LADS

This project explores how queer avant-garde performers from drag, fetish, and alternative nightlife scenes use costume as a tool for transformation, empowerment, and identity play. By photographing them on stage, I focus on the dynamic between body, costume, and performance. The extravagant outfits featuring leather, spikes, metal constructions, and influences from BDSM, cyberpunk, or post-apocalyptic aesthetics, serve as extensions of the self, altering movement and presence. The project examines how these materials and aesthetics influence the performer’s physicality and how they are perceived.