Photographer Gerard H. Gaskin's new book Legendary: Inside The House Ballroom Scene visually documents the always vibrant, uber creative world of the black and Latino gay ballroom room scene, immortalized in Jennie Livingston's 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning (if you haven't seen it, get thyself to Netflix immediately).
Comprised of photos taken in New York, Philadelphia, Richmond and Washington D.C., the book was the winner of the CDS/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography.
“The balls are a celebration of black and Latino urban gay life. They were born in Harlem out of a need for black and Latino gays to have a safe space to express themselves...women and men become fluid, interchangeable points of departure and reference, disrupting the notion of a fixed and rigid gender and sexual self," he explains. "My images try to show a more personal and intimate beauty, pride, dignity, courage, and grace that have been painfully challenged by mainstream society."
More pics after the jump...
View the rest of pics HERE.
Comments