Finding fresh moments when photographing a place close to your heart can be a challenge. When that place happens to be New Orleans—a city so lively, complex, vibrant, and beloved that it is a character in itself—the challenge is tenfold. Especially when that character is in full expression during Mardi Gras time.

When Tyrone Turner was a kid, Mardi Gras meant competing with his brother and sisters to see who could fill up their bags with the most beads and doubloons, reveling in the freedom given by their parents to roam a prescribed four or five blocks in their Uptown neighborhood.

As a newspaper photographer for the Times-Picayune, Turner covered the expected parade highlights from every vantage point, but it wasn’t until