Entroido Entrimo 2012

Carn iva l i s a very remarkab le t r ad i t i ona l ce leb ra t i on i n the nor thwes t o f Spa in . I t i s a very o ld f eas t roo ted i n the n igh ts ( some peop le say i t has ce l t i c or ig ins ) . There i s even a word i n l o ca l l anguage (ga l i c i an ) f o r ca rn i va l , i t i s ca l l ed "en t ro ido" . Long t ime ago when I was a ch i l d , I never missed the oppor tun i t y j o i n the ce leb ra t i ons o f "en t ro ido" t oge ther wi th my paren ts , an l a te r wi th f r i ends . I t used t o be a very spec ia l event i n the ye the re were f ami l i es prepar ing i t f o r m onths i n advance . Th ings have changed a l o t (when I was a ch i l d the re was some t r ad i t i ona l dresses tha t are now l o s t ) , but i n my l i t t l e v i l l age s t i l l ce leb ra te "en t ro ido" , and the re i s even a con tes t t o the b group and i nd i v idua l ch i l d d i sgu i se organ i zed by the m ic ipa l i t un Preparat ion: Last time I was present for the "entroido" was more

than 20 years ago , so I was no t comp le te l y su re o f what I was go t o f i nd .

Given the s t rong c r i s i s i n Spa in I even expec ted no ce leb ra t i on a l l . As a mat te r o f f ac t the m ic ipa l i t y o f Ent r imo i s sma l l , w un h igh ra te o f unemp loyed peop le and an even h igher ra te o f qu i te o ld pens ioners .

Many peop le here have s t i l l an domes t i c economy based i n sma l l f a rmlands , some an ima l s , and f ew o f them l i ve f rom com merce .

Never the less I c leaned my equ ipment the day be fo re and I had my camera and th ree l enses ( cover ing var i ous f oca l d i s tances f rom 17m t i l l 200 m) , I knew the day was go ing t o be sunny , and my m m i dea was to reco rd the event as i f i t was f o r a l o ca l newspaper , the f i r s t gather ings and prepara t i ons , then the parade ( i f i t ca ca l l ed l i ke tha t ) t i l l the " tou ra l " ( the square i n the midd le o f v i l l age , where the f a i r s and marke ts and f es t i v i t i es are he ld ) , l a s t l y the con tes t wi th the j u ry and the end o f the ce leb ra t i on . Execut ion: The event started around 16:00 and finished around 19:00 hours (more or less). I felt quite free to photograph because everybody here know each

o ther , and many peop le i ndeed know m or my f ami l y. I had e never the less a coup le o f paren ts ask ing m what was the purpose e o f the ( ch i l d ren ) photographs , t o wh ich I a lways rep l i ed tha t I s tudy ing photography , and I my i n ten t i on was to photograph the event as the l a s t pro jec t f o r my course , and the re fo re the photographs were f o r my own use .

One impor tan t remark : I NEVER asked anyone t o pose f o r the camera . The reason be ing tha t I was sea rch ing f o r natu ra l and cand id sho ts on one s ide , and tha t I wanted t o be as d i sc re te an unremarkab le as poss ib le on the o ther s ide . I a lways t r i ed t o m o

around the sub jec t s (when tha t was poss ib l e ) to f i nd the bes t an ( f o r some photographs where the ac t i on was happen ing i n a sp l i t second , tha t was not even poss ib le ) . I n o ther words , the photographs were peop le are l ook ing at the camera were not p lanned or d i rec ted i n any manne r .

Dur ing the event I t r i ed to m ove myse l f qu i te a l o t and have d i f f e ren t perspec t i ves and v iews , but I f ocused i n ch i l d ren beca they are the rea l sou l and goa l o f the ce leb ra t i on .

Select ion:I made a few hundred photographs and I went to several filtering and refinement iterations, together with croppings, to come to the final set, which I believe reflects the whole event quite well, and tell not one, but many linked stories. From the last set I picked up a first and last shot for the begin and end of the story, and I also re-sorted part of the group. The selection was the most difficult problem not only because of the big number of initial shots (even discarding the ones with severe blur or focusing problems), but also because of the emotional attachment with the people and the subject.

Postprocess ing just to control levels, in some cases I also cropped the photographs to remove unnecessary or annoying things out. Other remarks: I have processed this photographs with music in the background. I am even getting used to photograph with music, and although I might be wrong (most likely), I believe there is a strong connection between photography and music (and I would like to further investigate that (I am sure that there must be books on this subject). At least this relation works for me. For this sequence, and provided that I am great fan of Brazilian music it would be (no doubt) "Vai Passar" of Chico Buarque de Holanda. This i s a story of people (main ly chi ldren) , colour and f r iendship in the context of a renewed t radi t ion.

Corol lary. After several failures I was becoming tired and frustrated. This set is satisfactory to me, both in terms of execution and final result. Of course it can always be better. In particular for the cover shot I would have preferred some kind of view including some representative element of the village (something like the square seen from above or similar). The cover shot chosen has to me nice properties (the colour, the combination of children and disguises which leads to the carnival, etc...), but misses other things (in particular something that unmistakably linked to the village). The final shot is a little bit dark, but I find it fantastic, because of the child expression, and also because of the mountains and houses in the background that anyone in the whole region would link to the village of Entrimo. It could be argued that someone with the knowledge would link the walls in the cover shot, and the trees in the background to the main square of Entrimo, but I reckon it is a difficult argument to hold on

to .

Relat ion with the previous parts of the course: In my opinion some of the shots also show some nice compositional elements both in terms of contrasts (e.g. child vs. adult, light vs. dark, one vs. many; red vs yellow) and elements of design (the vertical lines of the trees in some of the photographs of the main square, the implicit lines of the eyesights, etc...). The colour comes together with the carnival and it is certainly also a relevant element for most of the shots (e.g. the cover one). The chosen photographs also show some quite different lightings (backlight, axislight, crosslight, and also some more diffuse light in the last shots under the trees).

Children participating in the contest receive a number.....

.......and pass the catwalk in front of the members of the jury......

Nu ber of photographs : I t cou ld m or ig ina l l y se lec ted 23 sho ts are t r i ed to se lec t photographs f rom par t i cu l a r l y photographs tha t DO

be argued whether the too many f o r the ass ignment . I d i f f e ren t m ments o f the day an o te l l a s to ry (even i f a t r i v i a l

Fo l l ow ing the tu to r adv i se the number has been dramat i ca l l y

reduced , wh ich by the way does not m ean ' be t te r ' to m j u s t e, ' t h i nner ' . But aga in th i s i s j u s t an op in ion , and m ost probab ly wrong . I have t r i ed ( f o l l ow ing my i n te rp re ta t i on o f a tu to r adv i se i n th repo r t ) t o reduce the l abe l s to the min imu ( f o r m m ost o f them I have dec ided the re was even no need f o r a t ex t ) and t o l e t the photographs a lone to te l l the s to r y. I have asked some f e l l ow amateur photographers i f the sequence made sense f o r them and wi th some d i f f e ren t op in ions i t made sense t o a l l o f them. That , course , doesn ' t m ean any th ing , and i t i s f o r the tu to r and the assesso rs to dec ide i f th i s i s the case or not , but at l eas t I h t o seek f o r o ther po in t s o f v iew.

The day is coming to an end, some had won some others not, but everybody had fun. The end is seen with a mixture of tiredness, satisfaction and melancholy. More to come in 2013.

Th i s document has been dra f ted as a poss ib le l ayou t o f the image Reasons for the se lect ion of th is set : main reason is that I The see this carnival sequence as having more variety in the type of photographs than any of the other sequences before, and on top of that the light conditions were much better allowing a more visually

at t rac t i ve se t ( i n te rms o f co lou r and qua l i t y ) . These were the prev ious at tempts :
Walk on a remote village: http://leopin-socalcos.blogspot.com/2012/01/failure-1-of-assignment-5-applying.html Kings' Day: http://leopin-socalcos.blogspot.com/2012/01/failure-2-for-assignment-5-kings-day.html A fencing training: http://leopin-socalcos.blogspot.com/2012/02/failure-3-for-assignment-5-fencing.html The flower auction with children: http://leopin-socalcos.blogspot.com/2012/02/bloemenveiling-with-school.html The story of the shell: http://leopin-socalcos.blogspot.com/2012/02/another-failure-for-assignment-5fake.html An Aikido trip to Antwerp, Yamashida sensei: http://leopin-socalcos.blogspot.com/2012/02/aikido-training-in-antwerp.html

The f enc ing and a ik ido se t s were made under very d i f f i cu l t l i gh t cond i t i ons f o rc ing m to use a h igh I SO wi th the consequence o f e h igh l eve l o f no i se . The k ing ' s day had s im i l a r prob lems and a l though the s to ry cou ld have been n i ce , m uch m ore t ime and f reedom o f m ment wou ld ove have been needed to produce a decent se t . Aga in the f l ower auc t i on was made under appa l l i ng l i gh t i ng cond i t i ons . . . . . . . . . had I been a l l owed to use my wi re less f l a sh , wou ld have been bet te r . A l l o f those se t s cou ld have been poss ib l y OK f o r the ass ignment but they are not so v i sua l l y at t rac t i ve as th i s l a s t one .

Add i t i ona l l y I made th i s l a s t one wi thout any cons t ra in t s ( l i ke ch i l d ren around , or a t ime t o f i n i sh or peop le superv i s i ng i f I us ing f l a sh or not , or peop le check ing tha t I was not t ak ing too many photographs o f the i r ch i l d ren , etc , etc , etc . . . . . ) and I th re f l ec t s on the resu l t ( o r at l eas t so I want to be l i eve ) .

The she l l s to ry was a f a i l u re f o r many reasons , the m ore impor ta (because i t was a l e s son to m about myse l f ) i s tha t I had the e f ee l i ng tha t I was c rea t i ng a f ake , ar t i f i c i a l , f a l se , f o rced s to

d idn ' t f ee l i den t i f i ed at a l l wi th what I was do ing , i t was a l i e impor tan t l y I d idn ' t en joy i t . I t had an advantage wi th rega rd t o o f the o ther ones however , I cou ld have bu i l t i t prog ress i ve l y wi thou t any window o f oppor tun i t y cons t ra in t s . Books and other mater i a l s :
Three Tips to Help Your Photos Tell A Story by Michael Freeman, September 2011

http://photo.net/columns/michael-freeman/three-tips-to-help-your-photos-tella-story/ Maria Short, "Context and Narrative", Basics Creative photography 02, AVA publishing, 2011 Photography and narrative: What is involved in telling a story? by David Campbell http://www.david-campbell.org/2010/11/18/photography-and-narrative/