NEW: HUMAN NEGOTIATIONS work in progress

Human Negotations is a photographic art project that explores the lives of prostitutes living and working in Bangkok, Thailand.

A collaboration between photographer Katharina Hesse and writer Lara Day, the project uses both images and text to deal directly with the perception of women,

and in particular sex workers in Southeast Asia.

Leaving aside stereotypes of exploited, downtrodden Third World females coerced into a profession in which they are passive victims, Human Negotiations reveals a more nuanced, open-ended world where women take center stage, and where reality’s complexities leave room for wider interpretations.

The project focuses specifically on subjects who have not been coerced into their jobs, but who choose work in the sex industry as a means towards a better life:

a mother supporting a child, a student paying off a college loan, a ladyboy saving up for cosmetic surgery, a woman living the lifestyle to enable her own freedom and independence.

Nonethless, ambiguity reigns, leaving viewers to negotiate the images by asking their own questions. Who are these women? How do they view their customers? How do they see themselves? How do we, as viewers, see them?

note :

on this website we'll show excerpts ONLY both of the photographs & text.

Photographs / text of the project have been shown so far at :

-LOOK 3, 2008 ( David Alan Harvey, Road Trips projection)

-Chobi Mela V, Bangladesh, 2009

-Noorderlicht Fotogallerie, June 11- Aug.30 : Summer of Love ( photos/ text )