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We give you the New Management Blue Devils from Fatima Trace, Paramin, Trinidad and Tobago. Here, Maria Nunes’ images show the immersion of both community and individual in the tradition of Jab Jabs. Easy–too easy and therefore misleading–to use the old words and superficial take on this mas: frightening, menacing, dirty, (and perhaps the most terrifying) dying out. Instead, Nunes sees an annual revivification and contemporizing of the art. How they will choose to ‘play the devil’ may be something they have been dreaming and honing for months. There is exquisite delicacy in the application of the colour. There is hilarity and charm and unexpected grace in these Jabs in a way that we have come to expect of this photographer’s unintrusive, honest respect and curiosity for her subjects. – AL
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Maria Nunes is a photographer in Trinidad and Tobago with special interests in capturing imagery related to the performing arts and in documenting cultural heritage, especially traditional Carnival portrayals.