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Maghnus Hastings

So, to quote the title of his captivating coffee-table book, “Why drag?”

“Drag has always been my world,” says Hastings. “I see drag queens as incredible creatures; I don’t see men or women, really—I just see these incredible, gorgeous creatures. It’s a world I understand and immediately felt a part of, because—underneath the exterior I have now—I’m really a screaming girly queen. I just happen to have grown into this six-foot-four burly man.... Though I do have the best drag legs you’ve ever seen in your life.” grew up around photography and taught himself to use a camera; when he was a teenager, he turned his bedroom into a usable dark room. He was also a child actor, and as a young man, he dedicated himself to acting—he attended the Chelsea Art School and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. At drama school, he started doing headshots—first as a favour for an acquaintance (who’d paid for a set that didn’t turn out well), and then as a sideline, under a pseudonym. “I didn’t want to be known as the actor who did headshots,” he explains.

CREATIVECLOUD.ADOBE.COM

adobe.scene7.com

I know this photo is edited in Photoshop but I really like this image. the pop of colour is something I want to experiment with. this image looks like it's trying to tell a story. I think that this image means that drag can be a mask to those who need it the other meaning could be that drag brings the best out in everyone, it's a way to explore gender constructs/work on gender issues or that drag is an art form like painting.

adobe.scene7.com

THIS IMAGE IS JUST SO SLAYYY! I love this image with a passion. it's just so beautiful breaking the gender constructs of masculinity with rhinestones, mini dress, make-up, and a wig, while also showing their body hair. I like how the lighting is it makes them look like there's a spotlight on them on a really dark street. it reminds me of K road side streets where lots of queens take photos and people are around holding up their phones with their torches on.

the plan is to recreate this image but using K Road and using the famous dairy that used to have photos taken in front of for years before the drag queens would perform.

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Greg Bailey

Greg Bailey is a Brighton based photographer & creative consultant. Choosing to predominantly work with and photograph people in the LGBTQ+ community within his personal development projects, and specialising in drag photography since 2012. Greg launched his own magazine in 2015 entitled “Alright Darling”, that was developed into a book of his photography work by Laurence King publishing in 2018 also titled “Alright Darling? The contemporary Drag Scene”. Greg has since expanded Alright Darling into a queer centric podcast Co-hosted by Greg and his close friend Daniel Leo Stanley, where they discuss everything from mundane daily annoyances to sexually explicit goings on. Welcoming celebrity guests and cool creatives from the queer community. To check out more of Greg’s work, enquire about purchasing artwork, or to book him, drop him an email below or head to @gregbaileyphoto on Instagram. To listen to the Alright Darling podcast, just search for “Alright Darling” on your preferred podcast streaming service, or stream straight from the source… in the Podcast tab on this website.

greg@alrightdarling.com

About — Greg Bailey Photography

GREG BAILEY PHOTOGRAPHY

I like this photo just all the accessories make the picture come together. I like how the smoke looks as it make texture in the photo. I like this artist because they have lots of different photos but th way they come together is with accessories.

I really like how they use smoke and dark colours in this image. it just makes it look epic.

Blaze

0 notes

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Annie Leibowitz

A photographer inspired by Annie Leibowitz captured powerful portraits of drag queens in and out of costume to show the “human side” of their characters. Drag queens have found themselves at the center of an argument between conservatives and liberals with many red states trying to push through legislation that would ban drag shows from public places. “I decided I wanted to show drag performers in and out of drag to show the human side of the characters they play on stage,” he continues. Annie Leibovitz’s portraits of showgirls were a big inspiration visually with the costumed photos in color and the out-of-costume photos in black and white.

Powerful Portraits of Drag Queens In and Out of Costume

Drag queens have become a hot topic in America.

PETAPIXEL|MATT GROWCOOT

I really like Annie Leibovitz’s art, I looked at them closely during my year 2 and 3 ncea art board they inspired it a lot. They are all very simple images but are so energetic and have something to say. The black and white against all the pop and colour just says something about these images the fact they use black and white when they have nothing on is really interesting they're basically showikg that under all the glitz and glam they are normal human beings just like everyone else. In my photo book im hoping to capture something like this but instead of my person posing I want them to just do what they normally do. For the background I reckon instead of poped colour backgrounds I might use the clubs walls or the sparkly curtains. Also these 2 queens here I absolutely love they are just so cheecky and fabulous

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DAVID AYLLON

The "Guise" gallery exhibit ran from February 3 - March 10, 2018 at PO’P Gallery in Baldwin, New York. The exhibit featured portraits of noted nightlife & drag entertainers such as Sasha Velour (RuPaul’s Drag Race winner, Season 9), Bob The Drag Queen (RuPaul’s Drag Race winner, Season 8), Alaska, Peaches Christ, and more. As a queer Latino, my fascination with persona grew from adolescent escapism into a process of examining gender, personal history, and self-expression through photography & design. By collaborating with noted personalities from the drag community, I can create dynamic narrative portraits that explore nostalgia and identity through the lens of artifice, urban fantasy, and pop-culture. I’ve always been drawn to larger than life characters, real or fictitious, and my goal with this work is to create worlds and situations for these drag personas to embody that are as exaggerated and strange and beautiful as they are. Although the exhibit was first displayed in 2018, the series of portraits is ongoing

David Ayllon - "Guise" Drag Photography

An exhibition of photo portraits highlighting LGBTQ nightlife performers.

DAYLLON.MYPORTFOLIO.COM

This Image is amazing and I would love to do a photoshoot like this but maybe just the face with lots of accessories etc around and them holding. I really like the lighting in this photo with all the different colours and tones of blues, pinks, reds, and purples. I think how the face is lightened up is really beautiful and structured the picture. I never knew about this artist until I found this photo I knew about this art style by Lane Worrall who is a auckland queer artist and friend of mine. They featured Natrasha in a stunning rhinestoned drag make up look and outfit and lots of accessories around them I love the image its just so beautiful they have lots of different examples bht this one was my favourite

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I made this edit by getting photos of rainbow hues on my lounge floor and putting them into Photoshop. i use ctrl+L to control the levels to make it either over-exposed or under-exposed depending on the brightness of the overall photo and rainbow hue. I then added the Gaussian blur filter over that layer at around about 70 to 90% depth. I then use crtl+M to change the curves to make the colours right and see if the blur needs to be lessened or more. I then changed the portrait photo to black and white while processing the curves and levels to make sure they were all right. I then made sure the hue texture was on top of all of the layers pressed the layers blending tool and chose which ever one was right for the photo and lighting etc.

for this one I repeated the process but I cut all of them out and put them together as 1 photo. each of the images have different outfits so I thought to add the rainbow hues to show that they all have hues

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Final Images

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Today I had to skip class because I needed to do a photoshoot to start my assignment. Ive been too sick to do anything and Ive been putting off taking photos as I havent been able to leave the house let alone go to the clubs. Im photographing my drag friend Flash and we are going to do photos for edits like these

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I like the idea of this concept. The images made on this shows the before n after of the photoshop. The image is of the drag queen with their eyes partially closed then the photoshop image their eyes are widened. The wig is smaller in the photo where when its photoshopped its a lot puffier and made bigger. I want to play around with this idea.

In this text they talk about all the steps of their shoot starting with building a concept. For example looking at Pinterest, look at their interests, their ideas of how an image they could want. Then they build the set with lighting included. Shooting the photos different angles, lighting, lenses. Post processing they use Capture One Pro. This is where the magic happens and image is created. They blended a different photo of their open eyes onto the final look that was good other than the eyes being closed.

I want to use myself as a model and use a tripod and set up a background that has lots of props and ideas around it

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plan sheet example photo

locations

forest, building, 2 studios,floor, wall

subject

forest, painting wall

Props

light bulb, camera, laptop, tripod etc,

I think the photo looks like it is an AI-generated image. I could be wrong.

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Charlie Davoli

Charlie Davoli was born in Singapore in 1976 and lives and works in Casarano (Lecce). By a strange twist of fate, at the age of 6 he returns to his father’s homeland in a small town of Salento’s peninsula in Italy.

The encounter of this two cultures so distant from each other bears a richness that is manifest in Charlie’s vision, in his acts and in the strong sense of balance of his compositions: the duality of this early matter and form doesn’t generate a polarized scape of differing and parallel substances but rather a display where one mirrors into the other.

Immersed in a lively and creative context, Charlie Davoli is part of the band Studiodavoli up until 2006. The band will release two official records and gain widespread recognition in the Italian indie music scene. Even after the band’s break-up, music will remain a strong source of inspiration in Charlie’s life. He is an attentive collector of the visual corollary that is carried along with the acts of various musicians. From the visionary album covers of Pink floyd, to the communicative art of Warhol.

In 2012 he started taking pictures with an iPhone, recreating paradoxical visual situations, thus acquiring a language which developed the experimentation of the photographic instrument, whose soul is in the creation of fantastic atmospheres and disconnected from reality. Initially using Instagram as his favorite means of communication, from which the I-Phone series (2012-2016), Phase in to the life (2015), and The Photoshop series (2016) were born. He then moved on to the use of the camera (reflex), which he still prefers today; creating an immense archive of images that involve the observer in subtle interferences of universal geometries and deceptive perspectives.

Charlie Davoli's photographic work has affinities with the photographic Narrative Art movement of the 1970s, in which visual narration is compressed into a single frame and completed with titles, giving the viewer the correct input to suggest an infinite number of experiences. In the same way Charlie Davoli, who considers photography as a playful means with which to ironize reality, brings out the narrative element, leading the viewer towards new itineraries and distancing them from the banal and obsessive repetition of reality.

The visual component and vision of art as a means of total communication is inherited from the music groups of the past such as Pink Floyd and Sonic Youth and also from the more recent, Broadcast and Stereolab, involving all the mechanisms of the sphere of sensory perception. Charlie Davoli's photographic lexicon is also fascinated by the Science Fiction vintage culture of the late seventies and eighties, permeated by a mass culture capable of analysing from a scientific, sociological and psychological point of view the social changes brought about by science and technology. 

Representative of a world suspended between dreams and reality, Charlie Davoli is inspired by the Surrealist and Metaphysical ascendant of avant-garde painting, to which an interest in the rationalist geometry of Bauhaus is added, from which he derives his rational and pure control of the photographic instrument and the post-production process. 

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David LaChapelle

David LaChapelle is a highly renowned American photographer and multimedia artist known for his distinct style and provocative imagery. Born in 1963 in Connecticut, LaChapelle began his career in the 1980s and quickly rose to prominence through his unique approach to visual storytelling.

LaChapelle's work often blurs the boundaries between fine art and commercial photography, incorporating elements of surrealism, fashion, celebrity culture, and social commentary. His vibrant, hyperrealistic compositions are characterized by elaborate sets, rich colors, and meticulously crafted lighting, resulting in visually stunning images that captivate and challenge viewers.

One of the defining aspects of LaChapelle's work is his ability to infuse his photographs with layers of symbolism and meaning. Through his complex narratives and striking juxtapositions, he skillfully explores themes such as beauty, consumerism, sexuality, fame, and spirituality. His images provoke thought, spark dialogue, and invite viewers to question their preconceived notions about society and popular culture.

Throughout his career, LaChapelle has collaborated with numerous high-profile clients, including magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, and Rolling Stone, as well as famous personalities like Madonna, Lady Gaga, and Leonardo DiCaprio. His work has been exhibited in prestigious galleries and museums worldwide, and he has published several monographs showcasing his diverse body of work.

1. LaChapelle Land: Photographs by David LaChapelle - This book features a comprehensive collection of LaChapelle's early works, showcasing his unique vision and early experimentation with celebrity portraiture and fashion photography.

2. Hotel LaChapelle - Providing a glimpse into LaChapelle's imaginative world, this monograph highlights his iconic photographs from the

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Megan Archer

Megan Archer holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Ilam School of Fine Arts, Canterbury University (2010). Having lived in London and Berlin for seven years, Archer returned to New Zealand in 2018 and now maintains a studio practice in central Auckland. Abroad she has exhibited in London, Berlin and Melbourne. Megan first began creating collages in 2015, using her hoarded collection of 1970s-80s books and magazines, from vintage porn to old recipe books. Her images are at once nostalgic and uncanny, conflating advertising’s glossy, and manufactured images to subvert expectations and incite cognitive dissonance. Drawing the viewer in, these surreal worlds call into question notions of desirability and taste, though not without Archer’s wry sense of humour. Archer also uses the collage as a way of introducing abstraction and surrealism into her painting practice, manipulating cut-outs in Photoshop before rendering the result in oil on canvas. Her paintings depict photomontages of human bodies which she has digitally manipulated into near-abstract forms. The resulting images, now barely recognisable as human yet unmistakably 'of the flesh,' shift the focus from titillation to aesthetic contemplation.

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John Stezaker

John Stezaker is a British artist known for his distinctive and thought-provoking artwork in the realm of collage and appropriation. He was born in 1949 in Worcestershire, England.

Stezaker gained prominence in the art world during the late 1970s and early 1980s for his innovative approach to collage. He often uses vintage photographs, postcards, and film stills as source material, manipulating and recontextualizing them to create new and intriguing compositions.

One of Stezaker's notable series is his "Marriage" series, where he pairs and juxtaposes images of actors from old Hollywood films. By cutting and blending the portraits, he blends and conflates identities, creating a sense of surrealism and ambiguity. This work explores themes of identity, relationships, and the nature of representation.

Another aspect of Stezaker's practice is his interest in the concept of the "found image." He explores the idea that images contain inherent meanings and narratives, and he seeks to subvert and challenge those meanings through his collages. By altering and juxtaposing these images, he encourages viewers to reconsider their assumptions and interpretations.

Stezaker's artworks have been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide, including at prestigious institutions such as the Whitechapel Gallery in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He has received several awards for his contributions to contemporary art, including the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize in 2012.

His work has had a significant impact on the field of collage and appropriation art, inspiring many artists to explore similar ideas of image manipulation, identity, and representation. John Stezaker continues to create thought-provoking and visually compelling artwork that challenges our perceptions of the familiar and invites us to see the world through a new lens.

https://www.petzel.com/artists/john-stezaker

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Peter Madden

Peter Madden is an artist based in New Zealand who has gained recognition for his unique and intricate collages. Born in 1976, Madden primarily works with found objects and paper cut-outs to create visually captivating and thought-provoking artworks. Madden's artwork is his attention to detail. He carefully arranges and layers various materials, such as vintage illustrations, photographs, and maps, to build complex and elaborate compositions. His use of symmetry, repetition, and intricate patterns creates mesmerizing visual narratives within each piece. Madden's collages often reflect elements of surrealism, as he combines unrelated objects and images to challenge traditional perspectives and evoke curiosity. By merging seemingly disparate elements, he invites viewers to question their preconceived notions and explore new interpretations. Throughout his career, Madden has exhibited his work both nationally and internationally. His art has been showcased in numerous galleries and museums, including the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and the Saatchi Gallery in London. Madden's distinctive artistic style, characterized by its meticulous craftsmanship and imaginative storytelling, has garnered him critical acclaim and a dedicated following. His works continue to captivate audiences and spark conversations about the boundaries of creativity and the power of visual storytelling.

These photographs on wood are examples done with an unpredictable process I began to experiment with in the late ‘90s using acrylic gel painting medium. A crisp, high contrast Xerox of the picture was coded with matte medium, placed face down on a piece of wood and allowed to dry thoroughly. I would then dampen the back of the Xerox copy and continue to gently rub it as the paper began to deteriorate leaving only the copy toner which was now embedded in the gel medium adhered to the wood. 

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A Brief History of Photography and Truth | PHOTO 2024

In the second part of this essay, Catlin Langford – the V&A Curatorial Fellow in Photography, supported by The Bern Schwartz Family Foundati

PHOTO 2024

Different people perceive black-and-white monochrome photographs as severe and truthful while considering colour photography as unrealistic. However, my personal perspective differs from this. As someone who grew up with colour photographs, black and white photography is not the reality I am used to appreciating. This viewpoint might be more relatable for those who grew up when black-and-white photography was more prevalent. Nevertheless, as someone with recent experiences, it surprises me.

The introduction of colour photography, especially with the advancements made by Kodachrome in 1935, marked significant progress. However, the chemical processes in creating colour images varied, sometimes leading to changes or fading of colours over time. This raises questions about whether colour photography truly captured faithful representations of nature. This aspect intrigues me and makes me question the truthfulness of any image.

In the context of World War II, photography played a crucial role in capturing action and providing insights into the conflict. It is interesting to note that one of the significant images from that era was staged. This challenges the credibility of all images I come across. For example, the photograph depicting the Soviet victory over the Nazis during the Battle of Berlin was apparently staged at the request of the photographer, Khaldei. Often, images are staged to enhance the impact or drama of a situation. However, using photo manipulation to shape the interpretation of an event and its historical significance is ethically questionable, even if it may require courage. Eventually, the dishonesty behind such manipulations is usually

All information sourced from

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How photographs can tell lies

Photographs can be used to shape different perspectives and add context, but the rise of social media has made it easier for images to be manipulated or staged. The photographer's point of view and the viewer's interpretation can both influence how an image is understood. The cultural context in which a photograph is taken also affects how it is perceived. Some photographers intentionally choose what to include or exclude in their photos to tell a specific story. However, this means that photographs can communicate subjective truths rather than objective reality. There are terms like "disinformation" and "misinformation" that can be applied to photography when the photographer has certain intentions or mindsets. Staged images, for example, can be created to convey false information or symbolic meanings. People often choose information that supports their own beliefs and ignore conflicting information, which applies to how photographs are interpreted as well. Manipulating images, especially those related to war, is generally considered unethical. It is essential to consider the context and intention behind photo manipulation. The term "deep fake" refers to artificially created images that do not exist naturally. These concepts make us question the truthfulness of any image and challenge the idea of right or wrong in photography.

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my ideas of 1 concept

the first image was the first idea that I saved but I decided to add the moon and make it look like I'm flying as a little funny Photoshop image. in the screenshot, you can see all the layers and things I have done to create this image.