Exotic Dancer is a portrait series capturing the physical and interior lives of exotic dancers across various states in the U.S. Dancers are shot in various landscapes and locations—a park, a parking lot, an oceanside condo. Away from the aesthetics of the club, the dancers occupy their own subjectivity outside of the spectacle and expectations imposed by their workplace. To date, we have photographed 17 dancers in 14 cities. Our goal is to create a photobook featuring 50 dancers representing a range of body types, ages, ethnicities, and identities. Photos will be accompanied by quotes and anecdotes provided by the dancers, encapsulating their personal relationship to their image and bodies.
This series aims to portray the range of experiences and identities dancers inhabit in all their dimensionality. Some embrace the spotlight of the muse, animating the fantasies of their patrons like Botticelli's Venus. Others are athletes who have conditioned their bodies to perform physical feats of endurance, strength, and elasticity through years of training and discipline. They exude the confidence and concentration of world-class athletes, completely at home in their bodies, deep in the ‘flow-state’ of their craft. Some of the dancers can't wait to perform, while others need substances to enter the club. Some dancers wear scars from cutting and abuse, simultaneously exposing their reality and their resilience.
The body is often described as a landscape. Its form, capacity, and durab
