Who do we perform for when no-one is looking? My work questions this fundamental paradox on many levels.

In my years of capturing film and video stories related to the annual celebration of Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago, I have chosen to focus my lens on subjects portraying the less popular aspects of "mas". These are rooted deeply in the country's historical "masquerade", many of them dragging stories of our stormy colonial background, revolution and resistance into present-day, and denoting tales and legends often hidden in the shadows.

My photos reveal insights not just about the cultural fibres of the islands, but my own encounters with the spiritual and magical, and my ability to seemingly disappear when taking photos - spectator, participant and spotlighter all in one.

This has compelled my interest in the unique photo experience of the onlooker’s gaze. In the context of Carnival photography, there are several groups of “onlookers” who give light and shade to the events surrounding the largest annual festival in the Caribbean - the spectators of the mas parade, (who have drastically dwindled over the years); communities that are expected to turn away from Carnival (Muslims, Christians, etc.); local Carnival and cultural governing bodies who largely ignore the traditional aspects of Carnival; local and regional photographers and publishers that prefer shots of riotous colour, bikinis and feathers for magazine covers instead of “devil mas”, traditional Barons and sailors; and international audiences and traditional exhibition spaces, who rarely even get access to these ‘other’ aspects of Carnival.

But year after year, the devils, jab jabs, sailors, baby dolls and Mokos are out, some giving their annual savings to their portrayal, in their ‘mini’ bands, or ‘individual’ portrayals, as they hang on to an existence on the fringes of a huge festival. The “Invisible Audiences” project is meant to interrogate us - what we look at, what we choose not to look at and why.

     Written by Alana-Marie Gopaul