Daniel Malka's "VOYAGE"

VOYAGE The Travel Photography Art Book

2009-02-09T10:32:00.011-05:00

The reason for my long silence: finishing my book "VOYAGE".
A 260 page, 150 color plates hard cover Art book.

The Voyage takes place in magical southern Morocco, the land of hospitable Berbers, Nomads; the Sahara Desert.
An intense voyage through time, illustrated with personal emotions, thoughts and values reflected into a series of photographs and texts.
The images from the Voyage are a symbolic expression of the contrasts encountered in a magical land.
Sometimes dramatic and sometimes dreamlike, the imagery from my journey is a reflection of childhood memories, peace, harmony, friendship,freedom, beauty, love and details that compose life and humanity into a mirror shattered by lost time.

"My journey into the South of Morocco opened up a small window into the daily life, culture and land of the Berbers, while opening up a huge one onto my own forgotten world."

Some Luggage...The Canon FTb

2008-04-09T23:05:00.010-04:00

I always hated to travel with lots of luggage.
I could never understand why people had to carry so many suitcases when they went on vacation. I suppose most of the space was occupied by "what ifs"; what if it rains, what if we go here or there, what if its hot or cold, what if ... Its obvious that insecurities occupy a lot of space in people's luggage.
When I was younger, much younger, I was always impressed by the amount of equipment around the necks of reporters. Ahhh... the old heavy Nikon FM2 bodies with lenses ranging from a 24 to a 600mm and those big motor drives... It all looked so cool. Their bags filled with rolls of film: Tri-X, Ilford HP4, Agfachrome, Kodachrome, Ektachrome, ready to be loaded, underexposed, pushed...Magic and mystery at its best. As they run around, you could hear the clinking of the equipment. They were ready and prepared for all the "What ifs".
I believed that it was the only way to be a photographer; wear that suit, the same way a doctor wears a lab coat.
I was a kid then; bathing in the peace and love atmosphere to the sound of Sargent Pepper's Lonely..., Hendrix, Joplin, Baez, Crosby... the images of Kubrick, the spaghetti westerns, the injustice in Easy Rider and the cultural revolution or should I say evolution that came along with all of it.
I was reading Camus, Sartre, Flaubert, Zola, Hugo, Rimbaud...trying to understand the socio-politico-cultural climates of the past and their relation to the present.
I was fascinated by the images of Avedon, Penn, Bailey, Bourdin and of course Jean Loup Sieff, the inspiration of the black & white French generation(s).
The whole world seemed to be Nikon at the time. Maybe that is why I wanted a Canon. All my parents could afford at the time was $250.00 for my birthday, Christmas...gift, even so I don't think that they could really afford it but they did.
I bought a Canon FTb QL, with a 50mm, f1.8 lens (the 1.4 was way more expensive) and a couple of rolls of Tri-X. I still remember the smell. What an amazing camera. You could load film so fast, just because you didn't have to slide the film through any spool. That was the QL (quick load) feature.
My daughter Luna Malka (Young Travel Photographer Of The Year), shoots film with it today.
For a few of years, that was my luggage. There were no "what ifs". If I wanted a long lens, I found a way to move closer to my subject, and if I needed wider, I just moved back. If I wanted to shoot color while I had a Tri-X roll in the camera, I use to roll the film back with my ear stuck to the back listening for the film as it came unhooked. I wrote on the cassette the frame number I was at...Nothing was lost.
I learned right there and then how to live without any "what Ifs", how to travel light, and the real magic of photography, passion, guts and lots of heart.

After all, do we really need that much luggage to enjoy a journey?

Metamorphosis

2008-03-16T13:34:00.006-04:00

We all start somewhere more or less in the same manner and we all finish at the same place more or less in the same manner.

Although we can't change where we come from, we can definitely decide who we want to be and where we want to go.
As my very good friend Boris says, "Its the process that counts".
I was born on one continent, lived and studied on another one and worked on three different ones.
I am a Nomad by definition, a scientist by education (Msc.in cell biology), an artist for the rich and uncreative side of my family (the perfect excuse to ignore my existence), a humanist (not too difficult when we look around us), a romantic at heart, a story teller and a professional photographer by choice.
By choice?...What else could I do? I drink, eat, breathe and sleep photography.
I became an editorial photographer, than an an award winning advertising photographer. Yep, clients pay me the big bucks to execute the concepts of award winning or sometimes frustrated art directors (sorry guys). Its called commissioned work. I always added a "je ne sais quoi" to these images; my own style and vision. Everybody wins!
About two years ago, I suffered an emotional trauma.
Actually, I was living with one for ten years without even knowing it.
As all traumas do, it triggered a change; a metamorphosis.
I started traveling and shooting for myself, for stock, and a book.
It made me realize how much baggage I had as a photographer and how much I love sharing my knowledge, inspiration and creativity not only as a photographer but mostly as a human being using photography as a channel of creative expression.
I hope that my writing skills are good enough to express and share my journey with you, and that you enjoy it in one way or another..