Trine Søndergaard's Now That You Are Mine

Although it's been almost 10 years since its completion, I just recently discovered Danish photographer Trine Søndergaard's project Now That You Are Mine. This series follows and chronicles the lives of female prostitutes on the streets of the red light district in Copenhagen. Simultaneously visceral yet compassionate, the images from Now That You Are Mine expose and undermine the subjection of women at the hand of male chauvinism. Finn Thrane of the Museet for Fotokunst in Denmark writes:

"Søndergaard goes beyond the walls of the private sphere, following the women and the 'fly on the wall'. Released from these conventions, Søndergaard's work embodies and explores the dualities of her own role as an artist, but also as a woman. The artist was personally and daily subjected to harassment by male customers on the street where she lived. Her own subjection to this male gaze marked the beginning of the project. She realised that she was not "seen". That she existed only as a projected fantasy of a woman for the male customer. It is this fantasy her work ruthlessly exposes, a sexual fantasy in harsh contrast to the reality of infected needle sores and bruised skin."

Steidl released a monograph back in 2002 for Now That You Are Mine, which you can find more information about here.











All photographs from the series Now That You Are Mine

All Images © Trine Søndergaard