Lisa Eisner: Shriners

Grown men dressed in fezzes, driving mini-cars, and masquerading as clowns—mention the word "Shriner" and images of Barney Rubble and Fred Flintstone attending meetings at the Water Buffalo Lodge come to mind. Following her book Rodeo Girl, photographer Lisa Eisner once again turns her lens toward a rhinestone-loving subculture, this time one with personal roots: her grandfather was a Shriner, and as a child, she imagined him attending secret meetings full of handshakes and passwords.

Over the past five years, Eisner has documented every aspect of Shriner life—their homes, meetings, parades, football games, conventions, and charitable endeavors. But what exactly is a Shriner? Legend says that in 1872, a group of Masons who frequently lunched together at New York City's Knickerbocker Cottage formed the Shriners, a fraternal order for Masons who had fulfilled certain requirements. In their mid-20th-century heyday, Shriners numbered over a million in the U.S., including figures like John Wayne, Red Skelton, Gene Autry, Harold Lloyd, and Franklin Roosevelt. Today, however, this quirky slice of Americana faces the threat of fading into history—making Eisner's vivid, intimate photographs all the more valuable.