Carnival Strippers

BY: Jes Zurell

It’s 1972 and the New England summer sits thick on everyone’s skin. The Munich Olympics terrorist attack and the Watergate scandal are right around the corner, the Women’s Movement is taking shape, and the last of the American troops are coming home from Vietnam. That last part is where the fun begins, if you’re in the entertainment business. Sex-starved boys love to satiate their appetites. Few sights are as gripping to them as a woman’s bare curves, and for the privilege of eyeballing such provocative glory, there were carnivals.

Striptease at small town carnivals had a moment, and photographer Susan Meiselas documented what – and who – went down.

Meiselas spent her summers of love following, photographing, and interviewing women of the stage, contrasting their downtime with their moments in the spotlight with the empathy only a fellow woman could possess. Her collected works are now on view at the Danziger Gallery in Susan Meiselas: ‘Carnival Strippers’ 1972-1975 through March 3, 2018.

Intimacy dominates Meiselas’s work, but not between the parties you would expect. The connection between carnival women and leering men is the raucous side of the deal; the real meat of the show waits backstage. Women are pictured getting ready, adjusting tassels and fringe. Their sense of community is palpable, and were it not for the tents and sequins, you might mistake the setting of certain images for a bedroom, shared by sisters. It’s not about the nudity – not for them – and because of that, there’s visible trust between the strippers.

The minute you think naked women are the point of it all, you become an outsider as repellent as the boys in the crowd.

Meiselas’s work has vintage, grainy qualities with amplified contrast to bring out her subjects, but achieves that feeling without manipulation. The photographs themselves are honest – even naked – and unafraid. We invite you to take a look at this collection of our favorites from the show – and enjoy being an insider.