Rita Therese is a sex worker from Melbourne who has documented her experiences and colleagues on film and in writing, providing candid insights into a world that is still considered foreign and taboo to many.
Rita has made the trip up north to Sydney for her ‘Gemini’ exhibition, which will explore “the tension between sexuality for oneself, and for the male gaze – an existence in a world that doesn’t always have a separation between the two.” Ahead of tomorrow night’s show at Goodspace Gallery, we chatted to Rita about self-perception, her approach to photography and funneling sex work into a creative outlet:
How did you get into sex work? When and how did you begin documenting your experiences?
I became a sex worker because I was 18, I was living out of home and then the store I was managing closed down. I didn’t know what I was going to do, and I walked past a flyer advertising for nude models. I’d always found ‘glamour models’ alluring, and I was always drawn to the taboo. Growing up closeted and queer I would drool over the alt models of Suicide Girls and the like. ‘Nude model’ turned out to be gonzo porn, and that’s how it all started! I then became a topless waitress, a stripper and then a full service sex worker. I’ve been working for 5 years now.
Documentation was something I started doing when I began writing for Sneaky Magazine in a column under my sex worker alias. Something I became acutely aware of the tension between marketing myself as an independent escort and then the part of me that was ‘myself’ – who wanted to make art and write and be creative outside of this escort persona. So I then started to create artwork as Rita Therese, part of my birth name.
Over the past few years there seems to have been a stronger shift towards sex work being seen as something that is empowering. What do you think has caused this more open-minded approach and where do you think it will head in the future?
I really dislike the term ’empowering’. The dictionary defines ’empower’ as “to enable or permit” – so in term, perhaps there is a suggestion that by labeling sex work as ’empowering’ it lends to ideas that it is now ‘permissible’ in the eyes of society. Using the term ’empowering’ I think creates a dichotomy – those who are ’empowered’ and those who are not. In turn, I might even say that leaves those who do not feel ’empowered’ as an other entity within sex work. Hence, I do not find this terminology useful, and rather binary in its portrayal of what sex work is to each lived experience.
I think the shift you are talking about is actually the shift towards seeing sex workers as people with autonomy and agency. As for the cause of this, I would hazard a guess that sex workers and social media platforms have been able to speak about their lived experiences on their own terms, photograph and document their lives and have given the public a deeper understanding of the industry. I also think that it’s due to the work of sex workers who campaign tirelessly for better laws and reform.
In the future, I hope to see a world with decimalized sex work.
You said that your photography has been inspired by wanting to depict “the women & people I meet (cis, non binary, trans) how they want to be.” Can you expand on your style of shooting and how you portray your subjects?
I have really heavily set set eyes, right? And I would go and model for people and they would shoot me in this natural light, and I would try and explain that made me feel self-conscious because it was a feature of my face I would actively use light sources directly on to combat. Sometimes they would get it, sometimes they wouldn’t, and then there would sometimes even be a dialogue about how “I looked great” and I’m sitting there thinking, “No I don’t.”
We live in an era now of the iPhone selfie, and we are used to seeing a certain version of ourselves we like. Who am I to tell somebody that their ideal self is what I dictate? I never want a model to leave a shoot with me and not feel like their concerns were validated, listened to and taken into consideration. At the end of the shoot they take out any they don’t like and we bin them. Literally, throw them in the trash – because people deserve to feel beautiful and hot, and I’ve had so many fucking terrible photos of me taken that I’ve gone home and cried about. It probably ties into themes of my own body dysmorphia I’ve struggled with. I’m not married to a photo – if the model doesn’t feel it, fuck it! Let’s bin it and let’s try again. I’m an empath and I want to make people feel good.
How do you feel that your personality and mindset changes from when you are in front of a camera to being the actual photographer?
I love taking photos. I feel utterly at peace – like every single problem I have doesn’t matter and in that moment, when I’m in my lucky Megadeth tee shirt (I always shoot in it) and some gross pair of trackie pants and I’m focusing on my subject, the light, the concept. I don’t get in front of a camera very much. I prefer being behind it. I’m too much of a control freak to let somebody take my photo.
One of the people you have photographed is Angela White. Have you kept in contact since she’s moved to Los Angeles and do you have any plans to relocate in the future?
Angela has been a friend of mine since I first started in the industry. Watching her career just keep ramping further and further up is so wonderful and honestly, she works her fucking ass off and deserves all that success and more.
Your exhibition Gemini will be hitting Goodspace tomorrow night. What do you hope audiences will gain from attending the show?
I hope they have fun.
The show will “suggest notions of vulnerability and softness.” What are some of your personal experiences that have prompted this focus?
I think for myself, creating this body of work was about the tension I felt as an 18 year old navigating this totally new world I was thrust into. I had a conservative upbringing – I didn’t even kiss a boy till I was 16. Suddenly I’m 18, getting fucked on camera and I’m wearing this crazy lingerie and I was putting up a front of this ‘sexy adult,’ but underneath was this vulnerable person who has no idea who they were or what they were. That’s not to dismiss that my experiences were exploitative, moreso that over the years I feel I’ve developed a very thick skin, and by creating art, I find it a way to come back to my ‘true self’ – I guess to a degree, stripped of these ideologies and expectations of sexuality and sex that I’ve taken from my job.
Gemini will also juxtapose “bondage and silks, light and darkness, sadness and joy, love and hate.” How do you create a cohesive experience while exploring such contrasting elements?
Because one cannot exist without the other. Hence the name ‘Gemini’ – the two exist and they are two sides of a coin. I can experience love whilst somebody is spitting on my face in bed and I can experience sadness when I look back at moments of joy. The old saying – you can’t have the night without the day.
Why did you decide to shoot exclusively on Instax film?
I love the immediacy of Instax – also being an incredibly kinesthetic person and very tactile. I feel satisified when I can see an immediate result, when its a physical object. I’m also impatient, and a Gemini.
What’s on the cards for Rita Therese for the rest of 2016?
Starting up a new body of work, which after staring at these images for six months I’m pretty excited about. I’m also working on a cute little book of photos and writing that I’ll be looking at putting in my store in Feb 2017.
