Xena Zeitgeist and The Legends of New Orleans

This summer I had an incredible trip to New Orleans. I was flying down to do makeup for a friend's wedding in Baton Rouge, but had the first couple of days free. In typical Type A fashion, I booked two photo shoots with two photographers I found on Instagram.

My second shoot of the trip was with a burlesque performer named Xena Zeitgeist and photographer Tiffany Bailey. I drove to Xena's house and her boyfriend, a sideshow performer named Matt, strolled out of the house twisting his mustache. With a thick New Orleans accent, he called me "ma'am" and said he was going to the store to get us anything we wanted, and let me know he got up early to make us stewed chicken for lunch. 

I walked inside and saw what I imagined to be the quintessential home of a sideshow performer with a twisty mustache and a burlesque performer with the last name Zeitgeist. Crazy French furniture everywhere, a human skull, a bed of nails, a real pine coffin, an antique medical exam table, and so much more. If only I had had more time, we would have spent a week shooting there alone.

In real life, Xena seems shy and soft-spoken, not the kind of girl who wears a metal merkin and touches it with a running sander to make sparks fly out of her crotch during performances in the French Quarter. Xena had a million wigs, pasties, trashy feather boas, sparkly thongs, old 80's lingerie from her mother, and costume jewelry. I knew we were going to kick ass.

I was covered in a thin film of sweat the entire time I was in the state of Louisiana. I had to take a few extra measures to make sure that Xena's makeup didn't melt off, because her air conditioning was, uh, non-existent, and she was also sweating. "I'm sorry if I stink," I said. She shrugged and said, "It's New Orleans!"

When I met Xena and Tiffany online I had no ideas, I just wanted to shoot. Then I learned that a local magazine called The Trend Report was taking editorial submissions for their October issue which was entirely Halloween-themed. I had an opportunity to shoot in New Orleans and I was definitely going to use that to draw inspiration. When I think of New Orleans, I think of a dark, creepy place of formerly-luxurious patina balconies, beautiful French architecture, women who are sultry and dangerous, and the spiritually-unexplanable. I decided to create three distinct characters, all portrayed by Xena, that represented who I thought made New Orleans famously seedy and mysterious: a jazz-era bordello Madam, a fortuneteller, and a voodoo priestess.

For our first look we had to use Xena's old sofa which was surrounded with candelabras and old wine bottles with dried flowers hanging out of them. We wanted the entire look to be light-colored and sparkle to contrast from the other two looks which would involve darker clothing, and express the dichotomy of southern modesty with unabashed sexuality.

The second look was set up using fabric yardage Xena had laying around. We pinned this to the wall after asking Matt to move some furniture ("yes Ma'am," he said). Of course this household had divination candles and tarot cards on demand, so we used those too. 

The final look, the voodoo priestess, was the most involved in terms of makeup and wardrobe. Xena was originally going to wear a simple black pasty set and a waist trainer, but I pulled Matt aside and asked if perhaps he had any animal pelts. He went into his bedroom and pulled out at least a dozen flat dead animals. "My dad shot most of these," he said, "and some are antiques." Scoping out the room I wondered where to place Xena, then I went into the next room to check out the old exam table (I knew it wouldn't be practical to use this time, but I have a thing for old medical stuff). Right next to it was an old high-back wooden chair. It was indeed the perfect throne for our voodoo child. I perched Xena on the chair and as I was covering her head with a giant wolf pelt, I looked over for some reason and saw a large aquarium. 

"Is that a fucking snake?" I said. 

Xena nodded. 

"Um. Can we use it?"

"Oh yeah sure, she's real friendly." Xena scooped the snake out of the aquarium like it was a kitten and draped it over her body.

We wrapped just in time for Xena to make it to her call time, and I made it in time for my friend's bachelorette party in Baton Rouge. I flew back exhausted but satisfied. Getting the edits back from Tiffany was so exciting. We made the magazine, Tiffany and Xena's first time being published.