'Quick, some dude is getting pierced over here!' This is what I overhear as I'm watching preparations for Thaipusam, outside Penang's City Stadium.
I have attended many religious celebrations in my time, some that also involved piercing or similar physical acts of devotion. But I have always avoided Thaipusam like the plague. I figured it would be something like a circus with the devotees placed at the center of a freakshow.
And in many ways my fears were confirmed.
Rarely have I photographed at an event at which common courtesy was so absent. I was pushed and shoved. People who really should have known better (I'm looking at you Mr. 2 D800's) didn't think twice about stepping in front of my carefully framed shot, or on my foot, or even -- much worse -- stepping on the offering a devotee had laid on the ground to get that all important shot.
Yes, it really was the freakshow I had tried so long to avoid.
At one point I really contemplated pulling the plug and getting out of there. But I had committed to a fellow photographer to attend, and I felt an obligation to stick it out. So I did.
My approach was to get close and personal with the devotees. To show them in positions of power. To capture life and color, not just shocking scenes of physical extremes.
In other words, to treat people with dignity.
And I found that as the devotees finished their piercing rituals many of the gawkers moved on and the 'real' Thaipusam began, as participants - families, individuals, friends - made the walk from the stadium to the Arulmigu Balathandayuthapani Temple (Waterfall Temple).
Will I attend next year? Maybe. My uncertainty is due partly to the fact that I don't know if work will take me elsewhere during the festival. But also, I feel that I need to get beyond the obvious, to go deeper and show all that Thaipusam is about.
I need a personal connection to the event -- ideally I would follow a devotee through the whole process from fasting and cleansing in preparation to the day's events and beyond.
