Beautiful By Night by James Hosking

Exhibition Run: August 1 - September 1

James Hosking lived in the Tenderloin for nearly a decade, during which time he developed a photo series and documentary film about the veteran drag performers at Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, a small bar that has had an outsized influence on San Francisco’s LGBTQIA+ community. In this exhibition, Hosking captures performers' transformations at home, behind the scenes, and onstage, focusing in particular on Donna Personna, Olivia Hart, and Collette LeGrande. The series offers a candid exploration of aging and labor in drag. Photos from the series have been featured in both national and international publications, including OUT, the Washington Post, Politiken, Afar, and many other outlets. This exhibition marks the first time the photos have appeared together in a gallery space. This presentation is one of several exhibitions about Aunt Charlie's Lounge at the Tenderloin Museum this year.

James Hosking is an award-winning photographer and filmmaker who was recently selected as a Magenta Foundation 2018 Flash Forward top emerging photographer. Hosking’s work has appeared in the Washington Post, Mother Jones, Chicago magazine, The California Sunday Magazine, San Francisco magazine, Huffington Post, High Country News, Port, The Advocate, Longreads, OUT, Afar, Dazed, and many more. He developed an ongoing series about performers at Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, a Tenderloin bar that hosts a long-running weekly drag show. Additionally, he made Beautiful By Night, a documentary film about three of the performers. Vimeo chose the film as a staff pick, and it screened at the Tenderloin Museum, the Boston LGBT Film Festival, Frameline39: San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival, Atlanta DocuFest, and others. It received a Platinum Award at the Spotlight Documentary Awards. His most recent film is Even In Darkness, a documentary about San Francisco's Night Ministry. The film follows Reverend Lyle Beckman as he provides face-to-face counseling and intervention to people in crisis on the streets after dark. The project received a San Francisco Neighborhood Arts Collaborative grant, in conjunction with the Tenderloin Museum. The film premiered at the 20th United Nations Association Film Festival.