#ben lazar

Photographers We Love: Ben Lazar

I've been shooting burlesque, mostly at the Juke Joint Revue, since the fall of 2012 and have come to love it. As a photographer, shooting live burlesque is incredibly challenging--the light is usually terrible and I'm trying to capture the power of a moment at a fraction of a second. That's what makes it so rewarding when I get an image that my subjects and me are happy with. I'm seeking to record moments that communicate many things, often simultaneously--the beauty and sensuality of the performers, the interaction with an audience, the sheer fun of it and especially, those moments when the performers get out of themselves and reach a state of ecstasy. I seek to glorify the women I'm photographing--I find something very courageous in the performances, and I want my images to be worthy of the women in them.  I'm now looking to do studio shoots with some of the women I've met in the scene. My goal is to photograph my subjects in ways that they haven't been seen before, and to illuminate things within that both honor who they are as burlesque performers and expand upon it. I have a background in fetish photography (I've done the photographs for the websites of a number of NYC pro-Dommes) and I'm interested in exploring the overlap between burlesque and fetish. This is a scene that is about many things, but reinvention of the self is paramount. It's an honor to be part of it. 

Website: www.benlazar.com Email: [email protected]