PLAYBABES

Dear Aurélia and Lucy, thank you for chatting with us today! Could you please introduce PLAYBABE to the YEOJA readers?
Hi babes, it’s such a pleasure, thank you for having us! PLAYBABE is a non profit fundraising project we founded about a year ago. The aim is to raise funds for feminist organisations by producing our yearly calendar featuring twelve empowered photographs of women. The project is strongly inspired by erotic calendars and our desire to reclaim power over women’s representation in our culture. Placing our PLAYBABES at the heart of the project, we engage in collaborative processes, ensuring each image is a product of mutual dialogue on how they wish to be portrayed and the keys of their empowerment. We understand the project with sorority at its core since the calendar is sold to raise money for the organisation we chose. Each year we focus on a different association dealing on a specific topic because we feel there are so many amazing projects that need support. Beyond the calendar, we organize fundraising events and offer merchandise to further contribute to our mission.

You are soon to release PLAYBABE’s third calendar, following the 2023 and Pride x P3 editions. Can you give us a tease of what we can expect to see on this year’s calendar?We’re always in for a little teasing! This calendar’s edition is all about our dream “business babes.” It focuses on women creating new paths in the workplace, opening doors for others, and uplifting their community despite the challenges they have to face. Expect hot corporate babes! 

Sounds hot! This also touches upon workplace inequalities such as the disproportionate pay gap in Germany and workplace harassment, resulting in fewer opportunities, lower wages, and lower self esteem for women. What was the motivation behind choosing this particular topic and what is the message you hope to send with the calendar?
We crafted a casting of women that we see as powerful figures with interesting careers. They evolve in various fields and have different work models but all unite on the extra challenges they have to face when identifying as women. A clear motivation is that despite the progress we’ve obviously made in the last fifty years, our society still needs to put in the work to overcome inequalities and violence that take place in the working environment. It takes so many forms and we want this change to happen faster for the younger generation of women to have access to leadership positions, fair salaries, and basic respect with a zero tolerance policy on any form of harassment. With PLAYBABE we want to remind every woman and girl that they are the only ones that can define what success means for them. They should never let society or anyone make them doubt their goals and values and we hope that by creating these powerful images we can be a daily reminder of it.

What are some of PLAYBABE’s tips to foster safe(r) work spaces, specifically on set?
Establishing safe spaces on set has been a foundational aspect of our project. This is something we are still working on and hope to always improve. We want to make sure that every party involved feels valued and respected. By consistently acknowledging the significance and quality of their contributions, we aim to create an environment where collaborators feel secure in expressing any concerns. From the beginning on, we engage with the PLAYBABES to understand and respect their boundaries, particularly regarding how much they are comfortable revealing. Fostering safe spaces on set was one of the starting points for the project since we still are confronted with many concerning stories where talents are put in a very vulnerable situation. Our goal is to do the exact opposite, we want each PLAYBABE to feel valued and comfortable during the entire process. In fact, they have the final word when it comes to the photographs that are printed and published since we run it by them.

Could you tell us about your respective roles within PLAYBABE? What is something you personally take most joy out of doing this work?
A: The project would never be as exciting without its multi-faceted, multi-disciplinary dimension. One month of the year is devoted to making the initial contact with each of the PLAYBABEs, the following month to photoshoots, and the month after that to organizing the release + all post-production work. But I think what I love most is thinking up and developing the visual identity and artistic direction of the project, something I usually do on a freelance basis for clients. Today, PLAYBABE has become a real platform for free expression for both of us. We stand for the most appealing visual content on your day, it deeply should warm your heart, and feed your soul with sexyness and female empowerment.

L: The project is evolving and our roles are too along the way. There are parts that we do 50/50, like the creative direction of the project, the decision on the concept, the event production, the photographs, the edit, the daily operations etc etc.. But Aurélia is the absolute talent behind the beautiful visual identity of PLAYBABE, she does all the graphic design and has now been joined by our beloved intern Camille <3

PLAYBABE posits itself as a multi-layered political object, reclaiming the traditional use of women’s bodies by redirecting the production, circulation, and proceeds of erotic images back to women and feminist organizations. Can you expand on this?
The project operates on multiple political levels, it gives control to the PLAYBABES via our collaborative approach with them to ensure their involvement in the image creation process. This collaboration goes beyond capturing photographs; it’s a way to establish relationships built on trust and care, and ultimately create a community of women showing up for each other. We join forces for something bigger. Since the calendar is sold to raise funds for feminist organisations, it means they engage on a sorority basis as well. Emphasizing inclusivity, the project strives to showcase the diversity of women and bodies, affirming the inherent beauty and strength in all forms. Moreover, the project challenges societal stigmas by reclaiming and celebrating sexiness, recognizing that women owning their sexualities is a powerful act of disrupting patriarchal norms and posing a threat to established patterns.

One of the layers of PLAYBABE is the formation of a strong hypersexual visual language. How have you formed this language and how does this language unfold within the visual discourse of PLAYBABE?
In the initial stages of the project, we found ourselves captivated by the variety of erotic calendars references, exploring the various themes within this genre. It was fascinating. Using this as our starting point, we initially crafted images with a similar erotic essence to conventional calendars, but disruptive in the way they were brought to life. Our inspirations now also draw from wider perspectives like fashion photography. It’s priceless for us to see how far we’ve come since our first edition, crafted by mainly the both of us on set with each PLAYBABE, doing the make-up and the styling in addition to taking the picture and directing. We’ve now had the privilege to work with extremely talented teams that bring our visuals to a whole new level. This evolution has not only broadened our creative playground but has also shaped the unique identity of PLAYBABE, which we like to describe as simultaneously sexy and threatening.

Circling back to the context of work, in what ways do you hope PLAYBABE will contribute to the destigmatisation of sex work/the advancement of sex workers rights?
PLAYBABE acts as a bridge between an audience that maybe isn’t necessarily educated on certain topics and the themes we passionately advocate for. With our visual identity we strive to make it accessible (for everyone) and hopefully bring people to learn more about the topics that resonate with our values. Sex work stigmatisation comes a lot from ignorance and we wanted to provide tools for non sex workers to comprehend its reality better. By sharing the narratives of workers within the industry in the PLAYBABE context, we establish a cultural space where people can access knowledge easily. Hopefully, it helps understanding that sex work is a legitimate form of employment, and individuals in the industry should be entitled to the same rights and respect as those in other fields.

We are so excited for the release of the 2024 calendar! How will you yourselves be celebrating the release?
To mark the occasion we planned a two day event (Berlin, don’t miss out!) on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th of December at Praise Studio in Neukölln. We are super excited to celebrate the release with our amazing PLAYBABES and the fabulous community that surrounds us! There will be performances, DJ sets, workshops, talks, sexy drinks and food. This event is also a way to express our gratitude for the immense effort invested in this project by everyone. We are really so thankful for the people who showed us so much love and carried us throughout this latest edition, this event is our way to give back in joy.

To keep up with PLAYBABE on instagram, click here. To order the PLAYBABE 2024 Calendar, click here.
For more interviews with Berlin-based artists and activists click here.

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Photographer: Rae (Mee-Jin) Tilly
Photographer Assistant: Marit Holtrust
Hair and Make-Up: Saskia Krause
Styling: Clara Dimanski
Nails: 666.nls
Aurélia wears: Necklace: @minnen.collection Shoes: @ultravantgarde Top & Skirt: @ottolinger1000 Pants: Stylists own
Lucy wears: Top: @miichii5000 Shoes: @ultravantgarde Necklace: @minnen.collection Ring: @roussey3d  Skirt: Stylists own