Queens At Home

Away from the bright lights and glamour of the nightclub scene, photographer Jan Klos was invited into the homes of some of the UK’s most popular drag artists to explore the power of performance and identity.

- Tracy Ramsden

Blurring the boundaries between character and self, performance and identity, drag has been popularised by mainstream theatre, advertising and TV shows, such as RuPaul’s Drag Race. But across the UK, more LGBTQ+ people are experimenting with drag in all its forms as a space for creativity and self-expression.

‘Drag has broken out of the gay scene and acts are now being booked for corporate events and weddings, but the imagery of drag queens is often of them on stage or in their dressing rooms, which I found counter inspiring,’ says photographer Jan Klos, who first became fascinated by drag subculture in 2012 after spending time on London’s night scene. He started photographing drag queens at home last year. ‘As with fashion, our homes are an expression of ourselves – you get a sense of what a person is like by looking at their house, what colours they use, what pets they have. I wanted to photograph them in character, because those characters are part of their story – this wasn’t about “peering behind the mask”.’