Shot over just two days, photographer Michella Bredahl and stylist Lotta Volkova’s intimate new photo book captures pole dancers in Paris
Michella Bredahl and Lotta Volkova’s new book captures pole dancers in their own homes and studios. Surrounding each figure are the tell-tale signs of domesticity: mattresses and nightstands bearing books and bottles of water. Across 36 pages, dining tables, clothes rails and house plants create intimate backstories to these immediate images.
The sight of these interior features mirrors an aesthetic quality observed in Bredahl’s 2023 monograph Love Me Again, which brought together 11 years of work by the photographer and filmmaker, produced between 2012 and 2023 in various locations including Copenhagen, New York, Paris, and Mexico City. Shot over just two days, during which she and Volkova drove a van all over Paris, everyth!ng 001 presents something quite different, and marks the debut offering from creative director Bruce Usher’s new culture imprint (also titled everyth!ng). “He felt really connected to the work, the series we’d shot, and so we started the conversation about a book,” says Bredahl.
The photographer and the acclaimed stylist first met at an All-In fashion show (they were both walking), before properly connecting on the set of a magazine shoot. “It went really well and we had a lot of fun, which naturally led us to want to collaborate,” offers Bredahl. “This project came about because we wanted to work together, not because we wanted to make a book. I had also noticed Lotta’s collaborations with other artists, where she truly enhanced the work. As a photographer who is used to shooting on one’s own, it can be quite challenging to have someone putting their signature on the work.”
Conversations about the right project went back and forth before they arrived at the idea of photographing pole dancers, a community with whom Bredahl has a strong personal connection and has shot many times before. “Some of my friends are professionals, and I take classes. Often I photograph dancers in exchange for lessons,” she notes, naming some of those who feature in the book, like Lyou – whose gloved hands appear on the cover – her teacher Miss Adams (back cover), Babycandycass, Crocolyne, and Havanja Spears. “I found myself fascinated with this art form and craft done in the home,” says Bredahl. “Then Lotta and I started talking about bringing clothes into it – normally there isn’t much clothing involved. Can you imagine going up a pole in stockings?”

The challenge of navigating the pole dressed up in textures that would typically cause a dancer to slide, coupled with their effortless poise, would ultimately become an integral part of the story. “It was a sort of an experiment to see if it was even possible to pole dance wearing dresses, coats, jackets, tights and leather gloves, because it basically minimises their grip,” explains Volkova. Pulling from Miu Miu’s Autumn/Winter 2024 collection added a further dimension. She wanted “to see such a familiar collection deconstructed and put in a context you would normally never see it in. Layers of wool, leather, cotton and fleece hanging upside down, overlapping, crushed and squeezed into new unexpected shapes and forms.”
“I love shooting on location and especially in models’ homes,” Volkova continues. “I think it contributes a lot of character to these photos and gives insight to each girl’s personality and style. It is a lot about the situation and context of the model.” For Bredahl, whose experiences studying cinema inform her work, this familiar environment was significant. “It has an enormous impact,” she says. “To me, a space is a person in itself.” With everyth!ng 001, which brings together mostly friends and friends of friends (with a few additional internet castings), the photographs offer a window into a world that is traditionally unseen.

“There’s a feeling of liberation for me, in dancing generally,” reflects Bredahl, alluding to her own practice with and beyond the pole. “I’m still trying it out, but it’s possibly the one other place I feel I belong [aside from photography]. Dancing is an art form that touches me, it makes me feel connected to others, and these dancers especially are all extremely strong, talented artists.”
everyth!ng 001 by Michella Bredahl and Lotta Volkova is published by everyth!ng, and is out now.