This archive report was first published on 15 July 2019.
Photographer Lindsay Irene has embarked on a project to humanize sex workers in Canada by capturing their daily lives at home.
Entitled Home Lives of Sex Workers in Canada, the project features over a dozen sex workers going about their normal routines, often with their pets by their side.
According to Lindsay, she hopes the photographs will help the public see sex workers as 'real people' who are 'not so unlike themselves.'
"I hope that by showing them in their home, caring for their animals, reading a book, playing video games or whatever it is that a sex worker does while not at work that perhaps the public can see them as a real person that is not so unlike themselves," Lindsay said.
The photographer explained that the sex workers she met have come from diverse backgrounds, with some having supportive families and others facing challenges such as disabilities and mental health issues.
"Some have supportive families, others ran away during their teen years and ended up doing survival sex work," Lindsay said.
She added that everyone she spoke with feels empowered by doing sex work and enjoys it, but struggles with the stigma surrounding the industry.
"Everyone I spoke with feels empowered by doing sex work and thoroughly enjoy it. What they don’t enjoy is having the ability to perform their job safely taken away from them," Lindsay said.
The project was sparked by Lindsay's friends in the sex industry asking her to take photographs for their use, which eventually led to her being approached by more workers and the launch of the project.
With her growing connections, Lindsay aimed to change the stigma surrounding sex work by asking those she met and later through social media to be photographed at home.
She noted that giving people a glimpse of home life was a more important area to focus on, as most of their 'at work' images are already publicly available on social media.
As the project continues to expand, Lindsay is looking to travel further around Canada and has recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to include more sex workers.
