“I really enjoyed being around those women,” said photographer Marie Baronnet, who documented them in her book “Legends: The Living Art of Risque.” “I found that they had a real knowledge of life but also of this work. They were very self-sufficient.”
All of the women featured in Baronnet’s book used to dance in burlesque theaters, enticing the audience with a strip show.
But burlesque is about more than just skin.
“Burlesque is interesting because it’s a space where women of all kinds, physically speaking, can actually go onstage,” Baronnet said. “They have to have personality and rhythm, they have to know how to dance, and they have to be also a bit of an artist because they have to do all those costumes and create a choreography.”
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Although burlesque isn’t dead — it’s even enjoying a bit of a renaissance today — these women represent a bygone era, and Baronnet gives them the spotlight one more time.
“They witnessed a time that completely disappeared, and they mastered the art of striptease in a very special way, and they never really were recognized for that,” she said.
Marie Baronnet is a French photographer based in Los Angeles. Her book “Legends: The Living Art of Risque” can be purchased through Idea Books. You can also like it on Facebook.
