NYC's PRIDE 2025

 

New York City’s Pride events draws a colorful, overflowing crowd to celebrate the LGBTQ community each year. However in 2025, the press reported a noticeable drop in visible corporate sponsorships adorning the parade route.

Nevertheless, the crowds congregating in Washington Square Park were huge, and -to me- appeared larger than those in 2024. The media reported that more than 1 million people took part in the events.

The parade itself celebrated its 55th anniversary this year. The official theme, “Rise Up: Pride and Protest,” was selected to honor the legacy of the first Pride march in 1970, the year after the Stonewall Inn riots.

NYC MELTS ICE | Anti ICE Protests

 

The anti‑ICE protests in New York City have surged over the past week as part of a wider wave of national demonstrations against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and mass deportations. The New York City protests are part of a broader national pushback against intensified ICE activity. Across the U.S., demonstrations have erupted in major cities—Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco—many culminating in large rallies, mass arrests, and police intervention . Organizers in NYC and elsewhere are drawing inspiration from the solidarity tactics of the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement, emphasizing decentralized organizing, mutual aid, and sustained resistance.

A couple of days ago, I chanced on large crowds walking down Sixth Avenue, Varick and Hudson Streets. Here are some of scenes I photographed.

ANTI FUR PROTEST | Soho NYC

While walking last week through Broome Street in the heart of SoHo’s shopping district, I came across a small spirited but vociferous anti-fur protest, which aimed at drawing attention to animal cruelty in the fashion industry.

To me, documenting civil disobedience is like catnip to a cat, so I snapped a handful of frames of the raucous event.

I haven't seen nor heard of anti-fur protests for quite some time, and read in the New York Times that the anti-fur movement has been largely successful in its efforts to force fashion houses to stop using skins, with almost every runway brand adopting fake fur as a fabric and eschewing the use of former luxury staples such as mink and sable.

CROSBY STREET | 65:24 Aspect Ratio

One of my favorite streets in Soho, NYC, is Crosby Street. Some of its buildings have walls always covered in “illegal” posters and ads, which I think make perfect backdrops—not just for my street fashion shoots, but also for everyday street photography with the Fujifilm GFX50R, using the super wide 65:24 X-Pan aspect ratio everyone raves about.

More of the Crosby Street in 65:24 photographs will be uploaded soon.