Oruro Carnival Pictures published

Back in February, I was sent to Oruro in Bolivia by Tom Broadbent of Bizarre magazine, to document the annual Carnival, known by some as the Devil’s carnival. This is because the locals dress as Devils and various other costumes, parade through the streets to the sound of brass bands, throw water and foam at each other, drink all day and night, and generally get up to all the carnage that they not supposed to do during the rest of the year.

The celebrations also include a llama sacrifice ceremony down a tin mine, in which I ended up covered in llama blood, face, glasses and clothes! but it was well worth it for the shots. Besides, the whole process was very humane and is a long-standing tradition, the miners see it as lucky, and judging by the conditions they work in every day, I can completely understand that anything to help them feel safer in the mines is greatly welcomed. When shooting this I was with 2 wire photographers from Reuters (David Mercado) and AFP (Jorge Bernal), working as a team we found the mine and gained access, all conducted in Spanish which I proudly managed to understand most of. The photos and article was published in the August print issue of Bizarre, and now a larger edit is on their website, have a look at it here. Below are is a small selection of shots from it for you…

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