Designer and artist Ben Chu is a graduate of Art Center College of Design. See more of his wonderful work on his website and Instagram.
Ben tells us:
I made this book during a 2 week trip to Berlin for a class I was taking during my time at Art Center. The project was to make a small book about the city. During that time I had an interest in ballroom culture and had already made a series of drawings and sculptures based on the five elements of vogue. So I wanted to see if Berlin had a ballroom scene and turned out they did. I reached out to the organization Berlin Voguing Out, which is run by the House of Melody, and told them about my project. They were really helpful and gave me all the information I needed to prepare for my visit. The timing of the trip was perfect. While I was in Berlin, Berlin Voguing Out was having their Vogue Week, which included workshops, panel discussions, and a ball.
I learned that the Berlin ballroom scene is very new and that there are a lot of mistakes being made. I'm really glad that Berlin Voguing Out is trying to educate the community about the culture by hosting workshops and panel discussions.
For my book I included photographs from the ball, drawings based on the photographs, and experts from the panel discussion "Voguing in Europe: Cultural admiration or appropriation". Due to the short amount of time I had for the project, the book is at a presentable state. I self published the book and is currently
available on my website. I am currently in the process of collaborating with Berlin Voguing Out to add more written content for the book.