A white wall with a pink bench, and a pair of black headphones hanging from a hook. The text on the wall is a quote by Camille Melissa Waring which reads: 'it's one thing to exist in art as a sex worker, but as long as somebody else is depicting you, you can't be in control of your own image'.

Installation view with quote by Camille Melissa Waring

Camille Melissa Waring (The Photographic Theorist) is a sex worker, writer, filmmaker, and photographer. She holds a Doctorate from the Westminster School of Art, London. A published feminist scholar, her work spans visual sociology and anthropology, photo theory, digital cultures, diversity arts discourses, surveillance, and censorship. Her 2023 doctoral thesis, Whoretography: Sex Workers as Image-makers: A Critical Analysis of Sex Workers' Self-representation in Online Public Spaces, explores sex workers’ use of the self-portrait in digital spaces. Her work can be seen here.

Technology, Surveillance and the State was a panel discussion that gathered together the voices of sex workers from across the industry, as well as campaigners with an interest in broader issues around the online censorship and surveillance of marginalised communities to discuss how to resist the carceral, censorious agenda being played out in the rising online crackdowns against sex workers. It was presented as a part of the SWARM (Sex Workers Advocacy and Resistance Movement) Festival of Resistance in May 2019. More information can be found here.

Photography by Anne Tetzlaff