Half Face Drag: Leland Bobbe Response

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For a contextual study in the topic "Truth, Fantasy, Fiction" I wanted to explore different ways drag entertainers and makeup artists have challenged how to present their ideas. Leland Bobbe a photographer from New York, USA, has pooled in many famous drag queens to show how striking the transformation from 'human' to 'drag queen' is. Contacting him directly by email gave this response, which was insightful to see...

Below are the process shots of how I transformed some of my friends inspired by the half face drag look, to create better photographs for reference I had to make a makeshift photograpjhy background (shown below also)...

Half Face (1): out of the models I used (Jason below, Andrew and myself) Jason had the easiest face to work on, having a more feminine bone structure / cheek bones emphasises the point that drag makeup is trying to make.

- The stages move from sectioning off the face with masking tape, to doing a general contour (the aim of contouring is to make the illusion of a different, more feminine face shape; concentrating on the eyes downwards to the mouth (a flipped triangle shape, like a heart).

FAVOURITE SHOTS: these are my favourite photographs, for their composition and poses. I tried to mix straight face shots - which were a convention of Leland Bobbe's work - and more structured 'feminine' poses to emphasise the feeling out of the character which makeup / drag persona's give.

Process Shots (myself): the makeup didn't work as well for on myslef - a key part of drag makeup is the removal of the eyebrows, the texture at which they finished after applying setting powders and foundation / cream contour, came out crusty and weathered.

I have contemplated involving this somehow, as if this element is part of the 'cracking' or real life element to how drag queens can look - there is professionalism in how the makeup artists paint for Lelland Bobbe, but for the purprose of my experimentation work they open up new ways to view the topic and my interpreation of it.