Our parlour guest today is Vera Rodriguez (she/her),  who has over 20 years experience in and around the sex industry. Vera Rodriguez comes from Spain where she graduated in Journalism and worked briefly in national newspapers. In 2000 she moved to London and started working in  a peep show in Soho to pay for her studies on Art Photography. She worked in numerous strip venues in Soho and East London and she also toured in peep shows around Europe, photographing red light districts, peep shows, strippers. She was also very curious about the fetish scene of London, which she explored. Her photographic work defies conventional journalism as her approach to social documentary is mainly in a ‘gonzo’ style. Her stories are lived from the inside rather than as a passive observer.

In 2011, she volunteered as a photographer for the first Sex Workers Film Festival in London. Since then, she combined sex work, photography and activism. She has worked with English Collective of Prostitutes, Sex Worker Open University (now SWARM) and X-talk, as member of the latter, she co-started 'Pole Studies', free pole dancing lessons for people from all genders and backgrounds of the industry and their allies. She was an active member of the East London Strippers Collective and is still a cast member of the Sex Workers’ Opera. In 2015 she curated 'The Art of Stripping' at the Red Gallery, in East London.

In 2017 she became a Programme Associate of Red Umbrella Fund, the first and only global fund, by and for sex workers. She manages the portfolio of Western Europe and Latin America and works on Communications.

In 2020, she co-created queer.red Foundation: a platform to share and promote culture with the aim to challenge stereotypical narratives around sex workers with an intersectional feminism approach.

 https://www.verarodriguez.art/
IG: @vera_rodriguezzz

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