Drag queens are pop culture’s most colorful gender rebels, donning wigs and jewels and dresses and exaggerated makeup for performances or nights on the town, then coming home to take it all off and return to their daily life as men. Their sheer existence complicates notions of gender identity as clear and fixed. Never have we seen this complexity depicted so elegantly as in Leland Bobbé‘s Half Drag (or I mezzi drag di) series. It captures drag queens’ simultaneously male and female existences in photos that show the left side of their faces done up to the nines in glitter, big hair, and baubles, but leave the right side clean and stubbly. Click through to see some of our favorite photos from Half Drag, which we discovered via Design Taxi, then visit Vogue Italy for the entire set (so far). If you like what you see, consider supporting Bobbé’s ongoing, non-commercial project by contributing here.
Crystal Demure. Photo credit: Leland Bobbé
Azraea. Photo credit: Leland Bobbé
Detoxx Busti-ae. Photo credit: Leland Bobbé
Heidi Glüm. Photo credit: Leland Bobbé
Maddelynne Hatter. Photo credit: Leland Bobbé
Kittin Withawhip. Photo credit: Leland Bobbé
Miss Fame. Photo credit: Leland Bobbé
Tina Burner. Photo credit: Leland Bobbé
Vivienne Pinay. Photo credit: Leland Bobbé
Honey Davenport. Photo credit: Leland Bobbé