Getting Ready with Madam Cooper
- Cammie Toloui
- Jun 15
- 1 min read
Madam Cooper is an extremely talented, hard-working, caring and gorgeous powerhouse of a woman. A champion for women and sex workers, a singer, songwriter, burlesque performer, stripper, entrepreneur and, most recently, the first female rodeo clown in the professional league.
And for me personally, she is my friend and my muse.
We met a few years ago at Blue Sky Gallery in Portland. My show The Lusty Lady, was on the walls and I had just finished my artist talk when she approached me and said "You have to come take pictures at Mary's Club".
That was the spark that started my new project, with Cooper leading the way.
Since then, I have photographed her at Sinferno, the sexy fire-filled burlesque cabaret at Dante's in Portland, at Mary's and now at her own venue Madam Cooper's Parlor.
On this day a few months ago I found myself at her parlor with my old Canon AE-1 film camera in hand, and when she started getting ready for a night of burlesque in the parlor, I shot these photos of her looking timeless, glamorous and of course stunning.
