Paper short abstract:

Folklore and tradition on one side, stardom and fashion on the other are terms which usually seem to sit in opposition. I am proposing a series of photographs that challenge this opposition and show a context in which these terms are open to negotiation.

Paper long abstract:

The images I bring show a particular type of interaction between myself as a photographer-researcher, and the people who wish to be the subjects of my photographs. They capture partly the performative nature of costumes, the way the "actors" behave in a certain way and place themselves a ensemble, where folkloric costumes seem to belong. The discourse they are composing is the one of "tradition", of "folklore", and within that, stardom. We can look at how my subjects are constructing this rhetoric of "folklore", which elements go well together to form this discourse, and which of them don't.

Along with my subjects' performance, there is also my performance: as I am taking the photographs I am taking on a particular role while my informants are teaching me how to fulfill it. They are constantly helping me, answering the questions I am supposed to ask, posing for me and telling me what angle I should take the picture from.

Most of these pictures refer to a particular type of folklore - that of show-biz. Others are of people in the village where I spent a few months, taken outside at a church on a Sunday when it was announced a TV crew would arrive. Here, photography points to a variety of disciplines or areas developed around peasantry: folklore, ethnography, anthropology, show-biz and media. Photography is crucial in capturing one's understanding of these areas/disciplines, one's use of the rhetorics of the respective disciplines, and one's disposition to negotiate and perform identity.