The Travel Photographer on Gulf Photos Plus Festival: essential reading:

Just in case you need reminding why The Travel Photographer is the first blog on my reader:

Here are questions the organizers may want to think of. Why aren’t the talented and courageous Palestinian photographers, who risk their lives to document the daily horrors of Gaza, also invited? Why doesn’t GPP also invite some of the immensely talented Bangladeshi documentary photographers who document the impact of poverty and floods on their homeland? Why don’t you invite the Kashmiri photographers…why don’t you also invite the emerging Afghan photographers…the incredibly prolific Indian photographers? The Malaysians…the Iranians?

What’s the point in promoting the work of well-established Western photographers who already get more than their share of exposure in Europe and the United States? Aren’t the local, Mid Eastern and regional photographers also entitled to get their work exposed in Dubai? Why don’t you use Dubai as a hub to expose native and regional talent to the world? Dare to break the cycle of this addictive dependency on Western talent and promote your own…and that of your region. Yes, perhaps GPP won’t attract as many Western sponsors at first, but it will attract the best non-Western photographers…and the sponsors will return soon enough. This is the future…leave the past where it belongs.