There Must Be More To Life provocatively explores fading glamour in powerful, poignant photographs (maybe NSFW)

Musician, socialite, dominatrix, full-time muse and transgender icon Amanda Lepore is no stranger to the lens. Having served as David LaChapelle’s creative inspiration since the early 1990s she’s spent more than her fair share of time in front of a camera. But her role in Elias Wessel’s new series There Must Be More To Life casts her in a more restrained, infinitely less neon light.

Shot in New York’s famous Jane Hotel, these moody images depict an apparent decline from stardom and glamour; Lepore still wears the trappings of showgirl chic, and her surroundings are littered with excess, but the desperation in each scene is palpable and we fear for the sanity of the woman behind the inch-thick foundation and fluttering fake eyelashes.

Fresh from exhibiting at the Art Directors Club Gallery, New York, we’re hoping the large-scale originals will make it over to the UK sometime soon as we’d dearly love to soak up the atmosphere of these incredible images in a gallery setting.