Lucía

Lucía is from the Dominican Republic. She works as a prostitute in Prins Bernhard Bar.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, the bar is still bustling with life: some people are dancing and Heineken beers are flowing rapidly. They see me taking photographs and they invite me to come in to drink and enjoy the early morning in their company. I ask Lucía for permission to shoot her portrait and she asks for 50 guilders. She insists that I follow her to a small room at the back of the bar. Her insistence distresses me, but I follow her anyway. She takes me to a small bathroom, she stands against the wall and tries to seduce me. I have a hard time trying to convince her that I don't want to be seduced, I want to take her portrait in broad daylight and with the clothes she is wearing. I try to capture her beauty, her strength, her sadness; the marks that life has left on her face.

Life has hardened her. Her main interest is to send money to her country, where who knows how many people depend on it.