90 Photos by 'Just Toby' Are Just Sensational

Devilishly handsome Toby (one name, like Cher) brings out the personality of everyone he shoots. Whether it is zany drag queen or stoic lumberjack, Toby seems to get the essence of who he photographs. The Atlanta-based photographer filled us in:

"Ever since I was a Boy Scout I have been taking photographs and I tried to journal my travels and my journey as I grew up. I never thought to do photography professionally, instead like many people I went was an academic route and did a major in Criminology, minor in Spanish and Psychology, and then did an MBA in International Business. It wasn't until I moved to Atlanta and was looking for a job. During that time I met one of the RuPaul's Drag Race girls, Mariah Paris Balenciaga, and at the time I was managing her social media. One day she saw an album of photographs I had taken and she said to me that I had an eye for detail and color. Mariah challenged me to do a shoot with one of the local queens and see how it goes... at this time in my life I was doing events, marketing and PR for a lot of charities, never thought photography was part of my journey. Mariah was impressed with the work I did and said you need to capture my sisters and then she connected me with Ben De La Creme. From there on I started photographing all the top queens at the time, and many legendary ones as well, and the response was incredible.

"I took a trip to photograph one the premiers of Drag Race in 2014 with my best friend and she said, you can make a business out of all the things you do... that's where "Just Toby" started. The name idea came because I use a single name on facebook and when queens or new friends wanted to search for me, I would say, find me, "Im just toby" and the rest was history. What I can tell you about my work is that I love color, I love capturing a moment in time that will never be forgotten, and I tell most of my clients, I want to capture your essence and what defines you. As I kept working with entertainers, I was always hesitant about taking photos with them smiling, so I started covering my smile or facial expression with a fist in front of my mouth because for me that was my most insecure thing, my smile. Ironically, as I started taking selfies with the fist in my face, clients wanted to do it and that became part of my branding, which is really cool. I have have been blessed to be working with some of the most famous queens in the world, I get to cover Drag Race premiers and have gone on national drag tours with Murray and Peter Present capturing the queens on stage, behind the scenes. I hope that one day I get to be one of the photographers for Drag Race or work for a major brand capturing their essence. As for now I can only keep working hard and hopefully create a book, have an exhibit showing my work in a larger scale. I hope you all enjoy my work and if you enjoy it, make sure to check me out on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or my website."