Anja Matthes is an award-winning Luxemburgian/German born documentary photographer, videographer, and visual storyteller based in New York City. Over the past seven years, Matthes has focused her personal work on LGBTQ youth of color. Anja has exhibited projects about the Kiki Ballroom scene at Rayko Gallery and SF CameraWorks. In 2016, Anja received the International Women in Journalism (IWMF) grant for her long-term project about the Kiki scene. With the support of IWMF, Housing Works and Open Source Gallery, Matthes produced and distributed the Kiki Yearbook to members of the Kiki scene. The book was introduced into the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture archive and the project was featured in W Magazine. Matthes won the Pride Photo Award 2019 and in February, she received an HMI Honors Award for her work with the Kiki youth. In 2019 her photo essay on the Kiki Ballroom scene was published in The Atlantic.
2019 - Photo Pride Award, 2016 - Visura Photojournalist Grant, 2019 - Hetrick Martin Institute, 2019 - Athens Photo Festival, 2016 - IWMF
“The House of Bangy Cunts” is an ongoing project that visually explores the underground NYC Kiki Ballroom scene, a community selforganized by LGBTQ youth of color, which provides an alternative to highrisk behaviors, as well as a support system and can be deemed a form of survival and resistance for a marginalized group. Members of the House of Bangy Cunt pose for a group photo in East New York. Kiki houses, each led by a "mother" and "father" who watch over their house "children," act as surrogate families for youth. The House of Bangy Cunt is one of about a dozen active kiki houses in New York City today. Like many marginalized groups, members of the kiki scene use their own lingo—sometimes called "gaybonics" by sociologists—and the word cunt is considered high praise.
In 2014, DaeDae (left) was the house father of the House of Bangy Cunt. He effectively supported his house members through their difficulties, having experienced his own share of problems with racism, homophobia, health problems, and homelessness.
In 2010, Poppie joined the Kiki Ballroom scene, an offshoot of the mainstream Ballroom scene founded by community organizers specifically for LGBTQ youth of color. Poppie quickly climbed the social hierarchy, adopting the role ‘Master of Ceremonies’ and directing competitions with the confidence of a ringmaster and the cool-headedness of a nightclub bouncer. Outside the scene, Poppie was intermittently homeless, and often worked as an escort to survive. In 2017, Poppie was arrested and accused of stealing from older men who had hired him for sex in two separate dates earlier that year. Although he had been invited into the rooms, both men accused Poppie of burglary. Poppie tells a different story, insisting the men stiffed him. After a 10-day trial, Poppie was sentenced to 20 years.