Drag Kings

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Drag Kings is a body of work that seeks to give voice and visibility to the drag king community rising in London. Exploring portraiture and performance as well as encompassing a variety of ages, gender and cultural backgrounds, this work highlights drag kings in a world oversaturated by drag queens.

Taking inspiration from Del La Grace Volcano’s “The drag King book”, and works from Charlotte Abramow, Peter Hujar, and the exhibition “Masculinities: Liberation through Photography”, this work analyses the spectrum of the “Drag king aesthetic”. It compares kings who use make-up to accentuate the masculinity already visible in their persona as well as kings who challenge masculinity and femininity in a playful way.

The portraits are accompanied by audio of interviews carried out while the performers were putting make-up on before the photo shoot. The audio is used as an invitation to the viewers to be part of their world. The song “Masculine Women! Feminine Men” from 1926 by Irving Kaufman performed by Brent Would pay homage to male impersonators like Vest Tilley, Ella Wesner, and Florence Hines.