Out There: Portraits Of The Hero Parade

Photographs by Murray Savidan, foreword by Witi Ihimaera

Savidan Productions $120rd

Review: Gilbert Wong, books editor

There's not much chance of mistaking this book for a sober look at closer economic relations. The red velvet cover and gold-flocked lettering are as upfront as the parade it celebrates. The Hero Parade has become an Auckland institution, but one with an uneasy history.

Murray Savidan, a photographer more accustomed to advertising work, has turned his lens on the parades of 1997, 1998 and 1999. The images are grainy, blown to the extremes of the film's capability to capture an impressionistic quality that serves its subject well.

Ihimaera's text recounts his first experience at the godmother of such parades, the annual Stonewall commemoration in New York's Westside, in 1989. As a diplomat at the time, he required then Prime Minister David Lange's permission to attend, after written complaints about his decision to live as an openly gay man. He went, had fun and hasn't looked back since.