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All Photography by Leland Bobbé
"I started this project in January of 2012 and just shot my last Half-Drag shot about two months ago; I've shot over 60 queens in total."
These are all real New York City drag queens who i met mostly through Facebook and through referrals," says Bobbé. "I haven't considered making over "regular" people, but it's not a bad idea. I doubt, however, that regular people would come close to having the makeup and hair skills that these queens have."
Initially I thought it would be interesting from a visual viewpoint only. Once the project went viral, I realized that people were relating to this on a whole other level—as in questioning normative ideas about gender and the subject of gender fluidity.
"I don't think any of them were uncomfortable, although a few were a bit nervous about only doing makeup on half of their face."
"The most interesting thing was seeing both the visual transformation of the subjects and the way they went from their male-self when they came to the shoot and seeing their feminine side come out once they were in front of the camera."
"I never received any negative feedback personally. A very small number of comments that people made online in comments sections of articles were not too nice. But I think they just didn't get it. The pictures probably threatened them in some way."
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