CT Hedden, 2020 © Damien Frost — *CT Hedden*, 2020 © Damien Frost

Damien Frost has been taking pictures of the alternative-queer scene in London for years. He describes his work as ‘interpretive documentary’ in its style, bringing backdrops and a studio light to parties and clubs to take pictures of the people there. When London went into lockdown in March, Frost knew how much he would miss this work, prompting him to come up with an alternative: portraits of drag queens via FaceTime.

Many were working in nightlife, and with their income halted during social distancing, they’ve made the resourceful move of transforming parties into Facebook events, streaming DJ sets to people’s home, giving makeup tutorials, and doing online performances. The queer performance community, one that flourishes off of close interpersonal and physical connection, has had to completely alter their mode of income. This time, more than ever, highlights the resilience of queer scenes throughout the globe. To his surprise, people were pressing on, collaborating with other artists, continuing to perform, and playing with new transformative looks at home. Frost decided to capture them in the beginnings or aftermath these events, coining it The Social Distancing Project.

“The process is actually very random and I generally don’t know what the person is going to look like on the other end of the line,” says Frost. “In that sense it actually mirrors the other portraits I do which are also random and the result of chance meetings in clubs.” This always adds an element of surprise to the photoshoot, challenging Frost to match the surrounding colors and create the perfect backdrop. After adding more flowers, or guaranteeing the right colors, the photoshoots could be done in as little as 15 minutes. The props surrounding the images, he says, are added to create depth to pictures that are relatively flat. He said he was partially inspired by Momento Mori and old Vanitas paintings, telling me that a global pandemic is the perfect time to think about earthly goods.

The subjects can be seen in a vast range of looks, poses, and aesthetics. One features a nude with a light chiffon red scarf to cover up, and cherry blossom branches cascading out of their head. Others have a horror-like aesthetic, with bloody teeth and gloves with long claws, with orchid branches growing out of their teeth. One shows a subjects head entirely covered by seashells. There are delicate beauty portraits, with gorgeously done drag makeup and perfectly coordinated color schemes, surrounded by chrysanthemums and dark greenery. In each portrait, Frost can be seen in the corner taking the picture, giving a glimpse of himself in each of the images. Each is unique in style, showing the remarkable range of drag makeup, outfits, and showmanship.

The most difficult thing to resolve during these shoots was the pixelated screen in front of him. The image quality, he explains, is pretty terrible, because it relies on internet connection on both sides, the quality of the subjects camera, and the lighting that they have available in their space. With all of these compounding factors comes a very difficult photoshoot, but Frost has prevailed to create images full of grandeur and dignity.

“I’m just taking photos with my camera of a pixelated video feed on an old iPad,” explains Frost, “but this poor quality is also partly the point - the technology we have is imperfect and nothing can replace the personal social experience, but at the moment this is all we have and so we make-do.” Aside from highlighting the campy delight of drag looks, Frost articulates the imperfections of social communication via technology, and how we have relied on something with unpredictable quality to bring us together.