ASSOCIATE EDITOR
‘Legends’ is a month-long photographic exhibition and philanthropic project that seeks to celebrate and honor the history of the New York house ballroom scene over the past two decades.
Curated by Gerard H. Gaskin, the exhibit will showcase many of the photos from Gaskin’s upcoming book, titled Legendary. Through this project, Gaskin aims to bring visibility to an underground community where lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) men and women come together in high-spirited late-night pageants to compete for trophies in different categories.
“I started [documenting] when the butch queens began to take over the ballroom scene, which was at the same time hip hop started to get harder and harder,” Gaskin told The Huffington Post. “I hope the people looking at these images will see how beautiful this space is and how beautiful the people are that are in this space. This is a space created by the people, for the people, and I just love that… I want the ballroom children to look at [these pictures] and say ‘I am beautiful!'”
The exhibition will open on Dec. 1 at W New York in honor of World Aids Day. Check out a slideshow of images from the release party above and last year’s W LOVE hangOVER Ball below, which brought the New York vogueing scene to life in support of amFAR.