DRAFTING W/ EMILY LIPSON
In the canon of contemporary queer photography, Emily Lipson is one of its brightest young voices. Her new monograph, Dykes, is a collection of that brilliance — 220 pages bringing together 50 individuals photographed over five years, all of whom identify with or resonate with the title.
Names like Louisa Jacobson, Charlotte Day Wilson, Ama Elsesser and Coco Gordon Moore — many friends and collaborators — appear throughout. “I was interested in photographing a community that isn’t unified by taste or politics or even mutual likability,” Lipson told Vogue of the project, which explores gender, intimacy and presentation, “but by a shared recognition of the self.”
For DRAFTING, Lipson brings us inside her personal life and creative process: notebook sketches, songs on repeat, discoveries from a long-overdue trip to Mexico City and, perhaps most fittingly, a love for The L Word.
Spreads from my book, Dykes.
From working on my book’s artist statement.
I make these when I smoke weed. I stick to only yellow, green, red and — my most favorite — Yves Klein blue.
Me and one of my best friends Georgia. We used to direct our college dance company together, if you can believe it.
Curry tuna salad sandwich from La Cantine. Better than it looks here.
In the background, The L Word is playing while I type this. I’m really stressed right now and it’s my comfort show. The original, though, obviously. I guess I’m on my third or fourth rewatch now? I’ve lost count.
Me and my friend Bre on Halloween. A staircase at my friends’ house that I find myself on often.
Sometimes I write down ideas I have for elements in a film I one day want to make. The ideas can be bits about a character or the set design or props in a scene. I should organize them more because out of context the notes are really random.
Been finding myself in a chill mood recently.
I finally went to Mexico City for the first time in January. I loved how much it reminded me of New York — in essence, not in landscape. A complete amalgamation of different cultures and tastes everywhere you go.
Commemorating the departed via ice sculpture.
