This photo was made during my 10 month stay in Bangkok in 1999. At that time I was doing photographic portraits of street beggars and eventually started to photograph the freelance sex workers in Bangkok. These workers would sell themselves to Western sex tourists in one of the main bargirl/boy/ladyboy sex buying areas of the city.
Ann was a woman I did not know well but she struck me as fearful of the world she was involved in. I remember that night, the Bangkok street was dark noisy and dirty, all of a sudden I saw Ann standing in the open wearing a beautiful dress. She was lit by a strange light and had this sort of shell shocked look to her. She seemed so strange in that environment, the street was so noisy, polluted and ugly but there was this beautiful woman standing there, angel like.
Later on I made a small b/w contact print to give Ann but I never saw her again. Another poor girl who entered the sex selling world, probably to help her family. What happened to her? Did she continue working the streets? Did she leave Bangkok? Did she get sick? I do not know. I hope she left the scene, found happiness in her life.
The feeling I see in Ann's expression is why I stopped photographing the sex scene in Asia, its a tough brutal scene, it wears you down. burns you out. Eventually I could not take it anymore, it was just too ugly. I might be going back into that world again, but I need to toughen myself up again first.
Tech Details: Mamiya M6 with flash, 80mm lens at around F11, Tri-x exposed at 200ASA. Development HC110-B, some reticulation problems from Bangkok water. This negative was developed in a Bangkok Thailand apartment washroom darkroom.
Ann was a woman I did not know well but she struck me as fearful of the world she was involved in. I remember that night, the Bangkok street was dark noisy and dirty, all of a sudden I saw Ann standing in the open wearing a beautiful dress. She was lit by a strange light and had this sort of shell shocked look to her. She seemed so strange in that environment, the street was so noisy, polluted and ugly but there was this beautiful woman standing there, angel like.
Later on I made a small b/w contact print to give Ann but I never saw her again. Another poor girl who entered the sex selling world, probably to help her family. What happened to her? Did she continue working the streets? Did she leave Bangkok? Did she get sick? I do not know. I hope she left the scene, found happiness in her life.
The feeling I see in Ann's expression is why I stopped photographing the sex scene in Asia, its a tough brutal scene, it wears you down. burns you out. Eventually I could not take it anymore, it was just too ugly. I might be going back into that world again, but I need to toughen myself up again first.
Tech Details: Mamiya M6 with flash, 80mm lens at around F11, Tri-x exposed at 200ASA. Development HC110-B, some reticulation problems from Bangkok water. This negative was developed in a Bangkok Thailand apartment washroom darkroom.
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| Ann freelance sex worker, Bangkok Thailand 1999 |
