SIRF Photo Coverage | Community Carnival to Fire Artists Cie Carabosse

I’m proud to live in Stockton and was delighted to be the North East commercial and PR photographer commissioned to cover SIRF, the Stockton International Riverside Festival this year.

Now in its 27th year, SIRF 2015 consisted of four days of circus, dance, music and street theatre, all designed to celebrate Stockton Council’s imaginative redevelopment of the town centre. Many of the eight events I covered took place around the stunning new water feature in the town’s central area, which is ideal for outdoor performances.

Arts events photography is a challenging job. It’s a big responsibility to capture the spirit and energy of an event, and use pictures to get across what the artist or company wants to convey.  

Many of the performances took place in the evenings so I was coping with different light conditions and working to bring detail into the pictures.  To add to the pressure I was working to tight deadlines, particularly in the evenings with a 9.20pm cut off for newspapers such as the Middlesbrough Gazette and Darlington Northern Echo, and had nine destinations to get the pictures over to, so there was not a moment to spare.

The SIRF Community Carnival used giant puppets and featured drummers, brass bands and dancers to tell the colourful story of how Stockton became a festival town. There were around 20 groups drawn from all sections of the community, travelling in a two-mile procession down Church Road to Stockton High Street before ending on Stockton Riverside so it was a big job to track them and make sure I didn’t miss any of the groups out.  

The festival proper was launched when the Instant Light circus troupe arrived in Stockton by boat. The troupe led the audience along the Riverside to see BoO, an astonishing trapeze show by French company CirkVOST who used hundreds of bamboo poles in their show. 

These are just a few of the performances I covered: Pelat by Joan Catala: described by its creators as ‘a proposal that erases the boundaries between dance, circus, theater, and performance’, this act involved the artist using a huge piece of wood the size of a telegraph pole. He danced around it, played with it and balanced on it, to gasps of admiration from the crowd. This was a real performance with elements of surprise, humour and even danger at every move, and the crowds loved it, particularly the finale, which saw him put his trust in the crowd as they supported the pole while he balanced on the end of it high in the air. 

451 by Periplum: this open air spectacular created by an immersive theatre company was a real feast for the senses. Depicting a scary world where books and free thinking are banned, it is inspired by Ray Bradbury’s 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451. Night time photography capturing huge ladders, smoke and flames plus some amazing pyrotechnics was all part of the challenge for me, and produced some stunning pictures.

Flycycle and Submercycle by Pif Paf: this performance was a great hit with the children, involving imaginative stories and special journeys to Dum Dum land on fantastical cycle-like constructions that the children could try out for themselves.

Love Struck by Ballet Lorent: another evening performance, this told the story of love and romance between John Walker, inventor of the friction match and the beautiful circus performer Vesta. It had the audience spellbound, and thanks to picnic chairs, rugs and refreshments everyone ignored the slight chill of the North East evening. 

French fire artists Cie Carabosse: this spectacle of fire, light and music took place in the garden around the disused Trinity church, where artists had transformed the space into a fire garden. I wasn’t the only person to be fascinated by the way lights had been arranged inside Tshirts and hung in the trees, and flaming plant pots hung inside an orb to create a dandelion clock effect. 

Although there was a lot of fire around, the area had been made totally safe so people could get up close and enjoy the spectacle.  I used a tripod camera and remote flash to light up the trees, and one of my favourite installations involved tangles of fine wire wool hung on chains and set alight. Great fun to photograph, these shots were well-used by local newspapers.

The street theatre, dance and music celebration that is SIRF has been called ‘The world’s best international festival of outdoor art’ by the Chief Executive of Arts Council England and I wouldn’t argue with that. Check out the website at www.sirf.co.uk to read more about the performances and see some of my pictures.