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ESSAY CONTAINS EXPLICIT CONTENT
Marie Baronnet
The Living Art Of Risqué
December 2011, Las Vegas.
Inquiring about older performers, I met some show girls. The way they looked down on strippers got me quickly interested in the latter. Outcasts are my kind, they try harder. From strip joints to Burlesque theaters, I went on a quest and met the “Legends”, these dominating characters of the quintessential American art of strip tease. Hours of confidence on tapes, intimate photo sessions, they peel off and reveal the hidden layers of their life with throaty emotion. Their memories reflecting the memories of the land. Vietnam vets and bikers are their loyal patrons.
Candor and decadence, the art has seen his Golden Age, losing to the sex industry, but its actors keep its luster vibrant. Of all ages, from sixty to ninety five, they don’t make covers of glossy magazines. Seductive Queens of “effeuillage”, undressing but never bare, endangered species of femininity, they made it to these pages.
Stripper. Ecdysiast. From Greek ecdysis: shedding of an outer layer of tegument, as do snakes, or insects. Natural act of transfiguration. What’s removed is no longer skin. Pure artistic mutation under our eyes, for strippers seduction is renewal of reality. Don’t be fooled. Each one of them is a real entrepreneur of the American Dream. They have conquered their flesh and their independence, their sex and their economy, and they have paid the price. Rise, fall, addictions, solitude, indigence, all the trimmings of life when there is nothing but life to live. They made it with humor and grace. This is what makes them the Legends.
Together we have played a scene or two of the film of their life and in these moments I could see the changeling of me. As if in the making of all women were the intimate moves and rituals of seduction of the young girls we were. Moves that stay with us for life.
As I honor these artists I wish to honor my mother and her fierce mother, and the older woman I will be one day when I reach the age the receding flamboyance of flesh let through more of the original soul.
Aged bodies, aged trophies. Memories of adulation and erotic trances have a way to keep alive and transfigure with innocence in front of us these beautiful women.
Bio
I studied photography and multimedia at the Ecole des Beaux Arts de Paris in France and even before receiving my diploma I was using photography as an art medium.
I quickly moved into the world of art galleries, art exhibitions, fully participating in the art scene of the time. After a while I somehow felt something was missing and I consciously extracted myself from the elitism of the art world to get closer to a more palpable reality. The reality of daily life for the common people of the world wherever they are. The obvious alternative was to become a documentary photographer. But I could not resolve myself to the two choices of this well-known dilemma. I thought about a third way: why not do art outside of the art world, on the terrain, on the living theater. To do photography as an art, as others do painting, and to use the power of art to better depict and document the social issues I was drawn to.
I am an investigative photographer at heart, naturally responding to the call of human struggle in life. I tend to go deep underneath the surface, to uncover the making and the material itself of these struggles, their habitat. This takes time and concentration and I dedicate both without refrain as I have discovered from experience that the deeper the understanding the more powerful the revealing, that is the photographs I shoot.
I started working with analog, Leica M6, organic and invisible when needed (as in Haiti in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake). I still use it, but to work as a set photographer on movies and for magazines I switched to digital. I use a simple technique, which is a dual process most of the time. I take photographs and also open conversation and engage into a dialogue with the subject of the photograph. I document this encounter through videotaping or audio recording and also take extensive written notes of these conversations. I found this accompanying work to stimulate my awareness and to magnify my perception of the scene and the live subjects I am shooting. I get down to reality to meet the subject in its essence. It is an intense moment. In the no man’s land between the subject and my eye on the camera, necessity is mother of invention.
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What an interesting project..
well thought out.
very nice portraits and love the stories in the captions.
This is well done. I really enjoyed this essay.
Executed with integrity….that’s what I liked the most.
Again, well done! It leaves me wanting more….
I really enjoyed this essay.
Grrrrrrrrrrl Power!
Wow, hadnt seen anything about Kitten Natividad in a long time…actually, didnt even know she was alive….
supervixen’s (yep, Meyers) all!..
enjoyed the mixing of their stories (captions) with the portraits and of course great to see portraits and nudes of women who are not in their 20′s/30′s and on full display and unafraid…that aspect is totally refreshing and great to see a story on older woman that is not about misery but about longevity and empowerment…
i did get bored of the pin-up girl schtick after a while, though, and would have loved to see these portraits with portraits of them (just as powerful and filled with their radiant personalities) in everyday drag or life…i’m not suggesting like a cinema verite expose, but just offering us other aspects to themselves besides their voluptuous and charismatic ‘show girl’ personalities and bodies…
but, hell, give me a woman is unapologetic about her body and self, regardless of age, and i’m hooked…
cheers pussycats, kill kill kill ;)
This is absolutely FABULOUS. What else can I say. Congratulations.
Wow!!!
Y’all gotta check out Marie’s website. Just dynamite stuff. I’m wowed.
It just seems a little sad to me.
I am an enormous fan of this kind of collaborative work where the subject is given a literal (and figurative) voice in the outcome. Thoughtful process and work, beautiful and not sad in the least. Thanks for this.
Jim
Yes, of course, there is sadness here, as there is everywhere. But there are way sadder things, lives not lived, lives lived as a lie, lives not realized.
Here, besides sadness is also beauty, passion, strength, “fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke”.
I find this essay uplifting.
There are WAY sadder things.
I am sure Jim is aware that there are sadder things ………….making Jim a favorite punching bag is another sad thing
Yea that is a pretty quirky set of images………I like that hint of almost playful embarrassment almost verging on shyness in some of the images.
Brings to mind Nikos Kazantzakis’s Zorba the Greek the book which was a lot more tongue in cheek than the movie
I want to see more…original, great work.
Such respect, beauty, power and honesty here. I really appreciate the women pictured, their stories and Marie Baronnet for the collaborative creative work they have done together. As an older woman myself I love their gutsy way of relating to their bodies. They may be aging but they are still sexy dames. As a photographer I love the intimate, close-up POV and obvious comfort between photographer and subjects. There is nothing prurient about this project; it really is a jewel.
Yes, there is sadness in the images, yet I see them as pictures of triumph. These women have survived, even thrived and are doing as good as any of us, no matter what we do, could likely hope to do in the latter years of life. There is sadness in all of life – even the happiest parts.
One of the most interesting things I’ve seen in a long time.