The Main Event

My first encounter with drag happened by chance and far from home—at a Thai cabaret show on the island of Koh Samui. Sitting in the audience, I felt as though I had entered a parallel universe: dazzling, colorful, unapologetic.

The contrast between the rich, grotesque aesthetics and the modesty of the setting sparked a deep question: Who are the people behind these characters, and what remains when the performance ends and the spotlight fades? I knew I wanted to embark on a journey that would look beyond makeup and wigs, costumes and spectacle—toward the cracks, connections, and identities beneath.

Two years later, through my camera, I was able to enter Israel’s drag community. I approached with care, respect, and sensitivity. I began by documenting performances onstage, then backstage, and gradually—through glances, touches, conversations, and silences—I was welcomed into private homes and personal worlds.

What began as visual curiosity evolved into a deeply personal journey. The queens who opened their lives to me did not only allow me to document but invited me to participate. In the space between lens and intimacy, I discovered that, like the figures on stage, I too was undergoing a process of self-formation, choice, and liberation.

Through photography, I learned about self-love, existential courage, and community as a place of belonging. Drag revealed itself not only as a visual performance but as an act of resistance and a manifesto of hope—a radical theatre of identity where alternative ways of being are imagined. In every layer of makeup, every movement, every song, I found testimony to identities fighting for their place—through beauty, joy, and vulnerability.