"Throw us something!": Mardi Gras in New Orleans in pictures by Bruce Gilden

Bruce Gilden's photos from the New Orleans series show the follies of the Mardi Gras Carnival or Fat Tuesday. In the late 70s, on this day, a talented photographer wandered among the merry public of New Orleans. And filmed, filmed, filmed…

From 1974 to 1982, he visited New Orleans seven times to capture the revelries accompanying the Mardi Gras holiday. It is celebrated on the last day of carnival, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Catholic Lent.

Bruce Gilden is a renowned photographer, known for shooting on the streets from extremely close range. In 1998 he joined Magnum Photos agency. He brought new directions to the genre of street photography, documenting the essence of the people he meets and the social landscape in which they operate.

But Gilden created this series much earlier. In 1974, the young photographer went to Mardi Gras for the first time to shoot his first personal essay away from his native New York. This holiday is celebrated with special pomp in New Orleans, Louisiana. Stepping into the city, the photographer found himself in a "pagan dream where you can be whoever you want."

Gilden made seven trips to the chaos reigning on Bourbon Street. The energy, mentality, social and cultural mores of Mardi Gras were new to the photographer, but he captured carnival crowds with the same force and sharpness that characterize his iconic New York street photographs.

Gilden called his photobook "hEy Mister, throw me some beads!" (Hey Mister, throw me some beads!). This is an iconic phrase in New Orleans street slang, meaning "Throw us something!". It is shouted by the spectators standing along the streets where the carnival procession takes place during Mardi Gras. Plastic beads, tin coins and other trinkets fly in response to onlookers.