For the last four years, Mexico City-based photographer Alicia Vera has been documenting the life of Eden, a 22-year-old exotic dancer and prostitute. Alicia first met Eden after landing a job with the marketing department for strip clubs in San Francisco—Eden had just moved to the city to become an exotic dancer, something she’s dreamt of doing since she was 13, and was working at one of the clubs Alicia photographed. The two hit it off immediately, and soon, Eden was not only a subject but a close friend.
After a few years of stripping, Eden was led into the world of prostitution by a veteran dancer. Alicia watched as Eden began a new path, and she continued to travel with and photograph Eden during some of the most troubling and trying times in her life. Alicia was there when Eden came out to her mother about her work in the sex industry, when she faced charges in court following a series of three arrests, and even once when she was in a hotel room with a client. While Alicia initially started the project to chronicle the life of sex workers, it’s evolved into a series of quiet, intimate images about “a woman’s struggle to find herself.”
For me, personal work is about understanding myself better through other people’s experiences. I tend to photograph women who are struggling to figure out who they are. That is the common thread in most of my personal work and I think it’s because I struggled with that for a long time.
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Alicia’s photos show Eden during some of the most emotional, vulnerable and, at times, personal moments in her life. Because of the nature of the project and the friendship shared between the two women, one of the biggest challenges of the project was getting Eden to go about her day as if Alicia wasn’t there.
Whenever we are together, we end up talking for hours on end which is problematic when shooting. I have a lot of photos of her in mid conversation. Before going on the trip, I told her to pretend that I was invisible. A lot of the times, I would go on my laptop to distract her from talking to me. It worked, and now I have a lot more intimate photos.
Another challenge for Alicia was one you would assume would be difficult—getting a customer to agree to be photographed. As you would expect, most of the men were scared of the idea of being in front of the lens. Alicia caught a break when a regular client met up with Eden. She explained that she would leave his face and any marks that would be recognizable out of the frame. She also told him he could review the images when she finished shooting. After that reassurance, he felt at ease and agreed.
Through the years, Alicia and Eden have built a meaningful friendship. They’ve met each other’s friends and families and even celebrated holidays together. Their friendship and bond helped give Eden the assurance that Alicia had only good intentions, even when it came time to go public with the images.
Our four years of friendship solidified the trust she has in me. She has basically given me free reign to photograph whatever I want. We always have long discussions before and after I shoot anything though. I like to be completely transparent in my intentions and show her the work once it’s been produced. Eden was very brave when the story went public. She knew there would be a lot of negative comments regarding her work but she didn’t seem to take it personal. She did have a bad experience when her grandmother found the article on NPR though. She got in touch with Eden and expressed her disappointment in her. Their relationship took a turn and Eden was very hurt. They were once really close. Two years later, they are on speaking terms again and seem to be returning to normalcy.
Alicia’s heard mixed feedback to the images. The negative responses are usually about the morality of it—judging Eden’s choice to enter the world of prostitution and not being able to look past her profession to see who she really is. However, the positive feedback has been overwhelming for Alicia. She said her favorite comments are the ones that note that she’s been able to document a controversial subject with a neutral stance.
Alicia plans to continue photographing Eden as long as she is comfortable with it. In fact, Alicia recently returned from a trip to San Francisco, where she photographed Eden as she entered a new chapter in her life. Eventually, they’d like to publish a book of Alicia’s photos and excerpts from Eden’s diary. For now, Alicia is focusing on building the body of work.
I’ve learned a lot of patience through this work. It could take years to build trust and to be able to get that intimacy that everyone strives for. After creating this body of work, I am now searching for images that are more quiet, intimate, emotional rather than images of people doing things. Those images are the ones that people have responded to the most and I want to continue shooting that way.
To see more of Alicia’s photos, visit aliciavera.com.
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