Jennifer Forward-Hayter didn’t know whether her Portrait of Britain winning entry would even make it to print. The photograph, a striking backstage portrait of drag artist Bimini Bon-Boulash, was already selected as the cover image for the accompanying book. A final, nail-biting detail threatened to derail everything. Bimini was mid-flight to Australia.
‘I was waking up every hour, checking my phone,’ Jennifer recalls. ‘Literally thinking, has Bimini landed yet?’ British Journal of Photography (1854 Media) needed explicit confirmation that the image could be used on the cover. Messages went unanswered. Friends tried too. Nothing. ‘And then I find out she’s on a plane. I was like, when does she arrive?’ Eventually, exhausted after landing and switching their phone back on, Bimini replied. Permission granted. The presses rolled.
That fly by the seat of your pants approach reflects the conditions in which the portrait was taken: fast, improvised and teetering on the edge of chaos. The photograph was captured backstage at the Pleasure Palace stage at Mighty Hoopla festival in Brockwell Park. The festival nearly didn’t happen due to legal challenges regarding park usage. ‘It was crazy,’ says Jennifer. ‘But it went ahead, and I pitched this little pop-up studio idea to them.’
The ‘studio’ turned out to be a white marquee next to where bins were stored. ‘So I started my morning moving all the bins out of the way,’ she laughs. With no assistant, no budget and just a squirt of sunscreen, Jennifer set up a single Profoto head bounced into a silver umbrella, working in full sun for two days straight. It was, she admits, the first time that particular flash was used. ‘I’d ordered it from Scotland, it got lost, I hadn’t tested it and suddenly it’s a 48-hour outdoor shoot. But it did fine.’
Jennifer spent the festival running on instinct and adrenaline, scribbling performers’ names on sheets of paper and physically chasing them down backstage. ‘You’re pitching the project to every single person, really quickly,’ she says. ‘They’re only thinking about going on stage in front of a thousand people. You’ve got seconds to convince them to stop and trust you.’
That trust is negotiated in a liminal moment: seconds before or after performance, when adrenaline and vulnerability collide. Some performers arrive buzzing, others deflated. ‘It really depends if it’s before or after. But that moment, it’s incredibly charged,’ she says.
The portrait of Bimini was made just before going on stage. Towering in heels, she was at the far end of the backstage area. ‘I was like, if you can physically manage it, can you walk over to the studio thing?’ Jennifer had photographed Bimini before and knew she was comfortable in front of a camera.
While other drag performers gathered nearby, running late as drag performers famously do, Jennifer seized the moment. ‘We just had a few minutes while we were waiting for the others. I’m so glad we did.’
The resulting image is tightly framed, confident and confrontational. Bimini clutches a necklace, her left hand concealing a penis shaped charm. ‘This is the only shot where she’s holding it like that,’ says Jennifer. ‘And you can’t see it too obviously, which works very well for publishing.’ In total, she shot around five frames.
What makes the portrait resonate, however, goes beyond timing or gesture. Only later did Jennifer realise Bimini is wearing a Union Flag corset. ‘I completely didn’t notice when I entered it. I was more interested in her hair,’ she admits.
When the Portrait of Britain team pointed it out, the image took on a sharper political edge. ‘The flag gets claimed as this very conservative, masculine thing. To have it on this beautiful drag queen in PVC, I hope it really annoys people. It reclaims it,’ she suggests.
At the heart of Jennifer’s work is a tension between humour, discomfort and critique. This portrait is no exception. She is drawn to performance, social ritual and what she calls ‘social performance,’ how people present themselves under pressure, expectation or scrutiny. ‘ So often at festivals people want to look like they’re having fun,’ she says. ‘They go all smiley, thumbs up. And I’m like, no, look bored and miserable. That’s much more interesting.’
Being selected as a Portrait of Britain winner was significant, having the image chosen as the book cover the cherry on top. Portrait of Britain exists in highly visible public spaces. ’That’s what makes it special. I grew up somewhere with no galleries, no museums, North Dorset. No billboards, no buses. So the idea that it’s out there, in public, still really matters.’
For tech-heads, Jennifer paired the single Profoto B10 Plus head, bounced into a silver umbrella with a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV and 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM EF lens. Shooting outdoors in harsh summer sun, she added a Neutral Density filter to help control exposure. The winning image is f/8, 1/60th, 400ISO. ‘I really wish I could’ve had a big scrim but that would have taken up the entire backstage area,’ she admits. The simplicity of the setup was fast to assemble, fast to dismantle and flexible enough to cope with a constant stream of performers.
Jennifer hopes something unsettles, or at least sticks when passers-by come face to face with the portrait. ‘The British character is naughty. The idea of the genteel, conservative Brit is a massive lie. We’re anarchic. You can be eccentric and still find your place,’ she says. If that sense of defiant, chaotic belonging flickers for even a second on a morning commute or trip to the shop, the portrait has done its job.
£27, Portrait of Britain Vol. 8, published by Bluecoat Press, 200 shortlisted portraits, including winners, Hardback, 320 pages, ISBN: 9781908457790
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