Day of the Doll

Last year, after doing some minor world travel, I decided a nice way to follow it up would be to head south of the border to check out some Dia de los Muertos celebratio.  It would make neat cultural photography.  The only thing that went south was the plan itself, as Mexico, at least according to the media, exploded into drug fueled violence, with heads literally rolling.  I’m usually the first to say the media exaggerates things, but in terms of  being proven wrong, this seemed like tempting fate.  I haven’t heard about it this year so much, so maybe it (again, perhaps literally) died down, but truth be told, I completely forgot about my former plan until a couple weeks ago.

Fortunately, it turns out LA has its own Day of the Dead celebration at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.  Conveniently located indeed, and, at $10 a ticket versus expensive travel costs, a bit more economical.

Day of the Accordion Player

After a warm greeting from this cheery fellow, we snaked past graves, fields, memorials, and somewhat conspicuous port-o-potties, greeted by dozens of booths.  Cynicism would come easily to the right type, who might look at the booths offering cultural tchotchkes to tourists, and the fact that the most enthusiastically costumed looked like artsy LA kids, with a degree of high brow snobbery.  They would have missed the point.  Between the range of costumes, from the bizarre to the incredibly elaborate, were weird moments worth the price of admission alone.

Day of the Upset Undead Children

Scenes like this just disturb and confuse me, so I’ll some it up and just say: ‘Children.’  If you click on it for a larger view, you can see drool dribbling down the chin of the girl on the right, the result of a particularly enthusiastic bout of loud crying.  They’re clearly a little young to hate family themed costumes- it looks like they have another five years or so to get to that point- so I’ll go ahead and go with the obvious ‘child leash’ explanation.  At that age I would have hated to be on one myself, though I must confess that now I love the idea, especially on other people’s children.

Diverting a ways from snarky:

Day of the Brilliant Costumes

These two had brilliant costumes, probably the best put together I saw all day.  Alone they would have been excellent, and paired off, they’re absolutely fantastic.  The crisp detail on their faces was really well done, and the way the gent on the right complimented it with a single contact lens was a particularly nice touch.  Also, check out the young lady’s tattoos.

Day of the Killer Tats

Well played.

The event started a bit late in the day, so other than some brief, nice afternoon sunlight, it got dark quickly.  It seemed like a nice time for some silhouette shots.

Day of the... nighttime.

It’s nice to grab moments like these.  I’m more the photographer who asks permission rather than sneak shots, but sometimes you simply can’t resist the opportunity.  Not to say of course that the unexpected can’t happen, even when someone realises you’re taking their picture.  Portraits are all well and good, but after some time I was looking for something a bit more candid.  This woman had taken a seat among the graves to apply her facepaint, and thinking it made a nice little scene, I asked permission to take a few shots.  She gladly accommodated, and while I was shooting, one of her children curiously wandered into the scene.

OK, it isn't day anymore

All in all, not a bad way to spend a Saturday night, and I’d recommend checking it out if you can next year.  There’s also a wealth of musical performances and food which pictures won’t communicate, and so I won’t even bother.  I’ll just finish with one more portrait of that sweet Day of the Dead facepainting.

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