These archive #photographs are from the Sydney LGBTQ Mardi Gras Parade and the Party in 2004 when James was one of the Official Accredited Photographers.
2004 Mardi Gras was cold, wet and rainy which is a completely terrible thing for digital technology especially cameras at the dawn of the digital era. These photographs were captured with a Nikon Coolpix that was designed for outdoors daylight and sunny photography! Ergo the images in this gallery are not our usual super cool images produced by the modern Nikon cameras we now are blessed to utilise.
Sadly this event was also an introduction to the nature of large LGBTQ Organisations that ride on the backs of volunteers but whose Boards and their friends stay in VIP lounges while the volunteers are out in the weather soldiering on keeping the show going. The culture that official LGBTQ Archives and Historians are reluctant to include!
It was disappointing that there was no space made available for photographers to recharge batteries, upload images and of course there was no internet available for backing up of images. This event was not only physically demanding it was clear that the concept of community and social capital were not in the program so the first official accreditation was also the last time we chose to cover the Mardi Gras Parade and Party!
In 2005 we captured photographs at an alternative Mardi Gras Party, which was a far more interesting event which had much friendlier and professional organisers who were observed to treat all their community volunteers with respect.
One of the big points raised at the Mardi Gras Media Briefing was that photographs were not allowed to be taken of the ambulances and we remember being startled at how large was the number of ambulance trips that were needed to transport party goers to the hospital.
It does raise serious questions about the public health costs associated with the entertainments of large LGBTQ Organisations especially given how few actively produce and display health promotion and harm minimisation messaging.
Perhaps the LGBTQ Leadership Community needs to be less tuned to buckets for cash and more tuned to addressing the public health consequences of the high risk events so that the parade of ambulances is not such an embarrassing mess.
Throughout the Mardi Gras Festival, like all the others we have provided free photography for, as a service to the community, there were plenty of bucket carriers from Sydney's AIDS Organisations soliciting donations. It's also well known across Australia that grassroots HIV+ people say that most often they do not see any benefit from these "donations collected in their name"!
The Parade Gallery, Above & Below, contains a selection of colour edited images and previously unpublished curated camera proofs for narrative context and your viewing pleasure.
The Party Gallery, Above & Below, contains a selection of colour edited images and previously unpublished curated camera proofs for narrative context and your viewing pleasure.
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