| | | | Adrienne Raquel: ONYXText by Nandi Howard.
 “ONYX pays homage to the heyday of hip-hop music videos of the '90s and early 2000s, adopting their aesthetics and alluding to the seductive power of the video vixen.” –CNNIn ONYX, photographer Adrienne Raquel explores the intensity and escapism of the strip club experience, documenting performers at Houston’s famed Club Onyx. Raquel’s photography is usually editorial, with high-powered celebrities such as Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Nas X and Travis Scott as subjects. Now, for this project commissioned by Fotografiska New York, she turns her lens toward a community of underrepresented artists in her hometown. At Club Onyx, strippers display their bodies and seductiveness, but there’s a virtue to this particular space: “they don’t get naked” is a common description of the club’s ambiance. Performers there negotiate what “stripper” means to them on their own terms.
Raquel captures these performers with her signature glossy style. From powerful images of the dancers mid-movement to detailed shots and intimate portraits, Raquel’s photographs place their beauty and energy on full display. She also takes viewers behind the scenes, giving us a window into the community the dancers have built in the privacy of the locker room. ONYX displays the empowerment and inclusivity in strip clubs that society has tended to ignore.
Adrienne Raquel (born 1990) is a Texas-raised photographer and art director working between Houston, New York and Los Angeles. Featured in Aperture's New Black Vanguard, she received her first solo exhibition at Fotografiska New York in 2021. Clients include Apple, Savage x Fenty, Pat McGrath Labs, Dior, Bacardi, Rare Beauty, Bacardi, Nike and Beats By Dre, as well as covers for Vanity Fair, V Magazine, GQ and Interview.
PRAISE AND REVIEWSMusée Max Wiener Each picture is intimate, depicted as if they are meant for private viewing. There’s rarely an addition of outside light to make it more staged than it already is; we’re seeing exactly what we’re meant to. This is Raquel’s brilliance behind the camera shown in full effect. VICE Bruno Bayley Far removed from the glossy studio work Raquel usually creates, shooting in the club forced her from her comfort zone, making images that exude the neon-lit intensity, dynamism and escapism of the club experience. Creative Review Aimee McLaughlin By focusing on the performers themselves, the series elevates the images from straight reportage to curated and highly intentional. Document Journal Camille Sojit Pejcha Equal parts vulnerable and commanding, the women of Club Onyx are captured onstage and off: both in their element, and in the quiet moments before or after a performance Interview Patia Borja ONYX is by nature a primary source document depicting the [women's] sisterhood, strength, and sexuality—and the distinct flavor of Southern strip club culture with journalistic attention. |
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