Dutch photographer Pieter Henket has spent the past few years spotlighting the innovative and subversive fashionings of Mexico City’s queer communities. After a lengthy period in the capital, he teamed up with stylist Chino Castilla to create portraits of dancers, performers, and even locals he encountered while strolling through the park. Together, they wanted to highlight “the boundaries between Mexico’s deeply rooted Catholic traditions and the freedom of modern self-expression,” Henket says.
Resulting is a captivating collection that defies notions of cultural identity, gender, sexuality, and even queerness itself. Shot in black and white, Birds of Mexico City zeroes in on the textures of cracked walls and peeling paint lining the weathered space and the particulars of the subjects’ garments. Frilly, lace pleats, a shock of dried foliage, and masks trimmed with fringe both accentuate and obscure the figures’ bodies, while presenting an exuberant aesthetic of contrast.
In “Fuerza,” for example, a clean-cut muscular figure flexes in leopard-print thigh-highs and heels, a juxtaposition echoed in “Raul,” which features a demure young person revealing soccer attire underneath a corsetted gown. “Chisme” similarly documents a seated figure sporting both a flower crown and a Luchador mask.
As corporations co-opt Pride and attempt to position rainbow hues as synonymous with queerness, Henket’s decision to strip the images of color requires the viewer to go beyond a surface-level reading of what it means to express one’s identity. The portraits are also at once expansive and local: they incorporate unusual materials like twigs and gilded frames, yet are deeply rooted in their regional context through accessories like the Luchador masks.
Striking in composition and message, Birds of Mexico City offers a glimpse into a flourishing community redefining queerness and belonging. The collection, Henket adds, “speaks to freedom, identity, and resilience, revealed through the quiet beauty I found in Mexico City.”
The entire series will be released in a monograph this spring from Damiani, and you can pre-order a copy on Bookshop. Until then, explore more of Henket’s work on Instagram.
