38 Stunning Photos of Regine David's Queer Cast of Friends

"It's always been about the face," Regine David explains of her approach to photography. "The body and clothes are secondary. I've always been interested in the emotion that they can give."

The photos she has created in the past few years are at once both voyeuristic and vulnerable; her emotionally stripped down subjects gazing into the lens from bathtubs and hotel bedrooms. After growing up in the Philippines, the queer photographer left the conservative, Catholic country from Georgia to Hong Kong to France to New York honing her craft and working for everyone from Dazed and Urban Outfitters to Apple and Vogue Hommes.

Now back in Manila, she's become a witness to the city's burgeoning queer community and in September, was handpicked as one of the eight Filipino photographers for 'Swoon', an exhibition by the new creative content production house Tarzeer Pictures.

In our exclusive interview, we caught up with the queer Filipino photographer to talk about her favorite image, Manila's creative climate, and cum crocodile tears.

Photo: Turner by Regine David.