From that moment, I always told myself, ‘Once I make it in my career, I want to come back and document the club.’ My aunt had a 50th birthday here in Houston and one of the places that we went together, with her friends and my mum, was club Onyx. I remember sitting there and just watching the women… how sensual and confident they were how they took charge of the audience. “I visited Onyx back in 2017 with my family, just very randomly. Here, Raquel shares the full story behind the project, detailing how she discovered the club, her inspirations, and how she gradually learned to build the dancers’ trust. The goal of the project, according to the press release, is to display the “empowerment and inclusivity in strip clubs that society tends to ignore”. But we’re also invited behind the scenes, with Raquel photographing the artists in the safety and privacy of the locker room. The dancers are captured onstage, mid-movement, looking otherworldly under the dim, polychromatic lighting of the club. Like her portraits, the emphasis is placed on the tensions between intimacy and illusion. ![]() This latest project – although a thematic switch-up – retains many aspects of her signature style. Texas-born Raquel is primarily known for her editorial work, having created glossy, dream-like portraits of artists like Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Nas X and Travis Scott. ![]() After being commissioned by Fotografiska New York, the photographer began documenting performers at Houston’s famed Club Onyx – a space where dancers are encouraged to hone their own creative style, and empowered to negotiate whatever “stripping” personally means to them. In Adrienne Raquel’s new book, ONYX , readers are immersed in the sweat-soaked, neon-lit world of a Texas strip club.
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