I first met Long in 2007 at a gogo bar, we became friends and she helped find me many people to photograph, she introduced and promoted me to others. Eventually on my one of my later trips I found her in another go go where she performed sex shows as well as went with customers. The shows were girl on girl type things in hot tubs. I think as she got older she had to do more and more risqué stuff to make money, that is the norm in the bars, the older women do the more explicit acts.
Long was a worker I photographed numerous times (8-12 times), mostly with the 8x10 and the white background set up but I also photographed her in short time sex rooms, this shoot which was in her own personal room. Long picked me up with her motorbike and took me to her room which was a ways off and in a Thai area of the city. Her apartment had bright pink walls and no a/c, she told me she did not need a/c but it was no doubt because of the cost, a fan room is much cheaper to keep. Long lived alone which is a bit strange as most girls from the bars share rooms to cut costs.
We made a series of photos in her room and she told me a lot about her life. Long talked and talked in Thai to me, it made me a bit dizzy trying to understand it all thou I did not get everything I probably understood 60 or 70% of what she told me. I heard about how she almost married a Japanese man but he died of a heart attack, she also told me of a baby she lost and had me read and translate several of her boyfriend letters. One older motorcycle riding bald man from England wrote how he would marry her and how the sex he had with other ladies during his last trip did not matter, the only one he cared for was Long etc. While I was reading and translating for her she grasped at every positive thing I said and asked me to try to contact this English guy because he had stopped writing her. After many promises including talking of love and marriage he had forgotten her and never wrote or phoned, she was desperate to get a hold of him again.
Later in 2010 when I returned to Thailand, I tried to contact her again to learn more about her life and make more photographs but she had left her bar. I did manage to talk to her on the telephone she had left the sex worker world and was working a regular job in the South of Thailand on the tourist island of Kho Samui. I hope she has a better life now than before, she is a sweet caring person that is just trying to survive, hopefully she has found love and family.
Tech stuff: Contax G2 with 28mm (?) lens, direct flash and Tri-x rated 200.
Long was a worker I photographed numerous times (8-12 times), mostly with the 8x10 and the white background set up but I also photographed her in short time sex rooms, this shoot which was in her own personal room. Long picked me up with her motorbike and took me to her room which was a ways off and in a Thai area of the city. Her apartment had bright pink walls and no a/c, she told me she did not need a/c but it was no doubt because of the cost, a fan room is much cheaper to keep. Long lived alone which is a bit strange as most girls from the bars share rooms to cut costs.
We made a series of photos in her room and she told me a lot about her life. Long talked and talked in Thai to me, it made me a bit dizzy trying to understand it all thou I did not get everything I probably understood 60 or 70% of what she told me. I heard about how she almost married a Japanese man but he died of a heart attack, she also told me of a baby she lost and had me read and translate several of her boyfriend letters. One older motorcycle riding bald man from England wrote how he would marry her and how the sex he had with other ladies during his last trip did not matter, the only one he cared for was Long etc. While I was reading and translating for her she grasped at every positive thing I said and asked me to try to contact this English guy because he had stopped writing her. After many promises including talking of love and marriage he had forgotten her and never wrote or phoned, she was desperate to get a hold of him again.
Later in 2010 when I returned to Thailand, I tried to contact her again to learn more about her life and make more photographs but she had left her bar. I did manage to talk to her on the telephone she had left the sex worker world and was working a regular job in the South of Thailand on the tourist island of Kho Samui. I hope she has a better life now than before, she is a sweet caring person that is just trying to survive, hopefully she has found love and family.
Tech stuff: Contax G2 with 28mm (?) lens, direct flash and Tri-x rated 200.
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| Long, Thailand 2008 |
