I’m an architecture and landscape photographer, but take other kinds of photos all the time. On professional portfolio websites, images that aren’t “on-brand” with your specialty topics are commonly not shared, and I am pretty typical for keeping people out of my galleries. But it feels a little odd to me that I NEVER post photos of people here.
My friends and loved ones value their privacy and (generally) don’t want portraits of their faces posted online. I respect that. If I am sharing photos for purposes beyond showing crowd scenes to convey the livelihood of a neighborhood or how people enjoy a place, I want to show people who are intentionally showing themselves to the public. Festival performers fit this bill!
Festivals are a favorite element of local culture to me here in San Francisco. While we no longer have Cinco de Mayo festivals in my original home neighborhood of the Mission District, we DO have an unseasonably late Carnaval. It is fibrant, colorful, cross-cultural, and loads of fun. So I’m going to share highlights from this year’s festival, which I photographed exclusively on my phone.
Two men in fabulous Native American attire
The woman on the left looks like a Thai goddess, doesn't she?
Women in red-orange and fuschia dancing in carnaval
Detail of a woman performing in Carnaval primarily in teal, yellow, and primary red
Woman in a lime green and pink costume performing at Carnaval
Dancers in orange, sequined teal, and lime green swirling with expansive skirts
Dancers in yellow, fuschia, and royal blue performing in Carnaval
Dancers in tiger print, orange, and taupe performing with a leopard's roar at Carnaval
Two girls on the back of a truck and one woman standing, all in elaborately colorful costumes and feathered hats
Samba Rio dancing in black and white dresses, with black and white heart-shaped baloons and red, black, and lime feathered headdresses (three images)
A dancer in an elaborate red, feathered costume with a complex headdress and sparkly bodysuit
Dancers rocking out in orange costumes with multi-color flower headgear
Dancers in gold bikinis, crowns, and yellow feathers smiling both generally and at cute children in the crowd
Dancer in an elaborately beaded black, gold, and green dress, hat nearly as tall as she is protruding almost horizontally from her head, and matching embroidered boots with shiny gold soles and high heels dancing down the street
Four cheerful dancers
Four dancers in elaborately beaded blue, green, yellow, and orange costumes, with matching high-heeled boots and small hats with taller straw decorations.
Samba Rio
Samba Rio's group with vivid red wigs, yellow dresses, and zebra-print sashes dancing down the street with drumsticks
Dancer with a blue-themed headdress
Dancer with blue-themed feathered costume referencing Central American cultures; predominantly featuring blue feathers, embroidery, and jewelry, with brown, cream, and red-orange details and a striped feather fan.
Masked figure
Masked character with an elaborately sewn and beaded headdress of many colors.
Flaring skirts
Dancers flaring their orange, lime green, and teal sequined skirts
