Behind The Scenes Of 1930s Burlesque

American photographer Margaret Bourke-White (June 14, 1904 - August 27, 1971) was the first foreign photographer permitted to document Soviet industry after the revolution, the first American female war photojournalist, and the first female photographer for LIFE Magazine. But in 1936 she took her camera into a completely different war zone - the dressing room of burlesque dancers  - and snapped a few interesting pictures of the so-called "Burlesque Strip-Steppers", back in the day when burlesque was still evolving. I love these photos...

The stage is being prepared at the French Casino.

This photo is entitled Backstage In a Degas Setting the Ballerinas of the Ballet Russe Pause.

If you happen to be in London, you can go to the Daniel Blau gallery, where an exhibition in honor of Bourke-White takes place until December 20. More than 60 photos from her career are on display, including the ones above.

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Ballet Dancers Out And About

My landlord Michael showed me some pictures from the wonderful photo series Dancers Among Us by photographer Jordan Matter, and of course I felt I had to share it with y'all too! It depicts ballet dancers in normal, random situations, which obviously become a bit less normal when you do it the ballet way. Enjoy!

Astoria, NY - Matt Oaks

Seattle - Claire Conaty

Towson, MD - Rachel Bell

Sarasota, FL - Danielle Brown

Times Square, NYC - Jeffrey Smith

Chicago - Angela Dice and Demetrius McClendon

San Francisco - Sharon Gallagher

Baltimore - Rachel Bell

Times Square, NYC - Michael Jagger and Evita Arce

Santa Monica, CA - Jill Wilson and Jacob Jonas

Washington, DC - Sun Chong, with his mother

New York City - Luke McCollum

Central Park, NYC - Jason Macdonald

Macys, NYC - Annmaria Mazzini

VIP Heliport, NYC - Marcella Guarino

Columbus Circle, NYC - Michelle Fleet

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Fredrik Gille

When you work as a model, you get to see the work of a lot of photographers. And the more you see, the easier it gets to sort out the good ones from the bad ones. And believe me, it's frightening to see how many people out there think they can just pick up a camera, take a few pictures, get a web site, and then call themselves photographers... Don't get me wrong here though. Photography is a wonderful thing, and it's nice to see so many people are interested in it. But if you want to become a "real" photographer, please learn how to do it, practice a lot, and try to understand that the world looks different looking at it with your eyes from looking at it through the lens of a camera... But of course we all like different things, so just because I, for example, think something looks really bad, it might look good to somebody else. I'm not trying to be an "all knower" here...

Sometimes you come across one of the really good ones though. I just met one of them, and his name is Fredrik Gille. He works as a freelance drummer, traveling around the world, playing with people who needs his rhythm. During his travels he also takes pictures of people and places, and this post will be about his pictures. So, without babbling any more, here are some of my favorites. I hope you appreciate them as much as I do...

Angkor Wat, Cambodia.

Small village in the Mekong delta, Vietnam.

The Blue Mosque, Istanbul, Turkey.

Children looking from the slum on their wealthy neighbors. The Koreil slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh, is the largest slum in the capital city and is home to more than 40.000 people. Just on the other side of the small lake is the wealthy neighborhood Gulshan.

Children in a small school in the Korail slum, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The school was established by Mr. Aminul Hoque "Babul", who himself grew up in the slum, and is part of the Glory Friendship Social Welfare network. 

Tea maker in Algeria Sahara. Tamanrasset, Algeria. 

Hanoi, Vietnam.

Egyptian dancer Mohammed Shafik.

Canadian dancer Leon Feizo-Gas.

Los Andes, Bolivia.

If you want to see more, visit Fredrik's web site, or his Facebook page - which is were I got all the photos and picture information for this post.

Howard Schatz

A while ago my darling Michael introduced me to the photographer Howard Schatz. He showed me a book full of pictures taken by Mr Schatz. All of these photos had been taken of dancers - naked or with just transparent fabric covering their bodies - under water! Of course he has done a lot more than underwater shoots in his career as a photographer, but it's some of these dancers under water I'm going to show you here. Take a deep breath and enjoy!