Ivan Gonzalez: Devil Dancers of Naiguata

Image © Ivan Gonzalez-All Rights Reserved
Here's an audio slideshow with the photographs of Venzuela photographer Ivan Gonzalez of the Devil Dancers of Naiguata. This is a Venezuelan traditional ritual celebrated during the Roman Catholic feast day of Corpus Christi, and symbolizes the victory of good over evil. Its audio track is only in Spanish, but the purpose of the dancing is obvious.

Ivan Gonzalez has worked as a photojournalist since 1998, collaborating with Associated Press (AP) and Spanish agency EFE news service, among other local Venezuelan magazines and newspapers. He worked as top photo editor at Venezuela's 'El Nacional' newspaper, and currently directs the photo reporting at 'El Cadena Global' daily newspaper.

I have previously posted on this Afro-Venezuelan tradition near Venezuela’s Caribbean coast which has been practiced since the late 18th century.

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Tom Wool: ONE

Photograph © Tom Wool-All Rights Reserved
Tom Wool is a British photographer currently living in NYC. I'd describe his work as "ethnographic photography" since the work he presents on his website ONE is of 160 portraits made during his travels to Bolivia, Irian Jaya, Kenya, Morocco, PNG, Suriname, Tanzania, Tibet and Venezuela.

His biography tells us that he worked in a number of fashion publications in the 1980s, and this background served him extremely well in photographing his subjects. Tom traveled to Tibet to work on a project, and with the sale of his photographs, he raised enough funds to build a school in Tzombuk, where some of his portraits were made.

We've been spoilt by the ever-increasing web's bandwidth, and are now used to much larger images than what Tom Wool's are. Perhaps an updated website is in the planning?

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