In the early 1990s, photojournalism student Cammie Toloui starts working as a stripper at San Francisco’s Lusty Lady Theater to pay for her studies. One day, she secretly infiltrates her camera into the « Private Pleasures » booth, where one-on-one sessions between customers and dancers, separated by a glass, take place.
The deal then goes as follows: in exchange for a free dildo show, she asks if her spectators consent to have their picture taken. This bargain results in a series of black and white photographs, baroque-like in their dramatic lighting, revealing a broad spectrum of sexuality, fetishes, and often-private aspects of masculinity. An incursion into the usual terms of viewership and scopophilia, Private Pleasures presents this subversion of the male gaze for the very first time in France.

Program:
9.11.23
Screening: Live Nude Girls Unite! Vicky Funari & Julia Query (USA,2000, 75min VOSTFR)
Talk: Photographer and ex-Lusty dancer Cammie Toloui & curator Salomé Burstein moderated by Clarence Edgard-Rosa, Editor-in-chief of Gaze Magazine.

École Cinéma Club
23 Rue des Écoles, 75005 Paris
Entry: 6€.

Private Pleasures
Cammie Toloui
25.11 – 14.12.23
Curated by Salomé Burstein.
Assisted by Alexis de Bonis.
As part of the PhotoSaintGermain festival.