Erika Langley

Erika Langley (born 1967) is an American photojournalist and writer.

Early life and education

Born in Arlington, Virginia in 1967, she has been based in Seattle, Washington since 1992.[1] She worked from 1992 to 2004 as dancer at the Lusty Lady, a peep show in Seattle.[2] Langley is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design.

Work

Her 1997 book, The Lusty Lady: Photographs and Texts combined memoir, photographs, and sections about several of her co-workers there.[3] She originally became interested in the Lusty Lady in terms of photographing dancers, but was informed by management that the only way she would have access to do that was if she danced there herself.[4] She ended up working there for twelve years.[2] The photos she took there resulted in her book The Lusty Lady[4] and in several art exhibits including one in 1994 that an administrator of the King County Arts Commission Gallery described at the time as that gallery's "most potentially controversial exhibit."[5] Her work was given an entire wall of the 1999–2000 Seattle Art Museum exhibit "Hereabouts: Northwest Pictures by Seven Photographers,"[4] after the same museum had canceled a 1998 exhibit at almost the last minute.[6]

More recently,[when?] Langley has been documenting the erosion of Washaway Beach at North Cove just south of Grayland, Washington, one of the fastest eroding places in the Western Hemisphere.[7][8]

Her work is included in the collection of the Seattle Art Museum.[9]

Notes

  1. ^ Biography, erikalangley.com. Accessed online 2012-12-11.
  2. ^ a b Guzman, Monica (11 May 2010). "The Lusty Lady sets its funeral". Seattle PI. Archived from the original on 16 March 2012. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
  3. ^ Erika Langley, The Lusty Lady: Photographs and Texts (1997), Scalo (Zurich - Berlin - New York). ISBN 3931141594.
  4. ^ a b c Anderson, Peggy (30 January 2000). "An f-stop and a G-string mark woman's dual career". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on 10 January 2023. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
  5. ^ De Leon, Ferdinand M. (7 April 1994). "A Dare, a Dance, an Exhibit - Artist Captures the Lives of Nude Dancers, But First She Had to Become One of Them". The Seattle Times. pp. E1. Retrieved 11 December 2012 – via NewsBank.
  6. ^ Updike, Robin (2 July 1998). "The Lusty Lady Lives on in Plaintive Images". The Seattle Times. pp. G26. Retrieved 11 December 2012 – via NewsBank.
  7. ^ "A Delicate Balance". Photographic Center Northwest (Contains slide show (photos 5-8 show Langley's work)). 2007. Archived from the original on 11 September 2010. Retrieved 11 December 2012.
  8. ^ "Erika Langley". Artist Trust. Archived from the original on 28 June 2022. Retrieved 11 December 2012.
  9. ^ "Erika Langley". Seattle Art Museum. Archived from the original on 11 January 2023. Retrieved 10 January 2023.