From Escort to Engagement
Two friends stand together through revelations, arrest and facing the consequences
They met in the dressing room. Alicia was an art school dropout shooting dancers for a strip club promoter. Eden was a fresh-faced 18-year-old who had just moved across the country to be on stage. They clicked, and for the next two years built a friendship through good nights on the town and bad nights at the club.
When Alicia moved to Mexico City, Eden was her only visitor from San Francisco. Following the trip Eden was arrested for prostitution on the east coast. Facing possible jail time she decided to return to her childhood home and come clean to her mom before the court appearance.
Her friend Alicia went with her.
Strippers always fascinated Alicia Vera. Back home in Miami she’d made the rounds in search of a club where she could photograph a school project. No one would let her in. Then she landed a job on the west coast that had her shooting in clubs every day.
“I was a year into the Academy of Art, taking classes that I didn’t really care for and shooting stuff that I didn’t care about,” says Alicia. “Then I got this job working for the marketing department of a lot of strip clubs in the city. I was really interested in sex work, so when I got this job I decided that this was my project. They hired me also as a photographer to shoot the sexy photos of the girls for the websites. That’s kind of what started me in the whole strip club world. I started meeting girls and shooting events.”
The manager of Roaring 20’s in San Francisco’s North Beach granted her free rein — with the dancers’ permission. She expected to be shooting a pack of attention-starved girls, buying in to the stereotype of debauched abandon, over-priced drinks, and throbbing music, but she was quickly proved wrong. There were divas, but there were also students paying for college and entrepreneurs funding start-ups.
In the beginning Alicia laid low. She cozied up with a dancer she knew from work and let everyone get to know her on their own terms. She talked about her project and slowly began asking to take pictures. For the next two years, weekend after weekend, she was on-hand for pre-dance jitters and dead-night boredom backstage. She saw the strippers as a sisterhood, arguing and feuding one night, laughing and crying the next. The scene was laid so bare, she never knew what she was overlooking.
“I thought I had it all figured out and then I met Eden,” she says. “She was just so open about everything. She’s like, you see those guys, those guys are pimps. She started explaining more of the relationships between pimps and the girls and the bouncers and the customers and all of these things that I was completely oblivious to. The girls are really comfortable with me but they weren’t blatantly explaining the dynamic of the relationships. I feel like I learned something new every time. I never had it all figured out. It’s just a whole, crazy world.”
Eden stood out from everyone else in looks and demeanor. The night they met they spent chatting between acts, and the following morning Alicia called on the hostel where Eden had been living since arriving in San Francisco a week earlier.
Before long Eden was meeting Alicia’s friends, some of whom warned the photographer about becoming friends with a stripper. When Eden’s mom came to town, Alicia went out to dinner with them. Eden crashed at Alicia’s after being evicted. When Alicia moved to Mexico City, Eden moved into her old room.
Alicia had to move because San Francisco was too expensive to work freelance without also having a day job. Her parents are from Mexico and she grew up visiting twice a year courtesy of her dad’s job with Continental Airlines. It was familiar and it was cheap, a good place for rocky new beginnings. She still lives there today, much more settled.
After moving, Alicia and Eden kept in touch, writing each other several times a month. While Alicia developed connections and picked up assignments in her new city, Eden remained entrenched in the club world. Her friends were strippers, her focus was stripping, and although Alicia would try to encourage her to explore her creativity by going to school or making friends outside of the club, Eden continued on her path.
Conversation slowed over time but Alicia would still hear from her friend once a month. Everything seemed well, Eden could take care of herself and was well-liked at work. But after a year had passed Eden confided that she had begun flying to the east coast with a friend from the club and working as an escort.
“It was interesting seeing the way she evolved,” she says. “She was one of these girls that prided herself in never doing extras. She was different in so many ways, so when she told me it was such a shock to me.”
Then Eden was arrested. It was her third time and she was threatened with jail. She decided she needed to go home. While they talked about what was happening Alicia asked if she could fly out east and document the tough days to come. It could make for a compelling photo story, Alicia thought, and she would be there for Eden whatever happened.
They met up in Philadelphia and took the train to rural Virginia where Eden had grown up. Her mom had known that she was stripping, and whatever she thought, she accepted it. The revelation that Eden was working as an escort was explosive.
“Her mom freaked out — what are you doing!?! — and questioned her for hours,” says Alicia. “I was just sitting there. Should I take pictures? Should I not take pictures? It was very intense.”
In the end, both Alicia and Eden’s mom made a painful realization. No one could stop Eden from prostitution, they could only support her as best as they could.
During the few days of familial detente that followed, Eden introduced Alicia to old high school friends and showed her around. Eden read journal entries aloud, written by a 13-year-old who dreamed of moving to California and being a stripper.
Moral judgement gave way to legal judgement. Eden rehearsed a written statement as her mom grilled Alicia about her project, her intentions, where the photos might be published. When it came time for Eden’s hearing Alicia surreptitiously recorded audio. The sentence was a $300 fine.
“When we got out I was shooting her paying her fine but I ended up getting yelled at and kicked out,” she says. “Which was fine, I’m like, I got what I needed, it’s all good.”
Eden’s mom wanted to drive both women back to Virginia but Eden refused. She and Alicia took a train to the outer Philadelphia suburb King of Prussia, renowned as home to America’s most sprawling mall. They booked a hotel room in a casino, a bustling 24-hour place where no one takes notice of coming and goings. King of Prussia is also renowned as a hot spot for prostitution.
While they were there, Eden started working. Joining Eden during her escort work hadn’t necessarily been the plan, and Alicia had to adjust quickly. If a client was coming, she would cut out to kill time milling about the slots.
Killing time turned out to be a shared chore. In the hours between clients Eden was on the phone making appointments, posting ads, smoking cigarettes, and catching naps. Alicia busied herself on her computer and tried to get Eden to act like she wasn’t there. She didn’t want to hear about the sex. She was also too broke to afford her own room. Alicia slept on the couch.
Eden asked clients if they would meet Alicia and hear about the project. Few agreed and all of them failed to return to be photographed. It seemed hopeless until a regular customer sat down with the girls.
They bonded over ties to San Francisco, and the man’s obvious adoration for Eden and the girls’ friendship convinced him to come back the next day. Alicia promised to sit down and delete any shots of tattoos or other identifying marks, but even so, he almost backed out. He had kids and he was scared about the consequences. Somehow they calmed his nerves.
Alicia had never shot sex before.
“Having a camera is the most amazing thing ever,” says Alicia. “Having that little square that you’re looking at through one eye almost makes you feel like you’re watching television. There’s this whole element of separation. He took off his clothes and it was awkward but once I put the camera up to my eye it was like I wasn’t really there. It’s like I’m watching TV, I’m just shooting. It’s happening but it’s not happening.”
However awkward it was shooting her friend having sex, being trapped in the hotel room between clients was worse. Eden has stocked up on canned foods and soups so that she wouldn’t have to leave and risk missing a call. Alicia broke on the second day and headed to the mall to clear her head.
Lots of downtime wasn’t what Alicia expected from Eden’s escort work. Nothing was. While she had been worried about Eden’s safety working as an escort, the reality wasn’t as scary as Alicia had imagined.
“It was a lot safer than I thought it would be,” she says. “You picture a prostitute in a hotel and you picture this really grungy atmosphere. But the whole thing was really clean, really professional. She was on the phone most of the time taking phone calls and posting ads.”
On the third day Alicia coaxed Eden outside for dinner. They were finally able to decompress and talk about what was going on. Alicia headed to New York and Eden stayed for several more days in her hotel room. They didn’t know when they’d see each other again.
Soon after their parting a version of the project was published online by NPR. The immediate attention quickly dissipated into the frenetic media maelstrom. It took another year before photography blogs picked up the story and then it caught fire.
The renewed attention, and picking up a Getty Emerging Talent award, is pushing Alicia to continue the project, however possible. An idea to shoot a follow-up series had been discussed but Eden was under a lot of personal pressure since her face hit the internet. Even if a lot of commentary is filled with derogatory vitriol, Alicia thinks that the entire process they shared has been good for Eden. Whenever a former or current sex worker writes to express gratitude or empathy, Alicia forwards their words to her friend.
Eden has quit escort work and is now engaged, living in San Francisco. Her fiancé has refused to participate in any continuation of the project. The way forward for future photos is murky, but time will tell. Alicia hopes to visit her soon.
Currently assignments keep Alicia busy both in Mexico and further into Latin America and she’s started shooting a project on the Overtown neighborhood of her hometown. She also hopes to get back to working on a stalled series following Tania, a young mother and aspiring professional boxer from the mean streets of Tepito whom Alicia considers a ver close friend.
All photos by Alicia Vera
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