Candid Chaos: My First Pride
Politics, Poppers and Pride
It’s around 1AM and I’m leaning against a wall, chatting to a drag queen about politics. She stands about a foot taller than me, so I’m craning my neck a bit.
I’ve got a bottle of beer in one hand, my camera in the other. I’m sipping beer in between points while she takes massive huffs from a bottle of poppers. We’re at Pride festival, setting the world to rights. I’m pretty wasted and probably coming to the end of my night. I still hadn’t figured out how to take good photos when three sheets to the wind, so my creative output was up and down like a fiddler’s elbow at this stage of the game.
I’m thinking I’ve probably got some half-decent shots. I brought the external flash that came with my Fuji XT3. It’s not professional grade, but it seems to do a fairly decent job after dark.
McNuggets & Malfunctions
My camera had already broken down on me a couple of times that night for no apparent reason, and each time I fled the madness of the Gay Village only to swap it for the madness of McDonald’s on Oxford Road—a place I’d normally avoid like the plague.
There are bouncers on the door and the smell of burgers and dried blood in equal measure. It’s a late-night refuge where you can eat and witness humanity at its most atavistic. I sat there with a box of Chicken McNuggets, going batshit crazy as I tried to coax my camera back to life, smearing curry sauce and crumbs across its body while feverishly popping nugget after nugget into my mouth. All the while I avoided eye contact with the other zombies, lest I trigger some life-changing altercation under the Golden Arches. Rig working again, I headed to Tesco for a beer and one last attempt to squeeze some shots out of this cursed camera before the night was over.
First Time at Pride
It’s 2021 and this is the first Pride festival I’ve been to, even though I’d been shooting street for around two years. I’d seen the parade before but it had never occurred to me to see what was going on afterwards. The real photos are to be had in the Village itself—especially at night. This is when all the characters come out.
We’re coming out of COVID and I’ve been having a couple of beers in town with my friends. I always carry my camera with me if I can, and today’s no exception, partly because I’d been photographing the parade.
Big Crowds, Small Streets
That first Pride I went to was good fun. Manchester’s Gay Village stretches across about three or four streets, so it’s a decent size and can hold hundreds of people comfortably—or uncomfortably, as I found out in the years after 2021. As we were coming out of the pandemic, I think 2021 was maybe quiet by the standards of other years. In later years I found it almost impossible to photograph because of the sheer density of the crowds.
Timing is Everything
If you can get into the Village at the right time, when there aren’t too many people—during the day or on a quiet year—it’s a fantastic place to shoot. Plenty of colour, characters, and crazy scenes to photograph.
People are generally pretty friendly, always ready to pose, or seemingly unbothered by candid photography (which I prefer). But I’ve also taken many portraits, even though that’s not necessarily what I’m best at. People see you, ask what you’re doing, I explain, and maybe take a couple of portraits. Everyone loves being sent a good-quality photo, so it’s only fair to give back a little—take some Instagram details and send them their pictures.
What About this Year?
This year was a pretty good one for photos, even though I didn’t bother going at night. I just couldn’t be arsed with the madness, and one of the days when I thought I’d see what the score was, I wasn’t let in toward evening. Security was adamant you needed wristbands—which is bollocks, as it’s a public street. I would have argued, but I didn’t have my flash with me anyway and fancied a quiet night in front of the TV. Obviously getting old!
I think I was pretty satisfied to have got some half-decent photos after weeks of getting either garbage or just passable shots in my recent forays onto Manchester’s streets. Special events like Pride and Chinese New Year make great fun for street photographers, as it’s pretty much like shooting fish in a barrel to get half-decent photos. With a little creativity, you can bring your own style too.
Hooked on the High
I’m of the opinion that even though these events are a great opportunity to press the reset button if you’re stuck in a rut, there’s a danger of getting hooked on shooting only special events—if you want to be taken seriously as a “proper street” photographer, whatever that means, and if that matters to you anyway.
These events can be a nice complement to the work you do in your own city documenting street life, but shoot too many and you’ll end up an events junkie whose photographic loins can only be stirred by sunny days and wild spectacles. That’s not real life. You don’t want to be the one crossing off days until the next hot-air balloon festival—or some equally ridiculous event.
So……..
In conclusion, street photography is about documenting life, and it’s about having fun. I think it’s important not to lose sight of either.
