Festival of Colors
Spring is here and in back roads Utah thousands gathered to kick it off in a vibrant explosion of color, literally. Holi, also known as the Festival of Colors, is a ritualistic celebration of spring primarily observed in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. In areas just south of Spanish Fork, one of the largest Holi celebrations in United States draws thousands of participants regardless of religion.
The “decisive moment” in the festival is marked by a countdown from twenty, upon reaching zero the entire crowd throw brightly colored, perfumed chalk skyward in celebration. In matter of seconds thousands of people are obscured in a dense cloud of murky color while a band brings the crowd to a roar chanting, “Hare Krishna!” The haze subsides two minutes later and the crowd turns to dancing, singing, and crowd surfing punctuated by the occasional explosion of color from a reveler.
Photography the Festival of Colors brings plenty of headaches to the table for the aspiring photographer. Colored dust and expensive SLR cameras aren’t exactly designed to play in the same environment nicely. Or how about figuring out how to navigate a crowd of thousands while trying find that special shot in all the mayhem? It certainly isn’t for the faint of heart, but like so many things worth photographing, a little risk goes a long way.
In the weeks preceding the event, I stumbled across multiple conversations centered around the topic of keeping Holi photographers safe during the messy event. Suggestions ranged from expensive protective housings to suggestions of places to shoot from that would keep you out harms way when the throwing started. For me, the photographs I wanted to make dictated the methods I needed to use to protect the gear.
As soon as I knew I was going to shoot this event, I knew I would never be happy with the results unless I was in the heart of that crazy crowd. I wanted to capture raw interactions between people in all the chaos. Enter one generously donated rain sleeve from a coworker of mine. This was nothing more than a big plastic bag with a drawstring that could be pulled tight around the front of the lens. Always up for a creative challenge I attached a simple prime lens with a hood to my D300 knowing that the lack of telescoping zoom would give the chalk one less point to attack. I was also banking on the excellent sharpness of primes to yield me good sharpness in the final photographs.
Knowing the camera was relatively well protected enabled me relax when it came time to get crazy and run into the color maelstrom. My lens choice kept me on my toes, always ready to run to the next photo opportunity. I attended a talk by Atlanta music photographer Zach Arias recently and I can’t stress enough his advice: Know your camera. The only reason I have any photographs worth showing from Holi hinged on me knowing my camera inside and out. I don’t wonder what button is where, in fact I hardly have to look at the camera anymore when operating it (which was great because the bag it was in was covered in dust).
Everything said and done, the festival was a fantastic experience, and one I would love to have again. Enjoy the photos, hit us with a comment if you shot some of your own!
Welcome back! I especially like Holi-6 & 36.
This is some of the best work I’ve seen come out of Holi. Nice work!
Thanks Parker, have you shot the festival?