Several years ago while shooting the NY Comic Con I met an adult man holding a My Little Pony toy. That was the day I found about Bronies, the adult male fans of the animated TV show My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. By now you have probably heard of Bronies as they are the most maligned subculture since jugglos and you guys know how much I love juggalos.

In February Bronies NYC threw a convention called PonyCon NYC which I sadly missed. Ever since then I have been looking for an opportunity to document Bronies in the wild and on Saturday I got my chance. Bronies NYC threw a watch party for the Friendship Is Magic 100th episode. I had to go all the way up to a church on the upper west side but it was worth it.  They threw 10 straight hours of pony party action featuring a giant cake, several screenings of the episode, screenings of fan made episodes, a video game tournament, party games, live drawings, Skype sessions, pizza, MLP vendors, musical guests and a mother fucking rave.

Admittedly I didn’t stay for the rave but it was a pretty great experience meeting everyone. The whole basis for the show is that friendship is fucking awesome and these Bronies were having a blast. Everyone I met was super nice and I had some good conversations with several of the core member of the group.  Most of the Bronies I met were huge nerds, but pretty sure that’s par for the course when it comes to any fandom. I also met some really socially awkward people there which made the whole event even better. Some really shy awkward kids could hang out with other Bronies without any thought of ridicule. Friendship is pretty magic.

I personally love fans of anything. I love people that are super passionate about what they love and I love photographing them in their element. This is what I look for when photographing anything from porn conventions to juggalos to the NFL Draft. I happen to run the biggest Miami Dolphins fan club in the world so I know about some nerdy shit. Football isn’t something you might consider nerdy but when all your friends are hipster douchebags who only watch sports ironically running a fan club becomes extra nerdy.

Long story short is that I love photographing fans and when they are all super colorful like Bronies are it’s even better. I have a feeling this won’t be my last Brony adventure.

Click here to see all the photos from Bronies NYC’s Friendship Is Magic 100th episode watch party!

 

Comments (2)