This story was originally published on May 18, 2016.
Working mothers are employed in every field and industry, and in Denmark, that includes sex work.
Bonnie, a single mother of three, has been working in Denmark's legal sex trade since she was 18 years old. Four days a week, Bonnie sees clients from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., when she leaves to pick up her children from school. In her small town in Sealand, Denmark, everybody knows who she is — and what she does.
Photojournalist Marie Hald documented Bonnie, then 39, for two years, taking photos as she saw clients or spent time with her children. For Hald, it was a mission to portray the whole story of making a living in the sex industry, and not just part. “I wanted to see if I could tell a story of someone who wasn’t just portrayed as being a prostitute, but also as a woman and a mother,” Hald told Refinery29 by phone.
Hald became interested in telling the story of a sex worker after an experience that hit close to home: She was living in a trendy neighborhood in Copenhagen when she discovered that her downstairs neighbor was running a small brothel out of her apartment. “The stories I’d seen of sex workers had often been people, women, living on the streets, doing drugs,” Hald said. Her neighbor didn't exactly fit the stereotype.
“She looked like a 60-year-old, gray-haired lady. And I became interested in the fact that this was legal in Denmark,” Hald said. She found Bonnie through the industry network, and Bonnie agreed to let her document her life.
Prostitution in Denmark was decriminalized in 1999, but it’s still a controversial subject in the country. In 2012, the Nordic nation considered reinstating a ban on the purchase of sex, though lawmakers eventually voted it down. According to a 2009 U.S. Department of State report, there were an estimated 5,500 legal sex workers in Denmark.
Over the years, Hald slowly moved from the role of photographer to friend. Sometimes, she would help Bonnie clean the apartment between clients, getting ready for the next visitor. “I would help vacuum between customers, and open the door,” Hald said. “It was hard, involving myself so much in her life and family.”
Click through to see the powerful images of everyday life as a legal sex worker.
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"After that, she just pretty much stayed in the industry," Hald said.
"She has a sign that says ‘open,’ and she sits with her phone so people can call," Hald said. Customers call or drop by intermittently. Though Hald says that the number of customers can be "quite a lot," she averages around eight a day.
In this photo, Bonnie watches her oldest son Oliver's confirmation at the local church. Beside Bonnie is her mother, Doris, her stepfather, her oldest daughter, Michella, and a friend.
But she can also be very positive about what she does. "When I asked her in interviews about how she feels about it, she says, ‘it’s something that I’m good at. I’m good at making people feel good, and I’ve never been good at anything,’" Hald said.
In this photo, Bonnie and Michella are getting new tattoos together in the living room.
"I thought a lot about that since, because I think I crossed that [line] of not being a photographer really early on, and [we] just became friends," she said.
"But then, I’ve thought about it, maybe I was just human.”
Hald added that she will have achieved her purpose if she "can [show] a woman really fighting and struggling, but really doing all she has in her power to be a good mom and be the best mom she can... I think that’s what I want people to see.”
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