Zubin Pastakia is a documentary photographer and urban researcher living and working in Mumbai.

In 2006 he began working on a series looking at single-screen cinema halls in Mumbai. The project was initially supported by a fellowship from SARAI-CSDS and was awarded the TOTO Funds the Arts Award for Photography in 2008. The intention is to exhibit and compile the work into a photobook in the near future.

His other photographic project looks at the built environment of Mumbai. Focusing on slum rehabilitation projects, housing colonies of different social classes, peripheries of new business centers, suburban townships, sites of environmental degradation and open spaces that are pending development, the project takes a critical look at the forces that are shaping the city’s constant metamorphosis. Still in progress, the series has been supported by a grant from the India Habitat Centre. Some of the work from this project has been exhibited in group shows by Tasveer Gallery.

Zubin freelances for various publications and also photographs for architects and interior designers.

And, yes, the prints are for sale. Contact Zubin for more information.

If you have questions for Zubin, post them in the comments section below. I am sure he looks forward to hearing from you.

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You’ve got literally 7 seconds to capture your audience on your website. Do you hook ‘em or do you flick ‘em?

Tyler Garns heads up Think Big Art, a company that’s sole goal is to help photographers like myself market our services better to our clients. He is currently developing a photography marketing course called OVER[Exposure].

To be fair and open, I must tell you that I have entered into a partnership with him because what he has developed so far is rock solid information that I have found to be very useful for my documentary wedding photography business. What I am about to present to you has affiliate links but let that not deter you into at least checking this out. I think it is amazing that Tyler has come up with a tool to assess your website.

The tool allows visitors to look at your site for 7 seconds only and then give you feedback on the message that you’re conveying. I think you’ll be shocked at the results! Try it now!

The 7-second Test

Every time someone takes the 7 Second Test and reviews your site, you’ll get an email with their feedback (the emails will be slightly delayed). Review them carefully and consider changing your homepage so the message that is received is the message you want to convey.

You’re missing out big time on capturing the attention of your visitors and getting them to engage if you don’t nail the first 7 seconds of their visit. Use this tool to test your site. You can submit up to 3 websites if you desire.

Check out the 7 Second Test now.

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Like so many photographers I “meet” today, Matt Brandon and I came to know of each other thanks to Twitter. His passion for photography, people and travel intrigued me. Scanning his blog one day, I stumbled upon the beautiful multimedia show you see below on Bangla Sahib. What I liked most about this slideshow was Matt’s use of ambient sound and interviews as we are taken through the lives of those who visit this beautiful Gurudwara (a Sikh temple).

Matt Brandon has a special eye for portraits of people set in their natural environment. He photographs images of the forgotten, the unknown and the helpless. He shoots beauty and sees it everywhere. The beauty in the eyes of a seven year old street girl of Old Delhi, an eighty year old shepherdess in the Himalaya. He sees the beauty in the face of the over worked 60 year old Indonesian farmer or the Buddhist monk Cambodia. He sees value in telling their story. These are stories that most people would over look. The cultures of the “other part” of the world have a special draw for him, ever since he was a child in Alaska.

Matt spent over thirteen years living in India and now resides with his family in Malaysia. He shoots often for international faith based NGOs and non-profits. He takes assignments regularly. Matt’s images have been used by international clients such as Partner Aid International, NeighborWorks, the BBC, Honda Motor Corporation, and the Bombadier Transport Corporation. If you are looking for a photographer for your next assignment, no matter where, please give Matt a call or email him.

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You are a photographer and you have heard that social media sites can help you increase your business, but how, and which ones? Many of you are probably already using Twitter but have you heard of Squidoo, and how it can be beneficial to you and your business?

What is Squidoo and how can it help your Photography Business?

Megan Casey, Editor in Chief and one of the Founding Members of Squidoo states:

“Squidoo is the popular publishing platform and community that makes it easy for you to create “lenses” online. Lenses are pages, kind of like flyers or signposts or overview articles, that gather everything you know about your topic of interest–and snap it all into focus.”

Marketing your Photography Business with Squidoo

Since you’ve mastered your photography niche you know it was work. It took time and work to learn the artistic and technical aspects of photography, as well as how to market yourself and your skills.

Squidoo is the same thing, it will take work, but it is a great way to market yourself and your photography skills. You can get an idea of some of the Lenses written about photography here. How you use this great platform is up to you, but many people actually make money from the lenses they build.

How Squidoo can help you Market your Photography?

1. First you have to sign up

2. Write about what you have experience in and what your target market is interested in.

3. You can write specifically for your zip code –Google will find you, and so will your customers.

4. People go to Squidoo and use the Search Button to find lenses on the subject they are interested in; why not let them find you?

5. You can search for topics similar to yours, and by including that lens (article) you are giving your readers a variety of information which is good for business, and helps you get known in the community.

6. If you use Flickr to showcase your photos, then you can easily move sets, or individual photos onto your Squidoo Lens. (tag the pictures first for Google). Here is a good Squidoo Lens that explains Flickr, and an idea of how to use your knowledge to make a Lens.

7. Just as in blogging, original content works best. Write about what you know or are passionate about, from your perspective. Give people a reason to read your content and call you. You are building relationships which again can translate into business.

8. Use your Squidoo Lenses to link to your other sites, or photos – better Google Juice for you.

9. There are different Modules, like Amazon or Ebay, that allow you to monetize your lens. You can sell your own work, or others.

10. And last but not least is people do business with people that are like them, and that they trust. Participating in the Squidoo community helps you let people know more about you, and vice versa.

Here again is the link to sign up for Squidoo. Go ahead, what do you have to lose?

This post was guest authored by Kathy McGraw. Visit her blog. Follow her on Twitter. She is an awesome resource on all thing Squidoo.

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It was a magazine clipping that my mother handed me on my way back to the US that first introduced me to Homai Vyarawalla, India’s first woman photojournalist. In a field that is clearly overrun by men, I was easily charmed by her tenacity and resolve to also bear witness to India’s first waking moments as an independent nation.

Check out this film – it’s rather long at 70 minutes – to get acquainted with a legend in the field of photojournalism.

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

Post your thoughts below in the comments section. I look forward to hearing from you.

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What do you make of this advertisement? Like anything I know there are two sides to this story. What have you heard? I want to know. Yes, the natural environment must be protected. Yes, the nation’s progress depends on manufacturing, jobs, infrastructure etc. But who has done a cost-benefit analysis here? Is there an environmental report somehwer that is free of jargon and easy to understand by the lay person? Do we give a shit one way or another?

Here is your chance to speak up. Tell me. Tell us. Keep the language clean and the discussion civil. And, when you do comment, please use your REAL name, a real email address and if you have a website, a real URL. If you are going to want to remain anonymous, I am afraid your comment will be deleted. Sorry!

Now, speak!

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My wife’s grandma passed away in January. Read about her and check out some images I made of her on a 2006 trip to Bangalore, India.

I am on Twitter and I think you should follow me.

Remember darkrooms? Yeah, the ones that you lost yourselves in for hours/days on end inhaling those amazingly toxic chemicals. I know, they are all but gone. Well, Richard Nicholson, a British photographer has gone and documented the last remaining darkrooms in England.

Tewfic El-Sawy, aka. The Travel Photog, recommends you check out The Foundry Photojournalism Workshop. This time it is in Manali, India from July 26 – August 1, 2009. And, yes, I would LOVE to teach there.

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My mother gave kisses like satin and embraces like warm honey. Making Punjabi-style home-made yogurt every evening was a religious practice for her. I would hover, eye-level with the kitchen counter, and gawk in awe at her magical hands that never spilled a drop. With those same bare fingers, she would flip oily, gritty and hot parathas. One time in Randall’s (a chain grocery store in Texas), in the soda aisle, someone accidentally put an eggplant on top of a 24-pack of Pepsi. It looked so out of context, so unabashedly “eggplant” amongst rows of sodas, that it spurred giggle after giggle after giggle from my mother. (Of course, my mom didn’t see the eggplant but rather baigan bharta!)

Many called her Nancy, instead of her Indian name, Neroo.  She and I are inextricably linked through the times I skipped school to create ‘busy’ tasks for her; through the times I bought her bunches of her favorite bananas and playfully called her a monkey, just to see her laugh; through the times I would stand in her hospital room and just hold her in my arms, oftentimes only letting go when she told me I was suffocating her. We are linked through the drops of coconut oil she rubbed into my hair as a child, and through the drops of coconut oil I rubbed into her hair as an adult.

Coming from India in the late 60’s, my mother found herself lost in America, in a country where she couldn’t find cumin seeds and where people didn’t sleep on rooftops during summer. The story is one which has been now immortalized in books, movies, our memories, and our childhood of mothers who always wore saris to birthday parties of our white or brown friends from school.

The rest of her story has yet to be documented, has yet to be said. In what’s proving not to be such a rarity anymore for Indian families in the U.S., my father’s sudden departure from the family when I was 8 triggered severe symptoms of depression in my mother. This, combined with a complicated, abusive and rather hateful relationship with her own family, eventually morphed into biploar disorder -manifesting itself through hysteria episodes, hospitalizations, screaming, fights, multi-car trains of non-logic, and numerous suicide attempts. 

Since my pre-teens, I provided care for my mother. I tried finding creative solutions, taking great joy in the small victories, tried every resource I had at my disposal. I knew she was battling something larger than her, but her condition was not recognized by members of her Indian family and close friends in the South Asian community. This pitted me in complete disagreement with my mother’s family. Mental illness carried a stigma, it was an “American” problem, it wasn’t a real condition.

My father was often held at blame, I was often held at blame for her condition, being told my nontraditional choices and lifestyle left my mother in an “extreme sadness.” What were my nontraditional choices? Choosing to leave Texas when I felt my mom could take care of herself, opting for travel in the world instead of staying in Texas, choosing colorful boyfriends over marriage. Their medium of blame was a simplistic and dismissive answer to a complicated issue. My mother’s mental illness fell silent to her traditional family, to the South Asian community and prey to the stigma – the problem did not exist, so how could the solutions?

In 2006, my mother’s hallucinatory break-down and months of hospitalization led to her sudden and unexpected passing. It didn’t have to get to that point.

In the summer of 2008, I realized I had something to SAY. I knew the residual pain and isolation from my mother’s loss to bipolar disorder was so profound that if I didn’t channel it towards positive means, it would destroy me. So, in July 2008, I started SAY Campaign, to recognize and legitimize the fight against mental illness within the South Asian diaspora community (Check this YouTube video as well). There are hundreds more individuals in the South Asian community in the U.S. like my mother who, due to the stigma and lack of recognition, do not receive proper care. I am hoping by saying my mother’s story, sharing my story as a caretaker, it will be a catalyst for others to say their story and begin to chip away at the stigma.

I have something to SAY and I know others do as well. Join us, and South Asian artists and supporters Midival Punditz and Karsh Kale, in the SAY Campaign. Please keep an eye (or ear) out for concerts showcasing SAY Campaign with Midival Punditz and Karsh Kale in Spring 2009. Feel free to contact me at: graj@saycampaign.com

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Geeta approached me a couple of months back about blogging in this space. Tiffinbox is and probably will always be a labor of love and as my “online” baby, it was hard to open the front door and just let anyone post here. I was also transitioning Tiffinbox from a Typepad platform to WordPress, so I was able to stall the progression of events. All jokes aside, I exchanged multiple emails with Geeta to get a sense of who she is and what she wanted to say here. I was quickly convinced that Geeta would bring a very different perspective to Tiffinbox.

In her own words:

Geeta is new to blogging – she decided to start officially blogging after she realized the 5-paragraph messages she emailed her friends every day were essentially blog postings. Geeta works in humanitarian assistance and international development in Washington, DC, but has spent the better part of the last 10 years working in England, the Balkans, and Afghanistan. Her most passionate love is writing – you’ll often find Geeta balancing her time between her profession (which she strongly believes in) and her need to write for self-preservation and self-growth. Geeta holds a BA in Creative Writing and a MA in International Peace and Conflict Resolution and is giggly, intensely curious, and enjoys reading Paul Auster and Yusef Komunyakaa. A little more about her is at: www.idropseeds.wordpress.com. She is also the Founder of The Global Sleepover.

Please help me make Geeta welcome and at home here at Tiffinbox. I know her posts are going to instruct, inspire and perhaps even incite you into positive action.

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I wanted to quickly mention two photography contests/grants that you should consider applying. The first is called Name Your Dream Assignment with a deadline of March 3, 2009. The other is called Emerging Photographers Fund, and is hosted at David Allan Harvey’s burn magazine. That deadline is March 15, 2009. Good luck to all the applicants.

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