Didi & Dusty

Inspiration

Didi & Dusty

Sometimes our show and tell sessions yield gems from our non-work lives, and Darien’s recent contribution was just that. He’s given us glimpses before of his and his friend’s drag photography—wherein they go by the names Didi and Dusty, respectively—which evokes both the glamour and paradoxical alienation of Hollywood stars from the ’40s and ’50s.

Although the subjects seem rich and famous, the photographs inspire more pathos than envy. By depicting these women in the midst of quotidian life in such intimate domestic circumstances, one gets a glimpse of their lives outside the public eye. These women seem completely disinterested in—if not hostile to—the photographer’s presence, sick of the attention, and seem to exude anomie from a life of hollow spectacle. Since the photographs still seem highly staged, despite their quotidian backdrops, it’s as though the audience is demanding that these women pose for us even in their private lives.

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