Photographing Pride Through the Years

June is Pride Month. I usually go to NYC Pride to photograph and meet with friends. I’ve photographed NYC Pride for years. Love the colors, the energy, the mood.

Here are a few of the images of Pride I’ve taken over the years. And I’ll add a few more, I guess, after this Pride Sunday.

But in this post, I’d like to share a few other images inspired by Pride and by some of the wonderful individuals I’ve met. Some of these images have been featured in shows at Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, in New York City.

“Facing the Law” is a triptych I created for one of the Fresh Fruit Festival art shows hosted by the Leslie-Lohman Museum. The images started out as three images of my friend in his uniform, shot against a door. One of these three images, I believe, was part of my first solo photography show, Backbone, back in 2008.

I created this “Celebrate Pride” or “Celebrate Love” composite several years ago, also for one of the Fresh Fruit Festival shows at Leslie-Lohman Museum. I don’t remember how I called it then, but the title keeps changing. I’m still not sure what to call this image. It’s a composite created while using several photographs–a Lensbaby image of Times Square, several fireworks images taken at the end of Pride Day a few years ago, and an image of two guys on a float.

“Identity” was also featured in a Fresh Fruit Festival show, at Leslie-Lohman Museum, years ago. I took this image while photographing a World AIDS Day event, back in 2007. That’s also when I met the amazing actor and activist Ron B.

And since today is Pride Day in NYC, and since this month is Pride Month, here’s a Bauhaus rainbow flag I…designed a few years ago, as part of an assignment. Through that assignment, we were introduced to the Bauhaus photography movement and had to make a Bauhaus image. So, I thought about using the colors of the rainbow flag, including the black stripe that sometimes is added to remember those lost to the AIDS epidemic, while using the Bauhaus concept.

So, today, and also this month of June, let’s celebrate Pride.

Here’s another look at Manhattan in rainbow colors, celebrating Pride:

Happy Pride!

And as always, thanks for stopping by!

Alina Oswald