Drag is American kabuki. Both the classical Japanese form of theater and its American counterpart are performance arts featuring over-the-top costumes, stylized storytelling, and actors who blur gender distinctions.
Drag queens are art incarnate. But they are typically depicted with glamorous high-key lights, busy backgrounds, and over-the-top poses—clichés. Instead, this ongoing project Drag/Strip juxtaposes many dozens of drag icons wearing their burlesqued costumes—in color—side by side with another take on their personas as you see here: portraits executed in the reductive drama of black and white to reveal each drag queen’s authentic and often vulnerable self lying underneath. Hence the name Drag/Strip. To see the color and monochrome images displayed as diptychs is a powerful yet intimate experience.
Drag/Strip portrays character, and with this black and white presentation the subjects are portrayed without caricature. It is an attempt to humanize queer and trans people and, as they hope and I do too, these portraits will encourage dialog with those who are more or less naive about how deep this culture’s roots extend.
— Tom Zimberoff
