"We cannot help but be who we are". These powerful words were spoken by @darling.cleo over a long coffee date at Lazari's in Cape Town in which we discussed this series of images we wanted to create.

"Doing Burlesque is more than just taking your clothes off in an entertaining way", continues Cleo. "Its also a way of exposing/uncovering your heart and your art. In a world that has in the past tried to get us to dumb down who we are and who we would like to show up as authentically. This is a way of transforming yourself into who you have always wanted to be. A place for every body and everybody. Its a celebration of who you are and the transformation practice that it has taken to get you there."

Cleo calls herself the transformation artist, a profession that has taken her through many transformations and this current one remains the closest to her heart.

"To become more of myself by not even having been myself has been a journey and a joy of becoming who I am with and without all the trimmings of being Cleo Darling."

I'd like to introduce you to four beautifully brave women in a series I like to call "After & Before". @the_mikky_george, @pichikeane, @peachybuxom & @darling.cleo all came to the studio in their full burlesque persona, and after documenting each of them in that iteration of themselves we wiped the slate clean and revealed the raw essence of the person beneath each character/persona.

Through the art of burlesque these women have found liberation and self acceptance, and that is something I find deeply inspiring.