mills:

Abby and I had a wonderful Mardi Gras in New Orleans; I took very few photographs, and I didn’t worry whether I would ‘capture’ any given sight, sound, event, or preserve it, document it, substantiate myself with its digital evidence. It was a release from my duties as a nervous, unpaid curator of the self, a documentarian of vain trivia. I felt joy for nearly all of our time there.

In the past, however, I worked a bit harder. I’ve taken some photographs of Mardi Gras with which I’m happy; I think they manage, here and there and despite their technical clumsiness and under-culled quantity, to present some of the visual beauty of the carnival parades. This beauty —and the vital, bawdy, syncopated music, and the thrill of kindly crowds, and much more— is a larger part of why New Orleanians love Mardi Gras than the clichéd debauchery of topless tourists and Budweiser beads.

In any event: here are some better Mardi Gras photos, mostly from 2009 and 2010. You should go next year.