This weekend I went down to Devon, just east of Exeter to take photos of the event where people carry tar soaked barrels above their heads and run through a very large crowd. Going into this and also I have found going into the other events so far a great sense of unknowing heading to shoot them. This was somewhat more daunting as I had to travel much much further to go to this event.
I didn’t really know anything about the event which was quite good really. It meant that I could figure it out as I was there and make my own opinions and ideas about the event. One of the main conclusions that I came to was that it was rather insane. There are around 15,000 people that come to this small town to watch and witness the barrel running.
The huge barrels are carried on peoples shoulders and they pretty much run at and through the crowd whilst on fire. It was rather scary at times as the barrel runners came within 5ft of me and I really had to push back on people to get out of the way. All this being said, it made some incredible photos that I am very happy with. Shooting at night was something that I found as a challenge but worked well with the flames everywhere.
I think as a set that there is potential for this to be my entry into the Sony competition, as a set they are really strong together and I feel that it could create an interesting story with it and enter it in the documentary category potentially. This is something that I will edit together and see how it stacks up against the rest of the photos.
Tom Roberts Photography Blog 