Session Queens
2019-2022
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Session Queens is a multi-layered project that celebrates and amplifies the voices of women and girls within the Australian and Aotearoa (New Zealand) Krump communities. Exploring themes of identity, expression, movement, and gender, the work brings together documentary, participatory, and collaborative approaches. These outcomes have culminated in a dedicated website, exhibition, and photo publication.
My connection to the Krump community began in 2007 in Melbourne (Burncity), first as a dancer and later as a community documenter. Over time, this involvement has fostered strong relationships and a deep understanding of the culture and its people. Session Queens extends from this long-term engagement, drawing on my lived experience as a woman krumper and over a decade embedded within the scene. The project also engages with critical research and self-reflective practice, creating space for new ways of working with and representing community.
Developed over two years, Session Queens formed the basis of my Master of Arts Photography.
PROCESS
This project is shaped by my long-term connection to the Krump community. Drawing on this insider perspective, I focused on building trust, staying open and transparent, and creating space for participants to have real input into the work. Alongside documenting sessions, events, portraits, and online interactions, I worked closely with contributors through ongoing conversations, feedback, and shared decision-making where possible. Dancers were invited to contribute their own photos, videos, and creative work, collaborate on pieces, and have final say over how they were represented. Much of the project unfolded online due to COVID-19, which influenced how we connected and shared material across a geographically spread community. The result is a process that balances structure with flexibility, bringing together multiple voices while also reflecting my own perspective as both artist and community member.
OUTCOMES
Session Queens resulted in three outcomes: an exhibition with live performance, a photo publication and a multimedia website (www.sessionqueens.com).
EXHIBITION
I was selected for the New Photographers program as part of PHOTO 2022, which included a group exhibition at James Makin Gallery in Collingwood alongside six other artists. The program offered a range of support and including a mentorship where I was paired with British documentary photographer George Georgiou. The exhibition featured a scatter hang of photographic prints, a QR code for accompanying audio and website link as well as a live performance at the opening event. This featured three Naarm/Melbourne-based Krump dancers; Troi-Saraih Ilsley, Aleena Panagopoulos and Bia Lupiga, who were mentored by choreographer Jenn Ma.
Images below by Shuttermain and Nicola Dracoulis.
WEBSITE
The website (www.sessionqueens.com) highlights and explores the experiences of female Krumpers from Australia and Aotearoa through a mix of still and moving image, sound, and text. Bringing together personal stories, expression, and contextual insights into the dance and its community, the platform combines work I created with content contributed by dancers and other artists. This made the website the most collaborative part of the project, inviting participants to share their own videos, images, and writing, and have greater control over how they are represented. It also functions as a living digital archive and resource—both for the community and wider audiences—to learn, connect, and share experiences over time.
PHOTO PUBLICATION
The A5 printed publication features ‘action’ photographs of the women and girls dancing and tries to encapsulate the feelings and expressionistic qualities of Krump. Colour images of bodies, limbs and facial expressions in a range of wide, mid and close-up crops are presented throughout the book as either half or double page spreads. There is an element of movement to these photographs with the krumpers captured mid-gesture to portray their strength, power and fluidity. Their facial expressions emphasise raw and primal emotions, highlighting the performative and constructed elements of Krump itself.