Photos from Charlie Kirk's Turning Point Inauguration Ball for the New York Times Magazine

The social theater of politics and lots of sparkly Trump bling

Feb 18, 2025

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I spent all last week at a Nat Geo summit in DC, so I took a week’s break from In the Flash, so a couple of more posts coming up back to back, including a quick recap from the summit.

Right before the inauguration, I traveled to West Palm Beach and Washington, DC, for a New York Times Magazine story on Charlie Kirk. I haven’t heard of Charlie up until this assignment, and since I prefer to not read a draft of the story in advance, I went into the shoot with only a short Google summary of who he is and what he does. It’s important for me to meet every one of my subjects at ground level, reacting to their manner and mannerisms rather than preconceived notions. In our schizophrenically divided society of political ideologies, this is often a difficult task, made even harder by the fact that it would draw public ire. Many prefer that those who voted for the “other” candidate be visually eviscerated by the photographer, lest that photographer be accused of being a sympathizer and an apologist. I will share my experience and photos from the photoshoot in a future newsletter.

How Charlie Kirk Became the Youth Whisperer of the American Right - Story by Robert Draper.

While in DC, I had access to Charlie Kirk’s inaugural Turning Point Ball, a black-tie gala at which the impossibly crammed 1,500 attendees shelled out $5,000 to $15,000 for the honor of being in the same ballroom as the cream of the crop of Republican royalty — JD Vance, Don Jr., Ben Shapiro, and Megan Kelly. Balls are my playground, and I was eagerly anticipating it while going over the visual approach on repeat. For all social events, I use my off-camera flash to emphasize the spectacle and infuse it with social mythologies by isolating individuals and interactions. Republican events with their conspicuous amount of blinged-out Trump paraphernalia give abundant material to play with. To avoid sliding into the predictable grotesque, I tried to keep the swag on the periphery rather than focus on it as the main subject.

My photos are never intentionally flattering and often critical, no matter if it’s Debutante Ball, a Democrat fundraiser, or Turning Point inaugural ball, but I try to not expose anyone with photographic tricks that can make people look ugly, like the unforgiving under-chin flash (which I am guilty of doing in the past). The balance of translating the absurdity of such social theater without veering too much into the grotesque and making the people look like ghouls for the sake of an ideological narrative is a tricky one.

Whether or not I succeeded, I’ll leave it up to the viewer to judge.