Bonnie
© Marie Hald39 year old Bonnie is a danish mother of three. Since the age of 18, she has been working as a prostitute in small towns in Denmark. Bonnie's first time having sex for money was at a visit at a brothel near her home town. The experience was unpleasant and Bonnie was shy and ashamed of her body. She had only been to bed with her boyfriend. But because of the money, she kept working.
An old house on the countryside of Sealnd is where Bonnie works everyday. A normal day starts at 9 AM and ends at precisely 4 PM. When her day is over she picks up her kids and goes home to her house in another nearby village. The oldest daughter Michella (16) has her own apartment and her son Oliver (14) lives at home with Bonnie and the youngest brother Noa. 6 year old Noa, thinks his mother has a job as a cleaning lady. The older children know what her profession is, and so does their school, the community and so on. It is not easy for Oliver and Michella and the children are ofen bullied in school.
As prostitution is a legal profession I Denmark, Bonnie pays taxes and is registered as a business. Although she is in trouble with the IRS and has been to prison more than once.
The single most important thing in Bonnie's life is her children. Her hope is that they will have a better life and childhood than her own. Bonnie's own childhood was filled with violence and abuse and she hasn't been to school since the 8th grade.
Even though working in the sex industry has a lot of sacrifices for the family, Bonnie tries the best she can to make her family happy, working, taking it day by day.
click to view the complete set of images in the archive
InstituteTM (collectively Institute Pictures, Institute Studios, & Institute Artist) is redefining how stories are produced and told in the 21st Century. Founded by Producer Frank Evers and Director/Visual Artist Lauren Greenfield, we are a multiplatform production company representing auteur-driven storytellers across commercials, photography, fine art, film, and technology — and producing original work across every screen that those stories live on. Our multiplatform expertise and established global relationships in entertainment, commercial, fine art, and journalism create unmatched reach and cross-pollination of creative work. A film commission informs a photography campaign; a fine art practice shapes a commercial; an editorial relationship opens a documentary. Few companies operate fluently across all of these worlds. Institute was built this way from the ground up.
Clients include: Apple, Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft/Xbox, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Nike, Adidas, Lululemon, Under Armour, Dove, Maybelline, Clinique, Ulta Beauty, Aesop, Vaseline, LEGO, Balenciaga, Dior, Tom Ford, Kenzo, Supreme, Van Cleef & Arpels, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Toyota, McLaren, Pennzoil, American Express, Chase, U.S. Bank, Burger King, Chobani, Corona, Pepsi, Nespresso, Lavazza, Velveeta, Airbnb, Four Seasons, Marriott, Instacart, eBay, JCPenney, Levi's, Swatch, Bang & Olufsen, Bayer, Pfizer, Genentech, EA, Planned Parenthood, Ad Council, and the United Nations. Editorial and publishing partners include: The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, GQ, Esquire, TIME, Bloomberg, National Geographic, The Economist, Monocle, Le Monde, Stern, Sunday Times Magazine, Phaidon, Steidl, Abrams, Prestel, Chronicle, and Random House.
“Institute” is a registered trademark in the US, Europe, and United Kingdom. All rights reserved.
