Born Naked

Born Naked is an ongoing photographic project documenting the contemporary drag scene in Lausanne and Geneva.

In Gender Trouble (1990), Judith Butler describes drag as a powerful political act: by imitating gender, it exposes gender itself as a performance.

Born Naked is an ongoing photographic project documenting the contemporary drag scene in Lausanne and Geneva. The project began through a close collaboration with Lausanne-based drag queen Royale Cattin, with whom we have created a yearly drag calendar over the past three years. This long-term exchange became the starting point for a broader exploration of the drag community.

I photograph drag queens across different temporalities of performance: hours of preparation, backstage rituals, moments of waiting, the intensity of the stage, and the quiet afterglow once the show is over. Moving between intimate and performative spaces, the images reveal drag not only as spectacle, but as labor, vulnerability, and transformation.

This project is an act of visibility and tribute — to those who challenge norms, blur lines, and bring joy and resistance into public and personal spaces. Drag reminds us that identity is not something we are, but something we do, again and again, with intention, humor, and courage. Through this project, I seek to offer visibility to these ever-evolving artists and to celebrate the beauty of becoming.