Isaac looking for a pass in the pouring rain, while others look on from the safety of shelter.
Only Transportation
Heading to work in Virasoro, Corrientes.
Catching Up
Finally I have caught up. After two and a half weeks absent from my computer and a massive build up of emails, I can finally say that I am there. I have arrived. My inbox is empty. Yeeha.
It is such a good feeling, and so many other things had been suffering until I had done this, that I thought it significant enough to announce to the world.
Right. Now that I have done this, it is time to go and do some significant things with my time.
Future Shock – Depicting Life Today
I have been reading a classic novel called Future Shock by Alvin Toffler. Written back in 1970, it is amazing how much of it applies so well to today. This writer had an uncanny ability to see what was happening around him back then, and these days it is only more obvious. There are a number of very interesting quotes from the book that describe many of the things that I have seen happening throughout my life. They all are surrounded in a much deeper explanation and exploration of the topic which has helped me to understand more about who I am in this day and age.
One of the more interesting side effects of reading this book has been that it has shown me that what happens today was not a normal experience for everyone. Not only this, but I have begun to see how much change has happened over just my lifetime and how only in the last 60 to 80 years has there been such a radical speeding up of change and events around us. This of course, is the topic of the book.
So before I ramble on, let me quote a few things from the book:
On Life With Friends…
Each time a family moves it tends to slough off a certain number of just plain friends and acquaintances. Left behind, they are eventually all but forgotten. Separation does not end all relationships. We maintain contact with, perhaps, one or two friends from the old location, and we tend to keep in sporadic touch with relatives. But with each move there is a deadly attrition. At first there is an eager flurry of letters back and forth. There may be occasional visits or telephone calls. But gradually these decrease in frequency. Finally, they stop coming.
The current today [talking of 1970] is picking up speed. Friendship increasingly resembles a canoe shooting the rapids of change. “Pretty soon… we’re all going to be metropolitan-type people in this country without ties or commitments to long time friends and neighbors.”
Photographing a Wedding
A friend of a friend asked if I could photograph their wedding for them. It was not a paid job or anything like that, but I was given a place in the wedding and reception and all of the food that comes with it. For me it was more the challenge and the opportunity to experience an Argentine wedding that motivated me to do it inspite of my heavy workload. And it was well worthwhile too.
Mabel and Gabriel, the newly married couple.
The civil wedding was the first step, which took place on the wednesday. We went to an old government building filled with people completing paperwork and paying bills to the government. The building was old and in a slight state of disrepair with an atmosphere typical of public government buildings. One room in this building was dedicated to the weddings. A large room with lovely decorations, it was obviously prepared for photos, and judging by the rest of the building, it stood apart in its beauty.
Friends and family in the nice room ready to witness the civil wedding.
Civil wedding in progress.
On Friday the church wedding took place. I had been promised help for this day, but instead was left on my own to both video and photograph the events that took place. After consulting some girls, it was decided that a video of the church ceremony was more valuable than photos, so there are virtually no photos of this part of the event. Afterwards however we took many photos of the couple in various parts of the city.
After taking the photographs we moved on to the reception, at the home of one of the parents of the couple, where I interchanged my camera with the video-camera throughout the day. It was a very lovely event, and for a couple that had hardly two cents to rub together, everyone made the best of what they had and all present chipped in with whatever they could to be able to give the newly-weds a great start to their new life together.
One of the photos after the church wedding.
When I looked through my photos, I was quite disappointed with the results. This was the first time that I have ever tried to do something like this, and it was such short notice that I did not have much time to look at other photos of weddings to get some ideas. The main thing amongst it all however was that with a nervous couple on my hands, I did not encourage them to smile a whole lot, so many times they look pretty serious. My favourite photos below are those where they did manage to smile, or where I caught them unawares.
The wedding itself was very similar to many weddings that I have been to, although there was no destroying of the wedding car (mind you they did not really have a car, so perhaps that was related), and rice was the flavour of the day to throw at the couple, which they did only at the civil wedding.
Throwing rice on the couple as they emerge from their civil wedding.
My last task before leaving on holidays was to compile the video and photos of the two stages of the wedding and leave it behind to give to the couple when they return from their short honeymoon. They will be precious memories for many years to come.
The bridge behind is one of the major symbols for Corrientes.
Travelling in the car to another photographic location.
Continue reading “Photographing a Wedding”
