1, 2, 3 — Viva Algerie
On a recent polluted Sunday Beijing afternoon, I took 2000 pictures while a friend of mine drew a picture. With each stroke of the pen, came one photo. When sequenced together they create the video above.
After experimenting with a stop motion photography project titled Tibet to Nepal: ‘The Journey Not the Arrival Matters’, I wanted to give the same concept a go with mixed media.
“1, 2 , 3 Viva Algerie,” is a stop motion photography project completed in collaboration with injured Chilean artist Jose Cornejo. The 1 minute and 47 second video is comprised of over 2000 still photographs taken with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon EF 24mm f/1.4 L II USM Lens. Photographs are animated at 25 frames per second.
The three color picture is based upon a photograph I took in Oran, Algeria, June 20, 2009 after the Algerian national football team defeated Egypt sparking both happy and dangerous riots throughout the North African country.
As the aggressive population took to the streets in a fiery celebration, the rhythmic chant “1, 2, 3 — Viva Algeria,” echoed from the Sahara to the ancient alleys of Old Algiers to Oran’s Mediterranean coastline.
After learning a little bit more about this — I think its a ton of fun with an infinite amount of room for creativity. Our plan is to now to start working on projects like this on a larger scale using art, animation, urban environments and photography.
The story behind the photo
On June 20, 2009 I was sitting in a hot office neck deep in work on the tail end of a redesign of an Arabic language newspaper called Sawt Al Gharb. When the match ended I could tell something big was going on outside of the office.
On a normal day working in Algeria, there would be a constant raquette of sounds coming form outside the office. Cars honking, people yelling and of course, the general sound of the third world riff-raff which I’ve become so keen on.
However, on this day, a year before the South African World Cup, the sounds I was used to hearing were drown out by a flood of chants from the streets. I peaked out the window to see just about every citizen of Oran screaming in the streets. The excitement of the population was just a bit too much to take so I put the redesign on hold and charged into the mob.
Shooting a mob like this is an interesting experience.
While people are clearly happy — it can get fairly dangerous, and I was told a couple people usually always die during these occasions. Crowds got so large in the streets — at some points it was reminiscent of Mardi Gras. Entire blocks would be so packed full of people, that you couldn’t really move so easily. Your only choice, is to sway with the direction of the crowd.
Others were driving through the streets lighting things on fire or simply just spraying a lighter through hairspray on the back of a truck. Others thought the best way to celebrate was to knock over cars or knock out teeth and fight.
I call this a “happy riot.”
Showing up as a foreigner with a camera in this situation is also a lot of fun. While people could be extremely sensitive to street photography in Algeria, this opportunity was great to show people in a time where they didn’t care they were being photographed. In many situations, people were even posing for the camera, attempting to let anyone and everyone see their enthusiasm for football.
Football seems to be one of the only unifying things throughout the world. In almost any third world country, football acts as a unifier – bringing together otherwise separated populations.
For more photography from Algeria click here.
For my last stop motion project, Tibet to Nepal: ‘The Journey Not the Arrival Matters’ click here.
