Femme Magnifique

Femme Magnifique (2015-17) is a body of work that takes a luxuriously illustrative look behind the curtain at the sensuous world of burlesque, portraying renowned Australian burlesque performers through narrative art. Burlesque is strongly influenced by women’s attitude and spirit. It is no coincidence that eighty percent of the audience is female, drawn to the theatricality, performance and strong visceral archetypes depicted in each act. Performers carefully construct their characters using make-up, hairstyling, costume and their physical attributes, to paint a story with which the (female) viewer can identify. Therefore, the aim of the works is not only to shed light on the burlesque industry but to reveal the artists who actively contribute to the vaudeville scene in Australia and Internationally. The style of this work is to challenge the photographic norms and push the compostion, colour and layout as a painter would push oils. These images are a world I build around my subject as I would image it to be. The same way a painter would compose and construct his painting except I use my own piece of photographic works I shoot but I merge and colour and tint, I move the light as I would want to tell the story as I intended to capture a moment of evolving drama, create a sense of wonder and intrigue, bringing the viewer to a foreign midpoint between reality and illusion and reveal the freedom of expression that is burlesque.