“All That Glitters: Portraits of Burlesque Performers In Their Homes” is a multimedia endeavor currently in production by BCJ Photography that seeks the answer to the question: What is burlesque? The project will culminate in a coffee table book, a documentary film, and gallery exhibitions in cities throughout the United States.
For more information visit http://bcjphotography.com/allthatglitters
June 25th, 2010 | Category: All That Glitters | 4 Comments »My plan was to blog about the All That Glitters – The East Coast and some Southern States Too Tour during the trip. It didn’t really happen that way, but I’m very pleased with the time I spent on the road and the results from each of the photo sessions.
In 28 days I drove 6,181 miles through 26 states (10 of which I slept in) and photographed 24 burlesque performers in their homes, including one “burlesque legend” known as Wild Cherry. Burlesque legends are dancers who began performing in the first half of the 20th century and in some cases still perform today.
I’m not usually a dog person, but it seems that burlesque performers own super-cute and friendly dogs, most of them rescues of some sort. In addition to the dogs, I had the pleasure of meeting many fabulous cats, a snake, and even a couple of prairie dogs named Chip and Dale.
Along with this adventure I moved my home & office from Chicago to Los Angeles. While the move helps to fulfill a number of personal goals, such as keeping my toes warm all year, it also leaves me in the prime geographical position to gather the remaining portraits and interviews for All That Glitters from West Coast performers.
I’ll begin scheduling sessions for Los Angeles performers in the coming weeks and hope to get back on the road by mid to late summer. First, however, I need to fill in some funding gaps to help cover costs of the remaining work. Once I figure that out I’ll be able to visit performers all along the West Coast.
In the meantime I’ll be sorting through the latest portraits and editing video from the interviews, so check back occasionally for some outtakes and updates.
June 23rd, 2010 | Category: All That Glitters | No Comments »Yesterday we got on the road right at 10am as planned, heading out of Chicagoland towards Cleveland, Ohio. The ride was uneventful, just the kind of ride I prefer.
We arrived in Cleveland about six hours later in time to grab a tasty dinner at a local diner before heading over to photograph Bella Sin for All That Glitters. Bella Sin is a sweetheart who is also apparently a workaholic who has worked very hard to spread the word of burlesque in Cleveland. Kudos to her for donating her time in full costume to a soup kitchen!
Back on the road again for another three and some change, we got in to Buffalo, New York just after midnight. Long day, that was.
Today we slept in a little bit before stopping in to Amy’s Place, a delicious dinner that knows how to do breakfast right. Mistress J Kiss of The Stripteasers was the next to join the All That Glitters project. She has a great story about meeting Dita Von Tease a while back, but you’ll just have to wait for the video.
After the shoot we headed up to Niagara Falls. I had been there as a kid, and other than there being a huge amount of water plummeting over a large cliff, it seemed as though the area had only become more commercialized and tacky.
A local grocery store provided dinner and now we’re just chillin’ with a movie, running some quick laundry so we can last the week, and calling it an early night.
May 2nd, 2010 | Category: All That Glitters | No Comments »Yesterday I watched four guys load all of my possessions into an unfortunately large truck (too much stuff!) to put it into storage for a month. Why storage? Because tomorrow I’m leaving for a very big adventure: the All That Glitters – The East Coast and some Southern States Too Tour
Tomorrow morning I will leave Chicago, leaving along with it my Chicago residency, to drive to Cleveland where I will photograph Bella Sin for All That Glitters. This begins a four week road trip during which I will photograph at least 20 burlesque performers in their homes and ask them one question: What does burlesque mean to you? All of this is in support of my goal to create a coffee table book and documentary video about what burlesque means to 100 performers across the United States.
This trip has been a long time coming and has taken a lot of planning, some of which will still be occuring on the road. Stay tuned to my Twitter feed and my Blog for ongoing updates.
The entire trip will cover at least 5,500 miles – over 90 hours of driving – and will take me through 23 different states.
And you know what? I’m looking forward to it.
Some days, no matter how much I accomplish, it still feels like there is more to do than I can ever get done. That explains most of this week. This feeling was not helped by multiple technical difficulties in the office that took my attention away from my priorities for the week. But the good news is that the distractions appear to be resolved and I am now able to refocus on the priorities.
Scheduling for my “All That Glitters: East Coast and some Southern States, Too” tour is going well. I have four sessions confirmed in Cleveland, New York City and Philadelphia, and I have eight conversations in progress in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charlotte and New Orleans. I’m also working today on contacting performers in the remaining cities on my list.
The road trip begins in 21 days!
Buffalo, NY has been oddly unresponsive, so if you know of anyone in Buffalo that is involved in burlesque and would like to be a part of this project, please have them contact me soon.
In the midst of all the of above, I have been packing my home and studio for the move out to Los Angeles. This involves getting multiple price quotes from moving companies, always a fun process.
The plan is to have all of my non-traveling items loaded onto a truck and moved to storage for May while I go on the road. The end of the road trip will leave me in Los Angeles where I will be looking for a new place to live. Once that loose end is tied up, the moving truck arrives and new adventures on the West Coast begin.
April 9th, 2010 | Category: All That Glitters | No Comments »Here is an outtake from my All That Glitters session with Mimi Le Yu in St. Louis, MO, with her whipped-cream-loving dog, Betsy.
I’m very excited to announce my plans to visit each of the following cities to photograph burlesque performers for All That Glitters! I am actively seeking participants, so if you or anyone you know is a burlesque performer in these cities, it’s time to get in touch.
30 sessions, 25 days, 14 cities, 11 states. It’s gonna be fun!
I’ll be keeping an updated itinerary on the project web site here.
And then I’m moving to California. No, really! I’ll photograph performers on the West Coast after the move.
March 11th, 2010 | Category: All That Glitters | No Comments »It’s been a while since I posted any kind of update regarding All That Glitters. I’m pleased with the progress so far, but I also realize there is much more work ahead of me.
When I began All That Glitters in June 2009 I set a goal to complete 100 portrait sessions across the United States by June 2010. To date I have completed 58 sessions throughout the Midwest, including Chicago, Madison, Milwaukee, Grand Rapids, Detroit and St. Louis, as well as Memphis.
I will travel to Minneapolis later this month and will visit cities throughout the East and West Coasts in the months following. I am currently funding the project on my own, but am actively seeking opportunities to make the completion of the project financially feasible.
In addition to completing the remaining portrait and interview sessions, my goal is to create a multi-media presentation of the content through a coffee table book, a documentary film, and gallery shows in cities across the country.
I have begun mapping out an intense road trip that will cover the East Coast and southern states, leaving only the West Coast to conquer. At the moment it appears likely I’ll take on the East Coast in the early Spring and head West during the Summer.
But wait, doesn’t that mean I’ll miss my June 2010 deadline? Possibly, but if I have the East Coast completed by that time, I will have gathered the majority of the content with only a handful of cities remaining on the West Coast. Either way, it’s good news to me because, without any outside funding, I wasn’t sure how I was going to manage to get to either coast. To finally see a cost-efficient plan on paper that can get me most of the way through the project makes me happy.
What’s next? Continue capturing content and edit, edit, edit. I have photos to sort through, videos to edit, transcripts to capture, and ultimately a script to assemble from all of the videos so that I can start putting together the final presentation.
January 9th, 2010 | Category: All That Glitters | No Comments »YouTube:
January 6th, 2010 | Category: All That Glitters | No Comments »Here’s an outtake from the session with Lula Houp-Garou:
Lula Houp-Garou