Dayanita Singh
Marie, twelve years old India. Network
Twelve year old girl Marie, the daughter of a sex worker, had just attained puberty and begged me to take her away from her destiny, but I could not. In India the highest price paid is for the first time, usually around 12 or 13 years. Once the spirit is broken, then it's just a job. When this ran in TIME magazine, many families wanted to adopt her, so I went back to look for here in Bombay, but she had long been working and was not interested in me. My photograph did not make any difference to sex workers´ children, because finally all the people that contacted us only wanted Marie and not any sex workers´ child. That was the hardest bit to come to terms with. It is still traumatic to write about it. Later I got beaten up by Marie's pimps because a regional magazine had taken the image from TIME and customers brought the issue in, attracted by the porn story that accompanied Marie's photo. I could not explain to the pimps that I had not given them the image. That brought to an end my three years work with sex workers and HIV in the early 90s in Bombay. In the end I became known as the India AIDS photographer, earned money and accolades, and Meharunissa, my friend died anyway. Since the work was widely published, I believe I helped create the HIV stigma that still plagues HIV, of HIV as a result from having sex with a sex worker. I realized I could not change a thing with photos and if I was co concerned, I should become an activist, but photography was in my blood.