The Drums of Omolù
A whole night to photograph and film a rite of Candomblé in a -terreiro- of Salvador de Bahia is a very intense experience. The assignment of the men is to tune up complexes and repetitive African rhythms with strong and evocative power. The women dress embroider wheel skirts, they dance, they stir the bodies, they scrutinize the presents and they follow the initiates completing slow movements and singing in yoruba language.They dominates the house. They dance and they go in trance, the principal purpose of the ceremony. The dance, deeply African, is performed with great transport, with elegant movements of the hands, swinging the haunchs and completing light footsteps. When a dancer enters in trance, she trembles and twists while the assistants embrace and sustain her.
The rite that I have photographed was in honor of Omolù, the feared one and respected Orixà of the illnesses and torments; his syncretic and christian counterpart is St. Rocco. The followers of the Candomblé, named -candomblisti-, are Catholic believers. The Brazilian Church cohabits and accepts the existing syncretism between the rites of African origin and the most known Catholic practices.
The rite that I have photographed was in honor of Omolù, the feared one and respected Orixà of the illnesses and torments; his syncretic and christian counterpart is St. Rocco. The followers of the Candomblé, named -candomblisti-, are Catholic believers. The Brazilian Church cohabits and accepts the existing syncretism between the rites of African origin and the most known Catholic practices.
These photos are part of a photographic and documentary project, realized between 1996 and 2001 in Brazil. The original project has been developed in two different moments that have resulted in the creation of four documentaries shoted in the states of Amazonas, Roraima, Bahia, Minas Gerais and Parana', in addition to a portfolio that represents the synthesis. The cultural stratification which over the centuries has affected the Brazilian continent is still being seen today with anthropological and social connotations. The aim of photographic project shown here, is to catch the signs in the culture and society of visited countries.
