Paper short abstract:

Visual ethnography exploring domesticity as practiced by male, homosexual, non-British sex workers who receive clients in their homes.

Paper long abstract:

The photo essay is the visual component of an ethnography enquiring into the ways male, homosexual, non-British sex workers who receive clients in their spaces make home in London. From the social sciences perspective, the research looks at issues of gender, sexuality, migration, precarious employment and housing through semi-structured interviews followed by photo sessions of the domestic spaces. The research reveals the degree and the ways in which participants of different origins make home in a city where housing is overpriced and restrictive. Moreover, it addresses the typical private / public binary by examining the change of the place's dynamics and identity when a stranger wanting to buy a most intimate service enters a space supposed to be one's sanctuary. Photographically, apart from visually capturing and presenting the aforementioned issues, the intention is to de-mystify and de-demonise the spaces photographed along with the intrusive photographic practice itself.