How to Photograph Courir de Mardi Gras

Though there’s ample competition, Courir de Mardi Gras handily ranks near the top of the state’s cultural oddities: costume-clad riders balancing on horses, lunging after chickens, begging for gumbo ingredients ... it’s a step or two beyond a single strand of plastic beads. We doff our capuchons to brave photographers like Brian Pavlich, whose capture of a rather ruffled chicken can be found on the cover of this issue, for exposing their cameras to the mêlée. Based in Baton Rouge, Pavlich specializes in weddings and portraits all over the Gulf South. We hope no particular wedding reception prepared him for the drunken odyssey that is Courir. He offered insight into his experience attending Faquetaique Mardi Gras in Eunice last year.

LC: Tell me about going to Courir de Mardi Gras. 

BP: I was surprised by how seriously the event was taken by the Captain and the Villains, and many who participated. Always keep your face covered! A somber prayer at the grave of Dennis McGee, warnings to stay out of the locals’ yards (with subsequent whippings for those who disobeyed), and the requisite “get down and beg” if you want throws from the participants were all sacred behaviors that day. 

LC: What was the wildest thing you saw?

BP: Maybe not wild, but most interesting to me was speculating about what the kids were thinking who witnessed the chicken runs.

LC: What’s your relationship to Cajun culture?

BP: I was born in Indiana, but I’ve spent half my life here, so it feels almost native.

LC: How does Courir differ from what you normally photograph?

BP: Where do I start? I guess fundamentally, this was my own adventure, so I got to photograph what I wanted when I wanted, without a client expecting deliverables. 

LC: What advice would you give to another photographer going out to Courir for the first time?

BP: Don’t get out your gear until after the whiskey bath.

View more of Pavlich’s work at pavlichphotography.com.