The process behind this series involved meandering along Cape Town’s busiest drags at night and photographing sex-workers’ handbags with their consent, and after having informed them of all aspects of the project.
The sex-workers were paid a fee equivalent to what they would have earned had they been plying their trade. The transparency around this transaction is key to the the meaning of ‘Handbags’
I made the works in this way to provoke debates around sex, the body and photography. Men, woman and transsexual’s hands feature in this series.
The work has been shown in the South African National Gallery, and it has been shown abroad. It has never been shown in toto.
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