Queens Street
Queens and Friends in ‘70s Auckland

Murray Cammick

Black Asterisk
10 Ponsonby Road, Ponsonby

31 May - 16 June 2019

Opening Friday 31 May 5:30 pm

Part of the Auckland Festival of Photography

This series of images of drag queens and their friends in Queen St, circa 1975 were photographed by Murray Cammick while he was doing his V8 series “Flash Cars”. 

The photographer met Keri and Violet Pratt and friends on their nightly walk from a Customs St cafe to Mojo’s nightclub, opposite the Town Hall.

After each curb-side encounter, Cammick would print up postcard-size prints and mail them to Keri and Violet’s home address in Glen Innes. They liked the results and on their next photo-stop, they would once again pose like fashion models with Cammick as their David Bailey.

“In the late 70s there was a mix of subcultures in inner city Auckland. I recall having to run the gauntlet, past Babe’s disco to get to the punk club Zwines in Durham Lane, and teen punks have claimed they were harassed by V8 guys. For young guys in drag, some nights, Queen Street must have been like running the gauntlet.”