“Archivo Puta” is a multidisciplinary project that seeks to create archives of the present and
search for archives of the past of sex workers, as well as recover memory, make visible the
beauty and resistance of the collective. Through the photographic project, it aims to create
an archive of the present since, due to stigma, many people who engage in sex work decide
to hide. Although there are artistic projects about sex work, there are very few made by the
sex workers themselves or without a voyeuristic gaze, with ethics and political context. Thus,
it seeks to challenge the existing perspective from society towards those who engage in sex
work but also the perspective from photography and art in general. By bringing to the
forefront the agency of those portrayed and making visible that the photographers
themselves also share the same work activity and stigma, something that does not usually
happen in the world of photography, where art, due to its lack of accessibility and resources,
is not usually made massively by sex workers and our visual stories and narratives are told
by others. The project arises from the need for the world to know the silenced stories of
people who are stigmatized, criminalized, and persecuted solely for using sexuality as their
work tool. Through the photos, captured in multiple analog formats, the sex workers are
portrayed as they wish to be seen. In addition to the photo sessions with sex workers, the
project includes photographs of their own world related to sex work and sexuality in their life
in general: photographs on porn sets, clients, hotel hallways, themselves, kink, desires,
fetishes, friendship and lust.
Maria Riot
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/riot.maria.x/