We are Alice and Eline Primowees – two upcoming artist from the Netherlands. We each chose a different career path in life. Eline just majored in neurosciences and I work full time as a photographer. Although we always felt a love for art, we never really had the chance to make some of our own.
That all changed when drag came along.
One evening Eline talked about her love of drag: the attitude, the creativity, the drama… This inspired me to make a photo series about drag. It was time to show the world that gender bending is okay and maybe even awesome to do. To actively raise questions about what our gender means, and why we choose to live in the roles that our society makes up for us.
But where to begin..?
I figured that if I was going to change other people’s genders I first had to change my own. And who could help me better than my own drag-loving sister! Accompanied by a bottle of Mastix, a fake beard and 12 cans of beer we decided to go for it. Sisters were going to turn into brothers, and doing each others make up got a whole new meaning. I turned myself into Helmut, a skinny gay guy. Eline changed to Mitch Prick, a messed up trailer park shithead. We explored the male side of life, and we enjoyed it a lot. It felt awesome to create your own persona and just going with it. Throwing around beer, cursing, and just being plain nasty for a day – was liberating.
Although I enjoyed dressing up, I turned out to function better behind my camera than in front of it. Eline on the other hand was a natural! Every facial expression and every movement, it was all just right.
By Alice and Eline Primowees
