Agustin Lara

May 7, 2015

Art 381

Gallery Critique

Emancipating Jane by Priscilla Varner

            Emancipating Jane is a gallery that focuses around sex workers, but not necessarily hookers, what I meant by that is not all sex workers are hookers and that’s something I learned after this gallery.  Each series of photographs that are in the gallery are named after the courtesan that they represent, for instance one was Cherry, another Anna May, Stacy and so on. That not only gave the images a little more life and meaning but also helped the audio tell the girls story quite better.  The audio is simply a short interview with each of the girls that was involved with the gallery.  One of the more interesting reasons for working at the Mustang Ranch was she needed to support her mother.  Ironically her mother knew what she was doing and was ok with it, I mean as long as the bills get paid.  Another girl said she was just too deep in debt so she had to dropout and start working to pay it off and she liked the money so she stayed and is currently finishing up school. One of the girls named Ashley Alexis made the statement just because McDonalds lowers their price doesn’t mean you should. That just goes to show that even though they work in the field of sex they still have self-esteem and shouldn’t be looked down upon. Another interesting topic that came up was some people thought that the girls weren’t able to leave and that’s false they don’t live at the ranch the merely occupy a room and have normal lives outside of their work. This gallery gave me a different perspective on these girls and other girls like them, we should never judge a book by its cover (not that I do) and this is a prime example, I never knew these girls’ situations and for some this was the only option.  Before you judge someone take the time to get to know them and what they’ve been through you might learn a thing or two.