A Trini Ting

Farewell to Flesh

2008-06-04T05:10:00.002+01:00

Women

2008-05-18T16:02:00.000+01:00

Carnivalesque

2008-05-02T15:54:00.002+01:00

The Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan movement was intimately intertwined with, and completely dependent on, contemporary popular cultural forms and institutions. Klansmen were selective in their appropriations from popular culture, however, and the types of entertainments they drew from illuminate the significance of their theatricality. In choreographing their attacks, they did not draw from prizefighting, domestic fiction, or the new sport of baseball but from carnivalesque genres such as minstrelsy, Mardi Gras, the circus, folk serenading, and rough music. Those traditions centered on comic inversion and jumbled together varied and discordant elements.

Steel Pan

2008-04-27T13:21:00.001+01:00

Reality Check

2008-03-27T17:56:00.004Z

It was V S Naipaul who wrote about Trinidadians, ‘That they take pleasure in living up to the ideals of the tourist brochure. They know that they are presented to the world as the land of calypso and steel band. They are determined the world shall not be disappointed; and their talent for self-caricature is profound.’ Naipaul says a frequently used word in Trinidad is culture, and culture is, in short, a night-club turn. ( The Middle Passage)
Culture brings in the money for Trinidad. Carnival brings in the money for Trinidad.
Carnival is colour. Carnival is music. Carnival is bacchanal. Movement. Energy. Art. Excitement. Trinidad Carnival is all those things, and more as just simmering below the surface is pure aggression. It's a nation that doesn't know why it's being aggressive. A haunted nation, trapped between a fantasy and a hard place.

Standing Tall

2008-03-24T19:24:00.000Z

Uncertainty

2008-02-26T13:36:00.000Z

I'm not sure how I feel about this blog at the moment or how I feel about this project idea etc.
I'm having trouble trying to get my point across.
Jeez, I'm having trouble working out what is my point.
I know I don't want this project to be simply presenting or representing images of Carnival, with all the colour, excitement feathers. It's more than that, it has to be more than that, as the reality of Carnival is so shallow I don't want to add to that image.

So I'll keep working on it. Maybe it's the images I'm working with, maybe it's the decades of traditions , in regards to Carnival, moving one way and then another that I;m trying to work with or against.
But there is more to it and I should just do as I am doing, continue to give myself the time and space to explore it.

Words

2008-02-25T14:22:00.000Z

Play The Devil

2008-02-22T15:48:00.000Z

Carnival has always been about social expression. The voice of society is displayed on the streets. There's the dressing up, the frenzy, the abandonment. But underneath this exuberance is where the problems lie. Under the cover of Carnival, violence raged.

Police list of Carnival stabbings, shootings
* Aaron Ganish of Laventille, shot around 4 am in Port-of-Spain.
* Adison Gaines, 18, of Laventille shot in Port-of-Spain.
* Gary Lawrence of Aranguez, shot in Morvant. * Indra Maraj, 47, of St Joseph, was shot in her left foot at George Street, Port-of-Spain.
* Camille Durham, 17, of Cocorite, stabbed in the back at Roxy Roundabout, St James.
* Marcus Phillips, 22, of St Augustine, stabbed in the back around at a St James bar.
* Kareem Forde, 19, of Upper Laventille, stabbed in the left arm in Port-of-Spain.
* Rose White, 25, of Petit Valley, was stabbed in her back on Frederick Street around 4 am in Port-of-Spain.
* John Pierre, 17, of Barataria, was stabbed about his body on Frederick Street, Port-of-Spain.
* Sheldon Charles, 20, of Laventille, stabbed in Port-of-Spain.
* Ravi Seecheran, 17, of St James, suffered injuries in an attempted robbery in Port-of-Spain.
* Marcus Phillips, of Barataria, stabbed on Alfredo Street, Woodbrook.
* Kiuro Brawaithe, 23, of Gonzales, stabbed on Broadway, Port-of-Spain.
* Marcia Phillips, of Barataria, stabbed on Alfredo Street, Woodbrook.
* Anthony Butler, of Morvant, stabbed on Greaves Street, St Clair.
* Curtis Simon of Beetham Estate, beaten in Port-of-Spain.
* Ralph Cupid, 25, of Carenage, stabbed on St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain.
* Anita Nicolas, 21, of Woodbrook, beaten on her head in Port-of-Spain.
* Shelly Ann Downes, 25, of John John, suffered head injuries in a fight in Port-of-Spain.
* Robert Mitchell, of Port-of-Spain, beaten on Queen Street, Port-of-Spain.

These figures take the total number of killings in Trinidad to 50 for 2008. We are only in February 2008.

Carnival Monday

2008-02-11T14:15:00.000Z

Walker

2008-02-09T17:46:00.001Z

tree lickle injuns

2008-02-08T03:34:00.000Z

a dame lorraine

2008-02-08T02:38:00.000Z

From the sidelines of the parade, the elegant, French Dame can be seen taking to the street. The French aristocracy were known for their costumes complete with elaborate fans and hats. Usually in groups, alone, this Dame looks out of her depth.

The children's parade taking place on the Friday before Carnival is the space where traditions are honoured. The characters created during emancipation are brought to life.

I'm interested in the past and what we can learn from it.
We carry the past with us like baggage. This baggage can be as heavy or as light as we choose it to be. Now, in this day and age, the children have a heavy load to carry in terms of the past as the generations before seem to have grown intolerant of the past.

Here the Dame struggles to carry her body, her role, her burden of history.

in the mix

2008-02-08T01:36:00.000Z

I don't have a studio. I don't have a room. I have a converted damp garage, a fuji digital camera and a R70 samsung laptop. But most importantly I have my eyes.

When I think about it I've always been observant; able to locate missing objects, pick up on the finer details of people and places. I've used these observation skills in my writing, but it is only over the past few years that I've seen these skills translated into film.

I'm not fussy. People who have seen me with a camera know that I snap like crazy. I go with the law of averages; the more shots I take, the better the chances of capturing something unique, something interesting.

I suppose for me, my love of the visual springs from my love of literature. I want to tell a story. A poem or an image has a narrative. There is the surface narrative and an underlying, 'just out of reach, but there's a glimmer' narrative. I like to tease these narratives to life and leave the rest to the viewer.