Life Isn't A Cabaret
I was asked to document a drag queen friend of mine getting ready for a show. When I was inspecting the images after the shoot I decided to edit them to show the inner turmoil of a performer that has to be happy and larger than life to the public, but is has their own inner demons to fight.
During the time of the shoot, my friend was struggling very hard with depression and is very open about it. For many drag is used as not only a performance but as a mask to hide their real selves from the world. During the shoot it was actually quite difficult to stop Zanadu from performing to the camera and to just be natural instead.
Zanadu is very supportive of these images being used for this purpose and publicly speaks out for people with mental health problems and urges people to speak to someone and not keep it hidden.