Undersky: the secret life behind the scenes of Chinese Nightclubs

Photographer Sergey Melnichenko Chronicles the backstage life of a hostess club in China, where are young girls in your position. His new project Behind the Scenes lifts the veil of secrecy over night weekdays workers of the institution, burlesque and debauchery, and completely devoid of hypocrisy.

Sergey Melnichenko was born and grew in Nikolaev, where he began to photograph. For two years he lives in the Chinese city of Chengdu, the administrative center of Sichuan province in southwest China. Working in a night club dancer, he could not extinguish his ardor of the documentary photographer and began documenting what is happening around the camera.

"Transvestites, girls bathing in washtubs of beer, drunk actors, even more drunken visitors — all of this club. The club where I work. In 2015 I came to work in China as a dancer. The last few months, we with the staff dancing in a Chinese club, which is more like a huge bar with a stage, as visitors here, not dancing.

Once I realized how much cool is happening here, and began every day to wear to the club the camera. So there was this series. Behind the Scenes is the opposite, invisible side of such clubs, the atmosphere, of which I became. In this behind the scenes of burlesque more than on stage, then the concentration of sexual fluids denser than oxygen. There is no hypocrisy — it's not a scene, it's their daily life, our life, or rather, my".

"Girls to film react differently. Sometimes they love to pose, to touch each other on camera, to wriggle, and sometimes in broken English send. They say that a survey they have to pay. At first I thought it was joking, but then when I started talking about it and the guard, I realized that they were not kidding. But of course I do im not crying — I'm the same artist as they are. However, they are not only artists, but also girls who drink with customers for money."

"The club was the situation when a Chinese woman brought the other on the back because she was passed out. Apparently, the client very well get her drunk. I immediately started taking pictures, but at some point I was ashamed: the person is bad, and I'm here with my camera. A crowd gathered around her began to pump out. I even thought that the girl leaned back, but she woke up pobleval and fell asleep. The next day came with a plaster on his hand — put a dropper".

Sergey Melnichenko was born in Nikolaev, living and working in Chengdu, China. The winner of the contest Photographer Of The Year 2012 in the category "Best series" (Kiev, Ukraine), the nominee of the PinchukArtCentre prize 2015. Exhibited in Sweden, Ukraine, Slovakia, Argentina, Poland, USA, UK, Czech Republic, Portugal. Is the community "Ukrainian photographic alternative".