Providing a fascinating glimpse into Chicago’s thriving drag scene, multi-disciplinary photographer and artist Erik M. Kommer turns his camera to emerging and established performers to capture nightlife denizens at their most extravagant. Think impressive wigs and over-the-top headdresses, full-blown eyelashes and glitter lips, outlandish feather outfits and leopard platform heels. Sometimes the drag queens pose backstage or mid-performance drenched by some underground nightclub’s laser-beam stage lighting. Other times, they are against a misty alleyway brick wall or in the busy city streets. Gender, identity, fashion and style all play in Kommer’s work, but through it all, he manages to look beyond bright costumes and false eyelashes and bare them down to their very self. (Vasia Rigou)
