Tiana Markova-Gold
Tiana Markova-Gold, Kristina, 22 years old, is the only transgender or male sex worker who works in the street on a regular basis. She has been the victim of numerous incidents of violence, physical as well as emotional and psychological. Skopje, Macedonia 2010
Tiana Markova-Gold, Kristina reported being raped by a client to men who identified themselves as police officers. The men recorded her with a cell-phone camera as she described the attack and later posted the video on youtube. Nothing was done about the reported attack. Skopje, Macedonia 2010
Tiana Markova-Gold, Sabina’s aunt plays with her son while a cousin looks on from the doorway of Sabina’s home in Shutka. Sabina, 28 years old, has five children, four of whom live with her in a one-room house. She began sex work when she was 15 years old, stopping when she was married and starting again when her husband went to prison.
Skopje, Macedonia 2010
Dunja, 23 years old, lives with her parents, brother and one year-old son. Since her husband has been in jail she has been working five nights a week in the street to support her entire family. Skopje, Macedonia 2010
Tiana Markova-Gold, Alfred, 20 years old, placed in a state institution when he was a teenager because he was caught shoplifting and is now supporting himself as a sex worker. Skopje, Macedonia 2010
Tiana Markova-Gold, Boban, 25 years old, sees clients in the apartment where he lives. He has a serious boyfriend who does not know he is a sex worker. Skopje, Macedonia 2010
Tiana Markova-Gold, Used condoms and condom wrappers litter the ground in an area where street-based sex workers meet clients. Skopje, Macedonia 2010
In Macedonia, as throughout the world, sex workers are pushed to the margins of society by a combination of prejudice, discrimination, and violence. Sex workers inhabit a particularly vulnerable position in Macedonian society, facing harassment and violence not only from their clients and pimps, but also from law enforcement officials and other authorities. These abuses include physical violence, illegal detention, compulsory testing for sexually transmitted diseases, and rape, which are compounded by substandard enforcement of law and lack of access to health and support services. Adding to these challenges are the risks of HIV/AIDS and other STDs, drug addiction, a hostile public attitude, and mass-media harassment. Because of the tremendous negative stigma connected to prostitution in Macedonia, many sex workers are living double lives, concealing the fact that they are sex workers from their families and the communities in which they live. A disproportionate number of street-based sex workers, those most vulnerable, are members of the Roma community, Macedonia’s most harshly discriminated against ethnic minority group. Gay and transgender sex workers are often targeted and further marginalized because of their sexual or gender orientation.
“My work on this project was done in close collaboration with Healthy Options Project Skopje (HOPS). Founded in 1997, HOPS launched an outreach program for support of street-based sex workers in Skopje in 2000, which later spread to include sex workers in the Roma community and is now working with sex workers in four regions nationally. HOPS provides support services (health, social, legal, drop-in, child support), advocacy and lobbying. HOPS works to promote the rights of sex workers with the basic premise that the selling of sexual services does not justify denial of fundamental rights, to which all human beings are entitled.” Tiana Markova-Gold
Tiana Markova-Gold is a freelance documentary photographer and visual artist based in Brooklyn, New York. She has traveled extensively, documenting social issues with a particular focus on women and girls. Her work addresses issues around sexuality, empowerment, marginalization, representation and choice. Her work has been included in exhibitions at Sasha Wolf Gallery, Exit Art, New York Photo Festival and HOST Gallery in London, England, among others, and has been featured at several international photography festivals including Lumix Festival of Young Photojournalism in Hannover, Germany, LagosPhoto Festival in Lagos, Nigeria and GuatePhoto in Guatemala City.
Since the spring of 2007, Tiana has been working on an in-depth project about the experiences of women in prostitution. This project has included work in the United States, Macedonia and Morocco. Her first solo show, Scènes et Types, featuring her work in Morocco, opened in April 2013 at the Camera Club of New York.
