Drag Diaries, Visual History of Drag and Cross-Dressing Photography

Catherine Chermayeff Nan Richardson

First Edition

[LGBTQ][Drag][Cross-Dressing] Chermayeff, Catherine; Jonathan David; Nan Richardson. Drag Diaries. San Francisco: Chronicle Books / Umbra Editions, 1995. First edition. Large square quarto, pictorial wrappers. A visually striking chronicle of late 20th-century drag. Drag Diaries situates the art form of modern drag performance within a continuum stretching from Greek theater and Belle Époque transvestite balls to Paris Is Burning and contemporary queer culture. The book combines interviews, essays, photography, and ephemera to capture drag’s dual function as both a site of queer visibility and a source of mainstream cultural inspiration. Among its subjects are prominent performers such as Joey Arias and Lypsinka, whose work blurred gender categories while influencing fashion and media. Beyond celebrity, the book contextualizes drag’s political resonance in the post-Stonewall period, documenting both the pressures of normalization and the radical possibilities of queer performance art. The playful design, cinematic photo spreads, and bold typographic choices reflect the aesthetic sensibilities of the 1990s New York drag scene. Light shelfwear at edges, interior clean and bright. Overall very good to near fine condition. A defining artifact of 1990s drag historiography, bridging popular culture, performance art, and queer politics at the close of the 20th century.

Item #22573

Price: $225.00