Portrait of a Jumper

By Aaron Thomas

 

 

Two Traditions-Easter in Toronto

Two Traditions

 Lauren Rock and Rob Shook

Toronto, Ontario celebrates Easter on a grander scale than most cities. We were there to photograph two of its annual parades - the Good Friday Procession, and the Easter Parade.

The Good Friday Procession celebrated its 50th year in 2012. About 500 people take part in the walk through Toronto’s Little Italy, some of whom have been participating for decades. Guiseppe Rauti has been playing the part of Jesus for 48 years. He is now 73, and still completes the 10km procession barefoot and dragging a large cross. The beginning and end are at the St. Francis of Assisi Church.

While the procession is large, Sunday’s parade draws even more people–this year, an estimated 50,000 showed up. Where Friday’s parade is solemn and slow, Sunday’s is fast paced and carefree. The highlights include nearly 100 floats and tens of thousands of sets of bunny ears.

The Party

During our time in college, we have all had the opportunity to photograph at a party. In fact, it would be hard to go through college without doing such a thing. Parties are a regular occurrence not only during college years, they continue whether it be wedding receptions, 50th birthday bashes, bachelor/bachelorette parties, and even funerals receptions. There is almost always something being celebrated somewhere. It’s the perfect sort of event to photograph because not only is there a story unraveling, there are moments, and there is time to anticipate, compose, and create powerful images. All 5 of us have the strong creative impulse to make images that communicate with us and our viewers.

Shooting parties isn't usually a photographer's primary work. But ceremonies and customs are a huge part of all of our lives, and if we're trying to understand and document life they're a big part of that. The elements we search for in our favorite subject matter exists at ceremonies as well, and photographing at these events is a great way to shoot different subjects that challenge us and give us ideas to bring back to our "serious" work.