Giovanni Cocco's 'Burladies' Book Captures Burlesque World

Photographer Giovanni Cocco has self-published 'Burladies', a book collecting his two-year reportage on the Italian burlesque scene from 2008 to 2010. The volume, printed by Graphic Line in Faenza, is available in a standard edition (€30) and a limited edition of 50 copies (€120), with a total print run of 450 copies released last December. Cocco, born in Sulmona in 1973 and based in Rome, photographed performers on stage and backstage in Milan, Rome, and Bologna, documenting the preparation and construction of shows. The project explores burlesque's origins in Victorian England as satirical popular entertainment, distinct from mere striptease, and its contemporary evolution incorporating fetish and punk elements. Cocco, a self-taught photographer, previously worked in the Balkans (2006), documented 'Muslims of Italy' (2007), and won the International Winephoto Contest in 2008 for his 'Radici' project. The burlesque series was exhibited before becoming a book.