“I forgot to ask,” Gabriel said, “what’s your drag name? Please tell me it’s something like Gia Hardon, Claire Voyant, or Tess Tosterone.”
I chuckled and said, “If you just came up with those off the top of your head, that’s impressive.”
“I just love a punny drag name,” he told me with a smile.
“Okay, so in my defense, I came up with my drag name on the fly,” Emory said, as his slender fingers gathered strands of Gabriel’s wig and twisted them into curls. “This was about two years ago, when I finally scraped up the courage to enter a drag contest at a club in West Hollywood. Up until that point, I’d just been doing bedroom drag. That’s where you secretly make yourself up in your room, then wash it off before your dad sees it.”
“And he totally dodged the question,” I said with a smile. “His drag name is Polly Swallows, which I actually love.”
Emory frowned a little. “It could be better, but I’m stuck with it now.”
“Yeah, because you’re awesome and won that first drag contest,” I pointed out.
Gabriel looked impressed. “You’re Polly Swallows? No way!”
Emory’s eyes went wide. “You’ve actually heard of me?”
“Don’t sound so surprised,” I said. “Polly has thousands of followers on social media, or hadn’t you noticed?”
“Yeah, but it’s one thing to be known within the drag community,” Emory said, “and another to discover people outside of that world actually know your name.”
Gabriel grinned. “I saw a music video you did for a song called ‘Beach Blanket Bimbo’. It was hilarious.”
Emory seemed simultaneously embarrassed and flattered. “Thanks. I had a lot of fun with that.”
While I packed up my supplies, Gabriel told him, “I didn’t even sort of recognize you without your makeup.”
“No one ever does, partly because I never post photos of myself out of drag. I want my dad to find out about Polly on my terms, not because some random person sees a picture of me and goes running to tell him.”
“Makes sense.” Gabriel got up and told us, “I’m going to get my costume, be right back.”
Once my makeup kit was packed up, Emory followed me inside and asked, “Are you going to the beach to take these photos?”
“We thought about that, but we decided it’d be more unexpected to photograph him in a bath tub. There’s a huge, free-standing tub in the master bathroom, and the guys who own this place said we’re welcome to use it.”
“I like that idea.”
I asked, “How soon do you need the wigs back? We’re pulling together a woodland nymph look for the brown one, but we still need to figure out where to photograph it.”
“There’s no hurry. I’m not currently using either of them in my act.”
A minute later, Gabriel returned carrying the tail he’d made. It was beautifully constructed from iridescent material, with a wide, semi-transparent fin at the bottom and long, sheer, ruffled streamers that looked like a jellyfish’s tentacles extending beyond it. In other words, he’d made it look exactly like the sketch I’d had on the wall of my apartment.
Gabriel fanned it out and held it to his waist to show us the full look, and Emory seemed impressed. “Okay, the makeup was already phenomenal,” he said. “Now that I’m seeing this all together, it’s a work of art.”
“I was worried that I didn’t really get it to look organic,” Gabriel said, as his fingers skimmed the fabric he’d quilted to resemble scales.
“It’s absolutely perfect,” I said. “In fact, it elevates my makeup.”
“I’d better get going,” Emory said, as he glanced at the time on his phone. “I have an appointment in half an hour. Are these photos going on your website, Riley?”
“Yeah, they should be up by tonight,” I told him. “Thank you again for loaning us the wigs, they’re the perfect finishing touch.” Before he took off, we promised to come to the club soon to watch him perform.
We walked him out, then went to the master bathroom and got set up for our photoshoot. I touched up Gabriel’s face and body, then helped him with the tail, which wrapped around him and held together in the back with Velcro. We’d been discussing this shoot all week, so he knew just what to do as he got into position.
I shot several close-ups and portraits, first with him sitting on the edge of the tub, then inside it. We took some pictures without water, then filled the tub. For the final few shots, we turned it into a bubble bath. I climbed onto a chair and used a selfie stick to hold the phone above him. That let me capture some gorgeous full-length shots with him leaning back, looking right into the camera, and resting his elbows on the edge of the tub while the tail fanned out over the other end.