Photographer Scotty Kirby is back with his second annual drag queen photography exhibition “KirbyGirls” at Live on Central, located on Central Avenue and McKinley Street, this Friday.
KirbyGirls combines live performances with Kirby’s drag photography, displaying his work with both local queens and those who traveled to perform at the show. At this year’s exhibition, Kirby has brought in two Las Vegas queens: Farrah Moan and Coco Montrese, alumni of the RuPaul’s Drag Race reality show.
Kirby has been involved with photographing Phoenix drag queens since he met and befriended Coco St. James, a local queen who is known for her Lady Gaga performances.
“I started doing photography about 10 years ago, and I got into the whole drag scene over four years ago,” Kirby said. “I’m a huge Lady Gaga fan, and there was a drag queen in the Valley who often impersonated her and wanted to do a photo shoot, so that got me started.”
Kirby said he views drag photography as his main form of artistic expression and refers to himself as a “drag photographer,” though he also does family portraits.
Kirby said his drag photo shoots are collaborative and personalized for each queen. He usually shoots a queen in three different looks — hair, makeup and outfit — using his studio space to complement the queen’s appearance.
Miley Mitchells, a local drag performer who is returning for the second year to perform at KirbyGirls, said they like working with Kirby for his artistic realizations.
“When he asked all of us to do the show again, we were all excited. This year he has brought girls from out of town, and it’s a whole different type of concept,” Mitchells said.
This year’s KirbyGirls will feature a gallery that attendees can walk through as well as a themed performance gallery where the queens will perform a musical number to accompany the release of their photos.
“The theme for the main gallery is really simple,” Kirby said. “The theme is color, so I assigned each of the queens a different color that they did monochromatic, avant-garde looks in, and we found concepts that each color went with and tried to take it many places.”
Kirby said this year’s event is more realized than last year’s. Wyatt Fessenden, a senior at ASU studying family and human development, attended the show last year and this time will be watching as his drag alter-ego, Tooth Pick.
“KirbyGirls is such an amazing show for local queens,” Fessenden said. “Scotty shoots art that showcases the creative talents of himself and each queen, and I can’t wait to see what everyone has come up with this year. Last year was incredible, and I can’t wait to experience the show as a queen this time around.”
Cocktail hour and the first collection are at 9 p.m. and the showcase begins at 10:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 and can be purchased here.
Contact the reporter at Tanner.Stechnij@asu.edu.
