Katharina Hesse, Germany
“It-sà-rá”

It-sa-ra is the first part of a long term project called Human Negociations, currently photographed in 3 Asian countries.

As an outsider, I am interested in getting a glimpse into the lifes of young women who by their own will* have chosen prostitution as a means of living. While the path that led them to work as prostitutes may differ ( one is escaping her alcoholic mother in the countryside, another one is from a conservative middle-class family that´s ashamed of their ladyboy offspring, one is a rebel against her boyfriend etc ) , they all do share some common ground : It´s easier to make some “ quick” money than to work in a factory”, admits one, it is “cool to be able to hang in the bars and see men that I´d never met if I stayed home “ say some women , and “ I would always come back here… even though currently I am supported by a foreign boyfriend, most people around me understand where I am from, it´s a community “.

About 70 percent of Thai women have worked in prostitution

*= none of the girls photographed has been forced into the profession , nor does any of them work in an illegal environment.