Dear Constant Reader,
This is one of the first books I acquired about burlesque and it’s been sitting on the shelf, unreviewed. Get ready for a trip back to the early days of the burlesque revival.
New Burlesque by Katharina Bosse, 2003.
This is a collection of 38 portraits of neo-burlesque performers taken when the burlesque revival was heating up. In all of them the performers are in costume, but the settings are not performance venues. The dancers are posed mostly outdoors. I recognized some taken in the dessert at Exotic World (like the cover image of Kitten de Ville), some in New Orleans, and at least one in Los Angeles. Some of the indoor shots are in houses, probably the performer’s own. The outdoor photos are brilliantly sun-lit, so much so that the subjects seem a little washed out, where I might have expected more saturated color.
Each photograph has the performer’s name calligraphed on the facing page and a line-art icon somewhat associated with them. If this book were larger, it would be a coffee table book, but the slim paperback format doesn’t really qualify. Looking through it is like time traveling a bit. I was thinking “I know her!”, “I miss her”, “She’s still performing!”, “I wonder what happened to her…”, “Who the heck is she?”
There is no information about the models and no thoughts from the photographer about her project, other than a few words in the acknowledgements. However, there is a rather scholarly essay, “New Burlesque or The Veil of Pretence[sic]” by Cécile Camart, a French art historian. And I don’t know who wrote the blurb on the back of the book, but it doesn’t quite fit the vibe of the rest of it. Otherwise, you are left to draw your own conclusions.
For me this is a look back at an earlier and simpler time in burlesque, when the scene was still being shaped, in part by these performers. And I wonder what they would have thought then if they could have seen what it has become now.
These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 17 Patrons. I appreciate you all so much!
Oh, The Glamourous Life! 
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