Cape Town Carnival lives outdoors. Thousands of people and a parade that refuses to hold still. This shoot did the opposite. We brought the costumes and the performers into a controlled studio and let the craft of them sit still long enough to be seen.
On the street, the spectacle carries the picture for you. In the studio there is nowhere to hide, so it becomes about the maker’s hand instead. The beadwork, the structure, the face under the headpiece.
[ROY: who commissioned this, the Carnival organisation directly or an agency? And confirm the year, the source filenames read December 2021.]
