muses

the muses high heel

david ford

butterflies at muses party

mike and don ready to parade

for the past six years a number of us, some from vermont, some from new orleans and elsewhere, have paraded giant illuminated butterfly puppets. this year we paraded with muses, the only all female parade. this parade is fun. we followed a giant illuminated magical high heeled shoe that changes color and pattern. in prior years we've marched with orpheus. the puppets are the creation of gabriel q, john tidd and myself. we built the first set six years ago for orpheus and since then gabriel has produced another eight of them for different clients (website). people here love them. they bring a human scale and a level of interaction that once was common in parades but has been lost to larger, more spectacular mega floats carrying dozens of riders tossing beads. we toss nothing, just our enthusiasm and smiles, which, for the most part, are happily received. this year it took 2-1/2 hours to march the several mile route. all went flawlessly. it didn't even rain, as it has for the past three years.

i shot a portrait of david that, to me, sums up the feeling of mardi gras and new orleans this year—dressed up, defiant, reserved, ready to party, concerned, an air of melancholy, the harshness of a damaged environment everpresent in the background, irreconcilable contrasts.