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152 M. Capous-Desyllas and V. A. Forro

Tensions, Challenges, and Lessons Learned 151

Journal of Community Practice

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Tensions, Challenges, and Lessons Learned:

Methodological Reflections From Two Photovoice

Projects With Sex Workers

Moshoula Capous-Desyllas & Vanessa A. Forro

To cite this article: Moshoula Capous-Desyllas & Vanessa A. Forro (2014) Tensions, Challenges, and Lessons Learned: Methodological Reflections From Two Photovoice Projects With Sex Workers, Journal of Community Practice, 22:1-2, 150-175, DOI: 10.1080/10705422.2014.901269

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10705422.2014.901269

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Journal of Community Practice, 22:150–175, 2014

Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

ISSN: 1070-5422 print/1543-3706 online DOI: 10.1080/10705422.2014.901269

Tensions, Challenges, and Lessons Learned:

Methodological Reflections From Two

Photovoice Projects With Sex Workers

MOSHOULA CAPOUS-DESYLLAS

Department of Sociology, California State University–Northridge, Northridge, CA, USA

VANESSA A. FORRO

Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Case Western Reserve University,

Cleveland, OH, USA

We present two arts-based research studies that implemented photovoice method with diverse individuals working in the sex industry. Although these photovoice projects took place in two different cities and at various points in time, their purpose was similar: to highlight the needs, aspirations, health concerns, and issues related to sex workers’ personal lives and their communities to create awareness and social change. In this article, we locate ourselves in our research and describe our methodological process, specifically focusing on how each project manifested in our cities and within our communities. Our aim is to provide insight on the implementation of photovoice method, our personal struggles and challenges within our respective projects at various stages, and how to challenge institutional and social obstacles in conducting photovoice research with sex workers.

KEYWORDS collaboration, community research, social action, social justice, needs assessment, community-based participatory research

Address correspondence to Moshoula Capous-Desyllas, California State University– Northridge, Sociology, 18111 Nordhoff Street, Santa Susana Hall, Northridge, CA 91330. E-mail: [email protected]

150

INTRODUCTION

Sex work is often discussed within the context of discrimination or violence and sex trafficking, but rarely within the frame of autonomy, human rights, or self-regulation. Oftentimes, academic research is conducted on sex workers, instead of with them. Research and statistics on sex workers and the sex industry is largely led by the medical community and positivist approaches to research, without regard for sex workers’ personal stories or lives. This article discusses two research studies that implemented the arts-based research method of photovoice with individuals working in the sex industry. These community-based projects took place in two cities in the United States: Portland, Oregon and Cleveland, Ohio. Informed by different disciplinary perspectives, both studies utilized the participatory approach of photovoice with sex workers to highlight their needs, aspirations, concerns, and issues related to their personal lives and communities.

The Portland study, called Visions and Voices, was informed by an anti-oppressive approach to social work research that values voice, agency and self-determination, while addressing intersecting oppressions among marginalized people and the pursuit of social justice. Visions and Voices, conducted by the first author, aimed to capture the needs, aspirations, and lived experiences of sex workers, and the complex and multilayered realities of their lives. The Cleveland study, called The Red Umbrella Photo Project and conducted by the second author, sought to revisit the health needs of sex workers in the Cleveland area. This project was based on contemporary public health principles and practices whereby engaging communities to use their voice to define and make their health concerns known is as important as providing prevention and treatment services (Wallack, Dorfman, Jernigan, & Themba, 1993). In this article, we locate ourselves in our research and briefly describe the use of the photovoice method and our processes, specifically focusing on how each project manifested in our cities and within our communities. Our goal is to highlight the lessons we learned from implementing our photovoice studies, including tensions, challenges, limitations, and ethical issues that we encountered.

PHOTOVOICE METHOD

Photovoice is an arts-based, qualitative research method with participatory features (Mitchell & Allnutt, 2008), that combines health promotion principles and community-based approaches to documentary photography. Photovoice emerged from an arts-based research method that was originally coined “photo novella” by Wang, Burris, and Ping (1996, p. 1). In photo novellas, participants use a variety of visual methods, including paintings, sculpture, body casting, and written narratives to artistically express their experiences (Herbison & Lokanc-Diluzio, 2006), whereas photovoice denotes the specific use of photography to illustrate stories. Photovoice was first developed by Caroline Wang and colleagues in the 1990s in the Ford Foundation-supported Women’s Reproductive Health and Development Program in Yunnan, China (Wang & Burris, 1997). This program provided cameras to Chinese village women who photographed their everyday health and work realities and communicated their issues and concerns to policy makers. Since then, many studies have utilized photovoice to illustrate community needs and to involve less privileged populations in a research process to create social and political change.

The process of photovoice entails giving cameras to individuals who use photography to identify, represent, and enhance their communities (Wang & Burris, 1997). Participant-generated images provide an opportunity for traditionally silenced populations to document their lives and environments (Hubbard, 1994). As a form of self-expression, visual techniques provide a window into the participant’s (photographer’s) immediate environment, significant relationships, feelings, and perceptions of self (Hubbard, 1994). Through photovoice, the power of the visual image is used to communicate life experiences and perceptions, which then has the power to influence social policy. Specifically, this method is used in communities with limited power or status to communicate to influential community advocates where change must occur. The three main goals of photovoice are: (a) to enable people to record and reflect their community’s strengths and concerns, (b) to promote critical dialogue and knowledge about important community issues through large and small group discussions of photographs, and (c) to reach policy makers and others who can be mobilized for change (Wang, Cash, & Powers, 2000; Wang & Burris, 1997). The methodological steps in conducting a photovoice project are outlined in Table 1.

Our two research studies, Visions and Voices (conducted by the first author) and the Red Umbrella Photo Project (conducted by the second author) implemented the photovoice method with individuals working in diverse aspects of the sex industry. In the following sections, we describe the ways in which our photovoice project took shape in two different cities, illustrating how our challenges and struggles informed our process. The terms participant(s), sex worker(s) and artist(s) are used interchangeably in this

TABLE1 Methodological Steps in Photovoice

1. Identifying the site of the photovoice study

2. Engaging in community partnership and support

3. Recruiting participants

4. Conducting photovoice training workshops

5. Participants taking photographs in their communities

6. Participants engaging in dialogue centered around their photographs

7. Disseminating photographs to the public through community art exhibit(s)

article to capture the depth and range of embodied experiences of each individual who took part in this study.

LOCATING OURSELVES Visions and Voices

As a first generation immigrant, I have occupied and navigated spaces in the margins and on the borders, between cultures, languages, and identities. At times, depending on my geographical and social location, I identify as a woman of color and at other times I am read as ethnic. My racial identity is fluid, as is my sexual identity, although I am currently in a heterosexual relationship. I’m an able-bodied, cis-gender female of the working class. These fluid places of constant navigation have allowed me to feel at home, as well as a stranger, in the spaces that I embody, whether they are in academia, in my personal life or out on the streets.

My interest in conducting research with sex workers followed my initial interest in the feminist debates on sex work. The complexity and politicized nature of sex work challenged me to examine my own ideas about sex work, acquired through media representations and images. As a social worker, prior to engaging in this research, my clinical experience with individuals working in the sex industry was limited to working in a drug and alcohol treatment program that served dual-diagnosed, previously incarcerated individuals (some of whom had worked in the sex industry) and working with children of sex workers. I had never engaged in sex work, nor had I ever participated in other aspects of the sex industry. I acknowledged that my reality was very different from the study participants, but after getting to know the women who participated in the project, I was surprised to see where our lives intersected.

Theoretically, I believe that women’s experiences of working in the sex industry can vary according to age, social location, gender, race, and even personality or mood. I consider it important to avoid moralistic positions when discussing commercial sex work between consenting adults. I believe in a sex workers’ rights-based approach, which demands citizenship rights for sex workers and their right to work with dignity, safety, and without discrimination.

Prior to starting this research, I wanted to immerse myself in various communities of sex workers, so that I wouldn’t feel like an outsider coming in to do research on a population. I sought out various opportunities to become more involved with communities of sex workers and with the social service agencies that encountered them. I volunteered as an activist with a local coalition involved in outreach to sex workers, the Sex Worker Outreach Coalition (SWOC). Through these experiences, I built relationships within various communities of sex workers and with multiple social service providers. It was important to me to feel connected to other sex worker activists in the community prior to recruitment for the project. I also wanted to build trust. It was through SWOC that I met my community partner, a fellow activist and sex workers’ rights advocate, with whom I implemented our photovoice project.

My status as a social work researcher granted me certain privileges and power that I often felt uncomfortable with. Throughout the research process, there were many times when I tried to equalize and share power with the participants in the study. Using photovoice method with sex workers allowed for a more participatory way of knowledge making and sharing, but not without its challenges.

The Red Umbrella Photo Project

I am a White, cis-gender female. I explore my sexuality to varying degrees depending on geographical and social location, but most people see my partnership as heterosexual. I am able-bodied and of the working class. I embody the identities of student/researcher/activist. As a former board member and outreach workers of St. Paul’s Community Outreach, I felt that I had a basic knowledge of, and experience with, street-based outreach in various capacities and in various cities. My experience as a social worker and case manager for a prostitution diversion program also gave me some insight into street-based sex workers and the complexities that street workers face. I have always been intrigued by sex work dialogue and interested in learning about individuals’ experiences in the sex industry. The latter part of my undergraduate life included personal experience working in the exotic dance industry and learning about the history and people involved in the sex worker’s rights movement. My perspective on sex work is informed by personal experiences of working in the sex industry and the experiences of other sex workers that I know personally and professionally.

As an activist, I have curated and co-curated arts and film events by, for, and about sex workers and the commercial adult sex industry. These events were all benefits for organizations that serve sex workers and people involved in the sex industry. They were aimed to educate viewers on various aspects and perspectives of life in the sex industry. Prior to beginning my photovoice project, I was well aware of the differences in my experiences in the sex industry compared to those of street-based sex workers. I did not have easy access to this very underground group of individuals, which is why my partnership with St. Paul’s outreach workers was extremely valuable in reaching street-based sex workers.

I felt that my place in both communities—the sex worker community and arts as activism community—was well-established prior to pursuing The Red Umbrella Photo Project. However, because of my role as a researcher, I often found myself navigating various boundaries to refrain from comparing my personal sex work experience to those of the participants’ experiences (which I felt were in stark contrast to my own). I recognize that I am not an expert on the sex industry and attempted to balance my role of researcher and participant throughout the project by handing over ownership of what story to tell, what to photograph, and how to position oneself in the photovoice process.

COMMUNITY CONTEXT Visions and Voices

This project emerged out of varying circumstances in our community with regards to sex workers. These included a change in local prostitution policy, the criminalization of sex workers, and the lack of social services available for sex workers in Portland, Oregon. Beginning in 1995, the City of Portland enacted the Prostitution Free Zone (PFZ) ordinance, which allowed law enforcement to issue citations of exclusion from designated areas to individuals suspected of engaging in prostitution. For 90 days, anyone arrested for prostitution in the designated area (along 82nd Ave.) was not allowed to return without submitting an appeal, even if they had never been charged. The implementation of PFZs resulted in the segregation of public space and the criminalization of behavior without actual legal indictment (Gittleman, 2010). After the PFZ ordinance expired in September 2007, the community responded in an uproar. There was an influx of complaints from neighborhood associations regarding visible street workers in their neighborhoods and a perceived increase in crime. This response contributed to the further stigmatization and marginalization of individuals working in the sex industry in Portland.

During the summer months of 2008, I attended numerous town hall meetings focused on addressing the needs of sex workers and those of the community living around the 82nd Avenue neighborhood. I observed that the voices of law enforcement, business owners, neighborhood associations, and radical feminists (who viewed all sex work as sexual exploitation and a form of oppression) were present. However, the diverse voices and perspectives of sex workers, themselves, were silenced and missing from the community dialogue meetings. There were many discriminatory statements made, and actions taken, against sex workers from members of the community, law enforcement, neighborhood associations, and anti-prostitution groups. In response to the injustice, various social workers and sex worker advocates (myself included) highlighted the need to address the underlying causes of sex work. We made efforts to explain that improved access to housing, employment, and treatment services would be a better response than criminalization. Meanwhile, there were no agencies in Portland that provided social services to sex workers, specifically to address their needs.

SWOC was formed in an attempt to address the gap in services available to sex workers. Although the efforts of SWOC advocates held a powerful place within the community and contributed to the activism surrounding the PFZs, the voices of individuals currently working in the sex industry and their self-identified needs were missing.

Taking into account the community unrest over the termination of the PFZs, the lack of social services available for sex workers, the significance of sex workers’ own voices, and their need for self-representation, I felt that it was important to select a methodology that would provide an opportunity for female sex workers in Portland to have a voice. I was interested in providing sex workers with the opportunity to express and represent their needs and aspirations in a creative, effective and meaningful way in order to reach a broad audience with the potential for empowerment and community change.

The Red Umbrella Photo Project

The Cleveland Department of Public Health conducted a rapid assessment, response, and evaluation study (Keagey, 2006) in 2005. The purpose of this assessment was to better understand the unique needs of sex workers, determine how to address their needs, and gather information from sex workers regarding HIV/AIDS risk and barriers. Among 54 sex workers, 72% of sex workers acknowledged that they were at risk for HIV. Forty-four percent reported that current HIV/AIDS services were inadequate for their particular population. The report cited that barriers to seeking HIV/AIDS services include lack of motivation, lack of privacy, and unavailability of services specifically for sex workers. Findings also indicated that sex workers wanted more outreach services and nonjudgmental services specific to their needs (Keagey, 2006). Since this assessment, there has been little sex-worker specific programming outside of street-outreach services provided through St. Paul’s Community Outreach.

St. Paul’s Community Outreach is an outreach project managed through St. Paul’s Community Church on Cleveland’s near west side. It is the only program in the city of Cleveland that specifically provides referral services and HIV/AIDS-based outreach to street-based sex workers. The outreach workers have a strong presence on the streets on Cleveland’s west side and have built a strong rapport with the street-based sex worker community. St. Paul’s Community Outreach has been involved in attempting to mediate anti-prostitution community actions such as ho-downs and public john shaming campaigns by talking to community members about the deeper social issues that may influence people to engage in sex work or seek out sex as a customer. The outreach workers regularly ask individuals who live in high prostitution areas to call them, instead of the police, if solicitation is a concern. St. Paul’s has a long history in Cleveland’s west side as promoting peaceful mediation, community engagement, and meeting the needs of marginalized individuals.

As I explored community partners, I felt that St. Paul’s Community Outreach program was an ideal opportunity to attempt a photovoice project with street-based sex workers. I held various conversations with the program manager and one of the outreach workers, and we felt that a photovoice project would be an opportunity to engage street-based workers on a different level.

IMPLEMENTING THE PHOTOVOICE METHOD Participant Recruitment

Visions and Voices. Multiple methods and strategies of recruitment were implemented over a period of 4 months. Initially, I was confident that there would be lots of interest in participating in this photovoice study, given the recent community events surrounding the PFZ policy and my role as an activist in the community. However, recruitment was a lot more difficult than I expected.

Study flyers were created and distributed in various neighborhoods and venues in Portland, where it was assumed that individuals working in the sex industry might be located. These locations included: inside the dressing rooms and bathrooms of different exotic dance clubs, a methadone clinic, an outreach clinic for the homeless, and various drop-in centers for the homeless. Flyers were also passed out to women working in the sex industry through street outreach with my community partner. I had one experience outside of a strip club where I was yelled at and cursed by a group of four exotic dancers who I approached with a study flyer. They angrily asked me and my community partner what we were doing there, while injecting their speech with curse words to question our motives. For hours after this encounter I felt guilty and anxious and wondered about how we had been perceived by the women, and how I might have (mis)represented myself to elicit such an angry response. Questions that came up for me included: How could I (blindly) enter this space, shaped by socio-economic status and race, and (naively) think that I would just be accepted? What did this reveal about my own privilege? How might the different color of our skin and our social and class privilege have played a role in how we were perceived, distrusted and rejected? Would I have received the same response if I had been alone?

Another recruitment approach involved mailing a letter describing the study to various social service agencies that were known to serve sex workers (e.g., those that had needle exchange programs). On-line methods were also used to recruit potential participants by posting a graphic version of the study flyer on the SWOC web site, list-serve and Myspace webpage. Some women shared with us that they misunderstood our study flyer and thought that we wanted to photograph them. This assumption on the part of potential participants led to a revision of the study flyer. I was concerned about whether this study appeared to be too demanding, time-consuming, or uninteresting to individuals working in the sex industry. I also worried that my status as an outsider played a role in the lack of interest. I found that once participants moved through the stages of the photovoice process, had more contact with me and my community partner, and gained our trust, they slowly referred their friends and acquaintances to the study.

The recruitment process took place over a period of 4 months, with participants beginning the photovoice process immediately after they consented to participate in the study. My community partner and I stayed in close contact with each participant and maintained constant communication with the women during the process of photo-taking, as well as afterwards, meeting each one of them at least six times during the course of the study. It was important for us to build a strong relationship with the participants and nurture their investment in the project, especially because we were planning for a community art exhibit at the end of the project. I also interacted with some of the participants through my activism with SWOC (some participants also engaged in activism). A few participants were homeless and living in the downtown area, so I met with them often on the streets to stay connected.

A total of 11 female sex workers participated in this study from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds, as well as ability status. The women were between the ages of 18 and 52 years old, with varied educational experience and social class backgrounds. The types of sex work that the women engaged in included: street work, escorting, exotic dancing/stripping, prodominatrix/BDSM work, erotic massage, and erotic nude modeling. The years of experience working in the sex industry ranged from 7 months to 39 years. Some of the women had children and/or were in a serious relationship. Their living situations varied (from living in the streets to living in a house with roommates), and for some, changed over time.

The Red Umbrella Photo Project

The initial recruitment focus for this project was primarily street-based sex workers. One location that the primary outreach worker and I identified as an ideal space to do outreach and hold most of the group and individual sessions was a place called The Lorain Storefront, or The Drop, a weekly drop-in center operated through the Catholic Workers. This was a central location where many sex workers lived and went to receive other things such as food, clothing, alternative medicine, and basic health screenings. I was hopeful that this location would be a successful recruiting option because I thought that it was a neutral place where street-based sex workers felt comfortable and safe. There were enough private rooms in the upstairs portion of the building so that confidentiality and anonymity would be maintained.

At first, I felt like an outsider when spending time at The Drop, whether I was doing outreach or just being present in that community. It was quite difficult to approach potential participants without the outreach worker initiating contact. One individual explained that the sex workers who came to The Drop were hesitant to trust outsiders and often denied their work in the sex industry. We quickly learned that privacy and anonymity was greatly influenced by trust and the illegal status of prostitution, as evidenced by our interactions with several street-based sex workers who were approached at The Drop about the project. When we gave them information cards and explained the project, they quickly denied being a sex worker or ever engaging in the sex industry. One individual became very aggressive and their words were toned with offense and surprise that we would approach them as a potential participant. The outreach worker explained to me that she approached only the individuals whom she knew worked on the streets and we felt that my outsider status influenced these kinds of reactions. We also thought that the term sex worker confused people because this term is mostly used in academic language and among other groups of the sex industry, as opposed to street-based workers. We realized that we often had to reword or rephrase the language we used on study documents to accommodate how participants identified or located themselves in the sex industry. This fluidity of language humbled me and encouraged me to be sensitive to how individuals engaged in the sex industry see their work and how they want others to see them in the context of sex work.

After approximately 2 months of attempting to recruit through street outreach and outreach at The Drop with no success, we decided to post fliers at clubs, bars, and other social service centers. I also created a closed social media group on Facebook. Although the initial recruitment plan targeted only street-based sex workers, we felt that, in the interest of the project timeline, we should expand to other areas of the sex industry. Additionally, another rationale for this shift in recruitment was because there is not one profile of sex workers, and activities in the sex industry are varied and cross many different groups and subgroups. The outreach worker and I were approached by a service provider at the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trangender (LGBT) Center in Cleveland who learned of the project and invited us to come speak to some groups there. We learned that service providers knew of several service users who traded sex for money, food, housing, or other needs, and we were invited to talk about the photovoice project.

One of the presentations was to a trans family support group, which included individuals who identify as transgender, transsexual, intersex, and their friends and family. Studies suggest that social stigma and discrimination, in part, limit opportunities for income generation for a large proportion of transgender individuals (Clements, 1999; Nemoto, 2006; Sausa, 2007). Oppression and social marginalization experienced by some trans folk makes work in the sex industry a viable option. However, I felt uncomfortable recruiting participants at a trans family support group because I wanted to avoid the assumption that certain groups of people are engaged in sex work. However, I trusted the individuals who worked at these organizations and valued their invitation to recruit for the photovoice study. As an outsider to this community, I was very aware of my position as a White, cis-gender female not affiliated with this organization, and approached the group mindful of the language that I used. For example, I presented the project as a general photovoice study and I explained that there were other requirements to participate. I invited interested individuals to call me or to speak with me after the presentation for more information. I felt that this presented a level of confidentiality so that people wouldn’t have to feel outed. The level of positive interest from this group was a surprise to me, yet I was very cautious when discussing the intersections between sex work and trans communities. I am not an expert on this aspect of the sex industry, yet I felt that it was important to give an opportunity to those who wanted to participate to do so. We recruited one individual as a result of this presentation.

After my presentation, several individuals came up to me after the presentation to ask questions and to take an information card. One individual expressed concern that the presentation potentially implied connections between sex work and the trans community. I appreciated this information and felt that I was not informed enough about the trans community to anticipate an offensive reaction. The recruitment process for our project is one of the methodological tensions that I still grapple with. I still struggle with whether presenting the project to the trans family support group was a good idea, and whether or not my actions perpetuated further stigma and discrimination.

The other support group that we approached to recruit participants for the study consisted of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex (LGBTQI) youth between the ages of 14 and 24, which was more of a safe-space environment, rather than an organized or formal group format. My initial concern about presenting our photovoice project to this group was the issue around age. I asked the manager to have us present the project only to those youth who she knew were 18 and older. Garofalo and colleagues’ (2006) pilot study of transgender female youth of color showed that 61% reported employment difficulties and a high prevalence of family rejection. Another study found family rejection was the primary reason many transgender youth reported unstable housing and economic instability, this also playing a role in sex work involvement (Grossman D’Augelli, 2006). Similarly, numerous studies (Clatts & Davis, 1999; Forst, 1994; Kipke et al., 1995; Lankenau et al., 2005) have emphasized various economic and survival techniques of homeless sexual minority youth (lesbian, gay, bisexual) including survival sex. Gayidentified homeless youth are at high risk of engaging in sex work (Kruks, 1991). Unique life stressors, such as issues of disclosing to family, verbal and physical abuse, and rejection, have been directly related to sexual minority youth and their sexual behavior and identity (Savin-Williams, 1994). The outreach worker and I used the same conservative presentation delivery as I did with the trans family group, cautious about not reinforcing stereotypes and assumptions. We explained the general aims of the project without explaining that we were specifically targeting individuals who engaged in sex work. We recruited three individuals as a result of this presentation, and two more through word-of-mouth. The outreach worker and I continued to be present at The Drop to recruit participants for our project. We were able to enroll three more street-based sex workers at the end of 3 months.

The Red Umbrella Photo Project took up to 4 months to recruit a total of nine participants. It was important to start participants in the photo-taking process at the time of consent, rather than wait for a large group to be formed. Thus, our first consented participant was in June and our last consented participant was in early September. Participants started the project once they were consented. This is largely due to the variety of sex workers that were recruited to participate in this project. Some were street-based sex workers, and very difficult to recruit and retain. Others were escorts, who had very different schedules, and some worked out of clubs or houses. We maintained connections with our participants through weekly phone calls and in-person communication, which I feel was very valuable to building trust and personal relationships with each participant. A few participants went through the process together; others participated in the project alone or had a friend accompany them through the photo-taking process.

All participants were over the age of 18 years old, however, demographic information was not intentionally collected for the Red Umbrella Photo Project. Demographic information was not collected due to potential university Institutional Review Board ethical issues that may have arisen, thus lessening the very short time there was to initiate and complete the project. Although gender identity was not explicitly collected, one participant portrayed a gender-queer identity in one of their images as expressed in the description of their photograph. For example, this individual stated, “I took a picture of this because I’m both a boy and girl; I have to be on time for a lot of things, especially sex work. It’s a picture that describes my double life.” Another artist showed me pictures of their family, including her Native Indian/American father. The participants came from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds. Through their photographs, they represented various ages, social classes, and identified as female, male or trans. As previously mentioned, they worked in diverse aspects of the sex industry.

Photovoice Training and Individual Dialogue Sessions

Visions and Voices. Each woman began her participation in the project by attending a group or individual photovoice training workshop to ensure knowledge of the study goals, photovoice method, procedures, risks, and ethics prior to taking photographs. However, I experienced difficulties with recruitment and obtaining enough potential participants to engage in a group photovoice training workshop. Potential participants may not have wanted to attend a photovoice group training session due to the stigma associated with sex work. For those who expressed interest in attending a group session, it was difficult to find a time when everyone available. Thus, after facilitating one group workshop, I decided to invite potential participants to meet with me individually for a photovoice training workshop. Meeting with the women individually often provided the opportunity to connect on a deeper, more personal level (if they were interested in doing so). The informal nature of the individual photovoice training workshops allowed me to be attuned to each individual participant. Their fluid, individualized nature emphasized a sense of power in comparison to conducting a group photovoice training workshop where there was a sense of talking to a group of women instead of with each individual. Conducting the individual photovoice training workshops (within hours or days after a receiving a phone call from a potential participant) was also helpful for retaining participants and engaging them immediately in the research study.

There was one instance that caught me off guard and led me to explore my personal style and needs as a person, not just as a researcher. After completing a photovoice training with one of the participants at a local coffee shop, I assumed that, after we discussed the process, timeline, etc., we would spend a few moments connecting, as I had experienced with other participants thus far. For me, connecting usually involved an exchange of ideas, the sharing of personal information, and an expressed sense of where each one of us was coming from. However, after this particular photovoice training session, the participant immediately left without engaging in any conversation beyond the scope of the study. I felt a sense of rejection and questioned whether she would contact me again or discontinue her participation in the study. Why didn’t she want to get to know me? Why didn’t she ask any questions? Didn’t she want us to connect? How could she trust me if she didn’t really get to know me? Although all of these questions entered my mind, I realized that these were my needs of wanting to establish rapport, connection, and trust, and they weren’t needs and values that I could impose on someone or expect some to share with me. My personality and own personal needs were interacting with the researcher side of me. This tension revealed my need to be informal and friendly with the participants as a way of bridging the power inequality and sense of authority that my title and role held.

After attending a photovoice training workshop, each participant was given her own 35mm camera to take 36 black-and-white photographs of her needs and aspirations. There were no specific questions or guides given to the participants to assist them with their photo-taking; the themes were fluid and left up to their own interpretation and definition of what constituted a need and an aspiration. The women were instructed to take approximately 18 photographs of their needs, and 18 photographs of their aspirations, and were encouraged to take photographs of people, places, and objects that would represent their lived experiences. After the women went back to their communities to photo-document their lives, their rolls of film were developed and individual dialogue sessions were held with each participant to reflect and discuss her images. Typically, photovoice method advocates for a participatory group dialogue session for sharing photographs (Wang & Burris, 1997). However, I found that holding individual dialogue sessions with each artist was deemed more helpful in this study, due to the sensitive content of some photographs and the private nature of some reflections. I wanted to eliminate any potential for participant discomfort in sharing their photographs and stories within a larger group. Holding individual dialogue sessions with each participant also gave me more time to connect with each woman individually. The only limitation of holding individual dialogue sessions in lieu of an initially group dialogue session was the amount of time the individual meetings required and the decreased opportunity for building solidarity among the participants. However, I believe that the opportunity for group unity was provided in the next stage of the study, by inviting participants to attend two group dialogue sessions.

Ideally, the time between the photovoice training workshop, the individual dialogue session, and the group dialogue session should have been minimal (around a month), to stay connected with each participant and to support follow-through. However, in this study, although some women took a week to take their photographs, others took well over 3 weeks, prolonging the individual and group dialogue sessions over a period of 3 months. It was stressful trying to contact participants about their film, especially when it would take weeks for some women to call me back.

Some of the participants did not encounter any problems with their cameras, film, or developing, with almost every photograph being in focus. However, technical problems were encountered with a few. One participant’s camera stopped working in the middle of her photo-shoot. We were able to replace her battery so that she could successfully complete her roll of film. Another woman reported her camera breaking after she had taken 10 photographs. This participant made the decision to shoot the rest of her photos for the project with her personal digital camera instead of using another 35mm camera.

One participant did not return any of my phone calls after her individual training session. Eventually, she asked her friend (also in the study) to relay to me her embarrassment around leaving her camera at someone’s home and being unable to retrieve it. Even after we gave her a new roll of film, she was hesitant to continue participating in the study. She eventually revealed that she had also lost her second roll of film that she had spent time shooting.

We were surprised to learn that after losing two rolls of film, she had proactively bought a roll of black-and-white film on her own to complete the project.

Two participants turned in their cameras with only 1/3 of the photographs taken. Both expressed feeling too pressured to meet the deadline. I met with each woman individually and explained that they could take as long as they needed to capture the photographs they wanted. I asked each artist if she would be willing and able to complete her roll of film before the scheduled group dialogue session. Both women needed more time; within a few days they successfully completed their roll of film. However, one of the two artists accidentally opened her camera (to remove her film) before the film had time to completely rewind, thus exposing a few photographs that were meaningful to her. After we developed her film and discovered which photographs had been lost to light-exposure, she chose to use a digital camera to capture the four images that she had lost.

Prior to beginning each individual dialogue session, each woman’s subjectivity (living and working experiences) was explored through open-ended questions about their identities, work experiences, and other demographic information. The individual dialogue sessions lasted anywhere from 1 to 3 hours with each woman. The participants were asked to share 8–10 of their favorite images; however, it is interesting to note that every participant chose to discuss all 36 of her photographs that she had taken. Afterward, each participant was given the option to write her own artist biography or verbally provide what information she wanted me to include in a biographical artist statement. The artists had multiple opportunities to make revisions to their biographies and many chose to make various changes, additions, and omissions more than once prior to the art exhibit. This spoke to the fluidity of their identities and it is possible that their sense of self (and self as artist) may have changed over time. Perhaps, as the women took more ownership of the project over time, their perceptions of themselves as artists transformed. Each woman also wrote her own captions to accompany her series of images.

The Red Umbrella Photo Project. Once the participants consented to participating in the study, I explained the project goals, objectives, timecommitment, and timeline. Each participant was given a folder that contained information on safety issues when taking pictures in the community, as well as guiding questions, on what to think about when taking pictures. The participants were provided with questions adapted from previous photovoice projects on how to think about taking their pictures. Some guiding questions included: What matters to me? Think about where and how you live, and things that you are proud of or would like to see changed personally, spiritually, or in your wider community. What do you see in your everyday life? Think about pictures of objects, possessions, services, and places that are important in your life or community that you would like to share and tell a story. I wanted participants to think about framing their images not in the context of sex work, but in the context of who they are and what is important in their lives because, all too often, research on (not with) sex workers is about sex work and not the individuals.

In our study, we discouraged participants from taking pictures of other identifiable people for confidentiality and safety purposes. I think that this was a benefit but also a limitation to the image-taking process for participants. Every week we would call or meet in-person with each individual to see if she had any questions, concerns, or issues while taking their pictures. We also set up times to meet with them once they were finished taking pictures. Participants took approximately 1 to 2 weeks to take their photos. They were given the option to take another camera, if they wanted to, or not. The goals of each meeting depended on each individual’s personal processes in taking the pictures. Some participants, such as many of the street workers, engaged in longer spells of processing and conversation than participants from other groups. The conversations with the street-based participants centered on a qualitatively different set of topic such as health, housing, faith, and family. Whereas conversations with non-street workers tended to focus on identity, income, social issues, and other things outside of themselves or their community. The meeting times for all participants ranged from 30 min to 11/2 hr. I was less concerned about the pictures themselves as I was about the next step in describing a selection of the images to discuss within the context of sex work.

We ran into difficulty with one participant who lost her camera, which we had to replace for her. As each camera was developed, I would set up a time to meet with the participants to show them their images and ask them to select a few of their favorites. We would use a guide to assist in describing the images, which was interesting and enlightening to see what stories came out of the images and how they reflected personal needs or social issues. The level of insight and descriptions varied greatly and ranged from personal struggles or issues to things that they saw unique to their involvement in sex work or social influences that drive the sex industry. I personally felt more connected to the participants during these narrative sessions, which often opened up discussions about other interests (theater, dancing, travel, and family). I also asked them what they thought about the project and the process. No one said anything negative about the project and, actually, all of them expressed how much they were enjoying the creativity in how to express issues, concerns, strengths, and dreams through their images. One disadvantage of the individual meetings was the extreme time commitment on my part and that of the outreach worker. I often wonder if the pictures and level of participation for some of the participants may have been different had this photovoice project followed a more traditional group format.

Two of the nine participants were lost to follow-up and, despite several attempts to connect with them. All of their images were developed, but the individual dialogue session was never completed. Another participant went missing shortly after agreeing to participate in the study, due to arrest and incarceration. This individual eventually contacted us one month after the reception and exhibit. Additionally, when discussing the presidential elections being held at the time and voting, one participant revealed to us that they were unable to vote. This participant had to withdraw from the study since she was under 18 years old. I explained that her images and stories would not be able to be included in the final project exhibit, but that all of her images will be returned to her. Demographics were not collected as part of this project and verbal report was the only verification that participants were at least 18 years old.

I met with each individual to discuss 2–3 of her favorite images. I would type up a narrative based on the notes from the discussions with each participant and confirm the content with them so that each story was in their own words. This turned out to be a very important aspect of our relationship building because it allowed me and each individual artist to get to know each other in a more personal way. I was able to see their lives beyond that of sex workers, but also as community members, friends, and various other identities they felt influenced their individuality, such as gender and sexual identity. There was one instance where one of the youth was explaining a lot about his life within the context of being a gay man. He explained the misunderstandings of being a young gay man and the stigma that he felt from friends and in social situations that made him hide certain qualities about himself that he did not want to hide. I wanted to make sure that he understood that this project was about people engaged in the sex industry or trade sex for other services. I was worried that he misunderstood the project to be about young gay men or the LGBT community and wanted to clarify to be sure we were on the same page. He explained to me that he understood that the project was about sex work, but explained that a lot of the feelings and hiding he must do in certain situations as a gay man, he must also do as a sex worker. This was a moment of realization for me with regards to the multidimensionality of sex worker’s lives. This participant was highlighting how sex workers sometimes apply strategies to fit into different social situations to be accepted, even though they may wish they didn’t have to do this.

Two of the artists were chronically homeless or living on the streets and had many medical issues. I often struggled with how to balance the project aims and objectives (getting the cameras, developing the stories, etc.) with the participants’ primary needs of food, housing, or medical care. The outreach worker and I had to establish boundaries with participants who had other needs that we were not able to provide, so we offered referral services through St. Paul’s Community Outreach. I feel that reiterating the goals and objectives of a photovoice project with participants on a regular basis was critical; something that we did not do throughout the project. I believe that if we had done this, then better boundaries would have been established with all participants.

Group Dialogue Sessions

Visions and Voices. Approximately 2 weeks after the completion of the last individual dialogue session, all of the participants were invited to partake in two group dialogue sessions where they shared their photographs with each other and planned for the art exhibit opening of their visions and voices. To prepare for the group dialogue sessions, I created a set of process questions to guide the facilitation of the group dialogue sessions. However, the women started to nod off and appear disinterested in my agenda. Observing and sensing this from the participants, I realized that I had an agenda that was not participant-led, so I stopped talking at the women. It was at this moment that I realized, in an effort to stay true to the photovoice methodology, I was taking on the role of the researcher who had not yet completely given up her power. So I decided to talk with the participants and asked them what they wanted to do with our time together. My desire to equalize the power imbalance resulted in turning the group dialogue session over to the artists and allowing the course of events to naturally evolve. The participants voiced that they wanted to talk about the art exhibit and how they would share their photographs with the community.

I realized that to truly shift the power dynamics, I had to set my agenda aside, allow the participants to lead the group, and feel comfortable in my role. My journal notes from that day were filled with words like chaos, loss of control, stress, frustrating, and disruptive. My efforts to create structure in the group based on what I thought I had to do as a responsible researcher following photovoice method protocol was met with resistance in various ways. This resistance was a space of empowerment for the artists and a location where control of the research study and agenda was (re)claimed by the participants. The various acts, occurrences, and discussions during the group dialogue session that led to the natural shift in power felt disorienting in that moment in time and liberating in retrospect. One of the drawbacks of participant-led dialogue sessions was the longer time it took for the participants to process their thoughts and experiences related to the photovoice study and planning for the art exhibit. However, I believe that when engaging in participatory methodologies, fluidity of process and allocation of more time dedicated to the research process should be anticipated, since there is less structure and the process is driven by the needs and desires of the participants.

If I hadn’t had this experience of the group dialogue session, if the artists had followed my agenda, would I still be making claims of a shared sense of power among us? Did certain research methodologies always lead to the equalizing of power or was it something about those particular group dynamics that day that allowed for this to take place? Was there something more than just the theoretical tenants of a method or an approach that allowed this to transpire within research? I think that particular methods like photovoice that incorporate communal dialogue, provide the necessary spaces for balancing the power in a collective manner. Through the acknowledgement and understanding of the negotiation of power that occurs within research processes we can interrogate, recreate, and strengthen mutual researcher-participant partnerships.

The Red Umbrella Photo Project. Once all of the images were selected and the stories described, we held a final group dinner and dialogue session at The Drop for all of the participants. The individual sessions for the Red Umbrella Photo Project took place over the course of 4 months (July– October), and the group dialogue session took place in early November. The dinner and group dialogue was meant to be a chance for all the artists to meet each other and see some of each other’s work, provide feedback, and discuss issues or themes from a selection of images. Samples of each artist’s images and stories were printed up on poster board for the artists to look at and review and take home at the end of the night. Two of the nine artists showed up for this event and we had a discussion about their images and stories. We also discussed and identified which individuals they wanted to share their images and stories with. Some interesting and different requests for who they wanted to see at the photo exhibit and reception emerged. These requests included inviting Cleveland police, other academics, and family members. When I connected with the participants who were not at the dinner about the list of potential invitees, most of them were not happy about the police being invited. I felt the same way, as did the outreach worker, who had many negative interactions with the police while doing outreach. The artists who did not attend the dinner and dialogue were contacted afterward and I met with them to give them their poster board of their images and stories.

Community Art Exhibits

Visions and Voices. The photographs taken by the participants were represented in various community art exhibits over a period of 2 years. These locations included local cafes, public libraries, three universities, one art gallery, a bookstore, and a social service agency. The objective of these art exhibits was to display the images from the photovoice project within the community to challenge negative stereotypes about sex workers. The individuals who attended the opening exhibit included policy makers, law enforcement, influential community advocates, social workers, academics, friends, families, and the broader public. Seven of the participants attended the opening night and brought partners, family, and friends along. The traveling photography exhibits provided a forum for female sex workers to share their lived experiences, perspectives, and artwork with individuals beyond academia. It is important to note that although this research study did not have any immediate or direct effects on local policy decisions, it received a lot of media attention and community support. The art exhibit was featured in two local activist newspapers, as well as on the local televised news station.

One aspect of this project that evokes tension within me is my representing the representations of sex workers’ lives through their photographs at conferences, in academic publications, in my classrooms, and at community art exhibits. Even though the artists were the creators and interpreters of their own images, I continue to choose which images to share and what parts of their quotes to include based on the shifting audience. Although I tried my best to faithfully represent the themes identified by the artists, I still hold the power of representation within this research project.

Another dilemma I struggle with is regarding the ownership of the data (i.e., the photographs, captions, quotes, and artist’s biographies). Many of the women with whom I was still in contact felt ecstatic with the chance to have their photographs featured in multiple traveling art shows, but some of the women who I was no longer in contact with did not have a say in whether they were ok with their photographs being displayed at an international gallery. Even though all of the women had signed consent forms and photo releases about the public use of the photographs, this situation still felt unsettling. The recurring question that came up for me was: At what point does the traveling art show end? Is it ethical for the art exhibit to continue to be displayed without all of the women’s knowledge or participation in the process? What about the women who were thrilled to have their photographs travel to various communities? Was not accepting this opportunity fair to them? What about the impact of these images for challenging societal stereotypes and stigma of sex workers? Was the act of displaying these images in public spaces a form of activism or was it bordering on exploitation? To whom was I accountable? Was I accountable to the few women with whom I was still in contact with or to all of us who participated and who felt like this was our project? The project felt like it was taking on a life of its own, and I was really torn with what to do about displaying the artwork because only some (not all) of the participants were part of the process.

I also continue to grapple with my desire to stay connected to the women in the research study, even though I have since moved to another state to accept a tenured-track faculty position. Although I am no longer in contact with most the participants in the study since I moved 2 years ago, I am still writing about the women, their lives, and my interactions with them; I feel a need to stay connected. It is almost as if having these valuable artifacts that they left behind, in form of photographs, keeps the women at the forefront of my consciousness. I still carry their memorable images around with me in my mind and have unlimited access to their photographs and words on my computer. Although this can feel endearing and evoke a similar sense to that of looking back at old pictures of friends and family, the participants don’t have the same access to my lived experiences, quotes, and images of me. Also, and more important, I have the privilege to still gain from this project, but they do not.

The Red Umbrella Photo Project. The final project exhibit and reception took place at St. Paul’s Community Church in January 2013. The event was by invitation only and was attended by community activists, academics, religious and spiritual leaders, and the volunteers who provided refreshments. One councilman was invited and he personally called me to thank me for the invitation and express his support. However, he was unable to make the reception but he expressed hope to see the art exhibit at another time in the future. The community groups who organized actions against prostitution in various neighborhoods were not present. Unfortunately, only one artist and her friend showed up for the exhibit. The outreach worker and I called and sent text reminders about the reception all week, and even offered to pick up participants if they needed transportation. After the reception, I contacted the participants who did not show up, and some said that they had forgotten or did not have a way to get to the church. Some participants I did not hear back from at all.

I believe that because the event was essentially touted as “closed to the public” and “by invite only,” this decreased the sense of ownership of the project, even though the participants were able to identify who they wanted to attend. Reflecting back on the process, I think that attendance by the participants may have been better if attendance to the opening had not been so limited. In an effort to remain inclusive at every step of the project with the participants, I asked the participants to propose other venues to display their images. The youth suggested the LGBT Center, others suggested The Drop, various art galleries, the Pride Clinic at MetroHealth Medical Center, and a warehouse space close to a club that had a lot of street-based solicitation activity.

One month after the art exhibit, I learned that I would be relocating to the West coast and would not be able to stay and continue featuring the project. I remained in Cleveland to finish the photovoice project because I felt that I was accountable to the participants to complete the project. I think that the artists also felt a sense of closure of the project at various times throughout the process, whether this was once all their images and stories were done or after the exhibit and reception. The outreach worker and I felt a certain sense of closure after the reception. The project is still active and we hope to be able to hold a more public exhibit of the images and stories sometime in the future.

I feel a sense of guilt that I was not able to stay in Cleveland and continue featuring the project after the opening reception. I had plans to do more analysis and public presentations about the issues and concerns that participants identified. I feel that this would have further engaged the participants on multiple levels. One participant enrolled in photography classes at a community college because they enjoyed the project so much. Also, a sex worker specific drop-in center will be opening soon near The Drop, which will be operated by volunteers who also run an alternative health clinic.

LESSONS LEARNED

The ways in which we implemented our photovoice projects in our respective cities and within our communities varied, although we simultaneously shared some similarities in our processes. Our projects intersected in relation to the lessons we learned from implementing photovoice with sex workers. We both felt that is was critical to reflect on and continue to navigate our intersecting roles. Throughout our projects, it was important to attend to our roles of researcher and researched; of artist and observer; of partner and collaborator; and the performances of our gender, race, class, sexuality, abilities, and status. We continually reflected on our intersecting roles during and after the research process. Throughout our research process, we felt that it was imperative to continually address issues of power—who held it, how did it shift, how did we each try to equalize it, and so on—especially because we were using a participatory approach to research. We both felt that there was a power differential inherent in our relationships with the participants by virtue of our roles as researcher, as well as elements of difference by virtue of race, class, ethnicity, age, ability, circumstances, and position.

These reflections continue to pose unsettling thoughts and emotions, and we continue to grapple with the tensions we experience. For instance, by sheer coincidence, we both moved from the geographical location of where we conducted our research studies to accept work in another state. This speaks to our social class and educational privilege that provides us with access to opportunities, resources and geographic mobility that was not afforded to those research participants who came from marginalized backgrounds. This also raises ethical challenges for both of us with regards to our commitments to our geographical locations and the people with whom we advocated for and with before and throughout this research project. We have maintained contact with our community partners and there are some participants with whom we still keep in touch. We believe that one way to address the tensions we experience as a result of our move is by providing opportunities for sustained contact and connection with participants, which also contributes to shared ownership of the research project.

The social stigma attached to sex work and the illegal nature of the work makes this population uniquely different from other hard-to-reach groups. Being transparent about our identities with all of the participants enhanced our relationships with them and our ability to engage in authentic dialogue with them about their lives. Whether we (as researchers) have experience of working in the sex industry or not, being able to discuss our identities and the privileges and disadvantages that come with our roles and lived experiences provided a space for equalizing power between the us and the participants. This is especially important in research with sex workers, who are oftentimes spoken for or about in academic research.

Through our reflexivity of the research process, we acknowledge issues of power and how we could take action to have power with, instead over power over, participants. Done differently, we would have emphasized the shared ownership of the project with the participants and created more opportunities for a deeper level of participant engagement with the research process. If we could have implemented our studies differently, we would have involved our participants in every stage of the research process, prior to the start of the process. Some of these ways include having the participants assist with recruitment, determine the photographic themes, organize the group dialogue sessions, identify the stakeholders, and take a more proactive role in planning for the art exhibit(s). However, one of the limitations of this approach is the potential for placing an unfair burden on participants who have their own lives and valuable time to manage, especially when their additional efforts are not monetarily compensated.

Engaging in a research methodology that takes academic knowledge and shares it with the community in the form of community art exhibits highlights the power of photovoice for challenging assumptions, stereotypes and stigma about individuals who work in sex work industry. This includes disrupting hegemonic views of sex workers as being trafficked and exploited, often assumed by those who conflate sex work with sex trafficking. Many of the artists used their photographs as a strategy to resist stigma and assumptions about their lives through the creative representations of their multiple realities and complex selves. Specifically, the participants used photography to challenge fixed ideologies about sex workers and sex work, to deconstruct old dichotomies, and to define them selves. These acts of resistance through art can be seen as a strategy for taking action. The opportunity for sex workers to represent themselves through art allows for the redefinition and reconceptualization of stereotypes and assumptions often perpetuated in traditional forms of research on sex workers. Photographs as a form of data, taken by sex workers themselves of their diverse lived experiences, serve to uphold a multilayered and intersectional view of identity rather than a unidimensional one.

Our personal and political perspective of sex work is consistent with the idea that sex work is a legitimate form of labor. We recognize that sex work involves both dangers and pleasures within a continuum of individual experiences and we believe that the complexity of sex workers’ sexual agency can best be illustrated by sex workers themselves. This photovoice study taught us the power of the visual image for supporting agency and self-determination among participants, rather than viewing them as passive victims without power or control over their lives. Using photovoice methodology with sex workers contributed to capturing the multiple subjectivities and the range of experiences, contradictions, and complexities of sex work, and dismantling narrow beliefs of sex work as exploitation and sexual slavery. However, there are political implications for adopting a sex workers’ rights lens when engaging in research with sex workers. For example, there were individuals in the community and within academia who expressed feeling offended by some of the photographs taken by the participants, insisting on the idea of a false consciousness of the participants and the assumed inherent oppression of sex work. We struggle with individuals who do not acknowledge sex workers’ voices, agency, and right to represent themselves and their lives. Throughout the photovoice process, we experienced various tensions with individuals who adopted a paternalistic view of the participants while ignoring their visual voices. We consider this oppressive and disempowering to sex workers who are the experts of their own lives.

With community-based projects such as our own, we also learned the power of collaboration with community partners. Collaboration with our community partners provided support, guidance, and personal growth. Our many months of working together inspired different ways of understanding the research process through our mutual sharing and exchange of ideas. Given that sex workers are a hard-to-reach population because prostitution is illegal in the United States (except for in the state of Nevada), nurturing our relationships with community partners gave us credibility within the community. Our joint efforts and work with them served to engage social service agencies, as well as build meaningful relationships with social service workers and participants. We combined our skills and visions to bring together the artists, social service providers, and members of the community at different points during the study and to the art exhibits. These relationships served as an impetus for creating community awareness of important issues in the lives of sex workers. Given the prevalence of anti-trafficking organizations in cities around the United States, this photovoice project served to provide an alternative perspective and a greater appreciation for the complexity of sex workers lives and some of the inherent contradictions of working in the sex industry, rather than assuming that all sex workers are victims of sexual slavery.

The power of our collective efforts throughout the photovoice process contributes to our own sustained engagement with the participants and the purposes of our projects. This collaborative writing endeavor, which reflects on our similar, yet different, processes, tensions, struggles, and lessons learned, also moves us forward, as sex worker activists, to build solidarity and support for more social justice oriented approaches to research with sex workers.

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