Internet Brothel Big Hit at Photo Miami
If you are at Photo Miami, you might want to check out the Robert Berman Gallery at booth 413. There you can see new work by Czech photographer Hana Jakrlova, who I met recently when she was passing through New York. Over the past year or so Jakrlova photographed an “Internet brothel” located in Prague. The idea behind this particular business intrigued her: Male clients pay a small fee to visit the brothel and have sex there. But they know that everything they do will broadcast on the Internet.
If you are at Photo Miami, you might want to check out the Robert Berman Gallery at booth 413. There you can see new work by Czech photographer Hana Jakrlova, who I met recently when she was passing through New York. Over the past year or so Jakrlova photographed an “Internet brothel” located in Prague. The idea behind this particular business intrigued her: Male clients pay a small fee to visit the brothel and have sex there. But they know that everything they do will broadcast on the Internet. The brothel makes its money by charging high-tech voyeurs all over the globe who want to watch what goes on. “My interest was not in the sex, really,” says Jakrlova, “but in the way people now willingly give up their privacy.” The work was also shown recently at Paris Photo. It’s interesting to note that Jakrlova describes the work as fine art, not documentary in nature. In that, she follows in the footsteps of photographers like Larry Sultan. In Europe, Jakrlova is represented by the Eric Franck Gallery of London. You can find out more about the project on the photographer’s website.
–David Schonauer