Wallspace Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of GirlShowGuyShow: photographs from New York City’s underground strip scene by Matthew Salacuse and Michael Schmelling.

It comes together like a punk rock concert. A promoter rents a hall (or a ballroom, or a bar, or a Masonic temple). Performers are booked. Flyers are printed. Tickets are sold -- sometimes at small shops in the neighborhood, sometimes direct from the performers, who are always running into fans on the street.

All of this may seem pretty mysterious, but the people who go know exactly what to expect: a full-nudity, full-contact strip show, with as much audience participation as they want.

At a “guy show,” a few hundred women, nearly all black and Puerto Rican, scream and throw dollar bills while musclebound men in spandex chaps thrust and flex and writhe. And as many as a dozen guys (with names like Flava and Mr. Perfect and Tango) might appear during a night, each with his own homemade mixtape of hip-hop and R&B, and each with his own choreographed routine, which might include lip-syncing or amateur gymnastics or something much weirder.

Many of the same promoters also organize "girl shows," for all-male audiences. The venues are the same, but these shows are much more secretive, and the atmosphere is much less celebratory.

At the "girl shows," dozens of women work the room simultaneously, often with their pimps nearby. The women don’t usually bother with choreography, although there are a few standard moves. Some dancers invite patrons to put dollar bills wherever they’d like. And anyone who really likes what he sees can pay fifty bucks or so to take his favorite dancer to the V.I.P. room, to find out whether she’s as sexy as she looks.

Not infrequently, “girl shows” are raided by police -- if someone so much as whispers the word “cops,” every dancer will disappear within thirty seconds.

At the end of the night, the lights come on and everyone files out. If it’s a “guy show,” some of the men might have appointments for private performances later that night. If it’s a “girl show,” some of the women might be asking their pimps where they’re going next. And somewhere near the front door, there’ll be someone handing out flyers, advertising the next show. -Kelefa Sanneh

Matthew Salacuse and Michael Schmelling met while attending New York University. For the past five years they have both pursued separate careers as freelance photographers in New York City. In early 1999 they began collaborating on this project. This is the first exhibition of their work.