Lily Miles – Pink to Make the Boys Wink
Words by James Arthur Allen
Pink to Make the Boys Wink is an ongoing project by Yorkshire based photographer Lily Miles which explores the taboo of sex work often coined as the oldest profession in the world. Miles’s work is sensitive and poignant, Pink to Make the Boys Wink documents life in “City Sauna” a brothel located in Sheffield. City Sauna gained notoriety as part of a Channel Four documentary telling the story of a Mother and Daughter duo who ran and managed the Sauna. It was this familial relationship that drew Miles to document life within its walls.
The resulting series is lucid and dream-like, the tired interiors counter the stark location and hardness of the industrial estate the Sauna is situated in. Faded curtains and sofas are punctuated by stilettos and tights, these visuals indicate that in this space sex is normal.
Miles explains that she was curious about the women who work in the sex industry, she wants to represent the women without societal taboo, to validate their right to work, and to tackle assumptions and judgement. Sex work in the UK is legal, however brothels are not, saunas operate under legal technicalities, the mother and daughter team provide rooms for the client and worker to interact for a fee, what goes on in these rooms is private. The Sauna aim is to provide a safe space for women to work without the fear of exposing themselves to the very real dangers of the streets. There are many exchanges of sexual services which exist which are abhorrent, the likes of exploitation and human trafficking are very separate to this project.
However, the form of sex work she documents aims to focus on the women who choose to carry out this role and nothing more than that. Miles believes Brothels should be decriminalised in the UK: it would make it a lot safer for these women to operate and the police would be on their side. We meet these women through quiet and empowering portraits that allow us to look at and study the women who choose to earn their living through sex, there is no titillation, no sensationalism. We are afforded the time to feel the space and the people who inhabit it through the images. The work breaks down the stigma and taboo around the women who work there. Miles sensitively occupies the space and shows us the people that inhabit it in an honest and open way.
The series also shows us the other side of the story, we are shown the men who use the Sauna. They are evocative, puncturing the series and countering the Feminine narrative. These masculine characters appear sad, isolated. This counterpoint shows us a transaction that happens every day across the country. Miles explains that she equally does not want to judge them, she believes that the men who choose to use brothels in search of intimacy are normal men; some are lonely, some have disabilities, some have fetishes, for some it may be extra-marital activity. Whatever the reason these places offer a safe space for this to occur and with the benefit of women owning their bodies, controlling their lives and earning their income in a manner they choose.