HARVEY STEIN – THEN AND THERE – MARDI GRAS 1979
2022-10-31In Then and There, I document a crucial aspect of public street behavior at the 1979 New Orleans Mardi Gras. Shooting with an instant SX-70 Polaroid camera, the process allowed me to directly interact with my subjects who perform, observe, and even share in the photographic process. The portraits are made just feet away from each person, mostly at dusk, and who are sharply revealed by the light of the camera’s flash bar. The subjects creatively present themselves in diverse colorful masks, makeup, and revelry. Each portrait is a glimpse into a layered and hidden personal identity made possible by the collaborative choices of the photographer and the subject acting in front of the camera. The raw excitement of Mardi Gras flows through each portrait with the people physically filling the entire frame of the Polaroid as if the print itself were a stage just for them. Mardi Gras allows both the subject and myself a moment of freedom to observe a transformation into another reality of being. As I see it, the major themes of the work, whether subtle or overt, are: mask, Carnaval, past time, memory, identity, creativity, fun and abandon, reverie, costume, altered realities and transformation.
Harvey Stein
Exhibition runs through to October 30th, 2022
Griffin Museum Of Photography
67 Shore Road
Winchester
MA 01890
