Barbara Benjamin Marcus shot revealing portraits of forty drag queens—both in and out of drag—in Key West, Los Angeles, New York City, Provincetown and Tampa. She also tape recorded and listened as each intimately shared personal stories about discovering their sexual identity as a gay man, their irrepressible desire to dress and entertain as a woman, and how it all intersects in their daily life today.

“It was important to me that each person’s voice remained their own, and didn’t become mine,” says Marcus, who painstakingly transcribed the interviews to present them unfiltered. “I listened,” she adds. “I was very empathetic to their stories. I always wanted them to be the most beautiful person in the room.”

The level of trust Marcus was able to establish with the men, who don’t usually allow cameras when they’re not “dressed,” makes Inside Out an unprecedented exploration of the drag subculture. Treating each subject with respect and compassion, Marcus recorded photographs that are vividly head-on in the connection between shooter and subject. At the same time, the images are layered with complex, honest emotion as each individual personality emerges over the course of the full-color, coffee table-sized volume’s 96 pages.

What becomes clear through the portraits—and accompanying tales of joy, sorrow, love, work and hope—is that for all the differences that exist between the world of drag and the mainstream culture that surrounds it, the common bonds of humanity are as strong. Inside Out shows that the gay men who identify themselves as drag queens also lead lives as teachers, artists, nurses, chefs, flight attendants, brothers, fathers, caretakers and friends.

Marcus, who has a background as a showgirl as well as a childhood that often left her feeling out of the mainstream, says, “I felt such an affinity with the drag queens I’ve had the privilege of getting to know. I see the beauty in what they do, they’re real artists. Most of them do drag because they want to make people laugh—and to gain some of the feelings of appreciation and belonging that many of them never got from their families. They look out into the audience and see how happy people are, and that makes them feel good. They are no different than any of us.”