We seem to be recognizing that we are - and have always been - defined socially and sexually by the murky corners of our interpretations, contradictions, and ambiguities. This is compounded by the furious emergence of movements like #MeToo both women and men are finally examining the nuances of exploitation and the affliction of institutional sexism. We live in an unsettling, electrifying time of social introspection, both nationally and globally. The intermittent, hard-won glimpses of self-respect. But their struggles – and their stories – are in the end very much like our own. Why strippers? Why is this important and culturally relevant? Regarded with lewd fascination or disdain (or both), strippers have been shrouded by the shadows and disrepute of the underculture. I know I’ve taken on some of their audacity. And in ways I’m still sorting out, I know I’ve been changed by the experience. I have encountered much to admire in the girls, much to be inspired by. Soon they were volunteering to pose on the pole. I showed them my work, and they liked how I saw them. For months I had no success, but in July 2016 I finally discovered a place in Queens where the manager gave me the go-ahead. I scoured the city for a strip club where I could take pictures. For years I was hesitant to document the world of strippers and other sex workers but mesmerized by it all the same - the garish parade of flesh, the dark undertow of vice, the seamy basements of the city. To give some background, as a professional voyeur, I’ve dabbled in and orbited many subcultures: drag, club, carnival.
For the last three years, I have spent most of my Saturday nights in strip clubs nationwide, photographing and building a rapport with their dancers.
Popular media has long characterized strip clubs as gritty dens of depravity and ill repute, but there are many dimensions to the story. On a good night, a dancer can make two thousand dollars or more. There are currently more than 4,000 such establishments in the United States, generating more than six billion dollars annually and providing livelihoods for about 58,000 dancers, bartenders, and other employees.Įxotic dancers give stage shows for both male and female patrons, typically demonstrating “tricks” on stationary or rotating poles, lap dances, and acts in private rooms. Although statistics about sex workers and the sex industry are notoriously unreliable, those regarding strip clubs are a matter of public record.
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