Virgen del Mar Festival

Puntarenasca. 1960Francisco Coto

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Description

The Virgen del Mar Festival, celebrated in Puntarenas since the early twentieth century, honors Our Lady of Mount Carmel, patroness of sailors and fishermen. One of its central traditions is a maritime procession in which numerous boats accompany the vessel carrying the image of the Virgin through the Gulf of Nicoya. In this 1960 photograph, Francisco Coto documents the preparations for the celebration, using the boats’ rigging, flags, streamers, and bursts of color to construct a dense, almost abstract composition against the calm expanse of the estuary.

Keywords

human figure for scaleabstractiongeometryjuxtaposition

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