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Mia Donovan photographs shameless sexy ladies
by GENEVIEVE PAIEMENT
Mia Donovan is not sex-obsessed. Really, she's not. The 24-year-old New-Brunswick-born, Montreal-based photographer is merely fascinated by the politics and issues surrounding women who make their living from sex. "My pictures are spontaneous snapshots of my close friends. They're intimate portraits of really open people," she explains. "All the women I take pictures of are very empowered by their sexuality and shameless about it--even more so because they make a living from it."
Donovan's list of accomplishments includes a slot in the Whoremoanal Surge show featuring works by or about sex workers last summer at the prestigious Helen Pitt Gallery in Vancouver. She was also part of the award-winning group photo show last month in the VAV gallery (she won a Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography Award).
But Donovan doesn't intend to stay confined to the stodgy white walls of the gallery world--CD, book and magazine covers and a documentary film are all in the works. "I did the cover of [Montreal-based writer] Lydia Eugene's book of short stories; the working title is Burnt Orange Lipstick and the shot is of a girl covering her face in a hotel parking lot--Lydia calls it 'suburban gothic'" The book should be out this spring by Gutter Press. Donovan's work also graces the cover of this month's issue of Stella's (the sex workers advocacy group) bi-monthly magazine Constellation.
She's also working on a documentary entitled The Touch of Her Flesh about the history of strippers and the law in Montreal. "In '97, they were doing all these well-publicized busts of stripclubs and people I know were arrested for contact dancing," she says. "They mostly ended up with 'bawdy house' charges that entail a weekend in jail or an $800 fine. But contact dancing--it's such a victimless crime--became legal in '99, so that changed the direction of the film." Don't watch for that one till 2002, though, "it takes more time because it's more expensive than taking pictures."
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