Pole Dancing at Home by Tom Sanders

Tom Sanders captures women performing extraordinary physical feats using a dancing pole or what is commonly known as a “stripper pole.” According to Sanders, the women in the photographs are not strippers but pole dancing enthusiasts who use it solely to gain strength. In fact, a handful of his subjects are mothers who treat the pole just like a treadmill or any other exercise device. Most of the women were from Silicon Valley and learned the craft in an all-women pole dancing studios. The series “Pole Dancing at Home” shows a bit of irony as the viewer is invited to the most mundane of settings (in the middle of someone’s home or garage) as opposed to where society usually associate poles to be in. Sanders started the project back in 2010 but did not completely delve into it until 2013 for a viewing of his series at The DeYoung Museum in San Francisco. One lesson he learned from the experience is to not judge a book by its cover and further adds, “We should dig deeper to inquire about people’s life style choices before drawing conclusions.”