It was in the centre of Delhi, a few minutes from Connaught Place. Named after Maharaja Ugersen, this baoli (well) is one of many that provided drinking water to Delhi. The emperors and kings took pains to ensure that people did not go thirsty in the scorching heat of the city. As I approached the steep old broken walls I stepped into a new space, that took me a few centuries away. Boys were diving 30-35 feet into the water below. The new skyscraper in the back formed a fitting backdrop encapsulating the Delhi of today. Modern India, merging with its ancient past.

This from Raghu Rai in the 2004 calendar published by Drik. Other photographers featured in the calendar are: Chien-Chi Chang, Diego Goldberg, Graciela Iturbide, Kishor Parekh, Lucia Chiriboga, Pablo Ortiz Monasterio, Pedro Meyer, Peter Magubane, Reza Deghati, Shahidul Alam, Tara Sosrowardoyo. Order yours now. Support the work of a wonderful photography institution in Bangladesh.

And, Happy New Year to you all!

From Shahidul Alam

Rashid Talukder's photo of the dismembered head in Rayerbazar or the Pullitzer winning image by Michel Laurent and Horst Faas, of the bayoneting of Razakars have been used to represent Bangladesh's war of liberation.

Kishor Parekh photographed a different war. An old man held up a tiny flag of the new Bangladesh. A child cast a furtive glance at a corpse in the street. Jubilant children laughed as they ran across mustard fields in bloom. Women shed silent tears. “Shoot me right now, or take me”, he had said to the major who refused to take this unaccredited photographer. But Parekh did board the helicopter, but then went his own way. On his own, with limited film, Parekh photographed the war that ordinary women, men and children had fought.

The month of December is tinged with sadness. The trauma of the killings and the disappearances that followed the 16th of December 1971, Bangladesh's Victory Day, will haunt us all. Kishor Parekh is one of the twelve outstanding southern photographers represented in the Drik 2004 calendar, out next week. Existing publications, including CD ROMs are already available in our digital kiosk.

Via Sree Sreenivasan of SAJA and several photographers and photo editors on the NPPA-L.

The intrepid photojournalist James Nachtwey and his colleague Michael Weisskopf were both hurt in a grenade attack on December 10, at about 9.30 p.m. They were traveling with US military personnel when their Humvee was assaulted.

Nachtwey, an award winning photojournalist, has covered a majority of the conflicts around the world. A documentary movie about his life, War Photographer, was nominated for an Oscar. He curiously describes himself as the anti-war photographer, hoping that the images he captures will convince the world of the sheer madness that wars ultimately are.

According to a Time press release, “Both Michael and Jim are in stable condition and awaiting transfer to a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.”

Weisskopf‘s quick thinking may have saved lives, but not his hand, as he tried to pitch the explosive out of the vehicle.

The New York Times and The Washington Post have also reported on this tragedy.

Associated Press
Dec. 11, 2003
Two Time magazine journalists wounded on patrol in Baghdad
By NIKO PRICE, Associated Press Writer

Associated Press writer Nick Wadhams, in New York, contributed to this report.

A Time magazine reporter suffered severe shrapnel wounds and lost his hand when he tried to throw away a grenade tossed into a Humvee he was riding in with a Time photographer and two U.S. soldiers, colleagues said
Thursday.

Time senior correspondent Michael Weisskopf and contributing photographer James Nachtwey were traveling with a U.S. Army patrol in Baghdad Wednesday night when the attack occurred, a statement from Time managing editor Jim
Kelly said.

The soldiers also were wounded, the U.S. military said, but gave no further information.

Time would not offer details on the incident. But a memo sent to Weisskopf's former colleagues at The Washington Post said he picked up the grenade and tossed it out of the Humvee. It exploded, blowing off his hand and wounding him in the chest and arms. The memo said Nachtwey received shrapnel wounds that were not as serious.

“According to people he works with at Time, he picked up the grenade and tossed it out, losing his right hand in the process while saving four lives,” the memo said.

A military spokesman said they were with a unit of the Army's 1st Armored Division.

The military official, who spoke only condition of anonymity, said one of the journalists was severely wounded and the other was slightly injured, but would not say which. Time said both were in stable condition and were awaiting transfer to a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.

The memo said Weisskopf's wife, Judith, had spoken with him and he was eager to return home. He was to return to Washington within a few days, the memo said.

Nachtwey is an award-winning photographer known for haunting images of war and poverty. He was the subject of a 2001 Oscar-nominated documentary, “War Photographer,” and has won many awards. This year he shared a $1
million Dan David prize for documenting “the apocalyptic events of our time.”

Weisskopf is an award-winning correspondent based in Washington. He covers national politics and investigations and was a finalist in the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.

The Paris-based World Association of Newspapers has said that at least 16 journalists have been killed in Iraq this year. Many others have beenwounded.

In the last known incident, police said the editor of an independent newspaper in the northern city of Mosul was shot and killed on Oct. 28.

From Mediabistro.com

Photographers at UC Berkeley's paper, The Daily Californian, were locked out of the paper after refusing to sign over the copyrights to their work. Read Dirk Halstead's editorial.

Shame on you UC Berkeley!

The Vagriyar tribes in South India are an ubiquitous presence – surprisingly so even in a large metropolitan city like Chennai. They lead a marginalized and eccentric lifestyle. They are hard to miss. Around temples they carry their wares and press them into the hands of visitors, hoping to make a sale. They walk around in small groups foraging for things that you and I would have casually thrown away. I remember once insisting on buying a catapult from one of them camped in Adyar. The white wood came from the trees they slept under, the rubber bands slit from strewn bicycle tires. We were told the gypsies kidnapped children, ate parrots for dinner and lived in filth.

N. Prasanna Kumar, a 24-year old award winning photographer has created a body of work documenting the lives of several of these gypsy tribes and in the process breaks some stereotypes.

I met this quiet and somewhat shy photographer with a couple of his friends at the Alliance Francaise in Chennai. Over a cup of hot lemon tea, a favorite of the locals I was told, we exchanged pleasantries and introduced ourselves. We dove into a body of work that Kumar and his friend Syed had somehow cajoled onto their two-wheeler.

The images from the Vagriyar tribes Kumar is following were the best of the lot. One can clearly see the passion for documenting this misunderstood group of people in each of those images. His images prompted me to gush out the name of another wonderful documentarian, a Magnum photographer, who has photographed gypsies in Europe – Josef Koudelka. A straight comparison of the two styles would be grossly unfair but the themes are similar.

Kumar's printing was interesting too. Some images were forcibly printed yellow or red, striking departures from the ordinary. Kumar called them “experiments.” He is a post graduate student at the College of Arts and Crafts and, presumably, has access to all sorts of nifty ideas and influences.

I have invited Prasanna Kumar to display his series on the Vagriyar tribes here on Tiffinbox. So, I do hope you will all get to see them for yourself.