Drag/Strip™
American Kabuki
I think of drag as American Kabuki. Both are performance arts that employ spectacular costuming, stylized theatrical storytelling, and actors who blur gender distinctions. This series of photographic portraits acknowledges drag’s foremost exponents in the San Francisco Bay Area (and ultimately worldwide). With its presentation of portraits in diptych format , it emphasizes character over caricature.
The affinity of Drag Culture with portraiture seems natural to a photographer like me. However, despite contemporary depictions of drag on TV shows and Hollywood’s venerated portrayals, photographs of drag queens are typically rendered with high-key lighting, busy (over-propped) backgrounds, and over-the-top poses that leave the public with a gaudy and imprecise visual stereotype.
Stereotyped portrayals aren’t inherently wrong; they fulfill specific publication and promotional needs. They are wonderfully entertaining, too. But clichés can be unfair. Despite the spectacular contemporary portrayals of drag on TV shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race and Hollywood’s venerated depictions, including Tony Curtis’s and Jack Lemmon’s performances in Some Like It Hot, Robin Williams’s performances in…
