When you’re reading this, I am in Tokyo, Japan, visiting the gallery opening of the 2024 Fujifilm GFX Challenge Grant winners. In late 2024, I got the message that my pitch was selected and I would be getting $5,000 to photograph Canadian drag performers! A dream come true! Read on to find out about my pitch, the selection process, and how I captured the images!

The Application

Let’s rewind. In the Spring/Summer of 2024 I heard that the Fujifilm GFX Challenge grant was coming back for another year! I had applied in 2023, but in my excitement, I didn’t apply properly. You need the preformatted cover letter (which is on their website when the grant is open to applications), as well as a one‐sheet outlining the project’s artistic point of view. I was determined to apply properly this year!

And then I forgot.

That was, of course, until about a day before the deadline. I knew my idea! It was just a matter of taking a few hours out of my day to format it into an arts grant application! Without boring you with the details, I found a few images that told who I was, which I think was very helpful, and put together a one-pager that outlined the Who, What, Where, When, and Why of my project. I sent it off and thought nothing of it. At the very least, by applying to the grant, I thought about my work in a different way I had not pondered before.

And then in October, I got an email — I had made the list of the top 45 applicants in the world to make it to Phase 2 of the grant selection process, and would be interviewing with the Fujifilm North America team.

The Interview

I was most nervous about the interview where they wanted to know not just about my work, but about who I was as an artist and person. I was elated to have gotten this far, and I was determined to make it all the way! I quickly put together a Google Slides document, sharing visuals of my work, specifically in the drag world, and talking about why drag was ready for the high-art world — or was it the other way around?

They asked some questions, like what I would do if I did not get the Global Grant, but rather the Regional Grant, and I basically explained I would reduce the scope. If I had received the full grant I would have gone across Canada — but if given the regional grant I’d stick to Toronto and Quebec and photograph fewer performers. They had some other questions but, at this point, it was a year ago and it was kind of a blur. If you apply to next year’s GFX Challenge Grant, my tip is to be yourself, share why you are motivated to create your project, and really dig into the artistic merit of the project. Being prepared with a presentation really helped me communicate my idea.

The Project

When I first got the email saying “Fujifilm Challenge Grant Winner!” I originally thought it was a list of the winners. I was wrong. It was an email from my creative producer on the project announcing that I had won the regional grant!

 I found that my growth as an artist, more than just a commercial photographer, grew tenfold over this project.

From there, we had multiple creative meetings with the Fujifilm team to refine my idea and clarify what I was trying to convey. The idea that I pitched, and the idea I executed, ended up being related but not exactly the same. The Fujifilm team and I worked closely in order to build upon my original idea and use this opportunity the grant provided to expand and elevate my work. I found that my growth as an artist, more than just a commercial photographer, grew tenfold over this project. I had rarely thought about my work beyond “Pretty picture looks nice” before this, and it really changed how I approach my personal photoshoots. I had to think about the why of the techniques I was using, and how every decision mattered to the core idea of the project, which boiled down to “Truth in artifice.”

I find that drag is an extreme form of the masks we wear every day, which have two utilities — to hide the things we are insecure about and to accentuate the things we are sure of. Every choice we make, what to hide and what to share with the world, can uncover a truth about oneself. In order to express this idea photographically I had to make more decisions than ever: more lights, more direction, more post-production.

For the project I needed a few things. The idea behind it was quite technical so I would need four lights that had the ability to fire sequentially. The problem was, I only had two Broncolor Siros 800 S units. I reached out to Broncolor Canada, who so graciously co-sponsored the project by loaning me a bit of extra gear: two more Siros 800 S units as well as a Broncolor Softbox and a Broncolor Para Reflector Kit.

The next thing I needed was an assistant — someone who knew their way around lights, was a collaborator and problem solver, and owned a car (driving to Quebec and back is so much nicer than flying, especially with all the gear). I found my assistant on a local Facebook group in Olya, who was instrumental in gathering behind-the-scenes photos, organizing, and just overall being a huge help on set!

Lastly, I needed models! I knew a few drag performers around Toronto and Montreal, and reached out to their agents, negotiated fees, and, some people dropping out last minute notwithstanding, ended up with six incredible performers: Denim, Adriana, and Esirena in Montreal, with Helena Poison, Manny Dingo, and Perla in my home city of Toronto.

The Shoot(s)

First up was Montreal! Olya and I hopped into the car on a cold February morning and drove all the way to Montreal to prepare for our shoot the following day. We had actually only met for coffee beforehand, so the drive started out awkward, but we became fast friends! When we got to Montreal, I quickly went to bed and the next morning, it was off to the studio!

For our setup, I knew that the technique would work in theory but I had not actually gotten to try it with a model yet, so I was secretly very nervous. We set up our lights in a four-light setup — which shifted around for each performer — but the idea was the same. I would use the Fujifilm GFX100 II camera’s 8 fps mode to burst-capture photos, and every time the shutter closed, a different light would flash the next exposure. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. This allowed for different lights to accentuate different aspects of the drag artist’s form and outfit — but in the same moment, so the pose was identical, allowing me to “collage” them together, like an unscrambled Picasso.

One thing I learned on set of the photoshoot is that stilettos need a bit of cushioning on a white cyc in order to ensure that you don’t poke holes in it. So we actually had to use some painter’s tape in a ball to spread out the performers’ weight a little. It added some retouching work, but saved us from repair costs.

There were three queens in Montreal, and we quickly fell into a rhythm of wide, low, and close-up for each of them, giving us three shots of each performer. Now, from the get-go I knew I didn’t want this to look like a white cyclorama, but we didn’t have the time (nor budget) to build sets. $5,000 only goes so far when you’re adamant about paying your collaborators fair rates. I’ll explain how I solved this issue in the next section.

After 10 hours on set, and a last-minute change of performer, we were done in Montreal!

A few weeks later, we shot in Toronto — my favorite city I’ve ever lived in — and we actually shot in my building! The rooftop of my apartment has a large space I often use to shoot photography. For Toronto I actually wanted a bit of a set since blank walls are even worse than a white cyc but, without much of a budget, I just bought some velvet backdrop fabric on Amazon and, with some draping, we had a beautiful set!

https://www.instagram.com/daveoverthere/reel/DG_pg5bJFuf/

As part of the grant, Fujifilm creates a documentary about each of the grant recipients. So in Toronto I was joined by the crew of Untold Storytelling, who followed my work for the day and did a fantastic job turning my ramblings into a beautiful story of queer art. You can see mine, and the other grant recipients’ documentaries on the Fujifilm YouTube channel.

After another day on set, followed by a day of interview and B-roll around Toronto, it was a camera wrap! Next came culling. And color correction. And retouching. And 3D. And compositing. And collaging. And more retouching.

Post-Production

When all was said and done, I had thousands of photos to cull in groups of four. I had everything in one Capture One Pro session, and tagged the photos by performer. I culled everything down to about fifteen poses per performer and then sent those to the drag queens and king so they could choose which were their least favorite — I didn’t want to put hours of work into photos no one liked! I saw this whole process as very collaborative, so it was important they got a say.

As I alluded to before, I did not like the Montreal white cyc. It was important for lighting, having the space, and making compositing easy — but it was so far off from my original vision that I needed it gone. Thankfully, I have been spending the past four or five years learning CGI, and I use it in my product work heavily. So I booted up Blender and created sets that would be near-impossible in real life. I could reverse-engineer the light by what each image looked like, plus my own memory.

Knowing I needed to edit nearly twenty images, around other freelance work, I knew I had to work smarter not harder. So I set up my Blender camera to be the same lens and sensor size as the Fujifilm GFX100 II and the Fujinon GF45mm f/2.8 R WR (which is the lens I used for the wide photographs) and used some pre-made assets and textures I modified instead of building absolutely everything from scratch.

I then used frequency separation to quickly and easily even out skin tone, make the skin “perfect,” and clean up a few wrinkles I did not enjoy. I originally tried to set up a macro so I’d only have to retouch one image, and then the other three would be a push of a button. This did not work, and I realized it was quicker to just retouch four images than it would be to set up the macro. While frequency separation is not the best retouching technique ever to use, on this volume of images, and with 102 MP, I just did not have the time to give these a “proper” retouch. (Also, they’re drag performers; they generally like their faces to be a little over-retouched.)

While I knew the final output would be photographs, I wanted to play with video as well — I experimented with both cutting between different collages and fading between the different lighting, the latter of which felt rhythmic and almost hypnotic.

Conclusion

Overall, the Fujifilm GFX Challenge Grant was an incredible experience — I got to think about my work through a more artistic lens than I allowed myself to in the past, and the whole Fujifilm team truly let me spread my wings and fly. I was worried at the beginning that they’d be concerned about having me represent the brand in a certain way, but I soon learned they were there to support and lift, not enclose and limit. I learned a lot on this project, met some new friends and collaborators, and am currently seeing this in Tokyo, printed large with the other grant winners’ work! Fujifilm was a fantastic collaborator and pushed me to be the best artist I could be, and I’m excited to explore the more artistic, meaningful side of my work in the future!

Images used with permission.