Behind the scenes (2016)

Transvestites, girls bathing in tubs of beer, drunk actors and even more drunk visitors. All of this – club, the club where I’m working. Passed one year as I came to Asia to work as a dancer. The last few months we perform in one Chinese club, which is more like a huge bar with a stage, because no one of the visitors is dancing here. At one moment I realized how many great things are going on here that’s how the series “Behind the scenes” appeared.

Sergey Melnitchenko ukraine phosmag photography

© Sergey Melnitchenko

Sergey Melnitchenko ukraine phosmag photography

© Sergey Melnitchenko

Sergey Melnitchenko ukraine phosmag photography

© Sergey Melnitchenko

Sergey Melnitchenko ukraine phosmag photography

© Sergey Melnitchenko

This is the reverse, the invisible side of the club, the atmosphere, a part of which I became. At this behind the scenes there is more burlesque than on the stage, the concentration of sexual fluids is more powerful than oxygen. There’s no falsehood – it’s not a scene, it’s their everyday life, our life, or rather mine.

Sergey Melnitchenko ukraine phosmag photography

© Sergey Melnitchenko

Sergey Melnitchenko ukraine phosmag photography

© Sergey Melnitchenko

Sergey Melnitchenko ukraine phosmag photography

© Sergey Melnitchenko

With “Behind the scenes” Sergey Melnitchenko is one of the finalists of Leica Oscar Barnack Award 2017.

BIO

Born in 1991 in Mykolayiv, Ukraine. Nowadays lives and works in China. Member of UPHA – Ukrainian Photographic Alternative

INFO

Sergey Melnitchenko