William Dalrymple: Nine Lives

By pure chance I landed on the website of one of my favorite authors, William Dalrymple, whose new book – Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India – will be published by Bloomsbury in October.

I've copied this excerpt of the accompanying blurb from the Amazon UK website:

"Nine people, nine lives. Each one taking a different religious path, each one an unforgettable story. Exquisite and mesmerizing, and told with an almost biblical simplicity, William Dalrymple's first travel book in a decade explores how traditional forms of religious life in South Asia have been transformed in the vortex of the region's rapid change. Nine Lives is a distillation of twenty-five years of exploring India and writing about its religious traditions, taking you deep into worlds that you would never have imagined even existed."

This promises to be a cracker of a book, and if you want to get a taste for its contents, you can read this article on the devadasis in the New Yorker magazine.

These are the kind of books that ought to be read by all established and aspiring travel-documentary photographers, since they provide ideas for photo-documentary projects, and intellectual/historical texture to successfully develop such projects.

Just before traveling last month to India, I recently re-read parts of Dalrymple's City of Djinns; parts dealing with the Sufi dargahs in Delhi, and this enhanced my appreciation of these sites while I visited them.

William Darlymple's Nine Lives

Despite Thai Airways' efficient service and the knowledge that I would have a row all to myself as the flight was only half full, spending 12 hours on the flight from Bangkok to London wasn't something I looked forward to. However I bought William Dalrymple's new book Nine Lives to keep me company during the long haul flight.

I had high expectations that this book would be highly enjoyable and informative, and was glad to have found it in paperback version at the airport's bookstore. I'm almost 2/3 through it and have to say that, whilst it's not as well written as the author's previous books, it is nevertheless extremely educational.

Nine Lives is described as an Indian Canterbury Tales, and introduces us to 9 characters with varied and different lives. I thought The Nun's Tale (a poignant portrait of a Jain nun), The Dancer of Kannur (a Theyyam performer) and The Red Fairy (a Sufi female ascetic) to be the most magnetic of the characters, and provide an extraordinary insight in their worlds that most of us can't imagine.

I wish I had read The Dancer of Kannur before my Theyyam of Malabar photo expedition, and will re-read The Red Fairy before my periodic visits to the Sufi shrines in Delhi.illiam

Book: Dalrymple's Nine Lives

One of my favorite haunts when I'm in London is Stanfords, the travel bookstore close to Covent Gardens...and one of my favorite authors is William Dalrymple. So when both come together in an event to be held at the Royal Geographical Society, I am ready with my credit card to buy a ticket.

However, as I will still be in Bhutan on October 7, I will miss the event, but look forward to buying the book when I am in London.

I posted about Nine Lives earlier on TTP.

Devadasi: Prostitutes of God

I'm somewhat ambivalent about this documentary by VBS Television (you can click on the above image), which I found on The Independent newspaper's website. In a nutshell,  Sarah Harris, a British journalist,  made a documentary about temple prostitutes in south India...Devadasi women dedicated to a Hindu deity who spend their lives selling sex.

The journalist, with a couple of local minders, travels to villages and towns of Southern India to try to document a system of religious sex slavery dating back to the 6th century. Although illegal, there seems to be more than 23,000 women in the state of Karnataka selling their bodies in the name of the mysterious Hindu Goddess Yellamma. These are known as Devadasis, or ‘servants of God’.  As such things go, these statistics are estimates...which can be inflated or deflated depending on one's agenda.

I'm ambivalent because I don't get from this documentary that the women are Devadasi per se. They are certainly sex workers, but not necessarily Yellamma temple sex workers.  In parts, the documentary feels like a Lonely Planet or Global Trekker feature I watch on PBS...minus Ian Wright's wit and humor. I don't think that this documentary is accurate at all...and comes across as callous and superficial. The journalist sounds and acts as flaky as a young tourist traveling in India during a gap year, and I've seen no evidence that there was serious research done in the subject matter.

Having said that, William Dalrymple in his recent book Nine Lives, has interviewed and written about devadasi women, and their undeniable plight. Devadasi women have had a venerable history in performing a wide variety of religious functions, including sexual service...but their lives are now hard and harsh. Only marginally better than ordinary prostitutes, the devadasi system provides a way out of crippling poverty...very similar to other countries and societies. 

You can also watch it on VBS.TV website.

Renunciation | Pooja Jain | Galli Magazine

Photo © Pooja Jain-All Rights Reserved- Courtesy Galli Magazine

A few days ago, I viewed Renunciation, a photo essay on the life of Jain nuns by Pooja Jain, a photographer based in Mumbai. It was particularly interesting to me, not only on account of Pooja's intimate photographs but because of the accompanying details that explain the hardship and devotion that's adopted by these Jain nuns.

I photographed Jain rituals at the main Palitana temples on Mount Shatrunjaya (Gujarat) which are considered the most sacred pilgrimage sites by the Jain community, and are the world's largest temple complex. There are more than 3000 temples located on its hills, all exquisitely carved in marble. I walked up and down its steps...approximately two hours to make the 2.2 miles climb, and 3800 steps to the top of Mount Satrunjaya...along with groups of Jain nun and devotees.

But back to Jain's photo essay: she tells us that she was influenced by Dalrymple's Nine Lives and who amongst us photographers hasn't? She introduces us to the hardships chosen by Jain nuns and its incredibly difficult life style, observing abstinence from various worldly basics, all in the name of adhering to a harsh asceticism. 

I was surprised to read that some Jain nuns don't use water to bathe as it should be conserved. They don't bathe all through their lives, and yet those I've come across were spotless and resplendent in their cleanliness.

Pooja Jain is a young photographer based in Mumbai. She studied at Sir JJ School of Arts, and was selected for the Young Asian Photographers Workshops at the 7th Angkor Photography Festival. She exhibited work at the Chobi Mela International Festival of Photography, at the Delhi Photo Festival (2013) and won the 2014 Toto award for Young Photographers.

Although Pooja has no website I could find, I viewed her work through the excellent Galli Magazine.

Stuart Freedman: The Idol Makers

Photo © Stuart Freedman-All Rights Reserved
Photo © Stuart Freedman-All Rights Reserved

"In Western art, few sculptors -other than perhaps Donatello or Rodin- have achieved the pure essence of sensuality so spectacularly evoked by the Chola sculptors, or achieved such a sense of celebration of the divine beauty of the human body."- William Dalrymple, Nine Lives

Stuart Freedman is an award-winning British writer and photographer whose work was published in, amongst others, Life, Geo, Time, Der Spiegel, Newsweek and Paris Match covering stories from Albania to Afghanistan and from former Yugoslavia to Haiti. His work has been exhibited in Visa Pour L’Image at Perpignan, The Scoop Festival in Anjou, The Leica Gallery in Germany, The Association and the Spitz Galleries in London.

One of his many galleries is The Idol Makers, which documents the work of Radhakrishna Stpathy, an idol maker, a caster of statues, a master craftsman in Tamil Nadu, India. Stpathy mastered the ancient art of bronze casting which traces its origins from the Indus Valley civilization and achieved its apogee during the Chola period.

Chola period bronzes were created using the lost wax technique, which is also know by its French name, cire perdue, and is the process by which a bronze or brass is cast from an artist's sculpture.

Be sure to read Stuart's accompanying article on Stpathy, and the historical background to idol making in Tamil Nadu.

I've previously featured Stuart Freedman's work on Kathakali here.

Theyyam: Incarnate Deities | Maptia

I'm very pleased that Theyyam: Incarnate Deities, one of my most colorful photo essays, is now featured on Maptia.

A beautiful way to tell stories about places, Maptia is a new platform designed for thoughtful, inspiring stories that make us want to get out there and explore the world, and each story has its own unique map.

It's different from the crop of photo/storytelling platforms that have recently appeared, inasmuch as it makes easy for people and story tellers to share long-form stories about the places that matter to them, and by creating unique, visual maps of these stories.

In an interview with WIRED some 6 months ago, Maptia's founders indicated that the platform already had a community of 10,000 bloggers, photographers, and writers.

Theyyam is a popular ritual form of worship of North Malabar in the state of Kerala (India), and is essentially a living cult with several thousand-year-old traditions, rituals and customs. 

In his book, Nine Lives, William Dalrymple wrote about the Theyyam. One of the stories, "The Dancer of Kannur", is of one of the Theyyam performers who's quoted as saying:

"...during the theyyam season, from December to February. We give up our jobs and become theyyam artists. For those months, we become gods. Though we are all Dalits (untouchables) even the most bigoted and casteist Namboodiri Brahmins worship us, and queue up to touch our feet."

The Theyyam prepares for his performance by meditating while his make up is applied, which usually takes a few hours. When it's ready and totally dry, he views himself in a hand mirror, and then enters in a sort of a trance, whereupon he walks (aided by assistants) over to the temple's shrine and gradually morphs into the shrine's deity. The Theyyam dances to the accompanying drum beat,  and goes deeper into his trance. At the appropriate time, the Theyyam is seated on a stool and devotees approach him with donations and solicit advice, which he provides in a raspy voice. I was also told that the Theyyams' advice is provided in a mixture of Sanskrit, Old Malayalam and Tamil. Both Theyyams and Kathakali performers use similar eye movements to convey emotions.

Barbara Colbert | Theyyam

Photo © Barbara Colbert - All Rights Reserved

Theyyam is also known as the “Dance of Gods”, which is unique to the folk culture of Kerala. The dance is an intriguing ritual integral to the worship of the goddess Kali. Originally reserved for the upper caste temple priests hundreds of years ago, it evolved to become a mass celebration for everyone.

The 800-year old celebration has roots in the age-old Dravidian culture of South India, and is a combines dance, drama, music and mime. More than 1200 temples in the Malabar region of Kerala host these religious dances during the first three or four months of each year.

The lower parts of the costumes in Theyyam are made of coconut leaves, while the upper part of the body remains bare and painted, although I have also seen some performers wearing two halves of a coconut shell as a bra. Usually, a paste of rice and turmeric is smeared on the upper bodies of the performers. 

The Theyyam headdresses, made of bamboo, wood, peacock feathers, leaves and flowers, are the heaviest and most elaborate part of the costume. In some cases, the headdresses rise to 50 feet, requiring a lot of training and balance from the performers.

For his book Nine Lives, historian William Dalrymple visited Malabar and asked a Theyyam performer to explain his experience. The oracle answered,

“You become the deity. You lose all fear. Even your voice changes. The god comes alive and takes over. You are just the vehicle, the medium."

Barbara Colbert's Theyyam photo essay describes her experience photographing a Theyyam dance ceremony in Kannur. She arrived at 4:30 in the morning at the courtyard of a small temple where the preparations had been going on all through the night.

Darshan: Photo Series On Indian Deities

Kickstarter is featuring Darshan: Photographic Series on Indian Deities, an interesting visual project by Manjari Sharma and for which a funding goal of $20,000 is hoped for.

The project aims to photographically recreate nine classical images of gods and goddesses that are of primary importance in the mythological stories in Hinduism. For Manjari,  the Darshan project is a mission to preserve her heritage by using the medium of photography.

"What is innovative about Darshan is that I am recreating these icons as photographs while maintaining their spiritual sanctity." - Manjari Sharma

The first photograph created for this project is of Laxmi,  the Hindu goddess of wealth and fortune, and Manjari's Kickstarter page for the project details the process in creating this first image, and how the 9 six-feet tall images will be displayed.

Manjari Sharma is a photographer based in New York City. She grew up in Mumbai, India and currently lives in Brooklyn. She holds a bachelors degree in Visual Communication from S.N.D.T University, Mumbai and a BFA in photography from Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio.

Disclaimer: I do not know Ms Sharma and to the best of my knowledge, nor do I know anyone who knows her. I found her project to be interesting and innovative...that's all.

POV | The Character Actors of Chinese Opera | GFX50s

Actor In Teochew Opera (Hong Kong)
 Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved

As no doubt readers of this blog have known for quite a while, I've been working on building an inventory of photographs of the various types of Chinese opera performances and backstages which eventually will be featured in the production of a coffee-table photo book "Chinese Opera of the Diaspora". 

So far, I've photographed a number of performances at different venues ranging from New York City's Chinatown, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, and Penang...most of which were held during Chinese festivals. I hope to do the same in Taipei and Bangkok later this year and early next.

Setting aside the eye-catching aesthetics of the costumery, the beauty of the performers, the intricacy of the facial makeups and the "live-in" atmosphere of the shows' backstages, I thought I'd share two of my environmental portraits made in the backstages of Chinese opera shows in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur.

These two portraits are of elderly actors; the type that the cinematic world calls' "character actors" (these are generally defined as supporting actors who play unusual, interesting, or eccentric characters). I found these actors to be much more visually interesting than the glamorous divas; not because of their rugged and wrinkled physiognomies but because they had presence...and must've been part of these troupes for as long as they could remember.

Actor In Hokkien Opera (Kuala Lumpur)
 Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved

Although neither of these actors took the roles of "leading men" or "warriors" in the operas, they seemed comfortable in their skin to do less strenuous roles such as the elderly scholars, judges and other supporting roles.

Unfortunately, due the language barriers I wasn't able to interview either of these two actors to gain an insight on their lives and background. They also seemed reluctant to allow me more than a few minutes to photograph them, either because they were waiting to perform (as in the top photograph) or just uncomfortable with the the attention of a stalking photographer (lower photograph).

Both photographs were made with the fabulous Fuji GFX50s, the medium format mirrorless camera. Technical details are:

Top photograph: GFX50s. GF45mmF2.8 R WR Lens. 1/25th. f2.8. iso 800. Aperture Priority. September 4, 2018.

Lower photograph: GFX50s. GF 63mm f/2.8 R WR . 1/30th. f5.6. iso 800. Spot Metering. October 20, 2017. 

The top photograph was made during a Teochow opera performance at the King George V Memorial Park (Kowloon) during the Hungry Ghost festival.

The lower photograph was made during a Hokkien opera performance at the Tokong Kau Ong Yah temple (Ampang, Kuala Lumpur) during the Nine Emperor Gods festival.

My Best Images Of 2017...And Why | X-Pro 2 & GFX50s

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy - All Rights Reserved
X-Pro2/12mm Zeiss/f2.8

With the end of year closing in, I thought I'd post 10 photographs that I made during 2017 which I deem to be the "best" (always a subjective thing) for a variety of reasons. 

By "best", I mean that these images combine the visual (composition et al), the ambiance and its connection to me as photographer.

The first (not in any particular order) is one of many I took of "Wang"; an aging Hokkien opera performer in Ampang (Kuala Lumpur) during the Nine Emperor Gods festival in October. In fact, I have a complete blog post on Wang, and how I formed a bond of sorts when I dropped on a couple of nights by the stage where he and his troupe would perform. For me, "Wang" epitomizes the gradual decline in popularity of the Chinese Opera. 

In this particular photograph, "Wang" wears heavy-handed make up on his face, with painted eyebrows. I can't decide whether his facial expression is sad, tired or is he being slightly sardonic. His face was very expressive, and I saw him use it during the shows. I deliberately used a wide angle (Zeiss Touit 12mm) to include the messy background, the drying clothes and the open trunk to show the "out-of-a-suitcase" lives of these itinerant opera troupes.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy - All Rights Reserved

X-Pro2/Fujinon 16-55mm/f3.2

Another favorite image is of four men in the small town of Qi Bao. It was taken in an ancient tea house where storytellers accompanied by Chinese pipas, perform their art.  Qi Bao, a water town 18 kilometers from downtown Shanghai, was built in the Five Dynasties Period (907-979 AD), and it's in such tea houses that one can enjoy a traditional Suzhou pingtan performance of storytelling to music.

Shanghai in September was hot and sultry, and I thought these men were either retired or unemployed. They were totally unconcerned with the storytelling show a few yards away, and were doing their own thing. I thought it was a timeless image, despite the two men fiddling with their mobile phones...with the crooked handwritten posters on the walls, the rickety furniture, the tea cups and the ancient music, I recall feeling as if I had gone back in time....at least 40-50 years.

For more of my Shanghai street photography, see Incongruities in Monochrome gallery.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy - All Rights Reserved

X-Pro2/Fujinon 18mm/f2.0

This photograph was made in Kyoto, and was shot from the hip...as is my usual way of  shooting when I'm in my street photography mode. I didn't want to disturb the scene so I was very quick. Compositionally, it could have been much improved had I been able to move two steps to the left, but I had no time as I wanted to capture the gestures of the little girl imitating the posture of the kimono-clad woman (who was being photographed by a friend with an iPhone).

Examining it later, I was about the chuck it out from my file of "possibles", but I liked the kimono's (and the bag's) design which contrasts with the plain gray/brown of the wall-fence...and the the striped t-shirts of the two little girls.

Many women of various nationalities (but mostly from East Asian countries) rent kimonos in Kyoto...and are appreciative when photographs are taken of them. The city officials developed programs to retain the traditional industries and artistry in making such garments, and to encourage people to wear them more often, so temples, museums, and restaurants in Kyoto offer discounts to women wearing kimonos. 

For more of my Kyoto's kimonos gallery, see The Kimonos of Kyoto.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy - All Rights Reserved

X-Pro2/Fujinon 16-55mm/f2.8

Whilst in Kuala Lumpur in 2016 participating in the annual Travel Photographer Society event, I was introduced to The Old China Cafe; an old café-restaurant that serves a combination of Straits Chinese and Malay dishes, and whose untouched pre-war ambiance and large traditional feng shui mirrors gave me the idea of constructing a fantasy story about a beautiful Chinese woman dressed in a clinging red qi pao or cheongsam appearing to an habitual customer and opium-addled Western photographer.

Fast forward to early May 2017, and I found myself once again at the Old China Cafe with Tracy Yee and Stanley Hong shooting for The Red Qi Pao, my fashion-themed story.

I had briefed Tracy as to the general idea of my imaginary story which was supposedly based in 1930 Shanghai, and she enthusiastically performed the role of the love-stricken Mei Li who was being ill-treated by her foreign lover. 

The atmosphere of the Old China Cafe lent itself perfectly to the theme, and while photographing, I had flash-backs of the wonderful movie In The Mood For Love by Wong Kar-wai, starring Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung. For me, the photograph that best exemplifies the movie is the this one...of a pensive Mei-Li leaning against an old Chinese screen. I deliberately shot this frame so it would appear soft...to give it the mood I wanted to recreate in that particular sequence.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy - All Rights Reserved

X-Pro2/Fujinon 16-55mm/f2.8

In Tokyo...the metropolis of more than 9 million people has the reputation of having many lonely people. It is reported that instead of actually forging relationships, or continuing those they have already, Japanese people are hiring actors to play the roles of loved ones. Many young men have no courtship skills, and are unable to forge lasting relationships with young women as in the West.

At dusk near Shibuya station, this young woman waiting for someone...perhaps her boyfriend, her husband or other girlfriends, struck me as being forlorn and sad. She's clutching her mobile phone, perhaps expecting a call or message with a pensive expression. I saw her as vulnerable, cocooned in a outsized woolen sweater but wearing an unseasonable short dress. 

Deep in her thoughts, she did not notice me...and every time I view this image, I wonder if her friend(s) showed up, or did she go home after a long wait....disappointed at her wasted evening.

For more of my Tokyo street photographs, see Tokyo Noir.

 

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy - All Rights Reserved

X-Pro2/Fujinon 18-135mm/f6.4

Since earlier this year, I've immersed myself in a new project involving Chinese Opera. While this project is continuously evolving and may now focus on this ancient performance art amongst the Chinese diaspora in South East Asia, I started it in New York City's Chinatown. This still-authentic area of lower Manhattan is home to Cantonese and Fujianese/Hokkien immigrants, and weekly shows are periodically performed.

This is one of my favorite photographs of a "mou sang" (hero) in a Cantonese opera held at the Chinese Community Center's theater on NYC's Mott Street. The performer is "Andrew" who is part owner of the Mandarin Court Restaurant just opposite the Center. His role is that of the mou sang (actor who can play both civil and martial roles)..and he was extremely adept in portraying the play's hero. I particularly liked his expression confronting his nemesis...and that his (inadvertent) reverse V-gesture is a vulgar one in Britain adds to his combativeness.

As I was standing about 20 feet from the stage, I used the X-Pro2 and the 18-135mm OIS lens to give me the range I needed.

For more of my photographs of Cantonese Opera, see this audio-slideshow.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy - All Rights Reserved

GFX50s/GF63mm/f2.8

Taking the opportunity of being in Shanghai, I was able to photograph a sequel to my Red Qi Pao audio slideshow in that city itself. I was fortunate to be introduced Ms Yiyi; a professional model and a budding photographer herself, featured her as a red qi pao-clad girl of Nanjing Road; a famous road in the city. Her story "occurs" in the 1930's and involves the foreigner only known as "gweilo".

Along with Eric, a photographer friend, we went to Guilin Park for the 3 hours photo shoot. The park's tea house provided an perfectly suitable backdrop for the photographs. I used my GFX50s along with its 63mm lens, as well as the X-Pro2 and a 16-55mm lens. 

Ms Yiyi was very quick to understand what I sought, and had all the accessories needed to play the part; the opium pipe, the fake fur stole, the yellow fan and the high heels. While Eric was there to interpret whenever needed, I found it extremely easy to direct her as she intuitively knew what to do.

It was one of the most pleasant photo shoots I've had ever done. The tea house was empty at this time of day...perhaps because it was drizzling for most of the time, the park was not at all crowded, and the light was gorgeous. I shoot in ambient light, and I eschew strobes and reflectors. 

Unfortunately Ms Yiyi wasn't able to view the resultant The Girl of Nanjing Road audio-slideshow as Vimeo and YouTube are banned (or censored) in China, but I did manage to send an abbreviated version of it via WeChat.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy - All Rights Reserved

X-Pro2/12mm Zeiss/f2.8

This is another monochrome "street" photograph made in a small eatery in Nakano, Japan. The elderly man was totally oblivious of my presence at the door of the eatery, and seemed to be lost in a world of his own. Similar to the Shibuya young woman in the previous photograph, he seemed to be lonely and vulnerable, and I felt sorry for him.

Naturally, these feelings are aroused in a matter of seconds, and he may have been quite the opposite...waiting for his wife and family to join him....but feeling sorry for him was my instinctive reaction. 

One cannot help but noticing in Japan that it has a rapidly aging society, where nearly one in four people is over 65, which means that more elderly are living alone every year. I recall returning home and looking at this image more closely...and thinking he must've been a widower or a bachelor, because there was no glint of joy, of expectation in his eyes.

I read somewhere this quote by a Japanese social researcher: 

“An enormous flaw in Japanese society is that we don’t look each other in the eye when we’re walking in the streets. We need to re-think the Japanese fear of interacting with others.”

For more of my Tokyo street photographs, see Tokyo Noir.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy - All Rights Reserved

X-Pro2/Fujinon 18-135mm/f6.4

Another of my favorite frames of Chinese opera was in Shanghai. Qinqiang is a regional type of this performance art, and the show was at the Yi Fu Theater on Fuzhou Road. The opera's tale was about two women; both brides but with different fates. The opera's title is The Qilin Purse (a red purse bearing the symbol or image of the mythical Chinese 'unicorn', meant to bring luck and good fortune to brides at their weddings).

Quite different from Cantonese or Hokkien operas, Qinqiang is much more sophisticated. It originated in the Yellow River Valley of Shaanxi province in northwest China, and boasts the most ancient, affluent and largest musical system of all Chinese operas, and is reputed to be the forefather of Chinese operas. It's also listed as a national Intangible World Heritage since 2006.

The cast seemed to be very well known to the enthusiastic audience, and while I expected to be asked not to photograph the show, it was quite the contrary with a couple of other photographers setting up tripods in the aisles. I didn't need to as I used the 18-135mm OIS on my X-Pro2 which was perfect for the task.

Due to the lighting and my settings (1/90 sec, f5.6, 75mm, iso 1000 and spot metering), I was able to capture the performers against a dark background rendering it almost black, and seemingly floating on a mirror.

At the end of the performance, there was an encore...and many of the audience went to the front of the stage to take pictures with their mobile phones...I was looking for an opening amongst the crowd, and a man shoved others to make way for me. He brushed my objections to the side, saying because I was a foreigner I had priority!

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy - All Rights Reserved

X-Pro2/Fujinon 16-55mm/f2.8

The tenth photograph (remember...they're not ranked by preference) is of a Hokkien opera performer applying his make-up before appearing on a stage in Sungai Way (Petaling Jaya). In contrast to the cluster of Malaysian photographers who were back stage that evening, I am not too fond of photographing the performers' reflections in mirrors. It's been done too many times, and have become trite....losing their impact because of overuse.

However, I made an exception for this one because I noticed the two reflections in the close-up mirror and the larger one....and because of the angle of view, I also noticed that the position of the performer's right hand with the brush (or applicator) looks different in the two mirrors. Perhaps an optical illusion?

If it wasn't for religious festivals, Chinese opera could well be virtually extinct in Malaysia. Before and during Chinese religious festivals such as the Hungry Ghosts festival and the Nine Emperor Gods festival, Chinese opera troupes live in the back areas of the stages that are specially erected, and perform nightly or even twice daily.

For this frame, I used the 16-55mm at a 24mm setting, iso 640 and center-weighted average.

For more of my Hokkien opera photographs, see Back Stage.