From Pole Dancer to Leatherworker

• Feature article •

It always bothered me that I lacked the confidence to show people who I really was in everyday situations. Because of that, I often felt boring and invisible.

All I really needed to do was be myself, yet something always stopped me — except in one place:

On stage.

There I could become anyone I wanted for those few minutes, and I loved it.

On stage I was always confident. Even though I tended to hide in the background in ordinary life, on stage I did not care how many people were watching, what anyone thought, or what was happening around me.

I danced throughout primary and secondary school, but outside the stage I still had very little confidence.

Eventually, because of my studies, I had to stop dancing as well.

After that I felt even greyer.

Then, during university, I spontaneously signed up for a pole-dancing class with my sister.

At the time I had no idea how deeply it would become part of my life — or how much it would change me.

Pole dancing taught me how to release femininity, how to be proud of ourselves, and finally gave me confidence.

Because of the pandemic, competitions and training were cancelled. That is why I was especially happy when, in summer 2020, Norbi invited me to model at the Olympus Mini photography meetup in Tihany.

As part of a workshop he led, I took part in an outdoor pole-dance photo shoot.

A large number of photographers came to the event, so for a while it felt like being back on stage — the place where I truly feel free and can leave my inhibitions behind.

Because the shoot became such a positive experience, I decided that one day I would also go to Norbi for a studio session.

I was curious to see what he could bring out of me.

I tried to think of it as though I were on stage there too. The more photographs we made, the more my initial tension dissolved.

And the result gave me even more confidence.

Norbi helped bring forward the confident self I had been hiding and set me on a new path.

I have always been characterised by a strange duality.

I loved unusual, unconventional things — not necessarily stereotypically feminine things — that made me stand out from average people.

And yet at the same time I somehow saw myself as boring and blended into the crowd like a grey little mouse.

That duality remains, but now it is a good kind of duality.

The road ahead is still long. But through Norbi I met — and am beginning to accept — a version of myself who is eccentric in the best possible way.

Feminine when she wants to be.

Bold when she needs to be.

Not boring for a second.

A many-sided Woman.

One day a pole dancer, the next a leatherworker and riding instructor.

A little more than half a year later, I returned for another studio shoot.

I wanted to know how much I had changed since the first one and whether I could bring even more out of myself.

By then I was ready to step out of the shadows and show people who I truly was — not only on stage, but in every part of life.

I decided to use the opportunity not only for myself but also for developing my business.

I was ready to step outside my comfort zone and create something genuinely bold, because this side is me too.

I arrived incredibly excited, carrying a handmade leather thigh strap that was anything but ordinary.

Even then I was not entirely sure I would truly be able to move so far beyond my old self — and show the piece on my own body.

In the end, the photographs were better than I had expected.

I was happy that the images managed to show not only me, but also one of my greatest passions and my leatherworking business.

What I liked most was that tiny details revealed who I am.

Every accessory and movement carried a little wildness, a little extra edge, yet the overall feeling remained feminine, sensual and slightly mysterious.

I feel that I have moved another step closer to daring to be myself — to believing that I am a valuable and interesting woman.

And I believe I owe a great deal of that to Norbi for bringing out a side of me that I had only secretly suspected existed.

If I had known that a photographic series could have this kind of impact on me, perhaps I would have gone to him much earlier and without hesitation.

But every person has to become ready for that moment in body and soul.

It is not a race.

We are not falling behind.

I am already deeply grateful that life brought us together.

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I believe this confidence will also help me in my career as a leatherworker, because in the future I want to build that work at an even more serious level.

Today I believe that everyone can find an artist who, at the right moment, can reveal the real Woman or Man within them — through words, images, dance, or one of a thousand other forms.

Event photography – details.

Part of the BANHALMI ecosystem

For the professional context and practical side of portrait photography, visit the BANHALMI professional website. Related art series, books and exhibitions are preserved in the BANHALMI ART archive.