Wish You Were Here, Real Photographs

During the making of the project I became obsessed with getting the photographs exactly right. I started with some hazy knowledge of lighting, medium format cameras and printing. I had to research techniques and costumes. I was in the midst of my own fantasy creation, my desires driving me onwards. Baffled onlookers wondered what was at stake. I was so invested in being in the photograph that I did not know either. Until I begun to speak about lives I imagined for these women. I had pieced together an independent, well-travelled existence, in a homo-social environment where wits were needed in addition to wages for survival. The male gaze may have been satiated night after night by their stage appearance but the payback made it worthwhile. Dancing on stage. The moment the dancer enters the stage, the symbol for unrepentant female power. Qualities I projected into these dancers I want to claim for myself.