This month’s most loved photo stories on Dazed have all been connected to the idea of forbidden, hidden or lost spaces. Paris-based photographer Sofiya Loriashvili takes us behind the wizard’s curtain into the unseen world of a strip club changing room, while Sam Penn allows us incredibly intimate access to her romance with Max Battle. Julien Tell shares his photos documenting .TAG, a queer club in the Chengdu clouds that’s now no longer running. Similarly, a recent exhibition in New York tells the story of The Web, the city’s first gay bar for Asian men, a landmark in NYC’s queer history. In what she describes as her “most personal project yet”, Nadia Lee Cohen questions the veracity of memory as she revisits the town in Ohio that has loomed so large since a childhood visit. And Derek Ridgers shares his portraits of passionate moments in public, in a time before the advent of the iPhone “eroded” privacy and mystery. 

SOFIYA LORIASHVILI, STRIPPER EDITION

Away from the intensity of the music and crowds of the strip club floor, photographer and dancer Sofiya Loriashvili turned her camera on candid scenes in the locker rooms and changing rooms of the club – the crucial area of the club where dancers relax, prepare, dress and socialise with one another. It’s a space where the performance ceases as dancers can take a break from inhabiting the gaze of others. 

This is a world no strip club punter will ever see firsthand. “The locker rooms are what stay with me the most. They have a smell you can’t forget or find anywhere else,” says Loriashvili. “They look ‘glamorous’ at first glance, but they’re full of years and years of stories from hundreds of girls. I’ve found shoes covered in dust that must have been sitting there for years.”

Read the full story here on Dazed.

SAM PENN, MAX

Shot over two years, Sam Penn’s latest exhibition, Max, traces the ebb and flow of lust with writer Max Battle. Over the series of 19 images, shot in New York, Paris and beyond, Penn captures unguarded moments of tenderness and desire in a way which is intimate without being gratuitous. Her camera and the act of photographing are part of the fabric of their mutual exploration. Accompanied by Battle’s prose, Max is a beautiful and evocative study of new love. 

Read the full story here on Dazed.

Max is running at New York Life Gallery, New York, until 20 December 2025.

JULIEN TELL, .TAG

The final nights of .TAG – the now-legendary rooftop underground techno club on the 21st floor of the Poly Center in Chengdu – were documented by photographer Julien Tell in a series of images capturing sweaty dancefloors, intimate moments and communal ties.

Since its founding in 2014 by Ellen Zhang, the venue served as a discreet but vital queer sanctuary – a space where clubbers, LGBTQ+ people and outsiders could gather, dance, relax, and feel free. In its absence, Tell’s photographs are precious relics, immortalising ephemeral moments in a lost venue. But, while the club has now closed, Zhang already has plans for a new space – one that will keep the spirit alive. “I have no doubt she’ll continue creating places like this: spaces that are alive, inclusive, and full of care,” Tell says. “The spirit of .TAG isn’t gone; it’s just evolving.”

Read the full story here on Dazed.

LIZ JOHNSON ARTUR, PDA

Between 2011 and 2021, the underground London club night PDA – established by Mischa Mafia, Ms Carrie Stacks, Akinola Davies Jr and Siobhan Bell – created a radical space for queer people of colour to gather, express themselves and celebrate community. Photographer Liz Johnson Artur was the only person ever invited to photograph inside, and her analogue images beautifully captured the night’s energy: from dancers’ sequins and sweat, to spontaneous moments of joy, intimacy and solidarity. The photographer’s  new book, also titled PDA, serves as a time capsule, honouring a lost era of safe, creative nightlife and the friendships forged there. For Johnson Artur, it’s less documentation than a deeply felt tribute.

Read the full story here on Dazed.

PDA is published by Bierke Verlag and is available here.

DEREK RIDGERS, HELLO, I LOVE YOU

Ever since the 1970s, photographer Derek Ridgers has documented London’s youth culture. From the punk and post-punk eras of the 70s through to the 80s skinhead revival, the Blitz kids, the new romantics and beyond, Ridgers’ lens has been trained on the city’s streets, clubs, pubs and gigs. Hello, I Love You focuses on the many intimate encounters he’s immortalised over the years, bringing together a poignant series of portraits that remind us of the mystery and romance of falling in love and/or lust on the dance floor. 

Read the full story here on Dazed.

Hello, I Love You by Derek Ridgers is published by IDEA and is available here now. 

NADIA LEE COHEN, HOLY OHIO

Hyperreal Americana is such an integral component of Nadia Lee Cohen’s work. Her latest book, Holy Ohio (brought to you by IDEA and WePresent), explores the British-born photographer and filmmaker’s recent return to Heath, Ohio – the first place she ever visited the US as a child, and a journey that’s lived vividly in her memory all these years. 

It’s a compelling and evocative study in nostalgia, memory, childhood, family and place. “Most are photographs of my uncle’s family, and the rest are just things or people that I liked the look of. It’s probably my most personal project to date in terms of its candidness and lack of staging,” Cohen told Dazed. “It’s a sentimental documentation of complicated relationships and an attachment to a place. Like a dream where you can float out of your body and see the room, the people in the room, the conversations and situations from as much of an observational perspective as I could achieve – even though the subject is something that is very close to me.”

Read the full story here on Dazed.

Holy Ohio is brought to you by IDEA and WePresent, the arts platform of WeTransfer, and is available here now

THE WEB

Opened in the early 90s, The Web was a pioneering gathering space for Asian gay men in New York, born from a need for refuge from racism and exclusion in mainstream gay clubs. Founded by Alan Chow, the bar served as a social hub offering not only nightlife, but also companionship, community, and practical support: English lessons, work opportunities, and even gay wedding ceremonies at a time when same-sex marriage was illegal.

From its debut to eventual closure in 2013, The Web also played a visible role in the city’s public LGBTQ+ life – organising the first Asian float in the city’s Pride Parade, repeatedly winning “best float,” and offering a rare space for Asian queer identity to flourish. The Web: The Birth and Legacy of New York’s First Asian Gay Bar brought the history of this beloved bar back to life via archival photos, memorabilia and a new oral-history zine.

Read the full story here on Dazed.