“The Berlin Strippers Collective is a self-organised feminist collective, and with our performances we bring you sexy, sensual, sassy art with a political undertone. We operate at the intersection of entertainment and activism and use our stage to develop self-determined, artistic formats – politicising them by sparking discussions and pushing for the decriminalisation of sex work.”

This is how the Berlin Strippers Collective describes itself on Instagram. Alice la Douce and Icy Ivy are both members of this collective, whose work is all about giving sex workers more visibility, breaking down stigma, and championing feminism.

For our shoot at Golden Dolls Club on Potsdamer Strasse, we also photographed Tori Shiro, who’s been pole dancing for years and already performed on stage with Shygirl. She tells us: “Pole dancing has become a new medium for me – a way to express myself artistically and combine styling, set design, and dance. Usually I work behind the scenes as a designer and stylist, but pole has given me a whole new sense of self.”

Pole dance poles are usually found in strip clubs or dedicated studios. In Berlin, sometimes also on a quiet side street - at least for our shoot. We photographed Ivy and Alice at the Golden Dolls strip club on Potsdamer Straße. Naturally, the club already had a pole. The nearby side street, however, didn’t. That’s where we spontaneously decided to photograph Tori Shiro, since the sunlight was so beautiful. So we set up a pole on the sidewalk in a quiet side street for our pictures.

Reflecting on the shoot, pole dancer Tori said: “It was so much fun. We had many beautiful looks from different designers. Eventually, more and more people started stopping to watch us shoot. But because I’m so used to performing, I barely even notice anymore.”