Jackie Brenner Photography
Friday Night Grind
Bourbon Street is the perfect tease. You can only steal an instant of her time to be entertained by the show but those who live and work the street will insist that you remain only a casual observer. I choose Friday nights, better known as date night in the Crescent, to penetrate the fantasy, harshness, and humanity of the stripper’s world; to become a witness to the reality of their “otherworldly” existence. I begin my work. I wait, observe, anticipate and commit to film the absolute delicacy of an instant in time. As a photographer and outsider, the reaction of these women to me mirrors their reaction to life in general. I am never accepted, never truly trusted and I am tested more than once. The world imagines that these women are not real people, that they are merely merchandise for sale, but in most ways they are like everyone else. They just want to survive and must use whatever ways and means they believe are necessary. I started this project expecting the strippers to be mere objects. I finished knowing these women as human beings.
Bourbon Street is the perfect tease. You can only steal an instant of her time to be entertained by the show but those who live and work the street will insist that you remain only a casual observer. I choose Friday nights, better known as date night in the Crescent, to penetrate the fantasy, harshness, and humanity of the stripper’s world; to become a witness to the reality of their “otherworldly” existence. I begin my work. I wait, observe, anticipate and commit to film the absolute delicacy of an instant in time. As a photographer and outsider, the reaction of these women to me mirrors their reaction to life in general. I am never accepted, never truly trusted and I am tested more than once. The world imagines that these women are not real people, that they are merely merchandise for sale, but in most ways they are like everyone else. They just want to survive and must use whatever ways and means they believe are necessary. I started this project expecting the strippers to be mere objects. I finished knowing these women as human beings.
