As a social difference, and a split within opinions, sex work, and it’s relationship with society is somewhat rocky. These are the relationships I investigated heavily through the last year of both Academia, and my practical experimentations. It is a project I have however been unable to talk about for many unfortunate reasons: one being the negative reactions caused by my research, often the stereotypical objective comments, but also more importantly for my subjects safety, and privacy. Despite this, I wanted to use this post to acknowledge my project as a whole.
With sex work labelled in many areas as: dirty, disgusting, so on and so forth, there are a small amount of sex workers, who live in the same depicted setting of ‘Sex, Drugs and Murders’, using it as a device to survive, and abusing the novelty of drug culture. When in actual reality you might have walked past a sex worker taking her child to school this morning, you’ve probably stood behind someone from the sex industry, in the queue in Tesco’s, who knows, but, what I am trying to explain is the idea that sex workers are just like any other person, doing a job like any other, and trying to live a life like any other. As a body of work suggesting these points, having individuals to represent these values was especially important, but what was more important was the way in which they were being viewed. I want to show everyone else what I have learnt from interacting with my subject, not only that they are normal human beings, but they all have interesting stories to tell, and their opinions themselves are divided to how the sex industry is affecting the society surrounding, using imagery, videography, and interviews, which is represented in my dummy book ‘You Paid For Me’.
I think this post is not only trying to introduce my topic, but to remind myself that I am beginning a practice that opens mine and others minds, but also produces a unique body of work, so to carry it on with my best intentions. London is the best place for me to produce more content, and work, establishing new subjects, and hopefully producing a network of individuals willing bring themselves onboard with my project.
Tyler Bishop-Harris 