Photographer Beatrix Reinhardt Provides a Rare Look Behind the Doors of Members Only Clubs

Reinhardt's "Members Only" series shows what it's really like inside exclusive clubs around the world.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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The point of members only clubs is that not everyone can get in. They could be doing literally anything behind those closed doors, and none of us would know. The world of private tea sipping and rifle shooting is sometimes closely guarded, so the fact that photographer Beatrix Reinhardt was allowed in at all is incredible. With her ongoing series titled "Members Only," Reinhardt peels back the curtain and shows that these dens of fantasy and exclusivity look nothing like we expect them to.

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Reinhardt explains on her website that the project started in Australia during a residency at Australian National University and has since spread to China, India, the United States, and beyond. "The politics of space has been the center of interest in my work," she writes. "How demarcation can be achieved through decoration and organization, the way individuals express themselves through how they organize, use and decorate their spaces, and how this can be seen as an expression of cultural values, ideals, beliefs, individual taste and sensibilities; and how architecture and decoration can reflect temporary liberation from everydayness are discussed in my photographic works."

One thing we noticed about most of the clubs that Reinhardt photographed is just how plain and unassuming they look. If they weren't labeled as members only clubs, we would think that they were just basic empty rooms. "There is no difference between a club where the fee is $200,000 a year or 20 cents," Reinhardt told Slate. "A lot of people who set up the clubs think they are really special and it should only be accessible to their members."

To see more of the interesting series, head to Beatrix Reinhardt's website.

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