an Francisco’s drag scene is captured with wit and light–no, make that delight–in Glam Gender, the result of a collaboration between photographer Marianne Larochelle and stylist Jose A. Guzman Colon, who acts as the project’s art director. To create this book, the collaborators have invited drag queens (and kings), along with other performers, to put themselves into settings, costumes, and moods that evoke Victorian ghosts, gauzy sultriness, rambunctious sexuality, down-market fabulosity, rough-and-ready chic, and humor of every stripe. Each portrait is accompanied by text written by Bill Picture, who tailors his text to the specific vibe of each image. “Vinsantos prods tranny conformists with the sharp end of the long staff atop which his freak-flag proudly flies,” one entry warns, couched comfortably alongside a bug-eyed, white-faced man with blue painted lips and outrageously anachronistic attire; another entry lets us in on the fact that, “Mercy Fugue lives out every kitchen-, carpool-, and cubicle-trapped woman’s super-star daydream,” a mission given wry sparkle by the photo: the artist herself, on all fours, scrubbing a black-and-white tiled floor with a brush and Comet. Then there are the more traditionally recognizable examples of glamour: the darkness-wreathed, haunting portrait of The Steve Lady; the poignancy of Faux Pas’ tableau, artfully arranged to show the artist as the limber plaything of a mannequin that lurks half out of the frame; the thrilling splendour of Bea Dazzler, resplendent in a cool colour palette of silver, white, and gray; Crickett Bardot’s smouldering mermaid take, in black and white; Jupiter’s verdant and voluptuous pose, shrouded and celebrated in a flowing gown that evokes a towering, lush landscape softened with wildflowers and a waterfall. Oh, and let’s not forget the verdant Dionysius portrayed by Adrian Roberts, Aphrodite’s soaring, elemental depiction as a goddess of sky and wind, Tureen’s mordantly funny rendition of Alice in Wonderland, the metal rocker and the Elvis riff that Anthony and Rusty Hips, respectively, pull off… or Hoku Mama Swamp and her (how to put this?) horse-headed companion, posing for a saucy rendition of American Gothic.
by Kilian Melloy
