Maoist Chairman, 'Prachanda', on May Day, Ratna Park, Kathmandu, Nepal

Maoist Supporters at Ratna Park on May Day, Kathmandu, Nepal

Maoist Chairman, 'Prachanda' adressing the crowd in Ratna Park on May Day, Kathmandu, Nepal

Cultural Performances during Maoists' May Day gathering, Ratna Park, Kathmandu, Nepal

Maoist crowd at Ratna Park during May Day demonstrations, Kathmandu, Nepal

The following few photos are a sample of my first month in Nepal. The rate of festivals in Nepal, political, religious, public and private  events is somewhat overwhelming for the senses. This is a random selection of a few moments scattered throughout the month, from Hindu’s Shivaratri to Lhosar, the Lunar New Year celebrations held by the large Tibetan diaspora in Nepal a few days ago via  to Buffalo preparation that amazed me during my first week here. Features ‘Trash Town‘ and ‘Water Valley‘, are longer term endeavours on the challenges Nepal is facing on security, governance and environmental levels.

For more in-depth coverage, please visit WwW. STIGMATPHOTO.CoM

Sadhu on Shivaratri

Boudha, KTM, Nepal on Lunar New Year Day

Patan Durbar Square

Preparing Buffalo meet

Friends at Sundhara Tole

Sundhara Tea House

Trash Town

Water Valley

Water Valley

Kids at Mahabudha, Patan, Nepal

Rooftop View

Wedding Season in Nepal

Wedding Season in Nepal

The past months have been busy, to say the least. In a mashed sum up of my errands, I’ve been able, most importantly, to complete my M.A. program at the Center for International Studies and Diplomacy (CISD) at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London.  Also related to academia, I have continued to work with Professor Kimball (Laval) and been assisting Professor Rao (SOAS), I have also attended the DSEI in London, while continuing to translate for IANSA. I will also be heading to Nepal in January 2010 to work with the UNRCPD in Kathmandu and I am truly thrilled by this opportunity.

On Photojournalism, it has been a spectacular year for Stigmat Photo. The young enterprise is still growing strong and expanding its network overseas while diversifying its work and social involvement at home. Thanks to the enthusiastic support from OFQJ and LOJIQ, we recently traveled to Perpignan with the Stigmat Photo crew for a second consecutive year, to attend and present our work at Visa Pour l’Image . Also,thanks to Karim, AC-Press and Out of Paris Photo,  my work and Renaud Philippe’s has been been presented at the ‘Assises internationales du Journalisme et de l’Information / International Conference on Journalism and Information, co-organized by the European Council,

In a series of posts I’ll review a few notable things of the last months and present what’s coming up on a personal side as well as for Stigmat Photo. I have now traveled back to Canada for a few months leaving London behind, only for a short while. Welcome back on www.davidbrulotte.com

And while it is much waited for, it doesn’t seem in the end that the infamous Indian Summer is in sight. unfortunately. here’s a cheesy snap to compensate.

Classic Cheesy Shot

First, Stigmat Photo won a prize from the Youth International Office of Quebec (Office Jeunesse Internationaux du Quebec OJIQ) for it’s developmemnt and involvemnent on the internaitonal scene, especially from its participation at Visa Pour l’Image in Perpignan in 2008.

Philippe Ruel, Larry Rochefort and Renaud Philippe receiving the Communication Award from Mr. Francois Alabrune, Consul of France to Quebec

Moreover, the work and business development of Stigmat Photo was highlighted by an award offfered by “Le Soleil” newspaper in Quebec City in an article published on Sunday the 28th of June 2009.

Larry Rochefort, Renaud Philippe and Philippe Ruel / Photo by Erick Labbe as published in Le Soleil

Also, Radio-Canada has also interviewd the members of Stigmat that are based in Quebec City at the moment and will air the interview at the evening news program “Le telejournal” on Sunday 28th.

The last but definitly not the least,  Stigmat Photo received a grant from OFQJ to be able to return to Perpignan and attend Visa Pour l’Image in 2009 coupled with a grant from Bombardier. That’s a lot of good news, to say the least, for the Agency.

Les Offices Jeunesse Internationaux du Quebec

Fondation Bombardier

Stigmat Photo in Perpignan 2008

On my part, I am heading back to Quebec, Canada tomorrow for a three week break and some study and photo related work!

Today opens at Science Po Lille (Institut d’Études Politiques de Lille) an exhibition that I have been working on for a few months and which will expand and develop over the next three years, via the INFOCON-Project, steered by the Internationalist Foundation

“Here and There” is seeking a better understanding of the relationship between diaspora communities and their home counties sometimes affected by conflicts or tensions, internal or external. This exhibit is part of the first of three conference cycles  organized via the INFOCON project in order to better disseminate the findings and trends the research has so far laid out. The is therefore the debut of an exploration, a project very close to the people, their emotions and sometimes their sensitivities. It  promises to bring great photographic result, maybe with only subtle visual impact, but most importantly with deep, personal perspectives on human beings, their experiences and their evolution moving across borders in our ever more integrated world. I have thus explored various Diasporas in London and abroad and will continue to work with them in the next two years along with the academic research being carried on.  With the help of close friends in London, I have been able to get in touch with Rwandas, Iraqis, Kurds, Moldovan and,  with the help of my great friend and colleague Renaud Philippe from Stigmat Photo, with various actors of the Tibetan community in London and India.

As this is an evolving project you are very much encouraged to leave comments and suggestions hereafter.

* The exhibit will be on display at Science Po Lille until May the 14th, the conference taking place on the 6th and 7th.

Ambassador Gatete of Rwanda in his London office, in front of Rwandan President Paul Kagame's portrait

Ambassador Gatete of Rwanda in his London office

15 years on - Commemoration of the Rwandan Genocide, London

Prayer and sermon at the Commemoration of the Rwandan Genocide, London

Commemoration of the Rwandan Genocide, London

نوروز (Nowrūz) celebration, display of Abdullah Öcalan portrait, London

نوروز (Nowrūz) celebration, Mr. Omed Ali, a Kurd from Iraq celebrating at Trafalgar Square, London

Oula Kadhum has been living in the UK since the 1st Gulf War and returned to Iraq for the first time in 19 years last April (09). She is now a post-grad student at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) London and her research focuses on the impact of the 2003 Iraqi occupation on womens rights

Members of the Moldovan Diaspora in London against the communist party running for election in Moldova

Dechen Pemba. UK born Tibetan was deported from China for dubious reasons, only a few weeks before the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She had been living in China for two years, learning Mandarin.

Tenzin Tsundue Tibetan political activist and poet, born in Indian and very active for the Tibetan both in Tibet and on the international scene

Paldem Gyatso is a Buddhist monk who was jailed for 33 years in China. He now tells his story in conferences around the world displaying some of the torture material he stole from jail

Lhasang Tsering one of the first Tibetan refugee to migrate to India, at the age of 7

Special meeting of the Tibetan Diaspora in Dharamsala, India, initiated by the Dalaï-Lama, but from which he was voluntarily absent

Producing a visual documentary along the research lines as so far proved to be a fascinating and a delicate experience. As a platform, London has been fruitful to explore various angles of this project. Nooruz (Persian New Year) was celebrated a few weeks ago in Trafalgar Square. While not the main purpose of the festivities, the social gathering nevertheless reunited Kurds from many Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria.

Also,  Tuesday the 7th of April will mark 15th year since the Genocide took place in Rwanda. While remaining an understandably highly sensitive issue, a few events will take place in London and elsewhere to commemorate the atrocious anniversary. Survivors Fund (SURF) and Hope Survivors Foundation in collaboration with Amnesty International UK recently held an event for the 15th Anniversary commemoration of the Rwandan genocide. I have also been invited to attend an event organized by the Embassy of the Republic of Rwanda on Tuesday to further the work on this aspect of the project.

This is therefore an ongoing photographic project which will cover a larger spectrum and greater number of diasporic communities and actors.

H.E. Claver Gatete Ambassador of Rwanda to the UK, Ireland and the Nordic Countries

The first of April hasn’t fooled the London Transport and Metropolitan Police nor the broader law enforcement teams in London.

Readied for mayhem on the streets of London, the enforcement agencies of the Capital City were prepared to intervene and contain the thousands of protesters that flocked to the streets, a day before the world leaders met at for the London Summit / G20 in the UK. Some violence has been reported, as expected:  RBS was stormed in the afternoon, windows broken, rubbish fires lit up in the streets, graffiti on walls, but also music, tam tam jam and the sustained smell of hops and herbs in the air.

Pick your protest: With several protests going on at the same time, raging against climate change, the economic crisis, poverty, war and many other societal sins, the pick was hard for citizens to demonstrate. However numerous the protests were, the police enforcement forces had been deployed all over the city.

I had the intention to navigate through a few protests, but never had the chance to do so. I started, and ended, in front of the Bank of England. The sun was out and it was a good day for a social gathering of this scale. After the march had reached the square adjacent to the financial institution, the rest of the day was mostly spent walking in circles, hitting, one at a time, a barrage of police officers and riot personnel that would block any issues to the marching groups.  At this point, people could still make their way out of the area at will.

Cowboy Cops: 5pm marked a turning point in the group control techniques. While the protesters were still agitated, not much damage or violence was being perpetrated. Again, this is relative, but compared to the hundreds of shop windows, cars, telephone booth and other public and private goods that the French had mutilated in 2006 during the CPE protest, I was rather surprised to see the main group of protesters yelling at the police and pushing them, while being right next to the unprotected, still immaculate HSBC Bank. This was indicative of the loose ideology, as it often is, that characterised the group cohesion on April 1st. The police kept the protesters, journalists, elders (yes, met a 72 year old couple) and everyone else entrapped for 2 hours not letting anyone out.  The ‘kettle’ technique, consisting of blocking all possible issues hermetically, has been obviously criticized and made the end of the day a nightmare for many. By 8.00PM, the police started letting people out: 1 per minute for an hour. I was able to leave with a more regular flow of people by 9.20PM.

Photos: While the so called ‘anarchist’ make the front pages, I decided to focus some of my attention to various portraits in the crowd and talk to people. Among the many encounters, I met two ‘punks’ (Photo #4) bored out of their minds on the margins of the protests, who were actually from Oxford and on their way to the British Museum to see the Shah ‘Abbas exhibit. How deceiving can the appearances be. Some of the later photos are slightly graphic. I had a few of those which would probably be well suited for spot news, but decided to cover a wider range of photojournalism on this day.

Personal Nota Bene: Thanks to the scale of the event, the availability of digital equipment of increasing performance and quality,  and maybe to the drive for ‘extreme’ experience,  it seemed that me that their were as many photo/video – graphers as protesters. Biased this opinion surely is but the level had dramatically increased in comparison to 2006, when I covered the riots in France against the CPE, and in Singapore for the IMF/World Bank meetings. Needless to say that the emancipation of social media tools bolsters this growth, which, in my view, can only benefit the profession: Need for new angles, new ideas and new ways of approaching the fast paced world of news.

G20 Protests, Bank of England, London, 1st of April 2009

G20 Protests, Bank of England, London, 1st of April 2009

G20 Protests, Bank of England, London, 1st of April 2009, Well organized protesters had brought some personal entertainment

G20 Protests, Bank of England, London, 1st of April 2009

The Police used the 'kettle technique' to contain the masses and 'jail' the demonstrators in front of the Bank of England.

G20 Protests, Bank of England, London, 1st of April 2009

G20 Protests, Bank of England, London, 1st of April 2009, while rather peaceful as a whole, some protesters had a try at the rather robust police equipment, and their less so robust patience

G20 Protests, Bank of England, London, 1st of April 2009: badly hurt person. One person died at the manifestations. The cause of the death is not directly linked with the clash between the police and protesters***.

This series is a comeback on the 61st Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group (WB), held in Singapore from the 11ht to the 16th of September 2006. A record number of over 20,000 delegates and about 300 finance ministers attended. With the high rollers of international finance gathered in aseptic Singapore, many CSO members and listed protesters were banned from entering the country or were never delivered an entry visa. Many held protests and demonstrations in neighbouring Indonesia, in a sidelined CSO summit.

Photo caption: Coming to this finance festival with a certain amount of scepticism towards the while venture, this photo of Paul Wolfowitz was taken in a conference on fighting corruption, [...] It is widely documented that He had made the fight against corruption a foremost objective while in post at the WB. Wolfowitz resigned from the WB after allegations of ‘patronage’ over a disproportionate salary increase accorded to Shaha Ali Riza, at the time involved in an extramarital  relationship with Wolfowitz.

Paul Wolfowitz

HE Masoud Barzani was elected the first president of the Kurdistan Region by the Kurdistan National Assembly in June 2005 and has been leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party since 1979.

Over my shoulder: FT Readers waiting for HE President Barzani to arrive

HE President Masoud Barzani