Calendar Girls
South Africa, 2019 & 2022
Beauty pageants have long played an important role in South African society. Many pageants were organised not only as expressions or celebrations of beauty, but also as acts of protest or resistance.
The Miss Calendar Girl beauty pageant was founded by Chedino Martin, a South African transgender activist and beauty pageant contestant. Chedino has participated in more than 80 pageant events throughout her career. Initially, she felt accepted and included. However, when she started taking hormones as part of her preparations for gender-affirming surgeries, attitudes towards her suddenly hardened. Chedino responded to this discrimination by starting Miss Calendar Girl — a pageant meant to celebrate everyone including transgender women, gay men and drag queens competing against each other, regardless of whether they had fully transitioned.
In 2019, Chedino asked me to help her set up a new competition category — Miss Photogenic — as well as document the pageants as part of my longterm project about her remarkable journey to become Miss Trans Africa 2022. After the contestants showcases one or two of their pageant outfits for the camera, she and I decided who would be named Miss Photogenic.
For the 2019 pageant edition, In an homage to the 1994 road comedy The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Chedino and I spent a day photographing the contestants on a salt pan outside of Cape Town. In 2022, inspired by the iconic seaside embrace between Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster in the 1953 classic From Here to Eternity, we took the group to Windmill Beach, in Simon's Town.
Miss June, Crystal Diamond, Calendar Girls, 2019.
Miss July, Xola, Calendar Girls, 2019.
Miss April, Britney Misty Daniels, Calendar Girls, 2019.
Miss May, Marsha Garcia, Calendar Girls, 2022.
Miss November, Jemma Mazwai, Calendar Girls, 2022.
Miss February, BB Vahlour, Calendar Girls, 2022.
Miss June, Billie Onair, Calendar Girls, 2022.
Judges table, Miss Calendar Girl pageant, Retreat, 2019.
Miss May, Angel Lalamore, Calendar Girls, 2019.
Calendar Girls, 2019.
Miss August, Skyler Barrymore, Calendar Girls, 2019.
Miss September, Victoria Versace, backstage, Miss Calendar Girl pageant, Retreat. 2019.
Miss March, Ruby Lee Lucas, backstage in her “Denim and Diamonds” outfit, Miss Calendar Girl pageant, Retreat, 2022.
Miss April, Serena LaFlame, backstage in her “Denim and Diamonds” outfit, Miss Calendar Girl pageant, Retreat, 2022.
Miss February, BB Vahlour, backstage in her “Denim and Diamonds” outfit, Miss Calendar Girl pageant, Retreat, 2022.
L - R: Miss September, Miss August & Miss July, Calendar Girls, 2019.
Miss November, Chanté Harris shows off her “A Night with the Starz” themed outfit, Miss Calendar pageant, Retreat, 2019.
Jada helps out backstage during the 2019 Miss Calendar Girl pageant. An experienced contestant herself, Jada competed in the 2016 Miss Calendar Girl, and would go on to judge the 2022 edition.
Miss July, Xola, Calendar Girls, 2022.
Miss October, Alexandra Black, Calendar Girls, 2019.
Two assistants backstage, Miss Calendar Girl pageant, Retreat, 2019.
Miss April, Serena LaFlame, Calendar Girls, 2022.
Miss November, Ruby Lee Lucas, Calendar Girls, 2019.
Miss January, Lundon van Diamond, backstage in her evening wear outfit, Miss Calendar Girl pageant, Retreat, 2022.
Miss December, Kiara Vuitton, backstage in her swimwear outfit, Miss Calendar Girl pageant, Retreat, 2022.
Miss November, Jemma Mazwai, backstage in her swimwear outfit, Miss Calendar Girl pageant, Retreat, 2022.
Miss March, Ruby Lee Lucas, Calendar Girls, 2022.
Miss June, Billie Onair, Calendar Girls, 2022.
Miss February, BB Vahlour, Calendar Girls, 2022.
Miss May, Marsha Garcia, backstage in her evening wear outfit, Miss Calendar Girl pageant, Retreat, 2022.
Miss January shows off her “Denim and Diamonds outfit, Miss Calendar Girl pageant, Retreat, 2022.
Miss November, Jemma Mazwai, backstage in her evening wear outfit, Miss Calendar Girl pageant, the Retreat, 2022.
Miss December, Chanté Harris, Calendar Girls, 2019.
The 2019 Miss Calendar Girl contestants.