In 2001, Maya Goded (1970, Mexico-City) received the prestigious W. Eugene Smith Fund Award for documenting prostitutes in La Merced, a downtown neighbourhood of her hometown Mexico City. For more than four centuries, La Merced has been a privileged space for sexual commerce, where women have gathered from all over Mexico, from distinct cultures, with different beliefs and indigenous languages. Ever since, adjectives like ‘intensity’ and ‘privacy’ have been used to describe Goded’s photographic commitment. Her aim is always to change preconceived ideas about subcultures, while providing an original vision that celebrates their diversity.

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