohen | The Shoemaker

While The Travel Photographer blog usually is travel/documentary centric and focuses on international subject matters, I am also extremely interested in photography and multimedia originating in the United States, and particularly in my city...New York City.

Vimeo recently highlighted the work of the very talented photographer/filmaker Dustin Cohen, who is based in Brooklyn.

There are a number of short documentaries on Dustin's website, and I chose to feature The Shoemaker, which is the story of a 91 year old shoemaker and repairer in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Frank Catalfumo first opened the doors to F&C Shoes in 1945 and continues to work five days a week alongside his son Michael. I also loved the background music which sounds like it's by Sidney Bechet.

Don't miss the typical Italian gesture that Frank uses at some point...he brushes under his chin to show his dismissal of a point he was talking about.

This is one of the many lives that make up the huge mosaic of New York City, and reminds me of The New York Times' terrific One in Eight Million series, which I continuously rave about.

Dustin Cohen is a film director and a photographer, living in Brooklyn and whose client list include RollingStone, Respect, Details, Elle, Inked, XXL, Billboard, AOL Music, Atlantic Records, RCA Records, Warner Music, Kodak, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, Toshiba, Ray Ban, Sperry Top-Siders, Whole Foods, Casio G-Shock Watches, Colgate, Macy's, and others.

Travis Jensen | 96 Hours In NYC

Photo © Travis Jensen. All Rights Reserved

I haven't yet done much street photography in New York City with my iPhone, spending whatever time I have roaming some of its streets instead with the M9 or the X Pro-1, but it's a tool I intend to eventually use, and use as well and as comfortably as I use my cameras.

So I was very glad to have found Travis Jensen's A New York Minute: 96 Hours in the Big Apple, a collection of candid street scenes and street portraiture made in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. The photographs were shot with an iPhone, using the Hipstamatic application’s John S. Lens and Blackeys Supergrain Film combo. No other effects were applied. The collection was featured on the Hipstamatic's iPad magazine Snap.

Travis Jensen's website has a number of lovely photo essays apart from the one of NYC, including a number of street photographs made in his adopted city of San Francisco.

He started his career as a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, and taught himself teach photography.  His photographs were primarily made through the lens of his iPhone, but he didn't really take up smartphone photography until he discovered Hipstamatic, the popular iPhone app....which I much prefer to its main competitor Instagram.

He adopted the John S lens and BlacKeys Supergrain film, and (I didn't know that)  this combo has been widely adopted by the Hipstamatic community for street photography.

You may want to view this 5 minutes video which features Travis in his element...photographing in the streets of San Francisco.

Sasson Haviv: The Jewish World

Photo © Sasson Haviv-All Rights Reserved

Sasson Haviv is an Israeli photographer, currently living in New York. He is passionate about people and their life stories, and delves into rarely seen cultures and religions through his lens.

His website galleries include photographs made in the bars of New York, of the Occupy Wall Street movement, A Sikh community kitchen, an Orthodox Jewish family, and The Jewish World; a collection of images which Sasson describes as documenting the unique Jewish Orthodox world.

In this gallery, he sought to capture the intense spirituality and beliefs of the Orthodox people, and using a mix of fine art and documentary styles, these photographs depict the traditions of an extremely devout and spiritual community. The images were taken both in Israel and New York.

NB: It's pure coincidence that my recent posts were of monochrome photography. Color will shortly return!

Narratively: Stories Of New York

Living and photographing in New York City when I'm not traveling means that projects such as Narratively never fail to turn me on.

Narratively describes itself as a digital platform devoted to original, true, and in-depth storytelling about New York, through writing, photography, documentary video, animation and interactive media. And the best is that Narratively is on the lookout for interesting stories and talented contributors.

And this sounds especially compelling:

Each week, we’ll explore a different theme about New York and publish a series of connected stories — just one a day — told in the most appropriate medium for each piece. We might feature a longform article with portrait photos on a Monday, followed by an animated documentary on Tuesday, then a photo essay, an audio piece or a short documentary film. Every story gets the space and time it needs to have an impact. We’ll bring you weeks devoted to New York’s waterways, hustlers, sexual subcultures, obscure pastimes and countless other themes.

What's not to like? So drop by Narratively's Kickstarter's page, and if the concept also turns you on, consider supporting it.