Clayton Cubitt's Maori moko portraits, photo and video
(If you can't view the veoh video above, try the YouTube version)
Photographer Clayton Cubitt (disclosure, he's a personal pal) recently returned to NYC after a few weeks in New Zealand on an editorial assignment. During that trip, he also took a series of beautiful (and formal) portraits of interesting people there, including Maori people whose bodies and faces are embellished with traditional tattoos.
He also took one short, informal little video interview (Clayton, what'd you shoot this with?) with a man named Vic Taurewa Biddle, shot with a Sigma DP1 digital snappy cam "as an afterthought during a portrait session." Mr. Biddle speaks about his face tats, known as moko in the Maori language, and shares some insight on how homo/bi/trans-sexuality are viewed among his people -- both historically and now. I wish Clayton had shot more of these, this is short, simple, really interesting stuff.
I've embedded the Veoh video above, here's Clayton's tumblr post with a YouTube version. Incidentally, when Clayton first sent me this link I was in Guatemala, and couldn't view that Veoh item at all. I learned that this is because Veoh is blocked in like 37 countries around the world. WTF, what's up with that?
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Great clip. Super-poor video quality, especially given that it was taken with an $800 Sigma DP1. I'd be interested to know how Clayton likes his Sigma otherwise for regular [non-video] photography.
Thanks, Adam. The YouTube format actually makes the video look worse than it is, (Veoh's a little better) although it's no replacement for an actual video camera obviously.
I'm in agreement with most reviewers on the DP1. It's a milestone, long-needed, but seriously flawed. I've been able to get very good images using it, but I'd prefer to not have to work around so many glaring design flaws in doing so. I know other pros who bought and then dumped it out of frustration, but I'm still using it, working around its considerable idiosyncrasies, because it's the only game in town for a snapshot cam with this image quality. (Nikon, Canon, and Leica, are you listening?)
My (very early, very brief) thoughts on it a couple weeks after I got it:
http://blog.photoshelter.com/2008/04/sigma-dp1-review-with-clayton-cubitt.html
Others agree, but more in-depth:
dpreview:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sigmadp1/
Luminous Landscape:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/sigma-dp1.shtml
And regarding this brief video clip, I really want to thank Vic for his openness and courage in posing for me, and talking with me about this subject matter. I wish I could have done him more justice with a real interview.
The video says: "Veoh is no longer available at your country". :(
Eduardo, yes, as I mentioned above Veoh is mysteriously "blocked", whatever that means, in many countries. Please try the youtube version: http://claytoncubitt.tumblr.com/post/38845210
boss moko, that one.
I seem to remeber that in the polynesian people's there was an idea called , and pardon the spelling as I've necver seen it written, "fa-fa la-lee" which was a third sex.
Which encompassed all people who were not hetero.
It was not a perjorative.
I think the word was Tongan, could be wrong.
Error404, you're probably thinking of Fa'afafine.
Avram,
yeah that sounds about right.
Like I said I'd only ever heard the word and it was in a quite a heavy accent even then.
It's an interesting idea though, and a lot more inclusive in society as the eunuch sect in india, who are real outsiders.
Kia ora - fa'a'fa'ine are also known within Eastern Polynesian cultures, incuding Aotearoa-Maori (I descend therefrom, among other ancestral lines.) They were not, and are not common, but trans-sexual people (especially male -to-female) are: one of the best known now is Georgina Beyer, who had been an 'out-there' trannie, and then had a successful politcal career, including local body politics): in her maiden speech to Parliament she quipped that she was born a stallion, then became a mayor, and was now a member- neat eh?
There are also Maori words for people who were same-sex oriented: there was no stigma attached to this. As long you were a useful person/couple within a highly communal society, you were reguarded as a good citizen/s. Then came the missionaries...and the colonialists...