Bodies @ Work

What makes sex work visible? It sounds like a trick question, but it isn't. The visual is attached to every aspect of life in the human world. An optical element, or instead focus, is attached to all industries and professions. And what does that look like for an industry such as sex work?

Since the dawn of time, sex work has, on the surface, appeared or been contrived in thought in numerous ways that have evolved over the years. Visually, sex work has been illustrated through the specific and overgeneralized archetypes of a streetwalker, porn star, and pimp and hoe, alongside countless others. Archetypes that are visual only through the accessibility of the eyes of the general public. They are easy archetypes. Easy to point out. Easy for generalization.

But what elements of sex work are invisible? In the binary between the everyday person and what is recognized as the "visible" sex worker lives a void full of identities that live in the public's unconscious and, when becoming conscious, are rarely recognized human beings. They are human beings who belong to the sex work industry and use the same device in an idiosyncratic fashion that goes against this visible identity of sex work.

"Bodies @ Work" is a project that explores the void of the sex work binary, documenting the lives of BIPOC LGBTQI+ sex workers living in New York. The focus on this specific community of sex workers stems from how race, sexuality, and gender contribute to sex workers' identities that belong to the void and receive invisibility. The structure became ever-present in the light of sex workers being documented during the COVID-19 pandemic and significant coverage being exclusive to cis-gendered, heteronormative, caucasian identities.

Exploring the void not only reveals the biases and beliefs that allow people to hide behind their hate but also reveals the beautiful identities of those commonly limited to representation in this void. The composed images are a mix of documenting two scenarios: how the worker chooses to present themself in the world versus how they decide to introduce themself to a client. The visible versus the invisible. It is your mind that determines which photograph belongs to each category. Simultaneously the photographs question the concern of what is visible in sex work and the comfortability of what is commonly invisible in the representation of the workers.