The Tops: 2019

In celebration of the end of 2019, a list of a few work things I did this year that made me especially proud. Enjoy!

Photograph Magazine:
Elle Peréz and the Power of Representation
An introduction to the work of photographer for the magazine's September/October 2019 issue.
- The magazine reached out and asked me to write an introduction to the work of photographer for the magazine's September/October 2019 issue. Perez’s work is so moving I think I stood in front of it at The Whitney for a solid hour.

Playboy:
Journey into the Berkshires' BDSM Haven
La Domaine Esemar is battling stigma surrounding kink in an environment that’s equal parts erotic and luxurious.
- In February 2019, I journeyed to upstate New York for a truly wild 24 hours. You truly haven’t lived until you’ve seen a 70-year-old man get caned in the balls. This one took almost 10 months to get published, but I’m so happy it’s finally here. I did the words and the pictures.

InsideHook:
How Roxy Music's Soft-Core Pin-Up Girls Saved the Album Cover
Bryan Ferry's band brought a breath of fresh air to a self-serious genre, and their choices in vinyl art were no different.
- This was my first piece for the site, and it was a celebrity-wrangling experience and a half, but I’m proud of the final outcome.

Conde Nast’s them:
What is Camp?
Kicking off a month of camp-related coverage, this piece details the ins and outs of the famously elusive concept.
- I read academic texts about camp for weeks to work on this. The Chief External Relations Officer for The Costume Institute later reached out to say “Brava!” and invite me to the press preview for the exhibition. There, I got stuck against a column in a crowd and I heard a tiny voice behind me say “Excuse me.” I moved. It was Anna Wintour. She’s much tinier in person than I expected.

Meet the Artist Radically Queering the Field of Costume Design
Over the past few decades, Machine Dazzle has been fighting traditional costume design and aesthetics with a fistful of sequins.
- I’ve loved Machine Dazzle’s work since I first saw Taylor Mac’s 24-Hour workshops at Joe’s Pub and this was truly a dream come true. Machine is a delight and talking to him was an education in artistic practice.

Hyperallergic:
Beloved Drag Artist Subverts Art School Dogma
Brooklyn drag artist Untitled Queen performance on February 17 extracted the earnest out of art.
- Forever an admirer of Brooklyn’s Untitled Queen, I was elated to be able to cover her first full-length art/drag show at The Rosemont bar in Brooklyn.


I also:
Spoke at the International Center for Photography.

Interviewed John Waters and Bob Mackie.

Traveled for work, doing cool stories in Philadelphia, Seattle, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Fort Lauderdale, and photographing many meats at Smith & Wollensky, a New York steakhouse institution.

Did a Queer Women’s History Month Capsule Column for them, including history pieces about Toto Koopman, bell hooks, Vaginal Davis, and Sylvia Rivera.

Hosted panels at the Brooklyn Book Festival and the Miami Book Fair.

Celebrated five years of the Miss Manhattan Non-Fiction Reading.

Took my first vacation in 4.5 years to Hawaii. 

Completed my year-long photo project, Project 30, and started another! (More on this soon.)

Here's to many more in 2020! And there are a few of my favorite horizontal and vertical images on Instagram.