REVEAL (2016 - ongoing)
In REVEAL, photographs of Kitty Tornado (stage name), along with her writings, form an ever-evolving series visualizing her on and off-stage as not only a burlesque performer, but also as my best friend, muse, and constant collaborator. Conveying at once her armor and vulnerability, Kitty bears the scars from childhood surgeries — namely, a liver transplant at age thirteen — and continues to navigate times of bodily upheaval amidst her life on stage, in the spotlight.
Like Kitty, after taking my first dance classes, I quickly aligned with burlesque’s ability to disrupt the status quo. Through reveals, and through bodies unafraid of taking up space for their own sake, we explore masquerade and sexual freedom in striptease. In September 2022, Kitty returned to Chicago after several years of traveling and joined me in creating and producing our own regular burlesque showcase, Lust for Life, in Chicago, where she now resides again.
Through intimate portraits, we see Kitty in her many lived roles, within the various places and spaces she has inhabited, alongside her family, partner David Alejandro, fellow burlesque performers, and me. In working together since 2016, Kitty has become habituated to the presence of my camera and acquiesces to perform scenes of daily life, which can be joyous, exhausting, and mundane all at once.
Secret Mermaid (2019 - ongoing)
Secret Mermaid portrays some of the unseen labors, rituals, and self-taught abilities behind creating and sustaining the magic of sexual fantasies. Through nuanced photographic depictions and interview text, my friend and fellow performer Secret Mermaid (stage name) shares her experiences as a gogo dancer, fetish model, sex worker, and burlesque artist.
”Sex work” is an expansive term for the exchange of sexual services, performances, or products for compensation. In this series, images of Secret further show what it looks like to profit in the sex industry through both direct and indirect exchanges and virtual client relations.
Together, we work to demystify and break down many preconceptions about what sex work — and sex workers — look like. Despite how workers have been portrayed in visual media throughout history, Secret Mermaid reminds viewers that sex workers are not monoliths.
Show & Tell (2021 - ongoing)
Taking part in the city’s rich tradition of burlesque, I have performed in Chicago as member of a company ensemble (2017-2020), and I am currently a local solo artist, show producer, and emcee. In Show & Tell, I interview and photograph my peers on stages and in show venues, in their homes, and outside in public spaces, creating a continuous, informal visual archive of contemporary Chicago burlesque. Their portraits, often outfitted in spectacular handmade costumes, boldly display parts of their stage personas. Their words, paired alongside, uncover shades of experience and perspective that demonstrate both the joy and complication inherent in performing burlesque.
Although still a fringe artform wherever it is found, burlesque has had a home in Chicago for over 150 years. The city has a long history of prominent performers, including Syrian-born Fahreda Mazar Spyropoulos, aka “Little Egypt,” who performed a dance then referred to as the “hoochie-coochie” — better known today as the “belly dance” — at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
In the early 1900s, Chicago’s many burlesque theaters were located around the periphery of the central business district, where the combination of lower land prices and proximity to large populations of bachelors, businessmen, and out-of-town visitors created ideal investment opportunities. One cluster of theaters lined South State Street between Van Buren and Polk Streets. Another developed along West Madison Street near Halsted. A third could be found in the Levee nightclub district near 22nd and South State Streets.
Days of Rust (2021 - ongoing)
Interested in the fluidity of authorship, performance, and public vs. private in relation to portraiture, Days of Rust unveils the pervasive performativity of my life “on view.” As a sex worker and burlesque performer, I combine self-portraiture made in my Chicago apartment, seemingly away from brightly lit stages, rowdy crowds, and being looked at, with images of my interior surroundings.
Since starting my OnlyFans in 2020, I have exclusively produced adult content virtually, and so my modest apartment has become the ambiguous backdrop for the fantasies I create and sell. I photograph the banal details of furniture and houseplants embellished in light, or swallowed up in shadows, infusing scenes my everyday settings with allure or mystery. Windows and doors are barriers, or entry points, to the outside world and the public’s inevitable gaze.
Through commanding self-portraits, I assert myself as subject and author. My eye contact, when direct, ultimately implies an audience. Likewise, the camera facilitates viewership and thus places any and all subjects before the eyes of scrutiny. My choices sometimes mean I cannot escape being seen.