Since 2007, Matthew Black has documented the outrageous and provocative social activist group, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Members of this international Sisterhood take on the identities of 21st century nuns, dedicated to “promulgating universal joy, expiating stigmatic guilt, and serving the community.” Far more than street performers or typical drag queens, they use the art of drag to raise awareness for the LGBT community, educate about safe sex & AIDS, raise money for local non-profits, and advocate for human rights. In Black’s engrossing, public-private portraits of Sisters in the Seattle chapter he visibly captures their transformation between various personas and brings to light the deeper, universal question we each ask ourselves — Who am I really?
“We meet ourselves time and again in a thousand disguises on the path of life.”— Carl Jung
