3rd place
bronze star award
Mauro De Bettio
italy
title
HIDDEN ANGELS
Built by the british during the colonial government, is now owned by a powerful local family.
It is strategically located between a railway station and a busy harbor. Beautiful and colorful blooming trees surround what looks like a small town, but actually is a prison without a way out. A gigantic trap with over two thousand shacks, each housing a prostitute.
They call them “sex workers” and every day they momentarily satiate the ardor of about three thousand men. These women earn about two, three or four dollars at a time, depending on the man's satisfaction. Sometimes the man thinks the woman is not worth paying anything at all. On the skin the indelible marks of violent clients- bruises, cuts and burns. Inside their small tin sheds, they alleviate the solitude of tourists, sailors, longshoremen and myriads of deadbeat of all kinds. On the walls hang posters of famous actors: Kareena Kapoor, Sonam, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan. They have pictures of houses with gardens, a pond, parrots and flamboyant red cars parked in the yard. The average age of newly arriving sex workers is 14 years old (the age of consent), meaning some are even younger. Many of them are sold into sex work for a few hundred dollars, which then they are obligated to pay to the “madame," a figure that from that moment on will become a mother, a protector and also the owner of their bodies. Once their debt is repaid, which could take up to five years, they become independent sex workers and are free to leave the brothel. But these women are socially stigmatized outside their ‘homes,’ and thus often choose to stay and continue supporting their families with their earnings.
In my life I had the chance to visit wonderful places and especially to meet great people.
My purpose is, and has always been, capture the feeling of what I "touch", not just the appearance of it.
Capture the essence and express the nuances of a person in just one frame showing those subtleties
that can be hard to describe in words.
Reproducing every emotion, from happiness to sadness, from fear to excitement.
Through simply showing an images, evoke an emotion in someone else, make people stop and think.
Stop them in their tracks just with a glance at an image.
Photography is a fantastic story-telling medium.
Just ask yourself what story you want to tell, and photography can get you there.
Mauro De Bettio (born March 4, 1975) lives now in Barcelona, Spain.
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entry description
Is called Daulatdia, the largest brothels in the world.Built by the british during the colonial government, is now owned by a powerful local family.
It is strategically located between a railway station and a busy harbor. Beautiful and colorful blooming trees surround what looks like a small town, but actually is a prison without a way out. A gigantic trap with over two thousand shacks, each housing a prostitute.
They call them “sex workers” and every day they momentarily satiate the ardor of about three thousand men. These women earn about two, three or four dollars at a time, depending on the man's satisfaction. Sometimes the man thinks the woman is not worth paying anything at all. On the skin the indelible marks of violent clients- bruises, cuts and burns. Inside their small tin sheds, they alleviate the solitude of tourists, sailors, longshoremen and myriads of deadbeat of all kinds. On the walls hang posters of famous actors: Kareena Kapoor, Sonam, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan. They have pictures of houses with gardens, a pond, parrots and flamboyant red cars parked in the yard. The average age of newly arriving sex workers is 14 years old (the age of consent), meaning some are even younger. Many of them are sold into sex work for a few hundred dollars, which then they are obligated to pay to the “madame," a figure that from that moment on will become a mother, a protector and also the owner of their bodies. Once their debt is repaid, which could take up to five years, they become independent sex workers and are free to leave the brothel. But these women are socially stigmatized outside their ‘homes,’ and thus often choose to stay and continue supporting their families with their earnings.
about the photographer
Difficult to express, but I'm quite sure photography is for me my primary way of speaking.In my life I had the chance to visit wonderful places and especially to meet great people.
My purpose is, and has always been, capture the feeling of what I "touch", not just the appearance of it.
Capture the essence and express the nuances of a person in just one frame showing those subtleties
that can be hard to describe in words.
Reproducing every emotion, from happiness to sadness, from fear to excitement.
Through simply showing an images, evoke an emotion in someone else, make people stop and think.
Stop them in their tracks just with a glance at an image.
Photography is a fantastic story-telling medium.
Just ask yourself what story you want to tell, and photography can get you there.
Mauro De Bettio (born March 4, 1975) lives now in Barcelona, Spain.
back to gallery