Ladies of the Night - Empty Chairs

a photographic timedocument

Ladies of the Night - Empty Chairs

Where did they go, the ladies of the night?

On the 16th of March 2020 the Netherlands went into a lockdown. Just like in many other countries around the world, society at large closed its doors. That included the doors and the windows of the Red Light district in Amsterdam as well. Normally, this is a crowded area. Tourists are strolling around while staring at the ladies. Teenagers are staring at the ladies. Drunken football hooligans are staring at the ladies. And men obviously also make use of their services. But now the streets were empty and so were the windows. The empty chairs were the ones that were staring back at us, not the other way around.

Where did the ladies of the night go? Did they disappear into a rabbithole of illegal brothels behind locked doors? Did they go back home to where they came from? Where are they now and how do they survive?

Ladies of the Night - Empty Chairs is a photographic timedocument from 2020-2021 and it tells us something about the working conditions of the ladies of the night.