Sara. My Brassai showgirl.

  Here's a set of photos I recently took of the lovely Sara. She also goes by the burlesque stage name of Lady Ta Tas. My aim was to capture her natural beauty, honest and unposed. It was of the utmost importance to me to get photos of Sara, not of her stage persona. At the same time, performing is a huge part of who she is and I wanted to portray that too. I decided the way to get a perfect balance of the two would be to photograph her in a style similar to Brassai's portraits of showgirls, ballet dancers and "ladies of the evening". He's one of the masters of beautiful candids. I also love his usage of mirrors, a device he employs throughout much of his work, hence the styling for my shoot.

I photographed Sara while she dressed and did her makeup, surrounded by things she loves and uses to perform. I'm very pleased with the outcome. I've been working on prints of some of these in my darkroom. Here are some negative scans from the set, followed by the three Brassai images that I drew my inspiration from.

I'm excited to have another wonderful muse to add to my ever growing collection! 

Canon Ae-1 program camera.
Ilford delta 3200 film.
Last image shot on my Tower camera, Ilford 400 film.
View the full set HERE.

My inspiration. All the following images by Brassai, quite possible my favorite photographer.

Chez Suzy, 1932

 Margo Fonteyn, 1949

Ludmilla Tcherina au Theatre Sarah Bernhardt,1945

Great Brassai photo books! Click on any of them to find cheaper used copies.
 I highly recommend the Secret Paris of the 30's. One of my most prized books.