Book shows ‘Kings & Queens in Their Castles’

Kings & Queens in Their Castles is an ambitious photo series depicting the LGBTQ experience in the United States — through the lens of the home.

Over 15 years, Tom Atwood photographed more than 350 subjects at home, including more than 100 celebrities.

Modern-day tableaux vivants, the images portray whimsical, intimate moments of daily life that shift between the pictorial and the theatrical.

“The access Tom Atwood tirelessly worked to achieve is absolutely astonishing,” says Brian Clamp of ClampArt. “With charm, pizzazz and sheer determination, Atwood captures the intimate lives of many of the most fascinating and respected members of our LGBTQ community.”

Alongside artists, fashion designers, writers, actors, directors, music makers and dancers, the series features business people, activists and clergy members.

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It also includes those who keep civilization running — farmers, beekeepers, doctors, chefs, bartenders and innkeepers.

“I shoot subjects at home because our natural habitats bring out our true character,” Atwood says in a press statement.

‘Immense depth and richness’

Art historian Andrew Lear of Harvard University notes, “Atwood’s photography is a work of immense depth and richness, like a monumental series of biographies. With elements of both formal portraiture and informal snapshots, Atwood’s images attempt to dance the line between beauty and chaos, sometimes simultaneously comforting and unsettling.”

Atwood’s approach blends portraiture and architectural photography to illustrate that subjects and environments are a unified fabric — think former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank surrounded by government documents, actor Anthony Rapp leaning against his award-filled bookcase, or artist Don Bachardy enveloped by colorful paintings.

Atwood uses a wide-angle lens and wide depth of field so that neither subject nor home predominates — resulting in “marvelous photographs that capture our idiosyncrasies and obsessions,” according to playwright Tony Kushner. 

Some backdrops are packed with personal belongings, paraphernalia and detail — like director John Waters’ pinup-adorned home office and actor George Takei’s trinket-filled dining room.

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Other photographs show sweeping exterior views — the cityscape balcony vista of dancer Tommy Tune and transgender cop Anthony Barreto-Neto’s long pastoral Vermont driveway.

With a flair for design, many of these subjects have crafted playful, often outlandish homes that tell stories about their inhabitants. 

“There is a common LGBTQ sensibility that sets us apart that I wanted to recognize and celebrate,” says Atwood. “This sensibility shares an outlook with the sensibility of creative and cultural leaders — an awareness of difference, of other, of possibility — an avant-garde mindset.”

Among the luminaries profiled in the book: Meredith Baxter, Alan Cumming, John Waters, George Takei, Alison Bechdel, Barney Frank, Billy Porter, Ari Shapiro, Arthur Tress, Greg Louganis, Charles Busch, Kate Clinton, Tommy Tune, Jonathan Adler, Simon Doonan, Leslie Jordan, Anthony Rapp, John Berendt, Bruce Vilanch, Anthony Goicolea, Michael Musto, Joel Schumacher, Christian Siriano, Terrence McNally and Christine Vachon.