A Sydney Dad Has Been Photographing Mardi Gras for 25 Years
All photography by Ian Lever

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A Sydney Dad Has Been Photographing Mardi Gras for 25 Years

Ian Lever's candid black and white photos from the 1990s and 2000s show how the parade has changed over time.

Few things are more colourful than Sydney's rainbow-hued Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras pride parade. Which is what makes the stark monochromatic photos of Ian Lever compelling. Back in the early 1990s, Lever owned a black and white film processing lab in Darlinghurst. Many of his clients were from the queer community, and through printing their photos—taken in local gay bars and clubs—Lever fell in love with the outlandish clothes and personalities he saw.

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Eager to learn more about a culture he'd never much interacted with, Lever attended his first Mardi Gras parade in 1993, camera in hand. He's been casually documenting the annual festivities ever since, but his favourite photos are from those earlier years.

"It was a crazy time, those early days, and when you went to Mardi Gras you'd look forward to seeing all the costumes and performers and personalities. But now it's not quite the same, it's a little bit more subdued and things have obviously calmed down," he explains.

Lever's son Dean recently pushed him to digitise his photo collection and share it with the world, and the 25-year timespan shows how Mardi Gras has changed with the times. But Lever says you can hardly mourn the past—Mardi Gras has outgrown its original form, and that's a good thing.

"It's the progression of the movement," he says. "There was that time when Sydney had a gay community but they still weren't accepted in a lot of areas, and you had the more extreme groups in the parade pushing for community acceptance. Being a straight person and seeing that, it really made you aware of the fight. As time progressed they made themselves accepted more widely. And now, especially with the introduction of gay marriage, it's pretty well accepted—not just here but overseas, it's becoming normal. Which is great."

Some of Lever's favourite photos, mostly from the mid-1990s, below.

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