honorable mention Aleksandar Antonijevic canada

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Brooke Lynn Hytes

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The origin of the term “drag” is uncertain, but the first recorded use of drag, in reference to actors dressed in women’s clothing, is from 1870.

Drag queens are males who dress in women’s clothing and act with exaggerated femininity in feminine roles for the purpose of entertainment.

I met Brooke Lynn Hytes about five years ago.

From winning one of the world’s biggest drag queen pageants, to changing costumes in a seedy bathroom, nothing was off limits and slowly I began to understand and appreciate just how much goes into “pretending” and striving to be “passable” all the time. Unlike many drag queens, Brooke Lynn is not a transexual, nor does she want to be. In her own words “ I am just a boy who likes dressing up and looking beautiful”. Her work choice is as much a personal need as it is a career move. Wanting to be her/his own boss and. One of the big “turn-ons” for Brooke Lynn is this idea of extreme “transformation”, seeing as she is quite masculine as a boy, but ultra feminine in her drag. She tells me that the first time she knew what she wanted to be, was watching “The Ten Commandments” with Charlton Heston and seeing Anne Baxter lounging elegantly while being fanned.

The climate in society has certainly changed in the last little while and the world of drag queens has become just about mainstream.

This project has given me a deeper understanding of their world, and despite all of the make up, glitter, costumes and wigs, they are a funny, charming and down to earth normal bunch of people. Through the course of her work and visibility, Brooke Lynn has had to be ok with saying out and proud “this is who I am”. We, the general population, could learn something from this world of drag queens, and that is to be more self accepting, authentic and open as human beings…



about the photographer

Biography

Aleksandar Antonijevic (b. 1969) is an award winning Canadian fine art photographer.



Mr Antonijevic was born in Pozarevac, former Yugoslavia. After a 25 year long and very successful career as a Principal Dancer in a major ballet company, he turned to photography as a means of expressing himself.

He extended his love of dancing from the stage to the camera, implementing the same principles of form and space into his passion behind the lens. Mr Antonijevic deals primarily with the form of the human body and portraiture.

The artist was influenced by the form of ancient Greek monumental sculptures, the work of August Rodin and his ability to model the complexity and the elegance of the human figure; the highly stylized and provocative contemporary photography of Robert Mapplethorpe as well as the old masters of Dutch painting, with their control of light and understated observation of action.

Describing Aleksandar Antonijevic's body of work, Peter Clothier, art critic for Art News, wrote: "His images reveal to us, at first sight, the breathtaking beauty of the human form in its perfection; and the dramatic beauty of its ability to reach the absolute limits of its potential. He invites us into the most intimate places of the human anatomy and makes them a matter of pure line and contour. As viewers, we are enchanted by the chiaroscuro, the play of light and dark, the mysterious, quasi-minimalist abstract forms created by those draped figures, tensed against the drapery that enfolds them."

Mr Antonijevic’s art works are in private and public collections in Canada, USA and Europe. He has produced 8 solo exhibits and twice participated in Contact Scotia Bank Photography Festival in Toronto, Canada.

The artist lives and works in Toronto.