One of my favourite sources of inspiration - Creative Boom just published a story on photography project F*CK GENDER. Thank you Gógó Starr, Deff Starr, Wonda Starr - Wanda Star, James the Creature, BoyToy Tony, Starina and all the rest for your good looks in those photos ;)
“For the past nine months, Reykjavik-based documentary photographer, TV reporter and writer, Kaspars Bekeris, has been undertaking a project, which involves capturing portraits of drag artists performing in Iceland.
F*CK GENDER presents a raw depiction of the day-to-day activities and pre-performance routines of a number of artists, choosing drag as their medium. The series was exhibited during Pride Week, Gaukurinn.
Bekeris explains: “When I started the project, I wasn’t familiar with this form of art. I have never been to a drag show before, so I expected to take pictures of all that glitter and glamour - perfect make-up, colourful wigs, wild costumes. Well, I found all of that, but also so much more.
”My aim was to document drag as a critique of the artificial nature of gender. But instead of that I became more and more interested with the people themselves. I realised that gender is not important, because of the simple fact that there is no such thing as gender.
”The first thing I noticed about the Icelandic drag scene was, of course, how small it is. And how insanely dedicated are those people. I can only imagine how hard it must be to keep it alive in such a small community. And it is really hard to be a drag artist, as well. You should be an extremely talented human being to even consider it.
”They should be good at dancing, directing, lip-syncing or even singing; they should be make-up artists, designers, sewers, comedians, actors and more. You simply wouldn’t be doing all of that if you were not enjoying the whole thing.
”But if we skip all that, there is just one important thing I can walk away with after spending the last six months with these wonderful people, and that is the pure enjoyment of being just the way you are.””
Check out more of Kaspars' work at www.estrangedmag.com and on Instagram.
All images courtesy of Kaspars Bekeris