This live event is on June 15, 2020 at 16:00 CET/10:00 EDT.
Join us for a book club meeting with guest Charlotte Schmitz as she discusses her book La Puente.
Women are misrepresented, and underrepresented in all forms of media and sex work is no exception. The majority of sex workers are women, yet most visual projects are done by men and often fail to accentuate how women want to be seen. La Puente gives a new perspective on a somewhat clichéd subject matter and creates a space for a nuanced and relatable depth to individuals by allowing them to create their own narratives and thus challenges stereotyping and common portrayals of sex workers.
The images were created in collaboration with the women in La Puente, who chose their own poses and became part of the creative process by applying nail polish on their polaroids to hide their identities. This inclusion of women into the creative process allowed them to create their own narratives and thereby increase their representation. Participatory photography is a foundational method to Charlotte Schmitz’ art as it minimizes any unbalanced structure that appears as a result of the photographic process, and allows to form a deeper and more complex understanding of the people involved.
La Puente is the winner of the 2019 FotoEvidence W Award, given to a woman photographer for a personal project, selected by an international jury of women photographers and photo editors.
The book measures 17×24″, 132 pages and contains 98 polaroid, 13 bedsheet photographs and a personal narrative by the photographer. The edges of the 500 books were painted personally by the photographer with nail polish throughout several days at the print shop.
Copyright 2019 FotoEvidence. All rights reserved.
Photographs and notes Copyright© 2019 Charlotte Schmitz
Photo Editor: Ilgin Deniz Akseloglu
Design: Valentina Abenavoli
Cover Design: João Linneu
