In New York City, sex work is becoming an increasingly more popular way to fund one’s life. With trends such as “midnight ballerina” and dating sites like OnlyFans and Seeking Arrangements, conversation is opening around what it means to be a sex worker in this day and age.

Through portraiture, Belladonna Project documents women in New York City whose paths have crossed with some kind of sexually based work. The portraits evoke a sort of modern Cinderella story, where each subject exists within the same world as the viewer, yet moves through life wearing an invisible “glass slipper”, carrying a hidden reality that often goes unseen.

The work resists both demonization and glamorization of what it means to be a sex worker and asks us to consider the complexity, dignity, and individuality of each subject, gently reminding the public that someone you love is probably a sex worker and you don’t even know it.

This project was made in close collaboration with Emily Anjelika.

Dazed feature: https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/69139/1/lexi-hide-emily-anjelika-belladonna-project-sex-workers-portraits-photographs

Published below in Doxy Magazine issue 3: