This time my post would be a bit different as I will write more about my coverage in Ennichisai Indonesia 2018. Ennichisai is a (big) festival about Japanese culture that held at 30 June – 1 July 2018 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
What I love from this event is I do not only get mass crowd to photograph but also can documenting unique activities about Japan culture that simply we can not see everyday. It is totally true that it is challenging to get an artistic shots at very crowded place (and not in spacious space as well), especially if we only use one prime lens. I believe the simpler set up I carried, the more I can use my creativity to get shoot that able to fill my artistic feel. I shot the whole event in two days only with Fujinon XF35mm f/2 lens (50mm full frame equivalent).
There are so many events that happened at the same time like competition of cosplayer, dancer, and idol. They also have some live music on three or four different stages, and of course there are endless Japanese food stalls that attract huge number of crowd. But, what attract me the most is indeed the Mikoshi ritual. My quick search in google showed me Mikoshi is like a portable Shrine, that serves as vehicle to transport a deity in Japan while moving between main shrine and temporary shrine during a festival or when moving to a new shrine (read more at Wikipedia). The best part: All Mikoshi carried manually by people! Which is definitely will involved unique fashion, moments, stories, and gestures.
The question is, how to shoot a “chaotic” event with only one lens and one camera? I can not ignore the fact that I had a challenging condition there (mass crowd in tight place and so many things going on at the same time). However, here these some things that I did in two days with my set up:
Unique subject
In an unique culture event it is not hard to find someone with “weird” fashion design that looks way different compare to what mass crowd use. Mikoshi ritual itself require a culture clothes that simply looks so different than what we usually see in our daily life. Find the most quirky one and snap it!
Another benefit from Japanese event is we can see a lot of cosplayers. Honestly I do not like to shoot cosplayers that look like cosplayers. Means, I try to find subjects that “weird” enough but still look like people that we may see in our daily life. So I do not shoot any robot or anime character cosplayers, instead I shoot (a lot) people who dress (almost) normally but wear mask or maybe bring some unique equipment.
Gesture
In Mikoshi ritual alone we can find various attractive gestures, from facial expressions, waving hand, etc. The Mikoshi ritual itself is something already unique, so I think it is a good chance to find unique gestures as well.
My focus is in their facial expressions, as there are many different expressions at the same time, from people who scream when try hard to lift Mikoshi, or people who singing while carry Mikoshi around, or just a sincere smile from kids that indeed look beautiful in my eyes.
By capturing their facial expressions I try to extract stories as much as possible. I want my audience able to feel what these people felt when they did the ritual. I want to freeze their moments into photographs so everyone can “read” their stories as if they were there.
Behind the scene
Do not only shoot an event when it happen. Try to sneak in into behind the stage or rest area after the event finished. We can see the opposite “image” of people there. They may look cheerful and full of energy on stage, but at back stage they might show their true feeling like worry, tense, or just tired.
Try to shoot after or before the event itself, we may see the difference “aura” or “energy” from them. The tense faces before start or the satisfied and happy smile after the event.
Flash
I never become a huge fan of shooting street with flash, however when the option is to stop shoot because the scene is too dark to shoot moving people or start use flash, then I will choose the flash way. Additional benefit, by use rear curtain flash in slow shutter speed we can create “surreal” movement effect and main subject still looks sharp like we use higher shutter speed.
Visual art
As you may have read about my definition of street photography (read here), I do not only shoot street for documenting human life, but also the visual art that created from decisive moments. So I spare some times to shoot something that may feels surreal or artistic by using mass crowd as my subjects.
Yes it is hard to shoot minimalism at very pack place, but we can use crowd to shoot more in layering style and add some diagonal form (read here for more about diagonal composition) to make more dynamic image. Also you can read here for more about create silhouette object.
Street portrait
Some said street portrait with permission is not street photography, while some other said the opposite. Personally, it is still in street photography group, but just a bit different than the usual. It is true subject fully aware we want to shoot them, but we can not control the lighting, what clothes they wear that day, their pose, or their facial expression (that they choose to show to us).
In Japanese event like Ennichisai is easy to do “street portrait” because there are so many cosplayers there that love to be photographed with. However, I avoid to capture the one that looks “fake” like doing cute smile or pose. Instead I try to find subjects that look more “pure” or “honest” by put on some their true feeling on their facial expression. Be it feel nervous, tense, worry, confuse or anything as what they felt. Of course I try to find subjects that have Japanese look as well because this is a Japanese event.
That is all about how I shot Ennichisai event! I hope I can attend next year’s event as well and able to extract more stories. See you!
Keep shooting and stay inspired,
Nico Harold