Our Showgirl shoot was an absolute dream! One of my first shoots of 2021, I approached no-one other than Charlie Hex, known for her fire, burlesque, pole and circus-style performances. On a side note, Charlie had also been working on her flexibility during lockdown, which plays a part in the outcome of these images. 

The brief was to have fun and create something dark, quirky and beautiful, these were the reference images I found on Pinterest for inspiration:

A studio Charlie had used before was Antwerp Mansion in Manchester. A Victorian, gothic house which sets the perfect scene for what we wanted, the studio also had a large circus-style trapezium which they built themselves, which ended up featuring in many of our images.

Charlie bought a range of costumes with her including a playful playsuit with different patterns, textures and frills. We paired this with a lacey collar and a corset to give a chic finish to the clown look. A professional fire breather, Charlie was also able to bring some of these props along which really added to the atmosphere of the images. 

Other props included hula hoops, and stilts which featured towards the end of the shoot, and made for some good fun:

Featured in SELIN MAGAZINE -  Issue 4 Vol 11, the title was inspired by Charlie's "Showgirl" tattoo across her fingers, which pretty much summed up the shoot too.

The shots themselves were taken with a single light source. The room had limited natural light at the time, which was perfect because we wanted a dark ambience to really bring the set to life.

You can view more images from this set here.