What connects Glastonbury Festival with India's Holi celebrations, a pilgrimage high in the Peruvian Andes, or Carnival in Brazil? For documentary photographer José Antonio Rosas, it is a universal human desire: to leave everyday life behind for a moment, become part of something greater, and experience freedom together with others.
In his new monograph, Somewhere We Feel Free, José Antonio Rosas takes us on a photographic journey spanning ten years, four continents, and seven major cultural and religious gatherings around the world. It all began in 2015 at Glastonbury Festival. Immersed in the crowd, Rosas experienced a sense of collective euphoria that left a lasting impression on him. He wanted to understand what drives people around the globe to come together – to celebrate, dance, pray, or simply surrender themselves completely to the moment.
His search took him to the vibrant celebrations of Holi in India, the candlelit Christmas ceremonies in Lalibela, Ethiopia, the dances of Candelaria in Peru, and the Qoyllur Rit’i pilgrimage high in the icy Andes. He photographed the immense crowds of the Kumbh Mela and the exuberant spirit of Brazilian Carnival.
Rather than observing from a safe distance, Rosas moves through the crowds, becoming part of the experience himself. He captures those fleeting moments when individual boundaries begin to dissolve and thousands of strangers become a community. Somewhere We Feel Free is less a photographic documentation of individual festivals than a visual exploration of what connects people across cultural, geographical, and religious boundaries.
Another fascinating aspect of the project is Rosas' decision to present the images in black and white, creating a visual thread that connects these very different celebrations. We asked him about it. "Yes, you’ve pretty much got it right. I don’t work exclusively in black and white, but for this project it was a very deliberate choice. Celebrations like Holi and Carnival are incredibly colorful, of course, but what interests me most is what happens between people: their gestures, their emotions, and the connections that emerge when thousands of strangers come together. Black and white also brings out a sense of unity to the book. These seven celebrations couldn’t be more different in their traditions and settings, but the emotions people experience in them are often similar," José Antonio tells GoSee.
José Antonio Rosas lives and works in Lima, Peru. He studied photography at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York, where he developed his first monograph, The Chaos Comes Alive (Contexto Editores, 2020). For this project, he immersed himself in the punk clubs of Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan, capturing the raw energy of New York's underground scene – an early expression of his fascination with people, music, and the intensity of shared experiences.
Somewhere We Feel Free is published by Kehrer Verlag. The monograph also features an essay by art critic Jean Dykstra and a conversation with New York-based artist and writer Janelle Lynch.
José Antonio Rosas – Somewhere We Feel Free
Texts by Jean Dykstra, Janelle Lynch, and José Antonio Rosas
Design: Kehrer Design (Susan Greszta, Laura Pecoroni)
Clothbound hardcover, 23.3 × 32 cm
152 pages, 60 duotone illustrations, English / Spanish
ISBN 978-3-96900-245-2
Caelum Gallery, New York
15–21 October 2026, Book launch: 17 October 2026
Paris Photo 2026, Paris
Book signing: 12 November 2026, 4 PM
Centro Cultural Inca Garcilaso, Lima, Peru
3 December 2026 – 13 March 2027
