London's "Drag Queens" in Damien Frost's photography project
By day, London's Soho is a hotspot for eateries, where you can see many men with well-groomed facial hair and polished boots rushing to meet marketing clients. But in the evening, the economy of night time appears here. Drug dealers, nightclub promoters, effeminate guys with "GAY" discount bracelets... If you linger on Old Compton Street, you can meet the "flowers of the night", as photographer Damien Frost calls them. These are men and women in theatrical costumes with stage make-up.
Damien, who comes from Australia, takes pictures of these "drag queens" once a day for a year, either in Soho, where he works as a graphic designer, or in East London, where "drag" exists in stuffy nightclub reservations. In his album, entitled Night Flowers, there are 365 photographs of rare and vibrant beauty against a dark background.
(Total 10 photos)
“I'm not very interested in the chameleon transformations of men dressing as women. I want to go further, where gender loses its meaning and there is a fine line where women can try on the image of drag queens, imitating a grotesque version of femininity, ”says the photographer in an interview with Vice magazine.
“I'm interested in people who have made their own outfit, spent a lot of time creating haute couture looks along with makeup. Perhaps they will never repeat this image again.
In the few years I've been taking pictures in this community, I've seen a lot of people stop dragging. For some, this is a transitional period: maybe they are from a small town and dress up so that they can no longer go back there. Maybe they want this need to stop tormenting them. But for others, it's part of the personality. They spend hours getting out of the house, and then other people evaluate their appearance. It's hard work and constant stress to reinvent your image.
Sometimes someone says: “Could you not shoot me from this side? My eyelashes fell off there" - or "Could you not include my hand in the frame? Today I am without a manicure. But sometimes I take a photo on purpose, because the person's makeup is dripping.
People usually yell "Faggot!" - and behave quite aggressively towards the "queens". Soho is not at all as safe and friendly as it seems, especially late at night. I think people here are more prone to violence. I myself have not experienced attacks, but I know people who have been attacked because of their outfits.
Interestingly, some people try to bully these people by asking, "What are you?" And the “queen” answered them: “In what sense - what am I?” They ask again: “Who are you? Woman or man?" - and they get very turned on, because they want to know which side of the fence a person is on. In the transvestite community, no one even asks about it.
Sometimes it is difficult for the “queens” to keep the angle and calm facial expression that I need in the frame - there are too many distractions around.
The Flowers of the Night project was an accident. I never planned to take a series of shots in the transvestite or queer (androgyne) community, but now it's more difficult for me to return to my old work and look for less colorful and less extravagant characters to shoot.
The more people know about it, the more we get used to it. However, it still shocks you when a six-foot-tall transvestite walks past you on the street, and everyone's necks turn. I think this gift of outrageousness is really interesting.”
Keywords: Uk | Drag queen | London | Transvestites | Photographer | Shock