BEFORE THE DANCE

Before the Dance is a series I have been doing for many years. These are photos taken during the backstage of a main events such as temple festivals or dance programs. From this series, I would like to showcase the moments before the main event, the emotion and expression of the artists they go through and the process in making them the main performer. In this photo, this man's face is being painted as one of the character in a temple festival. It would take around 2 - 3 hours to face paint and then another 1 hour for the dress to be worn and tied properly. The stress and physical strain they go through this process is huge. In this photo I got interested in the contrast in the green color painted on the face against the blue floor mat and their body tone, the limbs add balance to the composition. The top POV makes the composition better in capturing all above factors.