As a child, Magnus Hastings loved stealing his sister’s clothes and wearing his mother’s heels and feather boas, before he got “shamed out of being a drag child”.
Now, decades later, the award-winning photographer is celebrating the artistry of drag and the collective spirit of pride in his biggest exhibition to date at Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery.
The show, entitled Queen and described by the gallery as the “first of its kind”, will feature newly commissioned photographs spotlighting dozens of Liverpool’s drag artists shot in the city’s Pride Quarter.
These will be displayed alongside a selection of Hastings’s most famous photographs, including portraits of the renowned drag queens Bianca del Rio, Courtney Act and Trixie Mattel.
“I was a little drag child, it’s my world,” Hastings said. “I’ve never looked at it from the outside. I was embarrassed out of it, so my expression of drag was to photograph it; it felt like home.
“My photographs are about celebrating the art form rather than going: ‘This is a man in a dress who’s never going to be happy doing his makeup into a mirror.’ You’re looking at these incredible faces and the work that’s gone into it, the hours spent putting on makeup and shading. It’s about seeing drag as art – because when drag is good, it’s incredible. There’s a massive freedom in it.”
Originally from London and living in LA, Hastings has built an international reputation for his work with drag performers and the LGBTQ+ community. He has also previously photographed famous faces from Todrick Hall and Boy George to Luke Evans and Cheyenne Jackson.
The photographer, who was self-taught in his teens, has also appeared as a guest photographer on RuPaul’s Drag Race and as a judge on The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula.
He said the exhibition was an exploration of drag’s roots and its continual evolution, showcasing the entire spectrum, from “comedy queens, bearded queens, full female illusionists” to “drag kings and gender benders”.
“It’s about drag being inclusive of everybody. People want to generally see the famous drag queens, because the whole world’s obsessed with celebrities. Drag Race has become a way for young kids to go: ‘Oh I can get on TV and become famous.’ But to do real drag you’ve got to work your ass off. You’re doing something you can’t help but do, because it’s where you’re happiest, even though it’s really tough.”
Numerous well-known drag queens live and work in Liverpool, including local artists such as Lily Savage and more recent stars such as Danny Beard, winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season four.
Hastings said England had a rich, long tradition of drag, from “drag queens in pubs to Lily Savage and Danny La Rue”. In the US, he added, it recently felt like people were trying to “shut down” drag shows.
“It’s so terrifying in America right now, I’m stuck to the news every day. Hatred and fear are being stoked up. I’ve got a lot of trans friends, and they’re just being threatened all the time.”
He said Queen was also about the queer community “standing up and being resilient, celebrating their differences, and saying: ‘Fuck you, we’re not going anywhere.’”
The show runs from 27 July to 25 August. David Watson, the executive director of audiences and media at National Museums Liverpool, said: “Through the brilliant lens of Magnus Hastings, this showcase offers a captivating glimpse into the vibrant, diverse, and unapologetically expressive world of drag, which has long been an integral part of Liverpool’s cultural fabric.”
• This article was amended on 25 July 2024 to remove two images that are not part of the exhibition.
