Josh Huskin: Fiesta Folks

The people of San Antonio, Texas definitely know how to party! Every year, the city comes together for Fiesta: a 10-day festival that celebrates the Alamo City’s rich, diverse heritage and culture. Fiesta has it all—parades, tournaments, dances, live music, a carnival—the list could go on forever (they even hold an “El Rey Fido” coronation where they crown a pup as king and present his royal court).

A couple months ago the 124th annual Fiesta was held, and to celebrate, San Antonio photographer Josh Huskin opened his studio for four days to the Fiesta attendees that make the festival so unique. Combine those fantastic Texans with a few colorful backgrounds and a lot of confetti and you get Josh’s latest project: “Fiesta Folks.”

If there’s anything that we’ve noticed while working with Josh, it’s that he’s got a good sense of humor, and that he’s a Texan through and through (he’s even got a tattoo of the word “tacos” inside of a heart!). For “Fiesta Folks,” Josh definitely let his fun personality carry over into his work.

I love having fun while making photos—I hope that really comes through in these photographs. I got involved with the project on my own, it was an idea I had to do around Fiesta … I love creating personal work because it makes me excited. I get to do exactly what I want and put it out there to the world as my work.

Josh scheduled 90 people to sit for their portraits using youcanbook.me to have people sign up according to his availability—the slots filled up in less than 24 hours. Next, he got to work preparing for the shoot:

I had to buy A LOT of confetti from Amazon. Probably the strangest order I have ever made. I also created a limited medal for each person who participated in the project. People go crazy for these medals around San Antonio—by the end of Fiesta some folks will have 50+ medals on their sashes. It’s a fun tradition, and a lot of businesses will make medals to sell and donate those funds to nonprofits in town. 

Like many of Fiesta’s business participants, Josh asked that each participant bring a donation of any amount for The Artist Foundation of San Antonio. He received donations everywhere from $20-$200 per person. In the end, the project was able to raise $1,800 for the local nonprofit. 

Reactions to the project have been very positive so far. Josh showed the work in a gallery a couple weekends ago and got some really great feedback—he’s even gotten an advertising job from having the project on his site! He’s also planning on using the images for an upcoming promo, and considering the idea of doing the portraits again at next year’s Fiesta. 

One important lesson that Josh took away from the experience? Sometimes, great ideas require a lot of cleanup:

Confetti NEVER GOES AWAY. It has been two months and I’m still sweeping up confetti in the studio.

Check out a behind-the-scenes video of the making of Fiesta Folks from Josh below:

See more of Josh’s work on his website, joshhuskin.com.

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