I’m finding these temple festivals increasingly difficult to find the enthusiasm to go to. The interest nowadays is purely photographic, and I don’t even lift the camera to my eye anymore unless the idea is new or, if it is similar to something I have already captured, an improvement on what I already have, or at least a complement to it.
I have a principle. No matter how much time or effort it takes to get to these events, one useable photo justifies it. In all honesty, with the High Speed Rail in this country, no destination down the west of the country is prohibitively difficult to get to. The main obstacle is the first minute of waking at 5.00 am, in which I have to convince myself the trip is going to be worth it. And in fact, as I was approaching the temple fours hours from my front door on this particular morning, with the weather rapidly deteriorating, I was concerned that the day would be a washout.
This was one of the photos that made this particular trip worthwhile. I was initially interested in the 八家將 figure to the right, within the temple proper, taking shelter from the rain. My attention was then attracted to the musicians waiting just outside the temple doors, under the eaves, for the ceremony in which they were to perform to start. I averaged exposure for the musicians outside and the 八家將 inside, as I wanted both to be well exposed, with the door separating them. I knew that would be black. It is what I wanted.
Generally speaking, I do not like anyone within the frame looking at the camera. For me, it instantly reminds the viewer that they are looking at a photograph, and their relationship with the image is changed. As soon as the photographer’s presence is implicitly registered, a distance is created between viewer and viewed. So what to do with the woman to the left, looking at me with what appears to me to be a somewhat disapproving look? My initial feeling was to cheat slightly and black her out completely in the darkroom. I tested for that on a strip, and then the possibility of turning the idea on its head occurred to me, of actually exaggerating her presence to add a discordant element to the picture. I found that by burning her in aggressively and then bleaching the left side of her face (sounds rather violent, no?) I would achieve a high contrast, almost graphic profile. It also occurred to me that her location effectively balanced that of the 八家將 to the right.
My original intention was to tone this print selectively in sepia, like the following scene. In the end, however, I decided to leave it purely black and white, to accentuate the graphic quality.
The above uses a combination of selenium and sepia toning. The majority of the print is not actually split-toned between the two, however: to achieve the stark contrast I went mad with Fotomask resist and applied the sepia selectively, in places split-toning and in others bleaching out fully. I wanted to keep certain elements black and white to emphasise some of the geometric happy coincidences, such as the two vertical arms mirrored by the ribbon and candle vessel in the center, and the circular drums with the spiral door ornamentation.
This one is a new favourite, taken on the same day as the first one, as was the next one. Together they made the day a success.
The goat, I have had to point out to everyone to whom I have shown this picture, is quite dead. It is sacrificial, entirely gutted (wouldn’t you be?), and arranged on a metal frame. Look closely and you will see the frame. It looks, of course, as if it were eating the flower arrangement. It isn’t, and neither was it the intention of whoever arranged it on the table to give that impression. The mouth is not actually touching the flowers, it is merely a visual illusion caused by the two-dimensional nature of the picture.
I was hoping that fortune would introduce another element to the scene, and along comes the girl who was momentarily fascinated by the animal. Not scared, by the way. But still, her sister did appear behind her, to assure her not to be frightened, if indeed she had been. And it is that juxtaposition of the stark reality of the sacrificial goat’s death state with the softness of the interaction between the sisters, happily accentuated by the fact I had placed the focus point between goat and girl, throwing the outlines of their faces into soft focus, that I really like. The spatial relationship of goat and the girls, with the arch of the girl’s jawline mirrored in the shape of the goat’s suspended ear, strengthens the composition, as does the centrally-located crossing of the girl’s arms.
Final picture, same day. Participants in a ceremony. The man with the brush is consecrating the statue of the deity by painting in the pupil of the eye. The clenched fist to the left belongs to a 乩童 Chinese spirit medium. Selenium-toned to maximise the blacks.
Confy says
Indeed the first one is the best to me. And I like the visual illusion of the goat, too
passingwindow says
Thanks, Confy. Glad you liked them.