JOUVERT IN BROOKLYN FEATURED IN THE NEW YORK TIMES THROUGH THE LENS OF KITTITIAN PHOTOGRAPHER WAYNE LAWRENCE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~` Every Labor Day, a roving predawn festival called J’ouvert fills central Brooklyn with dancing, drumming and costumes as exuberant as any ensemble on the runways during Fashion Week. A traditional part of Carnival in the Caribbean, the party unofficially begins the annual West Indian American Day Parade. The photographer Wayne Lawrence, 39, participated in J’ouvert celebrations while growing up on the island of St. Kitts and has been documenting the festivities in Brooklyn since 2004. “There’s a lot of raw energy here,” Mr. Lawrence said around 4 o’clock on Monday morning as he surveyed a gathering crowd at Grand Army Plaza. It included revelers wearing helmets and carrying plastic tridents, and a man who had covered his shaved head and bare torso with gold paint. Many J’ouvert participants wear masks or spread paint across their faces, then lose themselves in the rhythm of steel drums, whistles and horns, leaving their everyday lives behind, at least for a few hours. “You let all inhibitions go,” Mr. Lawrence said, adding that he tried to capture “the aesthetics and the sensuousness” of the event in his pictures. Before long he was approaching people and arranging portraits. He photographed a man wearing a black helmet equipped with two black horns and dressed only in black shorts that featured a third horn positioned like a codpiece. He photographed several women wearing white gowns, stockings and gauzy veils who were lying on a sidewalk. And he captured a tall man whose muscles gleamed with oil and who wore thick chains across his chest while carrying a kerosene lantern. Hours later, as the sun rose, the crowd continued surging and Mr. Lawrence was still among the celebrants, choosing new subjects and squinting through his viewfinder as dancers swirled around him.
Posted on: Sat, 07 Sep 2013 03:12:13 +0000
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