where there’s smoke there’s fire

Misty Vie Va Voom and her feathers waiting by the stage door about to go on at Jaks.

Today’s guest post “Backstage Portraits Of Burlesque Dancers” by Harvinder Sunila contains some images that are NSFW (Not Safe For Work). In order to see some of the NSFW photographs, you will have to click on the indicated links at the bottom of this post and by doing so agree that you are at least 18 years old.

 A variety show, typically including striptease, that’s the dictionary definition of burlesque. To me it’s something else. To me it’s about the dancers, their art, their passion and how much it means to them beyond the ten minutes you get to see on stage.

I’m a portrait and music photographer based in the UK, I’ve been working on a series of backstage portraits of burlesque dancers, and here’s a small insight into the project.

Most of the burlesque photographs you come across are either pin up style glamour or live stage shots, they serve a purpose but I have no interest in those type of images. For this series I wanted to photograph what you don’t see, what you don’t get access to, maybe what the dancers don’t want you to see. It’s been a difficult series to organise, sometimes frustrating, but also enjoyable and rewarding. I’ve met some wonderful performers who have been so understanding, so accommodating and so helpful, I can’t thank them enough for allowing me to photograph them in such an intimate way.

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Jaco Wolmarans, a freelance photographer and journalist based in Cape Town, will share his flight story on a helium balloon from Robben Island to the mainland of Cape Town, South Africa – a fundraising event for the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital in Johannesburg (click on images for larger view);

Floating from Robben Island to Cape Town suspended underneath 200 helium balloons was a crazy idea, in my opinion. Clearly the world media thought the same. We were swamped by news teams filming every step of South African paramedic Matt Silver-Vallance’s preparation on Robben Island at 4am.

I was still lying in my tent, shooting into the mist from the relative warmth of my sleeping bag. The scene was unworldly – smoke from truck exhausts lighting the way, plus the backlighting from their headlights, made for great atmospheric lighting. I pushed my D4 to the max to get crisp shots, but capturing the frantic movement of volunteers hoping to inflate the big balloons before sunrise was not always possible, I realized.

I was the official airborne photographer for this fundraising effort by Silver-Vallance, an eccentric character who hardly ever wears shoes. He was raising funds for the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital in Johannesburg, and managed to do the impossible – to fly from the national heritage site that was Robben Island. My footage and stills were to be supplied for free to media worldwide – my contribution to the charity.

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