Jiji 29 Ladyboy Sex Worker, Thailand 2008

Yes!

I am very interested, how do you approach your models?

looking at your whole series why is it the shemales look better than the females that's weird

with more and more uploads , the series is getting some shape and sense, and it feels very good ... i love the repeated directness, both in pose of your models (not only choreographically but mentally too) and in photographic style which retains some sense of simple reportage style (kind of photographed with flash, though here it is not on-camera flash, but it gives a bit of that feeling because of directness)... interesting project, and looking forward to see more from u for better critical view and to have a better sense of the whole project...

Arigram, the people from this series work either in shortime bars (bars with shortime sex rooms) or they work freelance on different streets. I have been shooting various subjects in the scene since 1996. In the time I have been making the photos I have learned to communicate on a basic level in Thai so now it is just a matter of going to areas sitting down talking and meeting people. I usually explain what I am doing, show them photos of my work etc and make friends so the people will be comfortable with me. I explain everything before hand so there is no confusion when we go to make the pictures. These ladyboy shots were made mostly in the shortime rooms as were the bargirl photos of 2003 (my website), in 2007 I had a studio setup with 8x10 camera so that year the people came to me, I would make appointments and they would show(or not show!!). The more often I go to Thai the more friends I have and the easier it is to make photographs. Usually when I do a shoot the person will ask to do it again, this year shot 6 people that I photographed last year.

Michael, some are quite beautiful and also nice people. Many times foreign males go with a ladyboy and only find out LATER what the whole deal is! You can usually tell from body shape (wide shoulders, narrow hips) and voice whether the person is a ladyboy or a lady. Behavior is also a big tell, woman are almost always shyer and more polite.

Vic thanks very much for your comments. I will be posting more images in the near future. I have all the 4x5 film developed now. I still have to develop 120 and 220(color) film from this series, will also post that stuff later.

Fascinating series.
Now I need to ask, what is a Bananram 8x10 ?

it (Bananrama) is a 4x5 camera...polaroid rangefinder converted to 4x5 by Dean Jones (Razzle camera)....I used a Kodak Masterview 8x10 for my 2007 sex worker studio stuff. This current series was done with the Razzle 4x5 (Dean Jones the maker named the camera the Banarama because it is yellow). You can see the camera on my blog.

http://gerryyaum.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-bananarama-online.html