‘You paid for me’ although sounding derogatory, has a whole different meaning behind it. It’s not an explanation to say that my subject are being paid for, rather than, a direct quote. A quote that came from the subject behind part I of this practice. A quote that she herself had written in her blog, said to a client, and also repeated to me during an interview. So, I felt it was right to use this as my title. ‘you paid for me’ is an explanation to clients, it’s an explanation to the viewers of my project, and it’s a big ‘f’ you to the shit-talking clientele, that claim these women are ‘dirty whores’ and still try to pay for their time. Where’s the sense in that? I want my project to be a statement to the people that don’t understand the industry, to build awareness of individuals who choose to work as sex workers, just like ‘you paid for me’ was a statement made to a client who complained about his experience with a worker.
I want it said that although my knowledge of the industry has grown since the last two years, I also don’t know enough. And I will keep saying this, but, collaboration is the key to understanding more. If I can learn more about the industry, we can teach more people about the industry. We can produce imagery and art that represents sex workers in a way that means they are that little bit more understood, than they were previously. Not to show them as ‘human’, because I’m not even sure what that’s supposed to mean, but to produce their stories, to create a body of work that questions, then understands, and that presents identity in its many forms.
Tyler Bishop-Harris 