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This series was inspired by the photography of Alfred Cheney Johnston, who worked extensively with the dancers of the Ziegfeld Follies in the "Jazz Age" of 1920s New York.

This was a wild time in the wake of WWI. The Ziegfeld damcers were often referred to as "gold-diggers" in the gossip columns (where they regularly featured ).
Some went on to become movie stars in the early Hollywood of the 1930s - immortalised in (for example) "Gold Diggers of 1933". Some married millionaires (sometimes more than one!) - while others died tragically young, succumbing to substance abuse.

This was a time of hope for women, however, having gained the vote (1920 in the USA, 1918 - 1928 in the UK) - and - in Europe at least, as a result of the war - forming a population majority. In the UK, it was acceptable for single women to work - previously, the only occupation for many working class women had been domestic service. So these independent women simultaneously outraged and fascinated the middle-classes and the Bible-belt Christians. And all of this was, of course, set against a backdrop of bootlegging and the widely-despised Prohibition (1920-33).
In the UK there were similar trends - although largely limited to the upper-class - with the Bright Young Things of Evelyn Waugh's milieu. And pre-Nazi Berlin, of course, inspired the decadence of Cabaret.

As Prohibition ended, however, the Hays Code was introduced in 1934 (just after the changeover to "talkies"). This laid down Hollywood's self-censorship rules, and was rigidly enforced until the 1960s, when directores - and studios -  began to explore sexual freedom again. On the whole, I think that's preferable to the alternative, which seems to be guilt and hypocrisy..

Anyway. this project started as a spinoff from my "Femmes Fatales" series (on my other site).

Each image is individually toned, and the series is shot with a variety of both contemporary and vintage-designed lenses.

What I do love about this series is that each model brings her own "take" when posing for the concept. Some choose Classical art, some work with character or emotional expression, and others choose a more contemporary "art nude" pose. Some are expressive, while others choose more introspective posing.