Pin 21 Male Sex Worker, Thailand 2007

A worthy series Gerry. Easy to understand that this will not get a raft of comments due to it be male and the association of sex working.

Did you process your film in Thailand or did you box it and hand carry it through the airports?

Nice to have you posting again, Gerry. I thought your series was strong and I'm impressed by how you've handled a topic that's difficult for a whole array of reasons.

Excellent series.

I too think your work is great and explores an important area. Surely the varied comments (!) you've received in the past just underlines the relevance of a photo project on male sex workers?

Cheers,
Gavin

Running across this in the critique forum introduced me to your work...I am glad that I took the time to look through your portfolio. Thank you for taking the time to make these available to us for viewing.

I like this shot in your studio with flash and a blank background. It is more challenging to convey lives of people without their surroundings. The blank white background forces us to confront the subject much like the subject confronts the camera. It moves the image out of "reportage" into portraiture. It also takes the subject out of context which, ironically, I think makes them more human (maybe because it makes them seem more vulnerable?). Of course the image benefits by the context of the titles and the series, but seeing the image first is what prompted me to see the series.

Just rambling on here... I just want to throw my hat in with the many who wish to encourage you.

Was having trouble uploading the image, was surprised it was here, let me catch up now!
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Carl:
Thank You
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Eric:
I have done both. In 1999 and 2003 I processed my b/w film (35mm and 120) in my bathroom darkrooms in Thailand. For this series shot on 8x10 I brought the film back to Canada and developed it in my Jobo in my nice big darkroom. It was so much easier to do in Canada rather than crouching on the floor in a Thai bathroom next to the toilet!

The film was carried in several boxes something like 400 sheets of 8x10 and 250 sheets of 5x7 were shot. I got it xrayed 3 times going there and 0 times coming back (Airport Security at 3 locations handchecked it inside a film changing bag with some convincing.)
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Colin:
Thanks I have decided to try and get this work shown at a gallery somewhere/anywere in the world! (he said with desperation in his typing) My first one man show hopefully will eventually come about someday sometime, I want to get this work shown, I think it is important. I am going through all the Sex Worker negs and making nice scans of them from prints. I will use them for my submissions and also my webpage. I can also post a few here for you folks to see as a bonus.
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Gavin:
I always like comments, negative or positive. It sure beats the hell out of no one paying attention. I think any comment is something you can think about and learn from and hopefully it improves your work.
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Keith:
Thanks..I love APUG also. The knowledge here is amazing you can ask any question related to any photography film topic and get numerous useful replies. I started here awhile back on sort of hunch but damn I will stay now as long as I can!

I also like the simplicity of the Avedon style white background, it makes things simple and direct and your eye can concentrate on the subject of the portrait as everything else is neutral.

Thanks very much, yes I worry at times about the titles. One of the reaons I started shooting nudity (as related to sex workers) and to try to include more bar related stuff (numbers, bikinis etc that the workers wear in their bars) was that I wanted to convey things visually without the use of titles. I shot lots of sexworkers on the street in 1999(you can see those photos in the bargirl section of my webpage) and people kept saying nice photo but are they sex workers really? I was not getting my message accross. People could not believe it so I decided to make the work more graphic to show things more visually. I still rely on the titles thou, especially in photos like this one where the background is white (not an enviromental portrait).

I also want to do more enviromental style work as many people here in APUG have suggested I should do.

Thanks everyone Gerry

www.gerryyaum.com
www.gerryyaum.blogspot.com