Manhattan Strip Clubs: Oakland’s Joshua Braff’s explores two closed worlds in ‘Peep Show’

snapping photographs of strippers and hustlers, and helping his father keep the business as kosher as possible.
It is amid this chaos and camera clicking that David must find his way in relationships. He works through his feelings for a Hasidic girl, and must come to accept his sister’s and mother’s choice to become Hasidic.
As an homage to his protagonist, Braff included black and white photographs in the book that capture the mood of the era. The images are simple yet arresting: The backs of three Hasidic men in black hats and payot, the commonly worn sidelocks, walking down a bustling city street. A storefront filled with exotic wigs. An anti-pornography rally.

“Peep Show,” inspired by a true story, draws parallels between the closed worlds of strip clubs and Hasidic Jews. First, all the women wear wigs. Also, just as Hasidics peep through the mechitzah, the partition that separates the sexes, the patrons of the Arbus adult theater do peeping of their own. Lastly, people in both worlds are judged hastily by those on the outside.

See the full article from “San Jose Mercury News”

Say your words