In Tennis Tease, female photographer Jamie Nelson serves a playful, sensual exploration of athleticism, voyeurism, and the female gaze—all played out on a pastel-pink court where sport becomes seduction. Known for her signature use of saturated color, ironic glamour, and cinematic styling, Nelson transforms a familiar game into a flirtatious fantasy—one that blurs the line between performance and provocation.
Shot through a hazy retro lens, the series channels the aesthetics of the Playboy era and 1980s sports fetishism, merging innocence and eroticism with a knowing wink. Her models, dressed in gingham skirts, tight bodysuits, and leg warmers, pose amid candy-colored rackets and blush-toned tennis balls. The soft lighting and deliberate close-ups of sweat-dappled skin elevate the physicality of the body—making perspiration appear aspirational, even divine.
Beneath the glossy veneer, Nelson toys with deeper cultural questions around gender, spectatorship, and control. The court becomes a stage for power play—where traditional male voyeurism is inverted and reclaimed through a distinctly female lens. Each image invites the viewer to question who is being watched, who is performing, and who is truly in command.
With Tennis Tease, Nelson redefines the boundaries between sport and spectacle, parody and power. The result is a pastel fever dream of athletic sensuality—an ode to the absurd beauty of sweat, strength, and femininity.
