Sarah Leen: NGM: POYi

Image © Jonas Bendiksen-All Rights Reserved
The 65th Annual Pictures of the Year International ("POYi") competition which is currently being judged has announced Sarah Leen/National Geographic as the first prize winner in the Magazine Picture Editing Portfolio section, with Jonas Bendiksen's photo essay on Dharavi, a slum called Mumbai's shadow city.

In my view, this is a deserved recognition for the photographer and the magazine. There are two images that I think really stand out in the photo essay...the one above, and the 8th one in the series, which is of a man hunched under an umbrella while a woman in the alley is drenched in the pouring rain, and a priest and a child are arranging a small altar. A moment frozen in time...very well captured by Jonas.

(Note: I erroneously had this photo essay as being by Sarah Leen. However, sharp-eyed Kendrick Kwok, a fellow photographer and Lightstalkers member, kindly pointed out that it was Bendiksen's. A quick search of the National Geographic website confirmed that this was indeed the case. Thank you, Kendrick.)

(Note 2: Another sharp-eyed friend and photographer, Asim Rafiqui, corrected my error in that POYi awarded the Dharavi photo for picture editing, not for the pictures of the essay. The recipient of the award is Sarah Leen, and not Jonas Bendikson, as the category 'Magazine Picture Editing' is reserved for the editors who create the best photo layouts and best use of pictures to tell a story. Many thanks, Asim!)

The photo essay Dharavi, Mumbai's Shadow City

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Anamitra Chakladar: Kolkata's Chinatown

Image © Anamitra Chakladar-All Rights Reserved
So far this week, my posts are of photographers using black & white pictures, and this suits Anamitra's work on Kolkata. Born in this city, Anamitra was expected by his parents to be a teacher or an executive, but he chose to be a photographer instead.

He joined an established newspaper as a trainee photographer, then moved on to television joining NDTV, and saw more than his share of world conflicts including the first Gulf War, the ongoing conflict over Kashmir between India and Pakistan, the coups in Nepal and Bangladesh...and getting shot at in the process.

Anamitra says that he's equally comfortable in both moving and still photography, but finds the latter therapeutic. From his website, I gather he's enamored not only by the city of his birth, but by the Taj Mahal and Delhi's Jama Masjid.

I had no idea that Kolkata has a Chinatown...its streets so well depicted by Anamitra's lens. I chose his well composed photograph of a rickshaw puller as the most illustrative of a Chinatown, although the government of West Bengal banned them in 2006. All this brings to mind the movie City of Joy and the brilliant performance by Om Puri, who acted the role of the impoverished rickshaw puller.

Anamitra Chakladar's Kolkata's Chinatown

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Anamitra Chakladar: Kolkata's Chinatown

Image © Anamitra Chakladar-All Rights Reserved
So far this week, my posts are of photographers using black & white pictures, and this suits Anamitra's work on Kolkata. Born in this city, Anamitra was expected by his parents to be a teacher or an executive, but he chose to be a photographer instead.

He joined an established newspaper as a trainee photographer, then moved on to television joining NDTV, and saw more than his share of world conflicts including the first Gulf War, the ongoing conflict over Kashmir between India and Pakistan, the coups in Nepal and Bangladesh...and getting shot at in the process.

Anamitra says that he's equally comfortable in both moving and still photography, but finds the latter therapeutic. From his website, I gather he's enamored not only by the city of his birth, but by the Taj Mahal and Delhi's Jama Masjid.

I had no idea that Kolkata has a Chinatown...its streets so well depicted by Anamitra's lens. I chose his well composed photograph of a rickshaw puller as the most illustrative of a Chinatown, although the government of West Bengal banned them in 2006. All this brings to mind the movie City of Joy and the brilliant performance by Om Puri, who acted the role of the impoverished rickshaw puller.

Anamitra Chakladar's Kolkata's Chinatown

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