Lady-boys of Bangkok | Personal - 23|08|2012

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Kathoey

I spent an afternoon in July photographing the Lady boys of Bangkok, a cabaret performance troupe which tours the UK for 9 months of the year. The idea was to  photograph 8 members individually in a variety of poses. The Lady-boys loved their big over-the-top posturing which whilst fun didn't make for great portraiture. I wanted a quieter set of images from the session. Speaking no Thai I resorted to a half mime based communication with mixed results. In the end I just let the Lady-boys get on with it and looked for moments between poses. The Lady boys certainly all had fantastic figures, but it was the tighter head shots that caught my eye. I love that they look a little awkward and forced. I also converted these portraits to black and white, something I rarely do. I felt it helped tone down the loudness of the big bright and colourful subjects.