Photography: NYC Pride 6/29/25

Photography: NYC Pride 6/29/25

The ebullient and defiant displays of joy, kindness and love I saw during NYC Pride last weekend was infectious, inspiring and honestly, deeply moving. All who came with kindness, warmth and friendliness was met with equal amounts of kindness, warmth and friendliness. It’s all so simple yet so profound.

The amount of beautiful, smiling and happy people you’ll come across during the event is dizzying and staggering. It’s impossible to photograph them all. But goddamn, you will try! Much like Queens Pride earlier in the month, the bigger Pride is a reminder that diversity of all types makes us better and more much more interesting.

Now, this shouldn’t be surprising there are people you’ll come across whose presence lingers with you, often for days and weeks on end, including Mr. Gallagher, who struck me as the kind and patient educator that every child deserves; the incredibly upbeat, young woman with the sign that read “Don’t Give Up;” the young women with a sign that read “Protect All Kids,” with Palestinian and Trans Pride flags; and the LGQBT+ immigrants, who reminded everyone that diversity in all forms really mattered.

I arrived in Manhattan early, to ensure that I’d catch the local elected officials — but deep down, I was hoping to get some more photos of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez or Zohran Mamdami, who was at the time, the presumptive Democratic Party primary winner.

Now, when I first caught Mamdani at St. Pat’s for all on a very cold early March afternoon, he was polling in the high single digits/low double digits. Though he had represented Astoria in the New York State Assembly for the past two terms, few people really knew of him, unless you were the always online sort. The bigger deal at the time was Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who also spoke for a few minutes on that cold March afternoon.

As the then-presumptive Democratic Party nominee, Zohran Mamdani was arguably — and understandably — the most popular and sought after elected official. Every photographer who was there was jostling, pushing and doing whatever they could to get a photo of him. But I guess I was ahead of the curve. Or maybe some good luck?

In any case, Mamdani is a bit taller than what I thought he would be. And more importantly, he has an easy-going, boyish smile and a mischievous and infectious laugh. More of that please!

Karine Jean-Pierre, the 35th White House Press Secretary, who worked in President Joe Biden’s Administration was a Grand Marshall of the parade. She’s even more radiantly beautiful in person than you can imagine. Be still my beating heart, y’all!

What a wonderful, wonderful day. Check out photos from the afternoon below.