Who was José Ortiz Echagüe?

José Ortiz Echagüe (Guadalajara, 1886 - Madrid, 1980)  was a Spanish Photographer, aeronautical and industrial engineer . He founded the aircraft manufacturing company Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA) and was the Honorary lifetime president of Spanish car company SEAT.

Ortiz Echagüe business management combined his passion for photography, a field in which he received prestigious international awards. His photographs were exhibited in many European capitals and in numerous American Photography magazine and  by 1935, he was one of the three best photographers in the world.

His photographic archive consists of more than 30,000 negatives. A collection of human subjects, documentaries and art and more than 1,000 large and beautiful carbón fresson  (a carbon process also known as direct carbon printing) printings, that gave his images a rather romantic or pictorialist look. Among his illustrated books should be cited Spanische Köpfe – Bilder aus Kastilien, Aragonien und Andalusien (Spanish heads – Pictures from Castile, Aragón and Andalusia) was Ortiz Echagüe’s first book . Images of Spaniards in traditional costume often photographed in historical settings.

Although this book had a print run of 15.000 it is now surprisingly rare, especially complete with dust jacket intact continue 

The Qanun: Queen of Arabic Musical Instruments

Ph: Fatima Abbadi ©
(Al Hannouneh Society for Popular Culture )

The qanun is a string instrument played either solo, or more often as part of an ensemble, in much of the Middle East, Maghreb, West Africa, Central Asia, and southeastern regions of Europe. 

The name derives from the Arabic word qanun, meaning "rule, law, norm, principle", which is itself a phonetic borrowing of the ancient Greek word 'κανών' (rule) or Latin equivalent canon (not to be confused with the European polyphonic musical style and composition technique known by the same name). 

Traditional and Classical musics executed on the qanun are based on Maqamat or Makamlar. 

As the historical relative of santur from the same geography, qanun is thought to trace its origins back to Assyria, where an ancestral homologue might have been used in 

Mesopotamian royal courts and religious ceremonies. The instrument today is a type of large zither with a thin trapezoidal soundboard that is famous for its unique melodramatic sound...continue reading

Mohammed Abdu Saleh, who was born in a suburb of Cairo in 1912, the family of the art it was his father "Alnayati" a member of the choir and Hamouli Abdo Mohammed Othman, when he was the holder of Certificate world Azhar, while his grandfather was "Alnayati" private Sultan Abdul Hamid.

Early morningPush Abdo Saleh love art that is still small _, _ no more than six years to discuss a piece of wood and copper wire and nails be "legally small", defying his father, who tried to small through art, but in vain. Especially after playing Mohammed Abdo, ..continue 

Zeina Alkhatib from Jerusalem, is a young woman shares her passion for one of the Arab world's most beautiful instruments, listen to her story.

Barcelona, blanc i negre

Xavier Miserachs i Ribalta (b. July 12, 1937 – d. August 14, 1998) was a Catalan photographer. He studied medicine at the University of Barcelona, but left school to be a photographer. He exhibited his work in Barcelona from 1956. His work is reminiscent of neorealism and is representative of the years of Spanish economic recovery, 1950-1960. His photographs show him as a creator of a new image of the city and its people. In 1998 he received the Creu de Sant Jordi of the Catalan government...continue

Barcelona, blanc i negre

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Kabardinka dance: Circassian Noble dancing

In Circassian music, there are several dances that are performed differently:

Kafa (Adyghe: Къашъо; Kabardian: Къафэ) is a piece with (4:4) time signature, and usually this piece demonstrates the relationship between the Challa (male) and the Pshasha (female), this relationship which is built out of love, cooperation and strength. Usually 'Kafa' is the main piece to be played in a 'Djagu' (a Circassian dance party) and there are more than 100 kafas written by different Circassian artists.

Wuig (Adyghe: Удж) is a piece with (8:4) time signature, and usually this piece is played before Challas are going to war, but nowadays it is played at the end of the Djagu and usually it follows this rhythm each eight time intervals a new musical phrase is introduced, and this piece may be repeated several times since more than ten different Wuigs are available.

Tleperush is a dance which originates from the Black Sea coastal area. It is a piece with (4:4) time signature, and the word "Tleperush" means "leg kick" and usually this piece is faster than Kafa and Widj, almost equal in tempo to known "Lezginka" but different in style and follows this rhythm (1&2..3&4) and this rhythm is produced by Pshina and Pxachach and Pkhetaw (a wood hitting instrument for tempo). Abkhazians have this dance too, and they call it "Apsua Koshara"

Zefauk (Kabardian: Зэфакӏу) means "approach to each other". It is a piece with (4:4) time signature, and very similar to Kafa; the word "Zefauk" means (forward and backward) and it defines how it is danced by going 4 steps forward and another four backward exactly as the Kafa but with different musical taste.

Shishan (Kabardian: Щэщэн) means "horse behaving". The dance is a fast piece with (4:4) time signature; this particular piece is played differently by pulling the Bellows of the Pshina in and out rapidly to create an Off Beat Rhythm which produces a Rhythm two times faster than its time signature, and the word shishan is a Circassian word and it is not linked to Chechen.

Tlepechas is a fast dance and it is an improvisation dance it is considered to be one of the ancient dance of the Circassians, "Tlepechas" means "stick toes in the ground" the dance is based on the Nart sagas legends that used to dance on their toes.

Zighalat (Russian: Загатлят) means "be the top". The dance is very energetic and fast, and it considered to be the fastest dance in the Caucasus. It is danced in pairs, in which the male dances fast and strong to show his skills, and the woman dances gentle but moves fast.

Hakulash means "lame man move". At the beginning it was a joke and comedy dance to make the viewers laugh, but with time it became part of the Circassian repertoire; its leg moves look like lame moves but the dance is a fast dance.

Struggle in Jerash - Jordan's first cinematographic film

"Struggle in Jerash" was Jordan's first cinematographic film dates back to 1957. Until the creation of the Royal Film Commission in 2003, there were only 7 narrative feature-length films created in Jordan. The number of Jordanian narrative feature-length films now are 24.

Ilo Battigelli il fotografo pirata

Ilo Battigelli nasce a San Daniele del Friuli nel 1922. Si trasferisce giovanissimo a Santa Margherita Ligure, dove compie l’apprendistato presso lo studio dello zio Ernesto, noto fotografo, attivo dapprima in Friuli e, dopo la Grande Guerra, alla quale partecipa nelle squadre fotografiche dell’Esercito, in Liguria.
A sedici anni, dopo una breve parentesi come gestore, nella sua città natale, della succursale dello studio fotografico bujese Barnaba, Ilo raggiunge, con la madre ed i fratelli, il padre Marziale ad Asmara, in Eritrea, allora Africa Orientale Italiana. Il giovane fotografo friulano freelance collabora con il Corriere eritreo e la Compagnia Foto Milano.

Arabia Saudita 1946-1954

Gli eventi bellici lo vedono ancora in Eritrea, dove è trattenuto come prigioniero sino al 1946 quando, assieme a numerosi connazionali si trasferisce in Arabia Saudita, dove partecipa alla costruzione degli impianti petroliferi dell’ARAMCO a Ras Tannurah. Ed è proprio nel Golfo Persico che inizia l’epopea di Ilo il Pirata, lo pseudonimo da lui scelto e mantenuto durante tutta la sua vita di fotografo professionista. Degli otto anni di soggiorno in Arabia Saudita ci rimane una serie di rare immagini di paesaggio e una vasta galleria di ritratti, da quelli dei beduini a quelli dei governanti locali.
Nel 1954 Ilo Battigelli lascia l’Arabia Saudita e inizia un lungo viaggio che lo porta in Terra Santa, in Medio Oriente, in Turchia, in Grecia, e, passando per l’Italia, negli Stati Uniti. Viaggio interrotto dalla notizia di una grave malattia della madre. Tornato in Italia, in Friuli e a Genova, dove lo zio Ernesto aveva nel frattempo trasferito la sua attività, Ilo sente però il richiamo dell’Africa e nel 1957 riprende la sua avventura trasferendosi a Salisbury in Rhodesia.
Dopo un primo periodo di ambientamento, il Pirata viene messo sotto contratto dall’IMPRESIT che sul fiume Zambesi costruisce la diga di Kariba. Ilo non si limita a documentare il capolavoro di ingegneria idraulica ma, con grande sensibilità, entra nel mondo dei Tonga e fotografa la vita degli indigeni costretti a lasciare i loro villaggi poi inondati dal bacino della diga.
A Salisbury, che ora si chiama Harare ed è la capitale dello Zimbabwe, Ilo apre nel 1960 uno studio che continua la sua attività sino al 1996.
Numerose mostre e premi nel corso degli anni ed altri riconoscimenti puntualizzano la sua attività fino a raggiungere, nel 1964, il più ambito riconoscimento alla Mostra Internazionale di New York dove su 130.000 fotografie a colori inviate da tutto il mondo si vede premiare tutte e quattro le foto presentate. Nel 1968, l’Illustrated Life Rhodesian gli dedica la copertina della rivista e un ampio servizio antologico della sua attività. Il Rhodesia Herald nel 1970 rende omaggio ai suoi 40 anni spesi al servizio della fotografia dedicandogli la pagina centrale. Nel 1980, la National gallery of Zimbabwe presenta una sua antologica di 350 fotografie....continua

Samira Tawfik: The representative of Jordanian music to the Arab world

Samira Ghastin Karamona, better known by her stage name Samira Tewfik (Arabic: سميرة توفيق‎‎ surname also spelled Tawfik, Tawfiq, Toufiq or Taoufiq) (born 25 September 1944) is a Lebanese singer who gained fame in the Arab world for her specializing in singing in the Bedouin dialect of Jordan.She has also acted in a number of Arab films.

Samira was born in the village of Umm Haratayn in the Suwayda region of Syria. She lived in the Rmeil neighborhood of Beirut, Lebanon, where her father Ghastin, who was of Armenian descent, worked as a dock laborer.As a child, she enjoyed Classical Arab music and was particularly a fan of Farid al-Atrash. She often climbed a tree at her home and sang aloud his songs. She was heard by musician Albert Ghaoui, who was impressed with her voice and asked her father to become her musical mentor. Ghaoui introduced Samira to the Egyptian musician Tawfiq Bayoumi who taught her the tawashih musical form. Bayoumi also gave her the stage name "Tawfiq" (or "Tewfik") ("Success") when he told her al-Tawfiq Min Allah (success will come with the blessing of God). Her first hit on Radio Beirut was a song originally sung by Bayoumi called Maskin Ya Qalbi Yama Tlaawat ("Oh My Heart How You Have Suffered").

She struggled for success in Lebanon,due to the highly popular competing acts of Fairuz, Sabah and Wadi al-Safi, but she excelled after basing herself in Jordan in the 1960s and 1970s. There, the Jordanian Broadcasting Authority (JBA) employed her with the request that she sing in the Bedouin dialect. The JBA trained her to sing in the local dialect in order to make her music genuinely sound Transjordanian. Her first song played by Jordanian radio was her first hit, Maskin Ya Qalbi Yama Tlaawat. Samira performed her first concert at a Jordanian village called Ainata and the following day was invited to perform at an event attended by King Hussein. King Hussein became a fan of her Bedouin tunes and mawalil. She became the representative of Jordanian music to the Arab world by singing with the rustic, Bedouin dialect...continue