TITLE: The Mermaid Parade

The post-child of Mardi Gras. Multitudes of beautiful mermaids and their bountiful self-expressionism parading along the windy coast to welcome summer. Rainbow colours and plastic fish scales. The ebb and flow of gender and species fluidity. Pan-sexual magnetism on a glitter platter. Everything goes yet there’s a secret to it all. Coney Island Pride. A spectacle that beckons bystanders to let themselves savour the moment.

AUTHOR: Jana Plavec (Czech Republic)

Jana Plavec is a graduate of Fotoacademie, Amsterdam, where she specialised in documentary photography and presented her graduation project on Chanov, one of the poorest neighbourhoods in North Bohemia. She documents minorities, people living on the edge of society, disadvantaged individuals and groups. Plavec is interested in the relationship between people and their environment, whether natural or forced. She has documented, among others, the European refugee crisis, socially excluded areas, and the lives of unhoused women. Her work has recently been informed by the war in Ukraine. Plavec has collaborated with Czech and foreign media outlets and has showed her work at several exhibitions. She is based in the Czech Republic.