The $3000.00 prize goes to Angela Strassheim for her series Evidence and the $1000.00 Kodak Materials grant goes to Tiana Markova-Gold for her project Supporting the Human Rights of Sex Workers in Macedonia.
LTI / Lightside would like to acknowledge the considerable efforts of Amy Elkins and Cara Phillips of Women In Photography, Amani Olu and Jon Feinstein of Humble Arts Foundation and last but not least our astute guest judge, Karen Irvine of the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College, Chicago.
Angela Strassheim: Evidence.
2010 WIP - LTI / Lightside Individual Project Grant winner
Evidence #1, 2009
Evidence: Assorted Kitchen Knives, #2, 2009
Angela's project was borne of her insider's knowledge of professional forensic photography: she holds a Forensic & Biomedical Photography Certification from the Metro-Dade County, Forensic Imaging Bureau in Miami, Florida. It was through her experience in the field using the protein revealing chemical agent "Blue Star" (which has been flagrantly aggrandized on numerous detective TV dramas) that she began to imagine Evidence as a fine art series.
Please click on the above images to see and read more about Evidence.
Tiana Markova-Gold: Supporting the Human Rights of Sex Workers in Macedonia
2010 WIP - LTI / Lightside Kodak Materials Grant winner
Tiana Markova-Gold is a freelance documentary photographer based in Brooklyn. Since the spring of 2007 she has been working on an in-depth project about the lives of women in prostitution in New York City. In 2009 she traveled extensively through Asia, Nigeria and Brasil documenting social services projects with a particular focus on women and girls.
In the spring of 2009 Tiana was contacted by WITNESS, an international human rights advocacy organization regarding the possibility of a project about sex workers in Macedonia. WITNESS introduced Tiana to Healthy Options Project Skopje, a Macedonian organization working to empower sex workers and in March 2010 she made her first trip to Macedonia to begin photographing and recording their stories.
Kristina, from Supporting the Human Rights of Sex Workers in Macedonia, 2010
Prostitution is often referred to as “the oldest profession in the world”, but is also recognized by some as one of the oldest forms of oppression. The buying and selling of human flesh for the worldwide sex industry is now the third largest money-making venture in the world after illegal weapons and drugs. Advocacy for the human rights of people in prostitution is largely divided into two camps; those who believe prostitution, by its very nature, is exploitative and cannot be viewed as a valid form of employment; and those who believe it can be legitimate work when done with consent and respect in a safe environment. Unfortunately neither side seems able to acknowledge the validity of the other perspective or recognize the common goal of protecting the basic human rights of all people in prostitution.
In Macedonia, as throughout the world, sex workers are pushed to the margins of society by a combination of prejudice, discrimination, and violence. Sex workers inhabit a particularly vulnerable position in Macedonian society, facing harassment and violence not only from their clients and pimps, but also from law enforcement officials and other authorities. These abuses include illegal detention, compulsory testing for sexually transmitted diseases, and rape, which are compounded by the substandard enforcement of law and lack of access to health and support services. Adding to these challenges are the risks of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmittable infections, drug addiction, a hostile public attitude and mass-media harassment. Because of the tremendous negative stigma connected to prostitution in Macedonia, most sex workers are living double lives, concealing the fact that they are sex workers from their families and the communities in which they live. A disproportionate number of street-based sex workers, those most vulnerable, are members of the Roma community, Macedonia’s most harshly discriminated against ethnic minority group. Gay and transgender sex workers are often targeted and further marginalized because of their sexual or gender orientation.
It is Markova-Gold's hope that this project will be a source of support and empowerment for sex workers by providing a unique opportunity for them to speak about their lives in an honest, realistic, and most importantly, a safe and respectful way. In challenging public opinion, she believes that the first and most important step is for sex workers to recognize and change internalized negative beliefs about themselves - and through documenting their lives she hopes to counter the de-humanizing imagery that is so prevalent in mainstream media by asking the viewer to question their own preconceptions. The goal not being to provide answers but to pose questions and provoke dialogue.
Suto Orizari, from Supporting the Human Rights of Sex Workers in Macedonia, 2010
Skopje, Macedonia, from Supporting the Human Rights of Sex Workers in Macedonia, 2010
Skopje, Macedonia, from Supporting the Human Rights of Sex Workers in Macedonia, 2010
Dunja, Skopje, Macedonia, from Supporting the Human Rights of Sex Workers in Macedonia, 2010
More of Markova-Gold's images and story are forthcoming on the Women in Photography website beginning October 7th, 2010.
