Exercise 2

While exploring Chile on a shoestring budget, I often had to sleep in deplorable conditions in brothels simply because they were by far the cheapest accommodation that I could find. One night, as I lay in bed in one of these bawdy houses, I looked at my surroundings while imagining that I myself was a prostitute. I wondered what such women felt and thought as they work in these places. I repeated Peter Fraser’s exercise by first using the artificial light in the room. Mostly, I took photographs of decorative objects placed there by someone in the poignant hope of creating beauty in these destitute surroundings. I felt that these objects – an embellished picture frame, flowered toilet covers, a rug with childish figures – were imbued with memories and poetic feeling. Knowing that these women often work in obscure light, I then repeated the same exercise in darkness (Maximum ISO).

Even though the results were not impressive in an esthetic sense, I felt that they were nonetheless relevant and were well-founded in the spirit of the “Rethink Photography” Project. In this situation, I wanted to use the subjective camera to photograph what a woman sees while
working and to suggest what she feels, rather than to take photographs while she is working as a prostitute. The subjective camera used in cinema has always fascinated me. I am a great fan of Dogma 95 and the films of Robert Morin, and I have always wanted to explore this concept in photography. Furthermore, while working in photojournalism, I am often confronted with moral questions about my work: for example, how can I explore themes such as prostitution while avoiding sensationalizing it and respecting the anonymity and dignity of my subjects? I think that my use of the subjective camera in this case was justified by a certain code of ethics .