The Girl Project: Tiana Markova-Gold (by Elyssa Marcus)

Friday, December 11, 2009

Tiana Markova-Gold (by Elyssa Marcus)

Tiana Markova-Gold became interested in photography from her many travels to impoverished countries. She was mainly focused on long-term documentary projects. What most speaks to her are people or places that she refers to as "hidden, ignored, or misunderstood." Markova-Gold's main objective is to bring light to problems that may promote affirmative action. Tiana Markova-Gold works in color film, using only natural light. Much of her subject matter contains drugs, sex, and violence as shown by her documentary work featuring the lives of a prostitutes in NYC

”....for just over a year I have been photographing several women who are street-based sex workers in the hunts point area of the South Bronx and another woman who works as a high-end prostitute out of her co-op apartment in the west village in downtown Manhattan."

Something special and horrifying about her photographs is that they are not staged or posed, she does not even use any extra lighting or equipment; how we see it, is how it is. Sometimes she records conversations with her subjects to include in the project. In her Haiti photographs, she depicts the environment of Haiti, and shows how even one of the most unpolished areas, still can be beautiful.