Friday, June 16, 2006

Drag queen photography display in Lexington

Lately it seems like I've seen a lot of people on blogs complaining that Kentucky is backwards and Southern. I'd like to ask them what they think about this:

Ashley, who died in April, began taking pictures in the early 1970s. He collaborated with Morgan on a project about drag queens, called Pagan Babes, that included The Water Nymphs.

Ashley took iconic shots of James Herndon, the drag queen known as Sweet Evening Breeze, and Lexington artist Henry Faulkner. At Red River Gorge and on North Elkhorn Creek, he posed nudes, men and women, among the rocks and trees. The scenes he created have an eerie, almost mythic quality.

[...]

A NOTED LEXINGTON PHOTOGRAPHER'S UNUSUAL ART GOES ON DISPLAY FOR THE FIRST TIME

When: Opens tonight [June 15]. 11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily except Sunday until July 3.

Where: Natasha's Cafe, 112 Esplanade

Cost: Free

Call: (859) 621-7569

1 comment:

Ironside said...

The important thing to keep in mind here, is that EVERYWHERE is backwards and southern. The Sout has certain quaint trappings and a particular charm, (other places have other quaint trappings and other charms, where you like those or not is largely a matter of taste) but any complaints about the south being "backwards" as in stupid, are from people who've never been to a small town in their own state. From people who've never bothered to talk or listen to the people in the place where they live.

The fact is, people every where are equally backward. THe south gets a bad rap because there are fewer and smaller population centers resulting in lower population density. The south might actually have more mental giants per capita than the rest of the country, due to the concentration of several military, NASA and other Government Techinical programs in the region. But without the density there are few opportunites for the intellecutals, intellectual posers and their hangers on to gather and engage in the "we're more sophisticated than them" mental masturbation excersize.

The disdain for the South is a prejudice, just like any other social or racial prejudice. It serves to magnify the flaws, apply them without consideration or respect to he whole region and ignores the similar issues in other regions. Like any other prejudice, no amount of evidence will those who cling to it.