I am expecting a phone call today at 9am from an a editor at Slate.com. They initially were going to do a story on my large format sex worker on white portraits for their "Behold: photo blog, but now I am not so sure that will happen. The people at Slate.com have been very nice to me and if they decide not to show that work I will understand, the subject matter is a bit controversial (or so I was told by one photographer in New Orleans "Your work is very good, but controversial, VERY controversial!). So there will no hard feelings if Slate.com changes their mind, I thought thou I would post the questions and answers I gave to them a month or so back, posting these on the blog might be there only chance of getting online.
Here is the Q&A Slate.com did with me:
Here is the Q&A Slate.com did with me:
1. You've been photographing sex workers in Asia
for some time. What initially made you interested in documenting these workers?
In around 1994 I
watched a documentary dealing with the sex tourist industry in Thailand. In the
doc they showed the bar world from the Westerners point of view, it made me
want to learn what the Thai sex worker felt, what their lives were about. My
first trip to Thailand was in 1996, it has been a learning process ever since.
2. You've shot environmental portraits of sex
workers in the past. Why shoot against a backdrop for this series?
In 1999 I shot black and white
photographs of freelance workers on the streets of Bangkok, in 2003
I made environmental color portraits in the short time sex rooms
that the workers used. The white background large format was part of an
evolution, a simplification and in a way, a magnification. The large format
negs are so beautiful to work with, you just see everything when use
a 8x10 camera. I felt that a simple no distractions white background, a large
maximum info neg and flat frontal see everything
type lighting would work together in a powerful way. I felt the
technique was a bit like putting a spotlight on something, it focuses your
point of view. there is no where for the viewer to hide, they must confront the
subject.
3. You wrote on your blog about your shortime
bargirl series, "The dilemma I faced is how do you show someone being
exploited without exploiting them?" Do you still struggle with this
dilemma in your current work? If so, how do you confront it?
Yes, its something I think of
often. Photography is a visual medium, you need to be physically standing in
that world making the pictures, if your story is about the exploitation of
others you need to show that exploitation in a first hand sort of way. So the
question that always came up in my mind was how can you photograph someone
being exploited and yet not exploit them in the process. The conclusion I came
to after talking to others, and thinking about this for some
time was that I needed to understand why I was making the pictures, what
my goals were, what was the reason behind it all, what was I trying to
express. In your inner heart you know why your doing something, you know
if its right or wrong, you know your true motivations, if your doing something
for the right reasons, for a greater good, then that's the path you want to be
on.
So what I do now is trust my
heart, trust my inner feeling and motivations. You go with your feelings
and you always treat your subject politely, with kindness and respect .
That's about all you can do, that's as good as it gets, that's what
you need to strive for as a human being and an artist.
4. You wrote on the PhotoNOLA site: "The sex
workers of Thailand can make ten to twenty times in one week what an average
Thai worker can make in one month. This makes the lure of Pattaya very strong
for a young woman or man in rural Thailand." Meanwhile, you quoted a
worker saying "“When I go boomsing (sex) with farang (Westerner) I smile
outside and cry inside.” In talking to these workers, how do they speak about
their work?
Generally there is a
veil that's applied, they tend to try to hide their true feelings. When
you get to know the person more and talk on a more intimate level you
understand that in almost all the workers there is sadness a pain in
their lives because of what they do. One rather strange thing that I
noticed that happens with the girls from the bars is as they work longer
and longer they cover themselves with armor of a sort. The older girls
will get more and more tattoos, they will add more and more pieces of
gold, multiple necklaces, gold rings, earrings etc. I call this
behaviour "their armor", it is almost like they are covering the loss
of their old self with the protection of excessive displays of
wealth. Another thing that's very common is that usually the longer the worker
stays in the bar the more jaded and entrusting of men they
become. The other common thing that happens is that the worker
who is in the scene longer tends to end up alcohol or drug dependent.
I have asked
many women who work the bars what they feel when they go to bed
with a customer. Most often the answers are related to helping their family or
children back home (up country). When I ask them what they feel during sex with
the customer more than one girl has told me that when she is with am
man and he is on top of her in bed all she is thinking is "hurry up"
"finish quickly". Basically a situation where the worker wants
to get as much money as they can as quickly as they can. The part that's a bit
bizarre is that many times the customer thinks he is the great lover, turning
the girl on, making her orgasm and all of that when in reality the exact
opposite is happening.
Long the girl from the quote
you mentioned was like that, she would put up a brave front for the customer
but inside she was feeling something totally different. One time I visited
her small apartment and helped translate some letters she got from a
English boyfriend (customer), in the letters he made all kinds of promises of
love and marriage but then abandoned her.
Last I heard she had left the bar
world and working a regular job, I hope she has found happiness. There are
2 photographs of her in the show, one from 2007 when she was a gogo dancer, and
one in 2009 when she worked at a different bar as a gogo dancer and sex show
performer, she did a lesbian show.
5. In describing your Cambodian Brothel series on
your site, you described the sadness of taking those photos. How did you feel
when taking the Thailand photos? How do you overcome feelings of sadness to
pursue this type of photography?
The brothels in Cambodia were
something else, something I will never forget, it was the most difficult place
I have ever made pictures. The photos for this project even thou they deal with
a important difficult subject matter were easier to make. Many times the
portrait sessions included laughing and joking , the pics were most
often made in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere of mutual trust.
You do eventually get burned out
with in the bar world and dealing with it all. When you have had to many
girls crying on your shoulder, when you see the drunks day after day, when
you see how the worker changes with each passing year, it changes you as
well. I am finding it harder and harder to return to the bars to make pictures.
I keep wanting to leave the scene but just when you say to yourself
"I've had enough, let me out of here!" you meet an incredible
person, a person who has worked the bar for years and yet is kind,
considerate and has a compelling message. When you meet a person like that you
just have to tell their story, you just have to make their photograph, you
forget your depression, your sadness and you dive back in.
6. Were the sex workers hesitant to have their
photos taken? Did you have to ask permission of their employers?
Yes sometimes but after I spoke to
them about the reasons behind the project they usually agreed to be
photographed. Many of the subjects have allowed me to photograph them multiple
times, so after the first session a trust was built and we would
often have 2nd, 3rd sessions. Some people like Long, Matt, Bla, Betty,
Ti and Jiji I have photographed multiple times, from 3 - 10 over several
years.
I try not to deal with the
employers, I try to stay away from them as much as I can. The people
making the money do not want their cash flow interfered with in any way, doing
photos sympathetic to the worker could potentially cut into their profits. Its
much better to steer well clear of that crowd and deal with the workers
only.
7. What were some of the challenges involved in
creating these photographs?
There were challenges on multiple
levels, working by mostly by myself and physically getting all the gear to Thai
was difficult. Learning about the bar world and how things worked, learning
some Thai so I could do the shoot the sessions while speaking a foreign
language was also a challenge.
Creating the photographs made it
all worthwhile, to see that final print for the first time sitting in the fix
is the ultimate high, it's the best feeling in the world.
8. I read on your site that you were able to
re-photograph some of the workers over a period of several years. Tell me why
you wanted to do that. Was it hard tracking down your subjects again?
I have had the privilege
of speaking with the photographer Jock Sturges several times and one of
the things he spoke to me of was the importance of knowing your subject
and shooting them over a longer period of time. After I made the initial
photographs in 2007 I tried to follow his advice and shoot the same people
again (I shot this project in 2007, 2009 and 2012). The problem with the bar
world is that things are constantly changing, people move
from bar to bar, go from one area of Thailand to another, some
get sick, some go to jail and others get married to foreigners and leave
the country. Whenever I have found it possible I have tried to
contact the people I have photographed before and continue to make new pictures
with them.
9. Why choose Pattaya to re-visit?
9. Why choose Pattaya to re-visit?
Pattaya is the hub of nightlife in
Thailand, its filled to the brim with gogo bars, beer bars, freelancer workers,
massage parlors and shortime bars It was the best place in Thailand find subjects
that would tell the story I wanted to tell.
10. You wrote on PhotoNOLA that the people in
the photographs "work in a variety of venues such as gogo dance bars,
outdoor beer bars, as street freelancers, and as short-time bar workers."
Why did you want to get a variety of different workers?
Different venues often have
different types of workers, they all tell different stories. In the gogos
both male and female you usually find the youngest and most attractive people,
the beer bars have a mix of younger older, shortime bar workers are more
hardcore usually more damaged by the life and the freelancers are often the
most desperate they are usually quite a bit older some with serious health
issues.
11. The photographs represent work over a five
year period. How long would you spend in Thailand for each of your three trips?
My first three trips to
Thailand were long trips, in 1996 I visited for 3 months, in 1999 I stayed
for 10 and in 2003 I was in Thailand for 1 year. When I did the sex worker
on white background portraits in 2007, 2009 and 2012 all the trips were
shorter, between 5 and 7 weeks. The actual photo sessions would happen over
maybe a 2 or 3 week period. Everyday I would do 1-2 sessions, each lasting less
than 2 hours, I would shoot around 20 sheets of 8x10 film each time.
12. You wrote that "I feel that photography
can be a powerful voice for change; it can help the forgotten people in our
society. My dual hope in creating these photographs was to document the sex
workers of Thailand as well as to raise awareness in the viewer." Have you
noticed any change in the sex industry in Thailand over the years? Do you feel
there is hope for these workers?
If anything the sex
industry in places like Pattaya Thailand has grown since I started photographing
the scene back in 1996, there is just to much money to be made for it to be
shutdown, new bars are continually being built, more and more sex tourists
come over to buy bodies, the industry is booming.
As long as their is poverty in
places like Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines their will be workers for
the sex tourist bars of South East Asia. The only hope for the bar
worker as I see it lies in education, education can lead to other
opportunities maybe a good job with decent pay, that might keep the
worker from coming to the bars in the first place. No Thai girl or boy dreams
of becoming a prostitute, no one dreams of selling their body for a
living, most work the job purely out of economic necessity, give them
other ways to make decent money and maybe things will change.
