Yesterday was my first day of teaching. I was preparing my lesson at home when Lee dashed up to the doorstep with apologies that her, her partner, and their baby had to do family stuff, and wouldn’t be able to make it (Lee is an ex worker with a sweet four-month-old baby girl). Its funny because I didn’t know anything when I got here. I didn’t know if the women would want to be involved, or be interested in what I was trying to do and its only been five weeks and I’ve got L going out of her way to make sure I know she will be there next week. It was a really thoughtful, comforting gesture. I’ve changed my whole life to do this project and everything really hinges on the workers getting involved, so its a relief they are.

Bell and K. turned up for the first lesson, and Bell surprised me with how much thought she had put into the theme of her project. She said while she had been considering looking at the fact that not all women who are street sex workers get into the job because of drugs, she had decided that she was going to direct her photographic series to look at the sometimes conflicting roles of mothering and prostitution. And I shouldn’t have been surprised because the point of what I’m doing is to show that just because women sell their bodies on the street doesn’t mean they are not articulate, intelligent, and reflective women, but I was. And very, very happy.

We spent time talking about the role of viewpoint and light in making an image while other women, lured by the open door, tried their luck with grabbing a cordial. Technically Gatehouse is not open on Wednesday, except for me and my photographers, particularly because I don’t know where anything is, but I’ve figured out where the perennial favourites (cordial and chocolate) are pretty quickly. K. jumped all over the furniture, and got down on the floor, really getting into experimenting with viewpoint. Bell decided to photograph the canal running beside Gatehouse which she told me the workers use for sex when the mugs have no car, and don’t want to pay for a hotel room. She told me, cigarette in one hand, camera in the other, that she thought she had got some good images, and that she was really excited to be doing the project.

So its been one day, and this might be overly optimistic but I can’t help but think I’m going to look back on this year of my life and feel like I spent it wisely. It’s already amazing.