One cool evening in late August saw a band of circus act renegades come together on the cobbled streets of Kansas City’s West Bottoms neighborhood. We worked on the fly, outside, with no mirrors or electricity to help us get into makeup and wardrobe. But goddamn did we WERK IT. I was cast as the Bearded Lady, and had an absolute blast. Here’s the teaser image from the shoot, courtesy of our amazing photographer Jonny Hackett of No. 9 Photography. This was the last shot of the night, and Jonny’s directions were simple: “Just shout ‘FUCK’ as loud as you can and flip me off.”

Done and done.

Back Row (L-R): Josh Thornton (fire dancer), Jordan John Seper (demented clown), Hannah Wessell (demonic ring leader), Jordan Yates (evil flying monkey)
Middle Row (L-R): Me! (bearded lady), Katalina Ford (fortune teller #1 and snake wrangler), Rebecca Lord (fortune teller #2)
Front Row (L-R): Mandy Runske (project coordinator and makeup artist), Brianna Conrad (project coordinator and makeup artist)

For WEEKS, that was the only image we were given from Jonny because he was submitting our photos to a magazine and they, like most ‘zines, have a strict unpublished submission policy. They wouldn’t accept photos that had been published anywhere else, even on personal social media pages. So Jonny had to keep us in tortured suspense, bless his heart. It was awful. And thrilling. Such is life.

We got two updates from the magazine; one to let us know that we were in the running for the cover and a second to let us know that we had scored the spot! The issue would be released on October 15th (it actually released in the early morning hours of the 16th), and I think our group was positively GEEKING OUT.

We couldn’t wait to see not only the magazine itself, but to finally get the chance to see more images from our shoot. We had so much fun that night and only the one teaser image! When it finally broke online, we tagged and shared ourselves silly. It was like we were a family with a new baby. The notifications were incessant and joyous. I was giggling most of the day watching our faces blanket our various feeds.

We had the cover and an eight page spread, surrounded by pages of other incredible photographers and models. Here are the screen grabs of our feature, but please be sure to go look at Shotcaller Magazine‘s full issue (it’s free!) and drool over the other works.