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"This lens is a love letter."
A portrait, at its core, is simply an image of a person. Bryan Clavel knows a portrait can, and should, mean so much more. Guided by their own journey and identity, Bryan—also known as Privilege Queen—has taken up the mantle of documenting and preserving their drag community through portraiture.
Everyone is worthy of being remembered for who they choose to be, and for Bryan, immortalizing their community’s power and light is the perfect place to start giving back to a group that gave them love when they needed it most.
A portrait is a document of someone deemed worthy of being remembered, and I want to immortalize them for the people they are.”
“I remember looking through that lens for the first time and just knowing that this is what I wanted. There was something so special about being able to show people who they are outside of what the rest of the world is telling them they need to be. I was fascinated with portraiture from the beginning.”
I was photographing myself as this broken, dying thing. I was constantly doing self portraits but only documenting the performative vulnerability of it all, this existential question of who am I?
When I started photographing myself in drag, I remember immediately recognizing a switch. I was photographing the power that was available to me when I put on this second skin.”
“Despite what social media might try to convince you to believe, you can exist—beautifully and happily as you are. Visibility for me means stepping in front of a lens and documenting the sorrow, the pain, the trauma, but also showcasing the joy, the warmth, the love, the community.”
This lens is my love story.
Anniversary trip to Negril, Jamaica
This lens embraces the weird.
This is Gourdon, and he's just one of the many funny faces captured by my faithful camera. I treasure these moments that allow me to be creative and let the weirdness out to play.
This lens captures what we cannot see.
I love taking long exposures because my lens can capture more than I can't see with my bare eyes. It collects all the light that's there and creates this beautiful image.
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