Photo © Maynard Switzer -All Rights Reserved
The dances involve dozens of dancers representing figures from the animal world, male and female powers, and the after-world, while the masks represent spirits, women, midwives, witchdoctors, snakes, antelopes and other various representations.

Maynard tells me that the masks are made by boys as part of their coming of age. No outsider is allowed to see the dancers get dressed & put on their masks. The older men are dressed in dark blue, and are retired former dancers who train the new dancers.

Photo © Maynard Switzer -All Rights Reserved
The Dogon are an ethnic group living in the central plateau region of Mali, south of the Niger bend near the city of Bandiagara in the Mopti region. They are best known for their mythology, their mask dances, wooden sculpture and their architecture.

Maynard Switzer was previously featured here on this blog.

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This young Wadha girl was determined to be photographed with her pet goat. The Wadha are largely pastorals, and the particular tribe we visited are also involved in making and selling wood charcoal.

I’ve been asked about my editing workflow, and it’s a rather simple one. I initially get a quick bird’s view of my RAW images via Canon’s DPP, which is somewhat clunky, but it’s uncomplicated and I got used to it. I do have a copy of Photo Mechanic somewhere, but until I find it, DPP is it. I make my edits, choose the images I like…and convert these to TIFFs with no color correction etc. Just a simple conversion from RAW to TIFF.

I perform three edits; the first two are for horizontals only (which is what I mostly shoot), and the third is for verticals.

The processing of my TIFFs is mostly done using Lightroom 2.0, and on occasion with Photoshop.

Simple and headache-free (for me).

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PITTSBURGH, Pa. – It would be spiffy to be able to afford a $4,000 instant coffeemaker to brew top shelf java in any kitchen.

The fancy machine is one of the luxuries on display at a “dream home” installed behind black curtains at the Pittsburgh Home & Garden Show this month at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Just how dreamy these surrounds are, though, is up to interpretation.

One of the first things that catches my eye is a lifelike sculpture of a tribesman squatting on the floor of what I believe to be the master bathroom. I’m taken aback because it looks as if an unwelcome guest is doing his business on the floor of what turns out to be a mediation room.

I can see myself tripping over this thing in the night, and cannot imagine trying to find my zen in the lotus position with it staring me down.

Moments later, two women pass by with frowns on their faces.

“This is supposed to be a dream home?” one of them says. “More like a nightmare,” the other responds.

This display is the work of CJ Interior Design Studio of Pittsburgh, and it obviously put a lot of work into the details.

Yet, somehow the designers believe it is stylish to put plastic chairs beside a rustic wooden dining room table. That seems kind of cold and uninviting.

Everything else here appears to be rather expensive, down to the high-tech LED television in the bathroom.

This highbrow stuff is genius and pretentious wrapped in one fake 8-room residence. And, this probably is the wrong time for many people to tour such extravagances.

Some of my furloughed newspaper friends have yet to find full time work eight months after they received their pink slips. While this horrible recession appears to be lifting, they say there still are not any good jobs out there for them to secure.

To play it safe, I will keep my auto-drip coffeemaker that leaks from the bottom until the pot is brewed.

(The home show ends Sunday)

Tiana Markova-Gold is a documentary photographer based in Brooklyn, and graduated from the full-time Photojournalism Program at the ICP, where she was the recipient of a New York Times Scholarship. She traveled extensively in Latin America, Asia and Africa working on social documentary projects.

Her work was recognized by New York Photo Awards, PDN Photo Annual, American Photography and International Photography Awards. She also traveled throughout nine Asian countries on a photography fellowship from Johnson & Johnson, documenting various social issues.

Here, I feature Tiana’s work on Haiti which depicts scenes from Souvenance and Saut d’Eau. In Souvenance, Holy Week is marked by colorful parades and traditional music played on bamboo trumpets, maracas, drums, and even coffee cans. Voodoo believers make this annual pilgrimage to Souvenance, carrying offerings to the spirits.

Saut-d’Eau is the home of Haiti’s most celebrated patron saint, Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Vierge Miracle) whose anniversary is celebrated on July 16th. Saut-d’Eau is said to be the most important pilgrimage site in Haiti, with thousands of pilgrims participating in the festivities. Its waterfall is said to have healing powers, and song and music are part of the bathing ritual where pilgrims wash themselves covering their bodies with aromatic basil, dandelions, and perfumed soaps.

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An avalanche on Friday night caused the closure of U.S. 40 over Berthoud Pass. The snow was cleared off the road by Saturday morning, so it was business as usual for skiers and riders heading for Winter Park. A rockslide in Glenwood Canyon around midnight on Monday morning will take longer to clean up — to say nothing of road and bridge repairs.

Some 20 boulders ranging from 3 feet to 10 feet in diameter and tons of additional debris fell onto Interstate 70, created eight craters and dips, exposing the highway’s underwiring, taking out a bridge and destroying guardails. Both sides of the highway were affected. Fortunately, none came down on any vehicles traveling through the canyon, but drivers were forced to make a 160-mile detour between Glenwood Springs and Denver or elsewhere on the Front Range.

According to the Colorado Department of Transportation, the massive slide occurred on the west side of the Hanging Lake Tunnels,  where two bridges cross the Colorado River and Union Pacific Railroad tracks just west of the Shoshone Dam and the Hanging Lake trail parking area. CDOT says an average of 19,800 use Glenwood Canyon on an average day.

Other than traffic to/from Glenwood Springs, Grand Junction and points between, the biggest affect will be on skiers heading to or from Aspen from the Front Range. In summer, traffic can use Highway 82 over Independence Pass between Leadville and Aspen, but that road is not plowed out until May, and traffic must use 82 from Glenwood Springs that dead-ends in Aspen in winter.

Profiled in the same fashion is Beken, born Jean-Prosper Deauphin, who sings songs about despair and redemption that resonate deeply with Haitians, especially in its recent times of tragedy. Beken, who lost his right leg at a young age in a car accident, sings in Haiti’s troubadour tradition, and plays a guitar, connecting with his audience in songs of lament, humor and sometimes politics.

Singing The Suffering of Haiti is the title of the multimedia piece, and is narrated quite well by the author of the newspaper article, Simon Romero. Since I would have preferred a little less narration and more song, I would have used Beken’s voice-over in Haitian, with the voice of a translator here and there. Notwithstanding, a well paced multimedia piece.

Haitian Singer and His Guitar Fight Urge to Weep is the article by Romero.

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The event titled Man With A Camera: An Illustrated Conversation With Peter Turnley is sponsored by the Williams Club and the Jeffrey O. Jones ‘66 Journalism Fellowship, which was established last year by a group of friends, classmates, and family of Jeff Jones, to honor his memory and celebrate the profession he practiced with distinction over the course of his lifetime.

Peter Turnley has photographed world conflicts in the Balkans (Bosnia), Somalia, Rwanda, South Africa, Chechnya, Haiti, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq (2003), the Gulf War (1991), and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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Dad, mum and I. Dressed for success.

Yesterday was the international womens day! Hip hip hurrah for women, and my mother in particular. Here’s a flower to you.