Behind the Scenes with Trixie Mattel

a Halloween editorial for Wussy Mag

HAPPY HALLOWEEN(ish)!!! I’m so happy it’s finally my most powerful time of year!

I’ve had a super busy month but wanted to send out a newsletter to talk about my new shoot with Trixie Mattel for Wussy Mag—you can see it in its entirety on Wussy’s website as of today. I was so happy when Jon, the founder of Wussy who has commissioned some of my favorite projects, reached out to me back in February with this opportunity. I’ve been a big Trixie fan since my freshman year of college and have loved watching her rise to mogul-dom (how insane and cool that in 2023, a drag queen can buy a motel and then renovate it on TV. I just simply can’t imagine a time in the past when that could happen!).

The idea for the shoot was to portray Trixie as a variety of spooky characters, all while retaining her classic, midcentury, Barbie-esque charm. I’m going to share some process photos and BTS from the shoot below. 🎃

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We decided early on that shooting simple portraits of Trixie in the studio and collaging them entirely was the way to go—it gave us maximum freedom to go wild with the environments. The above shot was to be collaged into a surreal version of Hollywood Forever Cemetery, so I opted to photograph Trixie on astroturf in the studio to make placing her into the collage a bit simpler, and to blur the lines of where the final piece feels like a real photo versus a collage. I like when it’s hard to tell :-)

Me and lighting wizard Ethan Benavidez shooting. BTS by the best assistant Sadie Spezzano. Why TF did I keep my keys on? the world will never know.

Because I’m an overachiever, I went to Hollywood Forever to take plates of headstones and swans and peacocks for this collage (what a terrible chore). I chose headstones with names that felt thematically appropriate.

ignore my terrible selections, appreciate my effort and curation

Here’s a gif showing my process building this collage…I built it digitally and then printed out the individual pieces to assemble by hand.

Full transparency: of the 7 final images, this one came together the fastest.

What I’ve learned in my near decade of making things is that often, no matter how thoroughly you plan something, it can still give you hell in post. And as expected, some of these collages did! I sent my friend Iris all of my in-progress mocks and they generously gave me a ton of great feedback. Below there’s a progress gif showing screenshots of these collages at various stages of completion—I often go through a handful of crappy compositions/color palettes before I land on the right thing, as you can see.

Anyway! I had a lot of fun with these. It was a joy to see mine and Trixie’s styles collide in such a fun way, and I’m so grateful to Wussy for the trust and the opportunity. YAY! I’m going to drop all of the images with a bit of commentary below, if you’re interested in more :-)

Happy Halloween!

The final cover image :-) We were going for a midcentury Madam Leota look. My favorite high femme icon! Some of the dishes and little mushrooms were borrowed from Ivory Woods, the tarot deck is from Gentle Thrills, and the faux cakes were made by Jess Gilliam. The dentures were my inheritance from my granddaddy and I made the faux drinks with resin. The table was shot practically and I photoshopped the glass orb and curtains.

This character is a cult leader inspired by Unarius’s Ruth Norman, the most glamorous woman to ever lead a UFO cult in Southern California. Iris REALLY came through with feedback for the cult leader photos as they’re the ultimate expert on the subject. The cult members were played by my friend and frequent subject Kristen.

Finally, an image to answer the question: what if Jonestown was cute?

Possibly my favorite? This one was a bitch to collage—I took Trixie’s wigs from the portraits of her and put them on the mannequin heads digitally. Stupid and roundabout but worth it.

I made that paper house from an old kit I bought at an estate sale and rephotographed with with mini trees to pop into this collage. We shot this in May and I couldn’t find candy corn anywhere so it’s all digitally placed and then hand cut. The roaches are always a tribute to papa John Waters.

The second cemetery shot. I love the colors in this one, and Trixie’s glitter autoharp reminds me of the Daisy Rock guitars that I coveted as a kid.

Thanks for being here!