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A hard-hitting photography exhibition by women who have been involved in the sex industry is launched at the Scottish Parliament today.

Inside Outside gives a rare insight into this hidden world.

The exhibition and a book feature photographs which symbolise the experiences of four women who have been involved in different parts of the sex trade – from street prostitution to escorting, brothels and saunas.

The project was an initiative by Encompass, a network of Scots agencies who work directly with those involved in the sex industry.

(Image: Kathryn Rattray)

Interviews were done by Linda Thompson, of the Women’s Support Network. She said: “We tried to highlight the realities of the sex industry which many people don’t hear about.

“The women were honest in telling their stories and we are privileged, as outsiders, to be allowed into their lives.

“These women have been, and still are, incredibly brave – having experienced violence and abuse. They are one of the most creative, insightful and warm groups of women I have ever been lucky enough to work with.”

Kathryn Rattray, a Dundee-based photographer, was commissioned to help the women develop confidence and skills from documenting their story.

She said: “It is such an exciting idea, with the women in control. With Inside Outside, I am not the photographer. I am the photographer’s assistant.”

Levi is a mother in her early 30s and was groomed by a pimp from the age of 16.

She has worked in the sex industry since then, on the street and indoors, but is now trying to get out.

(Image: Inside Outside)

The photograph of bound wrists symbolises how trapped she feels being in a profession that disgusts her.

She said: “Some [clients] are sleazy, asking for more. They are just ‘Ugh’. Their hands are all over you. They’re wanting more.

“I’m in the shower before they’ve even left sometimes. I’m jumping in the shower and scrubbing. A bit like getting rid of them.”

She added: “If I could go back to when I was 16, what would I like to tell me?

“I would tell her to go back home. If she was able to, to go back home, be a bairn and do what you’re meant to do. Get a job and do normal things.

“I would never want any wee girl to have to do this.

“It’s just people abusing you – that’s all it is. There’s nothing good about it. I have just about been surviving.

“I got used to hiding. I think I was putting a mask on to make other people think, ‘She’s looking fine, she’s doing good’. But inside, I really wasn’t fine – far from fine, crumbling underneath.”

Natalie is in her early 30s and happy to have escaped prostitution.

She was involved in street prostitution in Scotland at two different times in her life – as a child of 15 and again in her early 20s.

(Image: Kathryn Rattray)

She said: “My family found out I was doing it. Everyone knows if you’re standing in the street what you are there for. They drove past.

“A car door opened and my mum jumped out. I felt sick to the stomach and it broke my mum’s heart. It broke my heart as well, my mum knowing.”

Natasha is in her late 20s and is a foreign sex worker.

She has been in Scotland for two years and originally worked for pimps. But they demanded so much money from her that she went out on her own as an escort. She now sees up to five men a day.

She said: “With customers, I think about my safety. I have very high heels. They are my weapon in case I need them. I keep them close to me all the time. If something happens with a customer, I have to do something. I will use them. I will not stay there and be killed. I have to protect myself.

Natasha became increasingly fearful after Romanian escort Luciana Maurer was stabbed

44 times by car salesman Steven Mathieson in December 2014.

(Image: Kathryn Rattray)

She said: “When I arrived in Scotland, I saw that a Romanian girl escort was killed. I was really, really scared.

“One dodgy customer tried to rape me. Some women will say it’s a job like any other job but it’s not really because it’s very risky.

“You can die any time because you don’t know who is coming in your house.

“All the time I have to think, plan and know what I have to do to just make them customers leave.”

● The exhibition will run at Holyrood from March 13 to 17. It will then tour various locations across Scotland.