SWEET TARTS
An excerpt from the book
“...Several women in these photographs are retired, moved onto real estate or other business ventures, a couple dead, or in prison. Some still hustlin’ or just getting started.
The last couple times I brought my camera into work I felt distance had grown between me and the club, the dissociation, my vision burry, like I’m squinting in the dark.
As I finish printing the last photos for this project I have a familiar feeling. Like it’s 1 a.m. on a Saturday night, the rooms full of men, a girl’s on stage dancing to Sade & I’m ready to go home. A sweet goodbye I say to the strip club. & just like my childhood I leave this place with mostly memories, So few I’ve caught, so few to share…“
“...Running around in the dark on sparkling stiltz was my spine, my life support. This industry raised me, taught me about the world, myself, & confirmed what I knew about love the moment I was born; It costs. Like love anywhere else you have to work for it, pay for it, It’s earned. Just like how you love yourself… “
SWEET TARTS was shot from 2017-2024 inside strip club lockerrooms, hotels, various vanities, bathrooms, wherever one may get dolled up to do the job. Mostly in Seattle & surrounding cities, Portland, bit of New York, Paris… capturing the call of beauty.
~Jordan Monloire
Now, after years of printing away in the darkroom, all the photos for the book are finally finished!
In early 2024, my friend Rachael Comer - a sculptor and artist I've collaborated with plenty since we met in the club back when we were 21 - told me about an artist residency she was beginning at Actualize Air in downtown Seattle. Soon after that, I too scored a residency at Actualize. It’s been the first time I’ve ever seen all the photos from Sweet Tarts assembled in one place. Just being able to put them all together on one giant wall was a HUGE accomplishment for me! I had no idea I was going to make it this far, or even live long enough to see it like this, and for a long time I really had no idea what the process of making a book or project like this looked like.
Since then, over the past couple years I’ve been fortunate to dedicate myself to finishing this book and other stories I have to tell through my art.
As for Sweet Tarts in particular, I started from the wall where I put up all the photos, talking about it to as many people as I could. I’ve put out a couple risograph zines as previews for the book for people to enjoy the early stages. At first, it was so difficult to talk about it to civilians - I would cry almost every time, or choke up in the middle of explaining. I felt like I wasn’t ready to speak to strangers under bright fluorescent combo lights with no purple/red/blue/black lights in the studio for me to be readily available to answer every stupid question. For every redundant question I answered or swerved, there was a sweet genuine art looker whose eyes lit up while passing by the wall, and most of the time they'd ask me “So when's the book coming out? How can I help support this project, help you finish it?” I wouldn't know, I’d be thinking in my head
“Shit, I haven't even been able to see it with my own eyes and not burst about it yet.”
Time passed, people kept urging me to apply for grants, helping me push little previews in other publications, sharing it with their friends. Brock Scott produced a really cool video for the project for the Neddy Artist Awards and a selection of photos from the book went up in the show. Every step of the way I've been greeted with overwhelming praise and I've been very grateful for all the support.
I’m now seeking leads and support to finish the book. Moving forward with this project, I’ve felt obligated to inform anyone in the civilian world with a hand in the making or showing it that I am very particular about the way my work is represented. I’m very protective over the representation of the people in the book. There's a lot of aspects about it I am unwilling to budge on because of my fear of losing the integrity of the book with contamination of the outsiders eye. I’m not eager to push the book out there in a haste. I aim to do right by all my friends and girls I've worked with in the clubs. I’m not interested in self publishing, I would like to find the right publisher with respect and integrity for their own works to collaborate on it with me for the best results.
With gaps in housing situations towards the fall of this year 2025, I plan to push for publishing leads in bigger art cities. I’ll hit LA, NYC, possibly others since parts of it might be a road trip.
If you feel inclined to help me with finding the right spot, feel free to reach out to me, send me an email at jordanmonloire@gmail.com
If you know about a publisher that has printed black & white film photography books in the past, a book designer that you think would be the right fit, or just want to help support me on these trips in general let me know!
Thxxx <3 JORDAN MONLOIRE 2025