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| ‘I liked how they were mirroring each other’s body language, unconsciously’ ... Moni and Juanjo’s Kitchen on Carnival Night, 2013. Photograph: Kate Stanworth |
My best shot
Photography
Kate Stanworth's best photograph: Murga dancers make a busload of sandwiches
Murga troupes travel around Argentina in knackered old school buses, performing on makeshift stages in closed-down streets. These two are making ham and cheese sandwiches for the road’Dale Berning Sawa
Thu 26 Jul 2018
Murga is Argentinian street theatre that combines dance with percussion. The first time I heard the hypnotic drumbeat of a performance was in a park in Buenos Aires. I walked towards it and watched the dancers as they moved from the first simple steps to the intense high kicks the performances culminate in. I was hooked. I wanted to know everything about it.
For ordinary, working class people, murga plays an important role. Austerity means it’s becoming much harder to live in Argentina. Murga gives them something to look forward to, an escape.
Each area of Buenos Aires has its own murga group, with their own colours. In February, throughout carnival season, they travel from neighbourhood to neighbourhood on weekends, performing well into the night.
They travel around in these knackered old school buses to makeshift stages on streets shut down for the evening. In some places, the audience is on fire, it’s exciting. There is a real buzz when the drums start. The sound is addictive; the audience gets lost in it and even though it’s so hot and so late, the performers give it their all.
I shot this in 2013, while trailing a local troupe I’d befriended a few years earlier. It was about 6.45 in the evening, and it was very hot, very humid. Everyone was moving a little slowly, which I think this picture captures. The troupe – about 150 dancers and drummers – had gathered at the director’s house, which transforms into a community centre of sorts.
I came across this private moment in the kitchen. Someone had made stew for dinner, in that big pot, and two dancers were making ham and cheese sandwiches for the road. The boy had put the knife down to concentrate on talking to the girl. They were having an intense conversation. I liked how they were mirroring each other’s body language, unconsciously, beautifully. The composition reminded me of Dutch paintings.
In the room next door, people were doing their makeup and making last-minute adjustments to their costumes – men with their coat-tails and smart hats, girls with short skirts. Elsewhere, others were loading drums into buses. I liked how this quiet, fleeting moment, stood in direct contrast to the flurry of activity all around. I went back the following year with printed copies of the image to give the boy and the girl, but they were no longer members. I never found out their names.
The [troupe] invited me to go out performing with them, and I’ve been going ever since. I’ve tried to learn the dance, but I should have started when I was a lot younger, it’s really hard. Mostly I just take photographs. Being made part of the group feels special, I’m this English person who just wandered in one day, and they have embraced me with open arms. It’s changed my life.
Kate Stanworth’s CV
Born: 1976, London.
Training: BA in fine art at Norwich School of Art and MA in contemporary art theory at Goldsmiths College, London.
Influences: “Vermeer, Alessandra Sanguinetti, and many other photographers, artists and film directors.”
High point: “Photographing Somaliland’s presidential elections recently for the NGO Saferworld. It was amazing to bear witness to such an important moment for this burgeoning democracy and to report a positive African story.”
Low point: “Being struck down by a terrible bout of flu during a photographic trip to Argentina. I couldn’t get out of bed for 10 days.”
Top tip: “Find what you love to photograph and keep going. Listen to criticism but ultimately don’t be put off from following your heart and your own vision.”
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