Thinking Outside the Box

OUTSiDE EMBRACEMAGAZINE.US THE A R T S ISSUE 2021 26 iNKi NG WORDS BY SHANE GALLAGHER E B OX PHOTOS BY MAGNUS HASTINGS A PHOTO ESSAY

M

agnus Hastings’ new coff ee-table book, Rainbow Revolution is a collection of vibrant portraits that celebrate the expanding spectrum of queer identity and visibility.

A sample of Hastings artistic work is presented in this photo-essay, provided exclusively to Embrace Magazine by Chronicle Books, based in San Francisco.

Inspired by the photographer’s social media campaign #GayFace — a project that quickly became a viral sensation for featuring an array of people representing all of the diff erent colors of the LGBTQ community — Rainbow Revolution is packed with more than 300 photographs of everyday individuals and celebrities like Kathy Griffi n, Boy George, Luke Evans, and fan favorites from RuPaul’s Drag Race.

BRIAN EYTH Floral Designer

Accompanying Hastings’ gorgeous photos are powerful essays from some of the subjects, detailing their own personal battles in stories that are marked with sincerity and oftentimes, humor.

JUNO DAWSON Writer JIMMIE SPRINKLES Business Owner BEAN Event Producer

TIKKA MASALA DJ DANIEL SUG Handyman

“The essays elevate the book for me and give it a purpose beyond the social media recognition the images have gained,” says Hastings.

ERIC PLINER Chief Executive Offi cer JONATHAN BLOOM Freelance Copywiter & Creative Director EZRA, JACOB, and JEREMIAH Their children

Magnus Hastings’ passion to depict the queer community in all its technicolor gloriousness runs deep, and it shows in earnest from cover to cover. “The inspiration for Rainbow Revolution came from watching the world moving to a dark and right winged place,” says Hastings.

RYAN ERICKSON Multifaceted Atrist LIL MIS HOT MESS Adjunct Professor in Media, Culture, and Communications

CODY SILVER Artist JAMES CHARLES Makeup Artist and YouTuber

“I wanted to create a project that was highly visible and unapologetically queer, and one that shouted with pride, defi ance, humor, and joy because, after all, if the LGBTQ community is good at anything, it is laughing in the face of adversity.”

West Hollywood Dodgeball Players

The project began in the winter of 2018 when Hastings built a box in his parking garage, a 3-D blank canvas, and enlisted RuPaul’s Drag Race star Alaska Thunderfuck as his test subject.

NICO TORTORELLA Actor BETHANY C. MEYERS Fitness Entrepreneur

The idea was to allow Alaska to transform the space in any way she chose, so that the image represented how she wanted to be seen. Alaska nailed up some blue fabric, threw together some shapes, struck a pose and in that instant, magic was born.

COREY EVANS Tattoo Artist

Over the next two years, with his camera in tow, Hastings traveled between Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and London, building more white boxes and snapping hundreds of mini theatrical pieces that provided hundreds more subjects of varying gender and sexual identities a platform from which to tell their unique stories.

TIM WHITMORE Visual Director PAUL ANTONIO Calligrapher

LUKE EVANS Actor

The end result is funny, personal, political, racy and magical; a beautifully diverse celebration of queer identity and community. Inside the pages are fashion designers, medical doctors, nightlife personalities, sports teams, fi nance executives, sex workers and more.