my finished documentary series on drag queens...

[Sammy Skillz]

The title of the series is called "Being a Boy is Such a Drag". It's a series composed of 15 photographs and is meant to essentially chronicle a night in the life of dragqueens.

Basically, the series is organized into 4 stages of the night:
1. The Preparation Stage
2. The Street Stage
3. The Performance Stage
4. The End of the Night

Each stage has its own specific colour palette that help to tie each of the photographs in the same stage together. Not only did I use stylistic elements (ie. the colour palettes) to help with the flow of the series, I also used conceptual elements such as the geometric circle to tie the series together.

The series is supposed to be displayed in 4 rows....representing each of the 4 stages in the documentary. The actual prints are 9' x 7" presented on oversized 15 by 13 mattes.

I really wanted to try and capture the vibrant (and almost surreal) colours associated with this subculture. I chose to cross process my film (I used colour transparency film and developed them in C41 chemicals as opposed to E6 chemicals) which helped to blowout highlights and made the colours very vibrant and saturated. This intentional misrepresentation of realistic colour mirrors the gender fallacy that goes on in drag culture. Essentially I'm trying to portray cross-dressing through cross-processing.

The models used ranged from casual drag queens who would dress as women for special occasions (the woman sitting on the street with a pitbull) and men who make cross dressing their profession (Farra N Hyte...the reigning Canadian Drag Queen Champion)

I had many inspirations for this documentary. Stylistically i was heavily influenced by my favorite photographer Floria Sigismondi who is known to photograph dark subject matter but still make it eerily beautiful. Secondly, I was influenced by the work of Nan Goldin, an american photographer who did a series which spanned over a decade about gender issues. I can't remember what it's called (yeah i know...i'm dumb...so what) but i THINK it's called the "Ballad of Sexual Deviance" or something. it's an awesome series to look through, if anyone is interested. During the shoots, I usually played trip hop...portishead, massive attack, terranova...etc etc just to set the mood and to help me get into the mindset that i work best in.

If all goes as planned, the entire series will be displayed in an independant art gallery here in Toronto that specializes in gender issues. It'll be my first solo art exhibition...more info to follow.

-s.

[Sammy Skillz]

The Preparation Stage:

This stage consists of 6 photographs. They all depict a drag queen, Miss Julia Jefferies, getting ready for a typical evening. The first 5 photographs switch back and forth in a formulaic way...a shot from behind looking into the mirror--->a profile shot ---->a shot from behind---->a profile shot....etc etc

[Sammy Skillz]

....

[Sammy Skillz]

with this shot i really wanted to play with silouettes and mirrors...so there's 2 opposite silouettes of miss julia jefferies...with her eye in her hand held mirror

again...the circles of the mirror and various makeup containers play a conceptual role in linking various photographs

[Sammy Skillz]

..................................

[Sammy Skillz]

again...i'm trying to play with mirror reflections

[Sammy Skillz]

this photo ends the preparation stage.

i intentionally jumped from photos of her as a male to this photograph. I wanted to really show a comparison from "start" to "finish". I wanted to create a female silouette in which you can't see her face. If one was to see this photo by itself, he or she would, potentially, believe that this in fact is a woman in the photo.

she's on the phone...with whom is unknown but the fact that she's all ready implies that perhaps she's on the phone with friends informing them she's ready to go.

[Sammy Skillz]

The Street Stage:

In toronto, in the gay village, there's this "mardi gras" (for lack of better words) atmosphere. At night, especially on the weekend, everyone comes out and during some times of the year, you get the sense that you're at a block party.

Most dragqueens live in the gay villiage up on church street and at around 9 or 10 at night you always see dragqueens walked around towing their suitcases full of clothes behind them.

again, with this photo, i'm trying to play around with the female silouette.

-s.

[Sammy Skillz]

i wanted to create a juxtaposition between masculinity and femininity....

this drag queen is sitting down with her pitbulls. Pitbulls seem to symbolize masculinity; there's this misconception around these dogs that they're dominant and aggressive. This masculine symbol is juxtaposed with this dragqueen who strives for a sense of psuedo-femininity.

[Sammy Skillz]

this shot is of the exterior of an iconic gay bar called Woody's. it's known around the gay world and is considered a "monument" i suppose. Queer As Folk is often filmed here and on any given night, it's usually packed.

this shot ends the Street Stage...and the next stage takes us into the bar/club. the yellow in the window (and the circular shape) take us into the next stage and next colour palette.

[Sammy Skillz]

The Performance Stage:

I really didn't want to concentrate on this aspect of the subculture due to the fact that most people know (or can imagine) what goes on at a drag show.

the stage begins with a shot of legs...again, these COULD be a set of women's legs for all we know.

[Sammy Skillz]

the next shot in the series depicts a full performance shot....

once again, i'm playing with this idea of a feminine s-curve...with the arm across the face of the drag queen...

[Sammy Skillz]

The End of the Night:

the end of the night is always chaotic it seems. everyone is rushing to get home...the streets are busy and so are the drag queens. The end of the night can be just as time consuming as the preparation stage, i learned.

in this stage, we see Farra N Hyte trying to take off her wig and makeup.

[Sammy Skillz]

the next shot is off her vanity table....there's hair peices thrown around...makeup and brushes everywhere...i wanted to show the chaotic nature of the end of the night through this shot of the messy vanity table

[Sammy Skillz]

this is my favorite shot of the series.

it shows Farra N Hyte shaking her wig out...

everything is blurry but the only conceptual element in focus is her cleavage. We can't see her face and for all we know, she could be a female.

[Sammy Skillz]

finally...the last shot of the entire series...

[Lil Jenna]

I have only ever taken pictures in b&w I love the colour in all of these pictures especially in pic#2 +10. Do you use filters to stay in the same colour range or was it just the light and natural colours in the room? Like in pic 2 there are shades from yellow-green-blue and in pic 10 the shades of yellow and green. I love the effect so much. You have such talent Sammy I always enjoy looking at the pic’s you put up here on fnk. Have you handed in you documentary yet?

[Liqwid]

i duno....

freaky....

good job....but i duno....drag queens scare me

~Dalyn:008:

[stabmyhead]

Ohhhh there's so much to say.

Each stage has a different feel to the pictures deplicted in a different set of colors and effects laid onto them.

The first stage gives off a sort of eerie ambience, it's calm, soothing and almost lonely. The first shot is very intense and captivates the model as someone who is pondering deep in thought - maybe getting mentally prepared for this?

The second stage gives us a more lively sense. The colors are bold, colorful and very, very loud. It's a great contrast from the previous stage, and it's almost like a whole new personality trait.

The first shot in the third stage with the legs is a very classic shot (beautiful legs btw), the shoes, stockings and skirt are a great contrast to the flashy, shiny backdrop. This stage is seen to be very fun and playful.

The last stage is a bit more chaotic than the others. I'm not particularily fond of the dark graniness in the last image, but it's all in personal preference. They work well and get the idea across. It's once again, so much of a contrast between the first stage in the series which were dominant with blues, cyans, eerie yellows and whatnot. It's a great way to wind down the series along with the night.

[Sammy Skillz]

thanks guys

nope i don't use any filters or anything. with cross processing you never know what you're going to get in respect to colour...so different lighting conditions give you different results

yeah i handed it in already back in the beginning of december. i only got a B+ on it though. whatever. one of my profs loved it and one of them...who normally hates my work...hated it and basically crucified me at the critique infront of everyone at school. it was good times.

i think the most successful shots, in my opinion, are shots 2 in stage 1 and shot 3 in stage 4

-s.

[Aki]

hey sam, like i said before when i saw the real deal, these pictures are absolutely amazing.
you're the most creative person i know, don't let that stupid prof discourage you too much. he just needs to understand art from a larger perspective....and not just trees and nature! love you and miss you!

[zarlon]

bravo.

[crackdragon]

Nice

[stabmyhead]

I'm with Aki on this one... People should be open minded about art, just because you don't particularily like a style of art or whatnot, isn't a reason to give someone a lower mark based on your own bias. I had a teacher tell me to stop drawing when I was in grade 7 because my art wasn't good enough. "It's not art." And that's no way to encourage creativity....

[cinist]

homie you got skillz