Multimedia: The Cheese Man of Kashmir
I have been quiet lately for several reasons. First, in the most responsible for my lack of communication is I have been working frantically at redesigning a whole new blog site. A brand-new theme that will eventually integrate with Photo Shelter. At this point, there still a few bugs, but I hope to be live over this weekend. Hold your breath. The second reason, is I been working on a rather large and complicated multimedia presentation. You can find the link below.
Chris and Kamala Zandee are amazing people. They live, as the expression goes, simply so that others may simply live. Their concern is for the Gujjars, the shepherd people of Kashmir. These people, as you know are close to my heart (visit my gallery to see more photos of them). In fact, in the area where this story takes place, the Gujjars call me their “official” photographer. Their words not mine.
I met Chris and Kam years back while I was still living in Kashmir. Even then, they had a desire to give back and bless the Kashmiri and Gujjar people. Earlier this year, you will recall I went to Kashmir and while there I learned of the Zandee’s cheese factory. It sounded a little bit odd to me. So I investigated and what I found was an amazing adventure that has started to make and impact on many people in the region. I hope you enjoy this multimedia presentation I call “The Cheese Man.”
If reading the captions and listening to the narration at the same time is too confusing, there is an option to turn off the captions while viewing. You can also view the images manually, simply hit the advanced button and it stops the narration. One more thing, if you increase the type on your browser, for some reason the player does not increase proportionally and you might lose part of the image behind the player’s frame. If you want to view it larger you can either view it full screen, or follow this link. In closing, if you want to learn more about Chris and Kamala’s cheese business in Kashmir. Please visit their website himalayancheese.com.
Interesting post and quite informative for me. I checked out their cheese website and now have a hankering for cheese and crackers. They live in a part of the world I've never visited so I checked out your gallery images. I was impressed by the photos of the Gujjars, they have striking eyes and a life most of us in the west can't imagine. Thanks for sharing.
Matt, it has been rather remarkable to watch your transformation over this year from still photographer to multimedia photojournalist. (Actually, more addition than transformation as you remain a great still photographer.) This easily could be a multimedia presentation on the New York Times site, and I hope that if you aren't already that you begin to market these multimedia slideshows so that a larger audience can enjoy them.
…speaking of a “larger audience,” I agree with Jeffrey. Let's add this one to the IGVP collection, Matt!
Even though we're not driving tons of traffic to the temp site, the official site will launch soon enough–and what a great visual story to make available to all interested in visual peacemaking and world peacemakers like Chris and Kamala!
Keep this up and you'll have to do workshops on this genre someday 😉
Agree with Jeffrey that your multimedia presentations are good and these people are just amazing! They really make me feel that there's hope for humanity after all 🙂
This is awesome. I remember when we visited there on the Lumen Dei trip very cool to see his business taking off and to see the locals moving in to help take it over.
Thank you all. It is a genre that I find very fulfilling. I guess because it combines by two favorite mediums, still and audio and adds a third; story telling.
Jeffrey, if you have connections with the NYT by all means pass on the URL! 😉
Mario, Fell free to use it. Let's talk over email.
Mitchell, there is hope.
That was excellent, very well done. It's always great to see people pushing the boundaries and trying to move into new territory – both Chris and Kamala with the cheese, and you with the move into multimedia storytelling.
I'll be very interested to see how you integrate this blog with Photoshelter, as it's on my to do list for January. My site already has the Graph Paper Press theme, I just need to set up the Photoshelter side of things.
An excellent interview is the foundation of this really well-done simple show. Usually, I never make it through a show that is over 3 minutes long, but the story-telling here is very engaging. Well done Matt!
Thanks you Craig & Gary. Yeah, it was a little long, That was a concern of mine going on to this. It was really hard to cut the audio back from 25 mins. This was a tough one.
Thanks you Craig & Gary. Yeah, it was a little long, That was a concern of mine going on to this. It was really hard to cut the audio back from 25 mins. This was a tough one.
wonderful. wonderful. wonderful.
hi awesome it takes a lots of sacrifice , and i salute u guys knowing ur labour in the lord is not in vain
thanks for doing this!!! good insights abt making cheese, alleviating the lifestyle of the locals & empowering them with a finer skill!!! Can't wait to sink my teeth into those cheese!!!