Die andere Arbeit

"Die Andere Arbeit" explores the gap between the common portrayal and the professional reality of sex work. In close collaboration with sex workers, the project provides a nuanced report on overlooked aspects of their daily routines.

Sex work is legal in Switzerland - yet sex workers continue to face discrimination, stigma, and structural exclusion. The industry is often associated with crime, coercion and exploitation. Media portrayals tend to focus on personal tragedies or sensational sexual practices, while the voices of sex workers themselves are rarely heard.

My project "Die andere Arbeit" (engl. "The Other Work") explores the gap between public portrayal and the professional reality of sex work. The project offers a nuanced perspective on the daily routines, tasks, and strategies that shape the working lives of sex workers – while also challenging stereotypes of the profession itself, as well as broader ideas around the female body, self-determination and the meaning of work.

At the heart of the project are not the sexual services, but the aspects of the job that usually remain unseen: cleaning, preparation, communication, self-care, financial planning, and safety precautions. My aim is to present these tasks visually without relying on stereotypes or sensationalism. My photographic approach combines staged still lifes, interior scenes and performative portraits. Using direct flash, I created precise, fragmentary images that offer insights into the everyday without revealing the identities of the people involved. What emerges is a quiet intimacy that carefully balances closeness and distance. The project is based in thorough research and close collaboration. I developed visual concepts together with sex workers, whose realisation was grounded in mutual trust and respect.

Excerpts from interviews form an integral part of the project, sharing experiences of self-management, emotional preparation, client communication, structural challenges and social stigma. The project also includes documents such as contracts, receipts and other materials drawn from daily working life, which makes the bureaucratic, regulated and economic aspects of the profession visible. The design of the dummy deliberately echoes the aesthetics of file folders. This formal reference points to the institutional structures that govern sex work, while simultaneously asserting its legitimacy as a form of organised labour. The sober, matter-of-fact layout provides a visual framework that encourages reflection without moralising or sensationalising.

"Die andere Arbeit" positions itself as an artistic-documentary contribution to the visibility of sex work as a complex and legitimate field of labour. Through a combination of research, photography and dialogue, I hope to call for a shift in perspective – one that recognises the diversity, professionalism and social relevance of sex work.