Fantasies. Ediz. italiana e inglese - Tapa dura

Fantasies presenta due distinti progetti che Lisa Kereszi ha seguito dal 1999 al 2005, periodo in cui la fotografa ha frequentato una serie di locali specializzati in spettacoli di vaudeville/burlesque, fra cui lo Show World, uno strip club di Times Square oggi definitivamente chiuso. Il primo progetto, un reportage dedicato proprio allo Show World quando l'amministrazione Giuliani vietò l'esibizione delle spogliarelliste, introduce le immagini del locale abbandonato con gli armadietti ancora pieni di scarpe e oggetti dimenticati (lo Show World sarebbe presto diventato un teatro off Broadway, il Laff Factory). Il secondo progetto consiste invece in una serie di ritratti di ragazze appartenenti al movimento New Burlesque: performer che praticano l'arte dello strip tease, senza però denudarsi completamente; donne più vicine all'immaginario della pin-up, che non a quello più pornografico delle spogliarelliste. Nel giro di pochi anni il New Burlesque ha lasciato la dimensione underground e, soprattutto, quell'aura di scarsa rispettabilità per diventare oggetto di interesse da parte del cinema e nuovo "capriccio" delle dive di Hollywood. Il trait d'union che lega i due progetti è un senso di fuga, desiderio, fantasia e sensualità.

Fantasies presents two distinct projects that photographer Lisa Kereszi carried out between 199 and 2005, a period during which she frequented a series of venues specialising in vaudeville/burlesque shows, including Show World, a Times Square strip club now definitively closed down. The first project is a piece of reportage dealing with strip clubs in the aftermath of the prohibition of strip shows by the Giuliani administration. Kereszi introduces images of variuos theatres and dressing rooms, including Show World itself with its lockers still full of shoes and abandoned objects (Show World was in the slow process of becoming an off-broadway theatre, the Laff Factory). In the second project the photographer portrays the girls of the New Burlesque movement: performers reviving the art of striptease, which is more tease than strip . These girls are more like pin-ups than porn. In just a few short years, the movement has gone from being underground and underappreciated to being featured in films and practiced by celebrities in Hollywood. The two projects that meld together in this book have a meeting point in a sense of escape, desire, fantasy and sex. Lisa Kereszi was born in 1973 in Chester, Pennsylvania and grew up in Suburban Philadelphia. After her studies in Literatute and Photography, she moved to New York and worked as an assistant to Nan Goldin. She has worked as editor and taught at the ICP. Currently she teaches at the Yale School of Art. Her editorial work has appeared in newspapers and magazines such as The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, GQ, W, House & Gardens, wallpaper* and many others. She lives and works in Brooklyn and in New Haven.