Behind the Lens 001 - In the Beginning

Every picture has a story. I have been getting poked and prodded as to when I will be penning the next installment of my memoir. My readership has grown in the past couple of years and I am very grateful. I think that is part of the delay, because I have had some more living to do and, of course, due to that living I have grown. Some things I wrote about in the past books I have a totally different perception about. So, for me, it has been more so HOW and WHAT, rather than WHEN. I am very close to writing the meat of the next book. I already have my outline, so be patient.

This telling of my life story is always a huge self-examination process. AND because I will be telling of my careers from both in front of and behind the camera, I thought I would start up with little tidbits from 'behind the lens.' As for the models of choice, I will begin with some of my own choice works from the past and present. I have not worked with a lot of photographers, but I have been very happy with our results.

As a female impersonator for the past fifteen years and an actor the past 22 years, I look back and wish I would have had more photos from my earlier career. I know people out there have footage of me, at least stills so I will be reaching out to them to assist me in the archiving of my earlier career. Each post will have five photos along with a caption about it. When I ever finish sharing my own modeling works, I will do the same with models I have blessed to work with as a photographer.

Enjoy my works!

from the motion picture, Scattered Pictures

directed by Delton Murphy

In a lot of ways, one could say Delton is my drag father. LOL. He cast me to portray a transvestite who becomes yet another hapless victim of a serial killer. One of the serial killer's nits is that he photographs his kills for his trophy case. This photo was taken after a little dip in the tub. Yes, yes, it was fun being drowned the striking a pose... My first time in 'drag' was in 1993 for this film, which finally premeired in 2009.

photo by Diva Kingsley

ahh, Diva has become the quintessential professional makeup artist, as well as an entertainer in their own right. I was always happy to be Diva's canvas in those early days. Here we were one afternoon in the early 1990's at their condo playing in makeup. Toss on some earrings and wrap a feather boa around my hat and VOILA!

photo by Diva Kingsley

Blonde Ambition...owww... photo by Diva Kingsley

I chose my drag name (back then) as Miranda Davison, after actress Miranda Richardson and actor Jaye Davidson from the film The Crying Game. I loved both of their performances and when I started doing my Extravaganza series, I had to come up with a name. I was gonna use Miranda Richardson, but the I thought everybody would think I was trying to be her, so I swapped the last name and dropped the second 'd'. Those first shows were at Slammer's Lounge on East Davison in Detroit, so it just made sense for 'Davison'.

Miss Sam's Tiffany's Eternity

clad in a Destiny Hunter original, hanging out backstage at a show at Stiletto's as Deborah Oliver snapped the night away. I ended up using variations of this 1999 photo for my promotional materials for a long time. It was shortly after my mother passed away and this 'look' was one I had during my reign as Miss Sam's Tiffany's that my mother helped create and hone and love, which was huge in our relationship. My mother became very supportive of all of my art, writings, any and everything - she was my fiercest critic and I miss her very much to this day.