Blog: Rajasthan, India – Images by Art Wolfe
Rajasthan > Jodhpur > Manvar > Kichan > Thar Desert
On the last several days of our trip, we visited the region of Rajasthan and a small village near Manvar. Here is a glimpse of village life. Beautiful children and colorful homes show us the rich lives these people lead in the Thar desert.
I love the details they adorn their homes with and the roofs made from local materials.
BLOG: On Location in India, January 2011 – Images by Art Wolfe
India’s diversity surprises you with great images. We found women beautifully dressed in bright colors, yet carrying dung on their heads for cooking and heating their homes. Ancient erotic art adorns temples. How interesting from a culture that doesn’t allow on-screen kissing in their very large and popular movie industry. Ceremonies along the Ganges, celebrate light and life with the poorest of the poor. City life and country life are expressive via the lives of the people and animals. Even a savvy street dog is found suckling from a sacred cow.
Damoiselle cranes could easily fit into the pages of my book titled Migrations. It is a never ending theme of fascination, beauty and the power of nature that arroused me once again. These beautiful graceful creatures in large numbers are an experience that I love to revisit and watch those that are witnessing this phenomenon for the first time.
BLOG: Varanasi January 2011 II – Images by Art Wolfe
After a day of seriously photographing local color, which is hugely significant in Varanasi and India as a whole, we attended an aarti ceremony during which light is offered to deities.
BLOG: Varanasi January 2011 – Images by Art Wolfe
Art is leading a photo workshop in India for two weeks and he’s starting to send back photos! This first batch was taken on the ghats of Varanasi. It is the holiest city in Hinduism and has been a cultural and religious center for thousands of years. A ghat is a set of stairs leading to a holy body of water, in this case, the Ganges. Some are public, some private; some are used for ritual bathing or cremation, while others are used for quotidian uses such as laundry. Whatever the use, they are always a center of colorful display—even the reflections in the water are beautiful!
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Before the New York Times picked them as their best places, we did for workshop locations for 2011:
April 22-24, 2011
BLOG: Olympic National Park – Images by Art Wolfe
July 4 to July 13, 2011
Story Set: Iceland – Images by Art Wolfe
2010 started off with successful workshops in Southeast Asia.
I had special photo shoots for Epson and local Seattle television, as well as a pledge for Oregon Public Broadcasting. I emceed a very profitable fundraising event for the Puget Soundkeepers Alliance, an organization that is working hard to keep the Puget Sound a viable and functioning ecosystem.
The International Conservation Photography Awards were kicked off with a special event at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall and then opened to great applause at the Burke Museum, which will host the event again in 2012.
I had gallery openings at the G2 in California and the Saxton Gallery in Ohio. In my own gallery I opened the show “Unbridled”, featuring beautiful oversized prints of horses.
Throughout the year education continued to be a focus, with the Art of Composition tour and a four day workshop in the Grand Tetons. I taught a session at the Welt der Wunder Festival in Germany as well.
Wherever I went, I shot: New York, California, at home in Washington State, including the Pride Parades in Seattle and Vancouver, BC.
Hinduism’s massive festival, the Kumbh Mela, was in Haridwar this year. It was a crush of millions of people, it was oppressively hot, and infinitely fascinating and life-affirming.
In 2010 my public television show Travels to the Edge won five Telly Awards for excellence, and in October the Photographic Society of America honored me with the Progress Medal Award. Outdoor Photographer magazine thrilled me by using my photo of the French Alps as the 25th anniversary cover. Outdoor Photography magazine in the UK lauded me and 39 of the best nature photographers in the world for our conservation work.
I finished the year in Michoacan, Mexico, photographing the Day of the Dead festival for the first time and then headed off to Antarctica for the umpteenth time in December.
I wish everyone a healthy & prosperous 2011!
I just returned from another eventful and gut-wrenching Antarctica sailing. I was one of the few not affected by seasickness in the brutal crossing of the Drake Passage.
This was a very lucky trip. We managed to dodge two major storms, one of which disabled the boat I sailed on last year. When we returned to South America, there were tours and boats backed up waiting for a break in the weather.
While waiting to embark the Ushuaia in Ushuaia, I photographed psychedelic macros of peeling paint on metal buildings and the next day we were at sea heading to Half Moon Island in the South Shetlands, and then on to the Lemaire Channel and other ice-bound islets. On one of our exploratorations off the boat I saw young Gentoo penguins play-acting nesting behavior. They were trying to “hatch” rocks and build nests.
Take a look & enjoy!
NEW! Antarctica – Images by Art Wolfe
For years I resisted going to India. When I was shooting for my book The Living Wild, I realized that tigers were a critical animal I needed to photograph. In March 1999 I went to Ranthambhore National Park and since then I have been back to India more times than I can count. It has become one of my favorite countries to photograph in—the colors, festivals, wildlife, and ancient traditions are astounding and enchanting.
To track tigers you venture out on elephant-back with a mahout. Photographing from an elephant is difficult at best but a necessary challenge. The forest is alive with birdsong and then suddenly you hear it: the spirited, scolding call of the hanuman langur, meaning a tiger or even a leopard is near. These ever-alert primates are the eyes and ears of guides and researchers alike.
I have never been so excited as to see a tiger in the wild. There is really nothing like it and the experience never grows old. Experience it for yourself and travel with me to India in January. There are three spots left for this marvelous trip.
BLOG: On Location with Tigers – Images by Art Wolfe
A gallery of images by Vietnam workshop participants Elaine Nakamura & Steve Reeves.
