The Brisbane Pride March runs through Fortitude Valley’s Brunswick Street mall and finishes with a fair at New Farm Park. I have photographed it several times, and what changes year to year is the size of the crowd and the range of participants rather than the essential mood, which is consistently warm, loud, and very photographable.
The march works photographically for the same reasons any parade does: the participants come to you, the light is usually good in the late morning, and people are in a mood that produces open, engaged faces. The difference with Pride is the colour — the rainbow flags, the costumes, the face paint, the banners — which means even mediocre compositions often have something visually strong in them.
On the hug: The first image I made was not of a performer or a sign but of two women embracing in the crowd while the march assembled around them. The woman facing the camera had red hair and a wide-open smile. The image contains everything the day is about without spelling any of it out.
On the motorcycle contingent: The dykes-on-bikes contingent is one of the most reliably photogenic parts of any pride march. Leather jackets, rainbow sashes, motorcycles — it is a combination of visual elements that doesn’t require any compositional skill to make work. This year a drag queen in a full floral helmet arrangement was riding pillion, which elevated it considerably.
On the police: Four uniformed Queensland Police officers, arms around each other, holding rainbow flags and smiling broadly. The image is all in the context — the same uniforms, the same posture, the same camaraderie as a formal photograph, but in a completely different setting. I made several frames and this was the one where everyone was fully present.
On the flag: At the end of Brunswick Street, a full rainbow flag was draped from the first-floor balcony of a heritage hotel. Below it, a marshal with an orange vest had her fist raised. The scale of the flag against the ornate ironwork of the building was the image I had been looking for all day.
The Brisbane Pride Festival is one of the most reliably enjoyable events I photograph each year. The light is good, the people are generous, and something unexpected always happens.