Costumes from Carnival the world over

Jason Gardner has spent nearly 20 years traveling around the globe to photograph how different cultures celebrate Carnival, also commonly known as Carnaval and Mardi Gras. Originating in the Dionysian festivals of ancient Greece and Middle Ages ceremonies marking the end of winter and the beginning of spring, Carnival evolved in the Christian calendar as a counterbalance to Lent – a time of feasting and indulgence before a period of fasting and reflection. 

In Gardner's images, and in his 2023 book, We the Spirits, he describes how the tradition split from shared origins, grew and adapted with regional and culturally specific quirks. For example, at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, parades in the Uptown and Midtown districts of the city feature Black Masking Indians, organized by Black Americans in remembrance of the Native Americans who accepted escaped enslaved people among their members in the 1800s. In the starkly different rural traditions of Spain, men dress to represent the harsher elements of nature, wearing ivy, moss, leaves and nutshells; these familiar items are recognizable to locals but presented in new, terrifying forms that are then cast out in a ceremony.

Masks are common across cultures; some simple and made by children eager to participate, others heavy and intricate. It can take years to make the masks worn for Carnival in Guinea-Bissau.

Gardner's photographs show how Carnival has taken on a life of its own the world over.