Checkered Pride
Daniel Eugene Kaminski | United States
Organization: Daniel Eugene Photography
Photographer: Daniel Eugene Kaminski
Organization: Daniel Eugene Photography
Exhibit Title: Checkered Pride
Location: United States
Checkered Pride is a visionary photo-documentary project investigating short track stock car racing and drag performance cultures in the United States. I myself am both a racecar driver and a drag queen. The janus-faced reality of my experience in—and as—both cultures grants me the unique perspective of being both insider and outsider to each world. Using photography I cross-examine these environments by highlighting what I experience as sympathetic overlaps, just dressed differently—namely rebellion, flamboyance, and freedom as prevalent essences characterizing both realms. More importantly I am documenting each environment on its own terms, as its own phenomenon of Humans Being.
Checkered Pride is both social impact project as well as a reflection of my own adventure—my pilgrimage and personal effort to understand better and be both the masculine motor oil of my racecar driver Being and the homosexual holy water of my drag performer Self—a reconciliation that has been ongoing since I was a kid, and defines so much of who I am.
Daniel Eugene is a photographer, poet, visual artist, and drag performer from Bethany, CT. He is currently living in the Ridgewood neighborhood of Queens, NYC and is a recent graduate of the one-year certificate program in Documentary Practices and Visual Journalism at the International Center of Photography. Eugene embraces photography as the artist’s opportunity to create an individual’s anthropology of their lifetime. Emphasizing themes such as future history, humans being, as-is-ness, and inside-out point of view, he employs a documentary style to explore the phenomenon of his everyday life.
203.444.8538
dkaminski25@students.icp.edu
Instagram: @daniel.eugene.photography
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