I was privileged to teach a class titled Introduction To Multimedia for the third straight year at this year's Foundry Photojournalism Workshop which was held in Istanbul June20-26.

As a couple of my class attendees are in the process of shopping their projects to publishers, I'm unable to publish them until they're made public by their creators. However, I am able to show an image from each project along with a description.

The attendees were Brenda Bravo, Pierre Claquin, Yagmar Dolkun, Pedro Gomes, David Hagerman, Jeroen de Kluiver, and Roubina Margossian.

1. Brenda Bravo: Kadikoy Underground Puppetry

Photo © Brenda Bravo -All Rights Reserved
Brenda's project documented an underground puppetry group in Kadikoy, from applying their make-up to walking in the streets performing to crowds. Apart from recording ambient sound of the performances, and of the street, Brenda also narrated the piece which was titled Kadikoy's Underground Puppetry. Her subjects attended the final show wearing the same make-up they use during their walk-abouts in Kadikoy.

2. Pierre Claquin: Leaves of Tolerance

Photo © Pierre Claquin -All Rights Reserved
Pierre's project was titled Leaves of Tolerance, and documented Nick Merdeyan (the self described Lord of the Leaves) who, from a small store in Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, produced artistic masterpieces of Islamic calligraphy on leaves, dried according to a proprietary process, and sold all over the world. Merdeyan, an Armenian Turk, narrated the piece showing his Islamic, Christian and Judaic motifs using Qur'anic script, underlining the similarity of the three Abrahamic traditions.

3. Yagmar Dolkun: Live Broadcast

Photo © Yagmar Dolkun -All Rights Reserved
Yagmar's project was on CNN-Turk, which took us into the back room of the television station before going live with a sports program. Yagmar chose to produce the piece in black & white without any narration, leaving the images tell the story, and relying on a mesmerizing music loop. The project can be seen by clicking here.

4. Pedro Gomes: Esmeray

Photo © Pedro Gomes -All Rights Reserved
Pedro's project documented Esmeray, a transgendered actor, a sex worker, a feminist, a Kurd and a home-keeper. Inspired by the NY Times' series One In 8 Million, Pedro interviewed Esmeray, and followed her through the day. He photographed during her theater perfromances, at a feminist meeting and later on at her home. Pedro's wife, Asli Maci, provided the excellent voice-over narration.

5. David Hagerman: The Ferry Boats of Istanbul

Photo © David Hagerman -All Rights Reserved
David chose to document the ferry boats of Istanbul as a symbol of this city. The ferries are part of the daily life for many Istanbullu, and beyond providing a commute alternative, also provide an escape from the daily tribulations of the city. A travelogue of sorts, David used ambient sound recorded on the ferries, the sound of their motors, the din of the passengers and a couple of short interviews.... one with a young man who claimed that "girls are like grains of sand".

6. Jeroen de Kluiver: The Alevi

Photo © Jeroen de Kluiver -All Rights Reserved
Jeroen documented the Alevi in black & white project. The Alevi are a religious sub-ethnic and cultural community in Turkey. Its tradition is related to Shi'a Islam and Bektasi Sufism, and its worship takes place in assembly houses rather than mosques. Jeroen photographed and recorded a ceremony known as cem, which features music and dance and during which both women and men participate.


7. Roubina Margossian: Symbolism In Religious Tradition

Photo © Roubina Margossian -All Rights Reserved
Roubina is one of the recipients of a scholarship to attend the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop. She produced an audio slideshow titled Symbolism in Religious Tradition, focusing on a religious service in an Armenian church. Narrated by Father John of the church, Roubina's fondness for photographs of reflections is evident in the project!

Photo © Chico Sanchez-All Rights Reserved
Here's another lovely audio slideshow by Chico Sanchez, a freelance photographer based in Mexico City. Chico worked in Venezuela, collaborating with Reuters, European Pressphoto Agency, Agencia EFE, and freelances for various newspapers and magazines.

The title of this audio slideshow is The Angel.

This time, Chico documents the spiritual side of Flamenco, whose mystical, almost religious origins, are almost forgotten by the admirers of this genre of music and dance. Chico is well placed to do so...he's a native Andalucian, a musician and was involved in flamenco himself.

I would have loved to see a flip book effect in Chico's work...various shots of a dancer (or singer for that matter)...and arranged in such a way that playing the slideshow would have animated these almost-identical stills.

The well-known flamenco style of music and dance is emblematic to the culture of Spain, although it is actually native to only one region: Andalusia.

Gypsy, Sephardic, and especially Arabic musical influences are found in flamenco. For me, one of the best flamenco singers is Diego Ramón Jiménez Salazar, known as El Cigala, whose album Lagrima Negas fusing Cuban rhythms and flamenco vocals, made it an international success.

Photo © Paulette Waltz-All Rights Reserved
Here's an audio slideshow of black & white photographs of the Tibetan community in Manali by Paulette Waltz.

There are 3 Tibetan monasteries in Manali; two of which are located in the main downtown area of Manali, while the third monastery is on the opposite bank of the Beas river. In common with other Tibetan communities, there are a number of handicraft stores and restaurants. The two I frequented -while teaching at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop- was Chopsticks (not much imagination in the name, but decent and cheap food) and the delightful Peace Cafe which served a wonderful granola and yogurt breakfast, as well as noodle soup and other staples.

Paulette Waltz lives and works in Tokyo, but was born and raised near Washington, DC. She pursued Psychology at Emory University, studying in Europe and Africa. Post-graduation, she traveled Asia and lived in northeast China as well as Japan. She developed her interest in photography in Namibia, where coming across photogenic Himba women.

One of the highlights during my Tribes of South Rajasthan & Kutch Photo~Expedition™ was a few days spent photographing in Baneshwar during its annual fair, or mela.

The Baneshwar mela is popular tribal gathering held in the Dungarpur district in south Rajasthan. The gathering is followed by a fair held at a small delta formed by the river Soma and Mahi. It's a relatively modest event, without the hype and the attendance of the Kumbh Melas, but it's nevertheless a deeply religious gathering with simple and traditional rituals. Bhil and Garasia tribals come from the neighboring states of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat to offer prayers to Lord Shiva, to perform pind daan, and to socialize.

Here's Baneshwar: Pind Daan, an audio-slideshow of photographs made and ambient sound gathered during the mela. Photographed in a documentary style, I chose to process the images in black & white despite their vivid colors.

The audio-slideshow was featured in my March email newsletter sent to my subscribers.

Photo © Jon Bertelli -All Rights Reserved
Jon Bertelli is an international photographer, who currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia, but was raised in Florence and academically trained in the visual arts there and in Oslo.

He lived in Mexico in the late nineties, and documented the last surviving Zapatista fighters; the veterans of the 1910-20 Mexican Revolution of the South, led by the famed (and feared) Emiliano Zapata. While Pancho Villa's revolution was concentrated in the north of the country, Zapata and his insurgents represented the south.

Jon photographed the surviving insurgents; most of which were over 100 years old. These were idealistic men and women who sacrificed their well-being and lives to follow Zapata. Many were decorated as war heroes by the Mexican government, and some have been recognized internationally for their bravery.

You have the choice of seeing Jon's The Last of the Zapatistas on his website, or on FOTO8 where his portraits have been made into an audio-sideshow.

The audio track used is La Soldadera by Garcia-Pujol and Jimenez. While it's a beautiful and appropriately evocative piece, imagine if the audio of the elderly Zapatistas' voices, telling us a bit of their exploits, was also included!!

Photo © Amy Johansson-All Rights Reserved
Amy Johansson is a Swedish photographer, who's currently about to move from her Bangladesh base to attend an international photojournalism course at the Danish School of Media and Journalism . After completing a degree in fashion design, Amy worked as a designer for several years, until moving to Dhaka as a product developer.

Upon her taking up photography, she rapidly won awards and has been represented in numerous galleries and exhibitions, such as the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait exhibition at the London National Portrait Gallery in 2009.

Amy attended the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop last year in Manali (India) where she won the emerging photojournalist award, and also attended it in Istanbul two weeks ago.

She recently co-produced an audio slideshow titled Lethal Leather on that industry in Bangladesh, its medieval conditions and its lethal toxic consequences on its workers. It's a joint project between her and journalist Gabrielle Jönsson.