Charles Freger

The portraits are stunning, creepy, weird. Beautiful and strange and powerful. The introduction is a waste of time, and the book is almost entirely images -- and then. Finally, at the end, small excerpts telling us a little bit more about the festivals all over Europe that these masks and costumes come from, a little bit more about the historical tradition, and the materials, and what these images are celebrating. I wanted that information first, or interleaved or somehow not hidden, but I can see how some of the power of the images is in the sheet incongruity, the mystery of imagining running into one of these figures alone in a landscape. Very cool, and I find the enormous and ubiquitous bells totally fascinating.… (mehr)

The origin of this series was a commission from the city of Ferrara in Tuscany, where they hold the oldest Palio in Italy. It is not as well-known as the one in Siena but it dates back to the end of the 13th century. On the first Sunday in May, eight contrades square up to one another. Eight groups, from different districts, with cultural rather than geographical affinities, take part in three races in the main square of the city – on foot, on donkeys, and on horseback. Each contrada parades in historical costume, joining the others after the race for a procession in honour of Lucrezia Borgia. Men and women in mediaeval outfits process in their colours under their own banner. Suits of armour with metal breastplates, long velvet kyrtles – all pass before the photographer’s lens.… (mehr)