Charise isis

I had spent four years photographing exotic dancers, a world I knew intimately having been a dancer myself for more than a decade. The project (“American Stripper”) came to a close. My interest in performance and the ‘hyper feminine mystique’ turned me to a new subject... Drag Queens.

I felt like I understood much of their world. For years I had donned heels, glitter and way too much make up and I had existed as part of a fringe group that was often misunderstood by the mainstream.

During my search for an introduction into the world of the Drag Queen, I serendipitously received a piece of mis-matched mail and found that I lived next door not only to a Drag Queen, but one that shared my same name ‘Isis’. Introducing myself to the ‘the other Isis’, began an ensuing friendship that gave me entree into her exotic world. Isis performs regularly in the Hudson Valley with a small troupe of Drag Queens that call themselves “The Hudson Valley of the Dolls”.

My project similarly titled, offers an exploration into the beauty, creativity and humanity within this group of individuals.