The hi-light of my Mardi Gras work would be the Harbour Party. Once I press the button and got this series of light and shadow on the dance floor, I knew that it would be a good slideshow. By the time I got my head around to put them together would be too late. So I held this work until now.

Undone Sun from ApostrophePong on Vimeo.

You can also check out the work from Mardi Gras Fair Day, 69 Blankets.

Australia is facing a major censorship threat from it own Federal Government when Senator Conroy proposes ISP-level Internet filtering to protect the children, as they say. However, no one knows how this scheme will effectively work or how it will accidentally block other websites. Even the Senator could not provide a clear answer himself. Although this is a fundamental issue in a developed country, like Australia, that we are taking for granted, media coverage to remind us of this problem is still very poor. In Sydney, as well as the other Australian capital cities, Internet-based communities are fighting for a basic rights to express themselves. We still need ripple effects to spread the words about this sneaky policy and stop the Government snatching away one of the most important rights in our society, communication.

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Thai Food Festival 2008 — Is it an 'i' or an 'l' covered?

While Thailand is celebrating Loy Krathong Festival around November each year, Thai community in Sydney has an unrelated event, Thai Food Festival, in Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour. This year features Thai Prawn Showcase to promote the export.

One trick I learn is to stay around until the party is over. The stalls are willing to lower the food price rather than pack the food back even though there is not much left to scoop.

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I must say that Newtown Festival on the surface is the same event as every year or other events that has been rolled out in Spring-Summer. But it is in a big scale with estimated 80,000 punters. I look for something fresh to photograph just to discover that the trash interests me the most. While we are enjoying a good time, do we consider what we leave behind before moving on the next stop of decadence? Bubble is a symbol of joy and dream but it does not really last.

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York Street

It is such an insanely over hyped evening when Sydney Apple Store opens on 19 June. The queue starts to
build up before the public entry at 5 pm. And it gets better with the late-night-shopping ritual on Thursday. The rain does not shorten the line of Mac geeks and enthusiasts waiting eagerly to get in on the first day of the store. by 6pm it extends around the block from George Street to King Street and ends on York Street.

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The crowd is herded by private security company and closely watched by NSW Police. People on the street are occasionally told off to ‘move’ by the some rude sheep dogs as if they owned the footpath whereas the patient queuers get Apple umbrellas for standing wet in the line, and finally, the welcoming cheers at the door by the store staff.

The live update on twitter has already put me off but I just determine to get there for some shots of the queue. However, I do not have that patience to join the line, in the rain with cranky bouncers, just for window shopping. It is the opening, for heaven’s sake, not the closing. The store will be there, and by the look, for a long time.

13-15 April is Songkran Festival, traditional Thai New Year. Thai community in Sydney has the celebration called Thailand Grand Festival in Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour. Last year I explored the Buddhist ceremony and the entertainments on stage. This year is pretty much the routine with merit making and blessing in the morning then stage shows in the afternoon. No Aboriginal welcoming protocol has a presence here, just the Premier representative. Do we need a black fella to officially open every single event in Australia or, at least, just an acknowledgement?

The best improvement this year must be Singha Beer tent and the promotion girls are willing to table serve the customers while gulping some beer with her friends along the way. It feels like home. Of course, there are loads of food. Many of them you cannot find in typical Thai restaurants in Sydney. Other than that is largely tourism promotion.

The hi-light performance would be Joe Louis Traditional Thai Puppet Theatre. Unfortunately, the show has to stop due to the rain. The best Thai attitude is still applied here by stating it is the shower of the angels even though everything is on hold for a while. Nevertheless, when weather is clear, the event continues and the crowd is back again despite of the soggy ground.

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I would like to use the word Songkran on this post which unofficially unannounced in the event. It is the best we can get on such a special occasion away from home in Sydney.

While New Mardi Gras is releasing their official images of Mardi Gras Slide Show, I have my own angle of the events. It is obvious what fascinates my eyes at Fair Day. The colourful stuff they bring along on the day reflects the diversity of the community.

69 Blankets from ApostrophePong on Vimeo.

69 Blankets slideshow features Magic Games by Jacques Renault, released by RCRD LBL under a Creative Common BY-NC license.

The official Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras has to wrap up with the party. This is a big dose for an excessive life of modern world.

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This is it, another year of Mardi Gras. This year it celebrates 30th anniversary. On the second time I am involved as a photographer, it intrigues my thoughts in many ways. I will sum up what I have experienced the festival later.

The peak of the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival for the public is definitely the parade. The vibe starts to kick in when people come in early to Oxford Street in order to get the best spots to see the floats. Once the roads are closed for the march, more and more audiences pile up outside the barricades whereas the show are being prepared inside. The lucky ones who reside on the buildings along the streets can watch the glamour from above while the crowd further away from the actual parade gets wilder and wilder as the night goes along. The community has successfully thrown another party to the city which seems to be hungry for decadence.

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A rainbow flag of a boat flying with Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House in the background.

Another major event of Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival and the last key party before the final Mardi Gras Dance Party rolls in, Mardi Gras Harbour Party, Sol Y Luna.

The simple concept is just having fun while watching sunset in Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens with Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House in the background. Moreover, it is special this year when two cruise liners, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth 2, rendezvous. And this is the last time that QE2 cruises in the Harbour before her retirement.

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George Bush impersonation at Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade 2007

It is my little dream comes true to have my works exhibited at Australian Centre for Photography even though it is just a part of the slide show of Mardi Gras: the Slide Show last year. Quote from the press release:

Last Mardi Gras season, a group of budding photographers drawn from Sydney College of the Arts and the Sydney Photobloggers group (who reside at flickr.com) were brought together by Robert McGrath of MG Photographic with the aim of capturing the originality and exuberance of Sydney’s Mardi Gras season.

Morgan Carpenter says that my photos have changed over the year. It is essential to explore retrospectively on your own works to see how it has shaped in a period of time. This small exhibition gives me a chance to look back at myself and I start having a flashback.

Late 2006 I suffered from a drawback feeling. Things went not too well on the year for all sorts of reasons. And I found that that my photography was stale, especially in the contents. So I decided to have a theme to focus on. The idea was to capture Sydney’s diversity through its community events and celebrations.

I was looking at Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras to kick off the concept. Fortunately, Mardi Gras: the Slide Show was looking for a handful of photographers via Sydney Photobloggers Group for the project. My Fair Day series impressed the producer, Robert McGrath and got me in.

Best of all, this art project gave the photographers their own space to express the creativities. The event pushed my limits technically and creatively as I tried to approach it different ways from what I saw Mardi Gras photographs and from my own comfort zone. The day after I was still exhausted mentally and physically. The award from the project was just an extra, the experience that I could share to the larger audience and got me this far was the real deal.

Damien Eames, Head of Brand and Creative Strategy at Mardi Gras says.

For the first time I feel we have a body of work that can convey the complex magic of Mardi Gras to those who’ve never experienced it directly.

The Slide Show is presented at Video Lounge, Australian Centre for Photography until 8 March.

Fair Day is one of the key events of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. It is actually the most inclusive and diverse program of the festival. Kids run around with their straight and gay parents. Dogs sniff and play with others. Friends and families drink and BBQ together while watching stage entertainments. Dressed-up queens gracefully glide to demonstrate their pride of beauty. Half-naked men and, sometime, women lie on the ground, flirt with each others and finally end up on the dance floor.

Although it does not sound different from previous years, essentially, this social event is for the people to hang around in Victoria Park for a picnic as one community once a year.

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