Flamingos

16x20 inch Black & White print on Epson Art Cotton Smooth 250 gram paper. From the NYC Village Halloween Parade, 1982–86.

In this lively black-and-white scene from the mid-1980s NYC Village Halloween Parade, the imaginative costume designs of Robert Tabor take flight through a surreal flock of human-sized flamingos. Each reveler embodies a different persona, from a refined "Miss Flamingo" in a sash to a dedicated nursing bird, but it is the central "Chelsea Gym" flamingo that truly seizes the frame. Clutching a pair of white dumbbells and looking directly at the viewer with an expression of pure, athletic joy, he becomes the focal point of the 35mm Pentax composition. The rich grain of Kodak Tri-X film and the intense, sharp illumination from a portable commercial flash pull these whimsical creatures out of the Greenwich Village night, creating a high-contrast study of mid-eighties street theater and community creativity.