Samanta Helou Hernandez photographs the individuals behind a strippers’ cooperative in LA

Why can’t strip clubs be worker-owned and equitable? Why can’t they be safe places that welcome all kinds of bodies, ages, and genders, and why can’t stripping be seen as performance art? These were just some of the questions that arose through Samanta Helou Hernandez’s recent photo essay on the Stripper Co-op, a collective trying to fight for better rights and working conditions for strippers and the wider sex work industry.

The project is in collaboration with Emma Alabaster, the host and producer of a podcast following the unionisation efforts of Star Garden Topless Dive Bar strippers, digging into issues of labour rights, race and class in the sex industry, and how these relate to limits and possible downfalls of unionisation. The photo essay was commissioned to coincide with the fourth episode, in conversation with the Strippers’ Co-op. “The podcast series showcases the way that workers in the sex industry are experts of their own industry and equipped to know what is best for them,” says Samanta. “It really operates from a place of understanding that sex work is work.”

Samanta was commissioned to create visuals to feature in the photo series, and she had no doubts that focusing on the strippers’ part of the collective above anything else was the best approach, “because in many ways the dancers are re-imagining what a strip club could be like, one where the dancers are also the owners”. Samanta (who works across photography and photojournalism) took portraits of each performer, and then asked them one crucial question: “What would your ideal strip club look like?”

For the shoot, an ethos that runs through all of Samanta’s work proved useful – putting her sitters at ease and letting them show their true selves to the camera. “I really try to let people’s voices shine in my projects and take cues from whatever the person I’m photographing wants to do or feels comfortable with,” says Samanta. “Because the idea of the Strippers’ Co-op is so much about empowerment and creating a strip show that’s more democratic and free of the often oppressive structures of traditional clubs, it felt appropriate to create space for the dancer’s voices to stand on their own, unfiltered.”

To really enhance this sense of individuality, Samanta kept the lighting and background (the backstage area of a venue) of her portraits consistent, giving each person the choice to sit on a chair or stool, or stand. This allowed for personalities to shine through choices of clothing, tattoos, piercings and props – a bejewelled corset, a lilac silk gown, a whip, or fishnet gloves – and the essence of their physical presence. Samanta then paired these intimate portraits with photos of each person performing, both to provide a contrast to the portraits, but also to capture the different personalities performing. The performance shots diverge visually as well as in subject. Taken in high contrast black-and-white, compared to the hazy colour of the portraits, Samanta also leaned into the movement and energy of the performances, resulting in artful blurs compared to the precise stillness of the closer shots.

Reflecting on the interview aspect of the project, Samanta points to Asami’s responses as having stayed with her and perfectly encapsulating the ethos of the cooperative. Asami said: “I think the way men or anybody really talks about strippers is either as agency-less victims that have to be saved or that we're sluts or whores. I think if we could break down that perception, I think that would be the perfect club for me, where I could see myself being able to go to a shift and feel empowered or to have my own femininity and my sexuality to be on my own terms.” For Samanta, Asami raises an important issue: “Inequities within the sex industry are a microcosm of issues we’re dealing with society as a whole.” Therefore, the series’ overall message is one that (while a central focus) extends beyond strip clubs to show that there are so many ways that we can reimagine the world we live in.