The underground vice club scene in China is darker and seedier than one would imagine despite the official ban on sex workers and strip clubs, as Ukranian artist Sergey Melnitchenko discovered when he moved to Hong Kong in 2015.
Working as a model and dancer Sergey soon took up a camera to capture all the strange and interesting moments seen while working in the sleazy nightclub scene:
“Transvestites, girls bathing in tubs of beer, drunk actors and even more drunk visitors. All of this [is the] club, the club where I’m working,” that’s the introduction Sergey gives to his photo series ‘Behind The Scenes,’ which he made during a four-month employment in an unnamed Chinese underground club.
“[It] is more like a huge bar with a stage, because no one of the visitors is dancing here,” explains Sergey, who’s photo series is all about “the invisible side of the club, the atmosphere,” and the look into the backstage, where “there is more burlesque than on the stage.”
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