Photo essay

[davidc]

Something a little more unusual here. I've made an attempt at my first photo-essay to tell the story of a Hindu religious event I experienced earlier in the year. It's not something that can easily be reproduced here so I've provided a direct link.

http://davidcandlish.photography/photo-essay-thaipusam/

I'd be very interested in feedback about all aspects of the essay, not just the photos themselves.

I've got some background & justification that went into the presentation which I'll discuss later if people are interested but initially it's first impressions I'm keen to hear.

[davidb]

DavidC

A quick proofread would be nice - in para 2 "the task aheaWhen" - a "d" and space are missing

An interesting essay although I don't think I will be taking part in a pilgrimage any time soon

Have you tried making this into an audio/visual presentation?

[Bill Yates]

An excellent piece of work David, and how good to see a club member working in this way - such a change from the stereotypical stuff that we see in our competitions and, dare I say it, in the general run of images submitted for critique or photo sharing here on the forum.

This is full of interest from start to finish, and while some of the images look a bit on the dark side (I'm sure there will be comments taking you to task for too much contrast, lack of detail in some shadow areas and the like), who cares. For my money its the impact they have on the viewer - and not just the viewer with some photographic knowledge a la camera club - that is all-important. And for my money these have impact 'in spades'.

This is story-telling in a big way. Your pictures are all about communication- - and what a story. When I visited Singapore (briefly) some years ago, I would have been in photographic heaven if I could have come away with a collection of images like yours.

One question: did you intend to present them in black and white when you were taking them or was that a later decision? Would they have the same degree of impact in colour, I wonder.

Tell us more.

Bill

[Paul Heester]

This is a great piece of photo journalism. It tells a story that most people (certainly in the western world) have no idea even existed. The Sunday Times Magazine often have photo essays on different cultures and I think yours is worthy of publication too.

[davidc]

Blimey, thank you all. Very flattering. And I fixed the typos

The decision to present in monochrome was based on how it made the bulk of the images look - I created a preset that I thought worked well for the first half-dozen imges I tried then for consistency across the essay applied it to all images. You're right, it does work much better on some than others and the contrasty look in the first place is my own personal preference creeping in!

I'll look to put some colour examples up alongside these so you can see an alternate view - not all the images, just some - but the decision to go black and white was partly to remove the distraction of colour (there is a LOT of it) and also because throughout the day we were assured "there's no blood, no one bleeds in thaipusam". That obviously isn't true but as I say in the page the cow-dung ash they use is pretty good at stopping the flow as soon as it starts. So the B&W was also my effort to reinforce the "no blood" idea because in black & white, you can't see it even when it's present! As well as this, on a technical level I couldn't find a colour treatment I could apply which looked as good across 20+ images as I felt the monochrome one did, and I really wanted a unified look & feel.

My wife thinks they look better in colour, for what it's worth!

Thanks again, lovely to wake up to the nice comments

[Mike Farley]

Hi David

What a remarkable event; your images certainly do capture the astonishing devotion shown by the participants. I doubt whether the health and safety regulations in this country would permit something similar to occur here.

I cannot really add much to what has already been said. Words and pictures work well together, demonstrating a high editorial standard. Congratulations.

[Rose]

I think it's great, well written as well as photographed. The contrasty monochrome works for me and gives a gritty feel to the essay which although sensitive, is not an easy subject. Well done ! I think you should try and submit it for publication somewhere.

[davidc]

I wouldn't even begin to know where

[davidc]

Actually that got me thinking I might just try it.