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Background information
"'Hey Mister, throw me some beads!' (...throw me some beads) is a typical phrase of Mardi Gras, the famous Mardi Gras of New Orleans. Colorful strings of beads, tin coins and other cheap trinkets are thrown from floats into the crowd during Mardi Gras parades. U.S. photographer Bruce GILDEN was still a young photographer when he first visited Mardi Gras in 1974. It was the first personal reportage he photographed outside his hometown of New York. As soon as he arrived in New Orleans, he imagined himself in 'a pagan dream where everyone is allowed to be whatever they want'. Attracted by the wild goings-on on Bourbon Street, Bruce GILDEN became a regular and returned a total of seven times between 1974 and 1982.
Content
The energy, mentality, social and cultural customs of Mardi Gras were foreign to him, yet he captured the throngs of celebrating carnival-goers with the same intensity and conciseness that characterize his famous New York street photographs." (© Kehrer Verlag, 2015)