"I'm popular and I think part of it is my age...my age informs who I am. I'll be blunt -- there's very little that I give a shit about," Donna Personna says in an off-camera interview that accompanies shots of her putting on false eyelashes. Personna is nearly 70-years old and a drag performer at Aunt Charlie's, said to be the last gay bar inside San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood. Personna is also one of the subjects in Beautiful By Night, a touching documentary and photo series by James Hosking that looks at the lives of aging drag queens. While James' photos were originally commissioned for a story by OUT, the photographer went on to follow Personna and fellow performers Collette LeGrande and Olivia Hart as they transformed into character and took the stage. The result is a stirring look at everything from what it means to grow old in a culture obsessed with youth and beauty to gentrification and vanishing communities. It's a fascinating watch and one that proves once again that age ain't nothing but a number.
To read more interviews with the performers in the documentary and to see the accompanying photos, head HERE.
To read more interviews with the performers in the documentary and to see the accompanying photos, head HERE.
