I have seen this event on TV and in magazines for many years now, it makes me wince when I see the extremes that these people go to for their religion. When I found out about this event, I made all efforts to attend this whilst in Asia.
So how do you go about photographing an event like this, without intruding on their religious beliefs and not offending anyone? It’s a tall order to be respectful and yet get some great images. Also how do you prepare for seeing the extreme piercing that is before your eyes? I said to myself I had to look for photographs that were bold, clean and accurate in photographing the persons piercing, and then move on to the next person after you had hopefully got the shot. I only really started to see the extreme piercing I had photographed in detail when I got home and was reviewing the photographs, and then you see the detail in the photos. It was useless trying to edit them on the fly at the event, reasons: – too many people around you, too bright even in the shade to see the screen on the back of the camera, it was very busy, so you did not have time to review any shots on the two days.
My worries were unfounded, as when I went towards the two Indian Temples where all the ceremonies’ etc were taking place and there were many thousands of people all around, a lot of them were taking part, being cleansed with the milk etc.
The down and up side to the large crowds at this event, on the downside you missed images because of someone getting in your way or quite simply you could not get the angle you wanted, and on the upside you were invisible, you could get your shot and disappear, sometimes without any one knowing you had been there. Also a smile and a simple “thank you” went a long way, if they did notice you, no one objected to being photographed, as there were a lot of people with camera phones and had being photographed along the route many times.
Using the crowds as cover it is quite obvious when a “devotee” was approaching, so you had to look for a space in the crowds where you could slip in and get the shot. However walking the route I found there was a policeman on a corner where they came off the main road and towards the temple, he was very good at crowd control all on his own (his assistant was not so good), he kept the spectators away from the devotees (to give them respect as they need space with what they are doing), this meant that I had space between me and the subject to get the shot as I followed them up the short path to the temple.
Some the people were just walking too fast, and as they approached me quite quickly, directly after photographing another devotee, I had little time to compose the shot, and untimely I had to let the shot go, which was a shame, but with so many people doing this, it was not long before the next one was going to come by you.
At this corner they often stopped, did a dance or a mini break before the final walk 200-300m before the long climb up the stairs to the final prayers at the top. The other thing in my favor was a barrier that tried to keep the people moving in one direction either side e.g. left side up and right side down. You have to use everything to your advantage and if someone look badly at you, or you just bump into them, just smile and say sorry, sounds to good to be true, but I did not cross words with anyone during the whole two days.
The temperature was around 35 deg C and most of the route was in the sunshine, so it was hot for all, between photographs you did try and find a little shade from the searing sun, and yes I did go through a lot of water (4 litres when at the festival and lots more when I got home).
Now for the coconut smashing, this was a little different, it was more of a party atmosphere there, as the road/path that the silver chariot was going pass on needed to be cleansed with coconut milk, it’s a serious event, but with a fun side to it. However you had to dodge coconuts coming towards you as they were smashed to the ground and splitting open, and the pieces went flying, I had many hit my shins and feet. Also the other thing you need to watch is the milk from the coconut, and it splashing all around you, hitting you and the camera lens, I was often had milk hit the lens, so frequent cleaning was the order of the day. However I was told that being splashed by the milk brought you good fortune, so I did not mind.
As these coconut smashing sessions were in small batches of around 100-200 meters long, you could photograph one and then wait for the next one to start, so you can correct your mistakes as you go, again, no one stopped me taking any photographs, you had to dodge some traffic on the other side of the road sometimes, but it was slow moving, so that was OK. When photographing a crowd of people smashing the coconuts, it was good to let the camera be on continuous shooting, at what ever max frames per second it would allow, and then edit afterwards, as trying to time the shots, was near impossible as I started out like that, trying to photograph a person in full throw, so I gave up and photographed either the crowd or a particular person in the crowd smashing the coconuts, and then let the camera do its work at 3-5 frames per second and then review when you get home. I got some of my best shots this way along with some sequences of the coconuts being smashed along with the blurs of the milk splashes from the ground.
Prior to the event I had contacted a news syndication agency and to see of they could sell any of these photographs to newspapers and magazines, they knew the shots were coming and currently I have 32 images up on their servers, this is hard to edit down from 1400 over the 2 days, I sent them around 90 in total and they did a final edit for me, as they know what might sell to these outlets. All the photographs were shot on a Nikon D90, with 28-200 VR2 lens. For more info on the actual event: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaipusam
Michael Crawford-Hick photography is an eclectic mix of all things water related e.g. sailing, windsurfing, powerboats, as well as abstracts of waves, reflections, beaches, sunset.
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