Open Category: Photojournalism / Story (AMATEUR) - HONORABLE MENTION
HIDDEN ANGELS
Photo © Mauro De Bettio
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Is called Daulatdia, the largest brothels in the world.
Built by the british during the colonial government, is now owned by a powerful local family.
It is strategically located between a railway station and a busy harbor. Beautiful and colorful blooming trees surround what looks like a small town, but actually is a prison without a way out. A gigantic trap with over two thousand shacks, each housing a prostitute.
They call them “sex workers” and every day they momentarily satiate the ardor of about three thousand men. These women earn about two, three or four dollars at a time, depending on the man's satisfaction. Sometimes the man thinks the woman is not worth paying anything at all. On the skin the indelible marks of violent clients- bruises, cuts and burns. Inside their small tin sheds, they alleviate the solitude of tourists, sailors, longshoremen and myriads of deadbeat of all kinds. On the walls hang posters of famous actors: Kareena Kapoor, Sonam, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan. They have pictures of houses with gardens, a pond, parrots and flamboyant red cars parked in the yard. The average age of newly arriving sex workers is 14 years old (the age of consent), meaning some are even younger. Many of them are sold into sex work for a few hundred dollars, which then they are obligated to pay to the “madame," a figure that from that moment on will become a mother, a protector and also the owner of their bodies. Once their debt is repaid, which could take up to five years, they become independent sex workers and are free to leave the brothel. But these women are socially stigmatized outside their ‘homes,’ and thus often choose to stay and continue supporting their families with their earnings.
“Although it is difficult to express, I think that the photograph represents my way of speaking and what I try to do through my language is to capture the sense of what I breathe and touch with my hands. Not only in appearance but also, and especially, in the essence; trying to express nuances and subtleties contained in a single frame. I think that’s part of my personality and my work fully expresses what I am. My story, my soul”.
“Photography is a fantastic storytelling medium. Just ask yourself what story you want to tell and photography can bring you there”.
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Is called Daulatdia, the largest brothels in the world.
Built by the british during the colonial government, is now owned by a powerful local family.
It is strategically located between a railway station and a busy harbor. Beautiful and colorful blooming trees surround what looks like a small town, but actually is a prison without a way out. A gigantic trap with over two thousand shacks, each housing a prostitute.
They call them “sex workers” and every day they momentarily satiate the ardor of about three thousand men. These women earn about two, three or four dollars at a time, depending on the man's satisfaction. Sometimes the man thinks the woman is not worth paying anything at all. On the skin the indelible marks of violent clients- bruises, cuts and burns. Inside their small tin sheds, they alleviate the solitude of tourists, sailors, longshoremen and myriads of deadbeat of all kinds. On the walls hang posters of famous actors: Kareena Kapoor, Sonam, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan. They have pictures of houses with gardens, a pond, parrots and flamboyant red cars parked in the yard. The average age of newly arriving sex workers is 14 years old (the age of consent), meaning some are even younger. Many of them are sold into sex work for a few hundred dollars, which then they are obligated to pay to the “madame," a figure that from that moment on will become a mother, a protector and also the owner of their bodies. Once their debt is repaid, which could take up to five years, they become independent sex workers and are free to leave the brothel. But these women are socially stigmatized outside their ‘homes,’ and thus often choose to stay and continue supporting their families with their earnings.
About author:
Born and raised in a little village in the Italian Alps, now based in Barcelona, Mauro already felt from young age the desire to tell. He discovered that the camera was the right tool for him, the eye through which he could speak to the world. An instrument that began to walk by his side towards a long journey of discovery. Definitely, to grow by himself, without the influence of schools, courses and lessons has slowed down the process of technical knowledge, but because of this he learned his own way of seeing and been formed and shaped by the environment and the people who surrounded him in his long travels.“Although it is difficult to express, I think that the photograph represents my way of speaking and what I try to do through my language is to capture the sense of what I breathe and touch with my hands. Not only in appearance but also, and especially, in the essence; trying to express nuances and subtleties contained in a single frame. I think that’s part of my personality and my work fully expresses what I am. My story, my soul”.
“Photography is a fantastic storytelling medium. Just ask yourself what story you want to tell and photography can bring you there”.
BACK TO GALLERY