Portfolio Category - Portrait Awards 2014

The first time I attended Thaipusam was in 2006, an old woman went into a trance. She started talking in a different voice and started doing a dance around her grandson who was carrying the Kavadi. I’ve also seen men going into trance too, specifically as the chanting and music grows more intense. It was not the first time I saw someone go into a trance. I’m Chinese and even though my family is Buddhist we have encountered Taoism rituals growing up. In Taoism , the medium goes into a trance when they invite certain deities into their body. As child, my mum would ask us to look away when these trances happen if we chance upon them in a temple or in public. I grew up thinking that these trances must be something unnatural or bad. There are many legends about Thaipusam. According to a popular legend, the kavadis symbolised the hills of burden that Idumban shouldered when Lord Murugan wanted to test his devotion to his master. I wondered if the devotees are possessed by the Spirit of Lord Murugan. That was the only way i thought they could bear carrying the heavy kavadis with the piercings on their bodies that they were one with their God. It wasn’t just a physical act but a spiritual one. I started shooting the multiple exposures 3 years ago after I started to figure out exactly what I wanted to convey in my photographs. The double exposures are done with a TLR, which explains the square format.