When photographer Elizabeth Kahane’s husband asked where in New York they should live following their engagement in 1998, she had a very specific requirement for their marital home: A view of the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
“It’s so funny, looking back, why it was so important to me and why that was my answer. But trust me, it was,” said Kahane, a self-professed parade enthusiast, on a video call. “I love it so much.”
The couple moved into a third-floor apartment on the corner of Central Park West and 64th Street. Its street-facing windows offered the perfect vantage point to watch — and photograph — the procession, which travels down through midtown Manhattan to Macy’s department store on Thanksgiving morning. The photographer has captured the spectacle almost every year since, missing the parade just twice in over a quarter of a century.
Kahane’s images, 160 of which feature in her new book “Come Join the Parade,” depict marching brass bands, pom pom-waving cheerleaders, themed floats and some of the millions of spectators who line the streets. These small human figures give a sense of scale to the photos’ real stars: the iconic, gargantuan balloons.
SpongeBob SquarePants looks manically down at the crowd below him; the Grinch, accompanied by his loyal dog Max, glares menacingly ahead. Thomas the Tank Engine, the Kool-Aid Man and Boss Baby are just some of the dozens of other outsized characters Kahane has pictured floating slowly past her home — often at eye-level.
The images are made possible by a daring technique the photographer describes as “one foot in, on foot out.”
“You are not going to get that shot of Kermit if you’re not hanging out the window,” she said, explaining that windy conditions can, in fact, be beneficial, as the balloons are lowered and thus “look like they’re walking in the street.”
“I’m careful — and I have a window box there, so that gives me some sense of safety and security,” she added.
‘I’m like a child’
Watching the parade go by is something of a family tradition in the Kahane household.
In the days before Thanksgiving, the photographer books a window cleaner, to ensure an unblemished view, and orders lox and bagels from her favorite deli. When her son was younger, she would invite his friends and their families around to enjoy the show. But Kahane would always hide away in the bedroom, careful not to set a dangerous example for her child (who is now 23 and contributed an essay to her book) with her risky photography style.
“I have a separate room, so I’d hang out the window there and then run back in (to the living room), because I’m just north of them, to announce who’s coming next,” she explained.
Some shots were taken from inside the apartment, with kids seen enjoying the surreal view of parade characters — from Sonic the Hedgehog to Pikachu, gleefully riding a Poké Ball-inspired sled — looming outside.
They weren’t the only ones getting excited. “I’m like a child,” Kahane said of her enthusiasm on Thanksgiving mornings. “I’ve had friends come over and look at me like I’m a crazy person.”
A rotating cast
The annual parade was first organized in 1924 by Macy’s employees, many of whom were first-generation European immigrants, to celebrate the company’s new flagship store. It is now a fixture of both New York life and national television, attracting a record TV audience of 28.5 million last year.
Although 2024 marks 100 years since the inaugural procession, the department store is treating this Thursday’s parade as its 98th, due to several postponements during World War II.
The Covid-19 pandemic couldn’t even stop the parade entirely, though it was reorganized as a televised-only event in 2020. A shortened route meant the floats didn’t pass Kahane’s apartment that year, with the rare break sparking her decision to trawl her archive and curate a selection for publication.
But the photographer stresses she had not taken the photos with this in mind. “All these years I’ve been doing it wasn’t because I planned to make a book, or a show, or anything,” she said. “It’s just what I do.”
Her archive demonstrated that the parade is something of a who’s who of pop culture. The balloons are retired every few years — and although classic characters often return in new guises, like Snoopy and Ronald McDonald, new favorites are added each year. Kahane said having kids around often helped her identify some of the more zeitgeisty additions to recent lineups, like Australian animated dog Bluey, who debuted in 2022.
“Photography can capture a moment,” she reflected on the changing culture the images document. “It’s a point in time, and it’s a nice, beautiful way to enjoy it, because it won’t happen again.”
New balloons at this year’s parade include Gabby from Netflix’s “Gabby’s Dollhouse” and Marshall, a Dalmatian firefighter from “Paw Patrol.” As ever, Kahane will be there, dangling out of her window as they pass.
“I just noticed the building to my left has scaffolding up, so that will interfere (with the view),” she said. “Now I’ve really got to hang out!”
“Come Join the Parade” is available now.