Think you look different with makeup on?

Check out these UH-mazing photos of New York City drag queens in and out of their makeup shot by famed photographer Leland Bobbé. This photo shoot is beautiful. The makeup these guys do is really spectacular! I mean, the shading and blending in their makeup is breath taking. What, do these guys all go though some extensive and fabulous Drag-Queen-Bootcamp to get this stuff down? And the transformations they go through! I literally put my hand up to the screen to cover the “male” side of each and everyone of the photos and damn! They, for the most part, look nothing like the “regular” half. You can see the features and such but the Drag persona definitely takes over. I love this. It’s such a flattering way to showcase Drag Queens- not just another kitchy, cheesy show of feather boas and glitter- this shows pure artistry. Think what you may about Drag, but it’s an artform. I’m all for it!

In his Half-Drag series, New York photographer Leland Bobbé captures the two sides of the city’s drag queens — the extravagantly made-up drag divas and the organic men that lie beneath.

Bobbé tells Huffington Post Gay Voices, “Through the power of hair and makeup these men are able to completely transform themselves and find their female side while simultaneously showing their male side.” Shockingly, the identities are composed in camera and are not separate images joined during editing.

Bobbé posted the first portrait of the Half-Drag series on his blog last March, writing, “I got great feedback on the image so I decided to reach out to other drag queens using Facebook as my main means of communication… I’ve now shot four people with many more on the way. We’ll see where this takes me…”

Five months later, the project has taken the award-winning photographer far: It has been featured in Italian Vogue, fashion site Refinery 29, as well as in other websites and blogs from around the world. Bobbé reflects, “This is what the term ‘gone viral’ is all about.”

Via HUFFPOST GAY VOICES

View more of Leland’s work on his website HERE