Championship Parades (2011- 2024)
As a kid growing up in New York City, I always loved watching the black and white TV coverage of the ticker-tape parades that would take place along a section of Broadway that was known as the Canyon of Heroes. These parades commemorated politicians, generals, military veterans, athletes, and a host of other hero's worthy of the honor.
I never made it to one of those ticker-tape parades back in the day, but the visuals of all that paper raining down from the New York skyscrapers, blanketing the enthusiastic crowds and honorees always thrilled me, and I knew one day I wanted to be a part of it.
When I moved to Boston in December of 1986 I was shooting a ton of sports, but except for the Celtics, who had just won a championship that year, most of Boston’s sports teams were pretty mediocre at the time. That all changed when the Patriots won the Superbowl in 2002, followed by the Red Sox World Series victory in 2004, their first in almost a century. After that, Boston championship parades started to become a regular occurrence in my new home town.
The first Championship parade I attended and photographed was when the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 2011. I'm not sure why it took me so long to photograph one but when I did I was hooked. A parade through the streets of Boston was not quite up to the magnitude of those that took place in the Canyon of Heroes, but they were still exciting none the less.
During the past thirteen years I had shot championship parades honoring three of Boston's four major sports teams; the Patriots, Red Sox, and Bruins, but sadly I was out of town and missed out on shooting the Boston Celtics when they won the NBA Championship in 2008. It would be awhile until I had the opportunity again.
In 2024, when the Celtics finally won their first Championship in sixteen years I was there on the streets, shooting and celebrating with a million other fans, and adding the final piece of the puzzle to my Boston Championship Parade photo series.
(For image data, click thumbnail and hover cursor over enlarged photographs)
