Burlesque

 Earlier today, a friend told me she's in a new local burlesque troupe. From the couple of video clips and photos I've seen so far, it looks promising; that's a good thing. A couple months ago I went to see another local attempt and was sadly disappointed. There's a vacant niche here, for sure.

That got me thinking about the various interactions I've had with burlesque performers around the country, and the fascinating people I've met along the way. 

The first group I recall photographing was Hells Belles, in Detroit. That was in January 2005, it was 9 degrees F and we shot in an old restored downtown loft building near old Tiger Stadium in a half-abandoned neighborhood. It was part of a gothic-themed group shoot, organized by Racine Miller... then a law student, now a practicing attorney. She lined up the space, and recruited the majority of the models and did such a great job of it that I had to bring in three other photographers to help, we had over 20 models and three floors of space to work with.

Hells Belles were the first to arrive, all nine of them entering together. They dropped their things in the center of the large empty main room, and started to change and do makeup. One of the photographers tried to be polite and avert his eyes, and soon realized he was surrounded and there was no direction to look that didn't have a performer in some state of undress. It was obvious they'd been doing this for a while, they were soon ready and dispersing in small groups to create images. That was the day I met Sparkly Devil, who I'd shoot with twice more in Detroit after Hells Belles had long since broken up. We accidentally broke up a crack deal on the downtown streets, borrowed a shopping cart from a homeless guy, and made a mess in a clawfoot bathtub in a borrowed Victorian home in one of the then few gentrifying neighborhoods.

 Salome Slaughter was probably next, in Chicago. Again, we met at a larger shoot, this time with perhaps half a dozen people present; she was a friend of a friend. We turned her into a living statue, covered neck to toes in cling-wrap then gauze and plaster, in a duo with another model. The really amazing images happened when we cut her out, after 45 minutes of immobility the freedom resulted in a burst of enthusiastic and spontaneous movement and it was really easy to catch that energy. Again, that led to subsequent shoots. Salome has the distinction of being possibly the most extreme model I've worked with, as far as working conditions. Besides the plaster, we covered her in dried mud, worked in everything from 104 F and hot blowing wind in sand dunes to sub-freezing sleet and snow at Allerton Park, to wading a thigh deep marsh half a mile from the nearest trail. I was in hip boots, she was stark naked. It was actually a while til I got to see Salome perform on a burlesque stage, a few of us surprised her for a performance at Exit... which was outstanding. Considering her formal acting training, that didn't surprise me. That's her in the photo above, an evening shoot along the Chicago lakefront. In typical fashion, we walked under Lake Shore Drive from her nearby apartment and she wore only that one flimsy garment the entire time.

I met Michelle L'Amour in late spring 2010, when she performed (as Naked Girls Reading) at my exhibit opening at Gallery Provocateur in Chicago; her partner Franky Vivid was another of the artists exhibiting that night. It was pretty crowded, so a few of us went to see another performance a few weeks later when we didn't need to be "on" for the audience ourselves, when we could just enjoy. The photo above was taken after that performance, which was top-level. Two of her co-performers (Greta and Crimson) later participated in solo photo shoots. Take a look at https://michellelamour.com/about/ for more about Michelle; and that "The Most Naked Woman" video at the bottom of the page is a very worthwhile 11:54, I strongly encourage watching it.

Somewhere around that time, a little before or after, a group got together in Chicago and called themselves SS-XXX. I knew most of them long before then, had photographed several of them. The shows were OK the first time, repetitive after that. The attempt to be counterculture edgy turned out to be limiting. There's only so much one can do with fire dancing and a grinder on a metal plate throwing sparks. 

 Most of the performers were very good models though. I did a number of shoots with Natalya and they kept getting better. A shoot with Colleen in her apartment was very successful, quietly sophisticated. A shoot with Candy aka Alexandra on the streets and alleys around her Pilsen apartment covered a range of things, including a surpringly soft series against a fence with a Chicago PD car in the far distance, then finding recently expended 9mm casings in the alley right behind her place, then a slightly ominous looking set after nightfall on a bridge over the Chicago River, after a conversation best kept private. 

Curiously, another member of the group who I won't name booked a shoot, and then I turned her away after she tried to reschedule for the second time. I don't think she's accustomed to being told no, but I have a low tolerance for unreliability and in the end she took it well.

There were others, in some cases I don't recall any of the names. The shows themselves are challenging to photograph, rapid unpredictable movement best addressed with zone focusing, and poor or extreme lighting. When it works though it can result in strong images. Experience photographing dance and anticipating movement helps a lot. As a generality, the better performers are not only fun to watch on stage, they tend to make excellent creative collaborators in front of the camera. Movement can range from nuanced to assertive depending on the performers style, and communication is usually easy. So if this new local bunch does as well as I think they will, that's a positive thing.