These are the images I took as an accredited event photographer at ‘Nocturnal: Hot & Bothered’ showing through the Midsumma Festival on Saturday 3rd February, 2024. Nocturnal is an immersive night celebrating queer culture and daring activism with after-hours exhibitions (including the Titanic exhibition and Triceratops), talks, tours and surprises. Midsumma Festival is (so-called) Australia’s premier LGBTAIQ+SB arts and cultural festival.
A human wearing a rainbow lanyard with many badges pinned to it and an elaborate black dress holds sheets of pronoun stickers and smiles.
A group of humans stand. Two humans wear white vests with AD (Audio Describer) vests. Two other humans hold onto assistance guide dogs.
A DJ wearing a white singlet with the words "Love action" works a turntable. Behind them there is a large screen projecting a moth with wings spread. Underneath the DJ table is a mirror ball.
A long shot of small cushioned islands built into the floor of the Melbourne Museum. Each one has their own patterned design. At the far end of the large room is the skeleton of a large whale.
A drag queen with bobbed black wig and long black sparkly dress raises her arms out towards an audience.
A drag queen with bobbed black wig and long black sparkly dress raises her arms out towards an audience whilst looking at the camera.
Hands tie a knot in a friendship bracelet around another humans wrist.
Projected on the wall is the Queers in Science logo. Underneath that a human plays with light and props and the silhouette of a tiny toy echidna on a mirror ball is projected onto the wall with a halo of yellow light around it.
The large skeleton of a triceratops lit from the bottom up. It glows in its dark surrounds, looking almost Giger-esque (H.R. Giger Alien artworks).
Taken from above, the large skeleton of a triceratops lit from the bottom up. It glows in its dark surrounds. At the bottom of the screen two muscular humans stand next to the dinosaur, dwarfed in size.
Three humans look up smiling at the hanging skeleton of a dinosaur which is mostly offscreen.
A human in a black baseball cap looks at the schematics of the titanic. A black and white photographic of men in a large hall workroom is on the wall next to the drawings.
A woman with long bright pink hair can be seen through a crowd. Behind the human the wall is black.
Under blue lights many hands can be seen pushing into finger holes in ice - a recreation as part of the Titanic exhibition.
Two drag queens, both in red coiffed wigs and sparkly dresses, stand behind each other, holding each other's arms out wide, looking at each other.
Two humans sit on benches at high tables, They are holding each other's hand on the thigh of one of the humans.
A drag queen with bobbed black wig and long red dress speaks into a microphone. There is a bingo wheel in the background.
Black and white image of two humans standing close to each other as they ascend an escalator.