Photo essay: Street caricaturists
Every year, as the summer season approaches, in the touristic village of Puerto de La Cruz in Tenerife, crowd gathers around street portrait painters, mostly caricaturists. I am not sure I can explain what’s the magic of it all but, for sure, I sympathize with those stopping to have a look; in fact, I am one on them. Every single time I get magically hooked to their labour and start asking myself questions:
– Where do they come from?
– Are they globe trotters?
– Do they live in the island during the non-touristic months?
– Do they earn their living doing that?
– How did they end up doing this job?
– Is it a passion or “just” a job?
– Are they friends to each other? Or competitors?
– And, why on earth do people get their portraits made when they are on holidays?
The idea was to ask them these questions and hopefully, be able to document their answers through images. I spent a lot of time with them and I got answers to all but the last question. Unfortunately, I didn’t managed to translate that knowledge into the photo essay I had in mind. One of the main reasons, I think, is that I didn’t choose the right time of the year; not only because the light was not as good as in the summer but also because the amount of clients/expectation they had around was way below what I had seen other times. Another possible reason is that, not being a linear story (as it is the case of the other essay; coming soon), I didn’t find the proper narrative path.
Having said that, I have a couple of photos that I like and I will take them as the starting point of this essay which I hope to successfully complete in the near future.
