I had photographed the Lam Tu Luan Kungfu School at various events before, and when Chinese New Year came around they invited me to follow them through the day’s performances — lion dance visits to businesses in the morning, a public demonstration in the afternoon, and a community banquet dinner in the evening.
The school has been teaching traditional southern Chinese martial arts in Brisbane for years, and their lion dance troupe is one of the most active in the city. The day of Chinese New Year is busy for them — they move from venue to venue, performing the lion dance to bring good fortune to businesses and community organisations. I spent the morning in the back of a van with eight people in costume pieces.
On the lion dance: The lion visits businesses and accepts offerings — typically lettuce and a red envelope — at the entrance. The exchange between the lion and the person making the offering is the photographic moment. The lion dips its head, the person reaches up, the crowd watches. It takes about ten seconds and produces a dozen possible frames.
On the equipment: Before the first performance, the lion and dragon heads were laid out on the floor of the community hall for preparation. Eight or nine of them in a row, each painted differently, staring at the ceiling. I have never seen a photograph of this I did not like.
On the dragon at night: The dragon dance is performed outdoors after dark, and a slow shutter speed turns the silk body into something genuinely supernatural — the motion blur makes it look alive in a way a sharp image cannot. I made several exposures to find the shutter speed that kept the performers’ legs sharp while blurring the dragon body.
On the dinner: The community banquet ran until well past midnight. By the end of the night everyone was relaxed and the portraits became completely unguarded.