Sex Work

Be honest: Most of us are curious what really goes on inside brothels, and inside the heads of the women who work there. A new play portrays prostitutes' real-life stories - and invites the audience to become clients.

The German government can only estimate how many sex workers there are in Germany, where prostitution is legal. Supposedly there are around 400,000, half of which are likely immigrants. The sex industry turns over around 15 billion euros a year ($19.5 billion).

But where do sex workers come from? What type of people are they? In collaboration with the German Theater in Göttingen, the theater collective Werkgruppe2 has produced a piece of theater, entitled "Red Light," that provides answers to these questions.

LOUISVILLE, Ky (WHAS11) -- Six months after the remnants of a sado-masochistic swingers club were discovered in the sub-basement of a building on Louisville's historic Whiskey Row, the club's paintings have survived the interior demolition of one of the buildings.

"I was surprised they were still here," said Judson Baker, the artist who led a team of about five people painting the sub-basement's brick wall in the late 1990's. 

An estimated 100,000 sex workers currently earn a living working in the brothels of South Mumbai’s red-light districts. Most of them are not there voluntarily, but rather, have been sold into sex work, sometimes by a relative or trusted family friend. Some are born into it. Life within the red-light districts isn't easy. In fact, it's pretty much like living in a giant toilet bowl full of syringes and awful people. These women live on the fringes of a society defined by the unrelenting harshness of its edges. They are frowned upon and ignored.

I began my photo essay on a group of sex workers based in the red-light districts of Kamathipura, Falkland Road, and Worli. The prostitutes work with Social Activities Integration (SAI), a small NGO modeled on the Didi ("Sister") Project. These women take what they learn about HIV, STDs, and women's rights back to their communities and teach others about the importance of condoms and HIV testing, giving them a sense of purpose and self-respect—in addition to helping them reduce the risk of sexual disease.

After getting to know some of the women, I felt the need to make my project more personal, in order to tell their stories. Obviously, each of them was a sister, a mother, or a daughter, not just a sex worker. I looked to create images of intimacy, femininity, and tenderness that would contrast with the often brutal reality of their lives. I wanted the viewer to gain insight into the lives of these women. This set of photographs is a selection focusing on violence against these women, taken from my project ,The Sisters of Kamathipura.

The topic was on The Colbert Report tonight; but no video is available yet. Here's the full story scoop.