Lastovo Carnival — documentary photography series
An original documentary photography series created from 2009 to 2015, following the Lastovo Carnival through place, community, costumes, music, ritual and its changing day-and-night rhythm.
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A long-term record of a living tradition
This original photography series was created between 2009 and 2015 through repeated returns to the Lastovo Carnival. Repetition did not mean photographing the same scenes, but developing an increasingly precise understanding of the sequence of events, the relationships among participants and the changes that emerge between prescribed order and an unpredictable moment. Only over several years was it possible to shape a coherent whole connecting the place, its people, costumes, music, the lowering of Poklad, the pokladari circle dance and the night-time finale.
A tradition that lasts longer than a single day
The Lastovo Carnival is not only Shrove Tuesday or the dramatic scene of Poklad suspended on a rope. The carnival period begins on 17 January and lasts until Ash Wednesday. It encompasses preparations, gatherings, clearly defined roles, music, costumes, dances and processions involving the wider community. Photographing it therefore required following its changing rhythm: from quieter, almost ceremonial moments to the concentrated energy of the circle dance and night-time gathering.
From place to gesture
Wide frames place the tradition within Lastovo and its landscape, while group portraits show the community that sustains it. In contrast, details come into focus: decorations on hats, a wooden sabre, the lyre and bow, hands gripping the rope or a brief glance within the crowd. This movement between the wider view and close observation matters because the tradition does not exist apart from its setting, yet its character is read precisely through gestures and relationships among people.
Day, night and a changing rhythm
The series deliberately retains the different conditions in which the Carnival unfolds: hard daylight, backlight on the hillside, rain, dusk, artificial lighting, fire and movement that cannot be completely frozen. Instead of forcing every photograph into the same visual tone, the selection uses these differences to convey the event’s duration and physical energy. A calm group portrait, a blurred step in a night dance and a donkey in the rain belong to the same story, but carry different speeds and atmospheres.
Photography as part of the community archive
The value of this long-term work lies not only in individual strong photographs, but in the ability to observe the tradition as a whole that is repeated, passed on and changed over time. In 2025, the community programme for safeguarding and documenting the Lastovo Carnival was included in UNESCO’s Register of Good Safeguarding Practices. This series belongs to the same wider effort of documentation: it preserves a trace of the people, spaces, material details and atmosphere that cannot be reduced to a single postcard image.
Photographic series
Lastovo Carnival through the years
Photography: Stjepan Tafra, 2009–2015.
Result
A cohesive photographic archive connects the tradition’s iconic scenes with quieter details, faces and shifts in rhythm. Rather than reducing the Lastovo Carnival to a single final image, the series shows how place, community, music, movement and repetition shape it year after year.