Mardi Gras portraits New Orleans 1989-2021

I started photographing the New Orleans Mardi Gras Festival in 1989, on assignment for the Telegraph Magazine. My story was a traditional photo essay edited from the thousands of images I took during the week, which was then run in many publications. When I returned for my second visit I wanted to slow down, to do things differently. Encouraged by my agency Network I decided to just make portraits using a medium format camera. This was my first attempt at ‘slow photography’, going against the rush and insanity of Fat Tuesday. Like a bad habit, I still regularly photograph the festival, the last time in 2020, just a month before COVID changed everything.