SOLD is a series of 25 anonymous portraits of victims of human trafficking in the Netherlands.
The portraits were shot in their rooms in shelters where these women and men temporarily found safety, and a home, and maybe the start of a better life. The clothes they wore were often their only possessions.
“They where waiting for me at the beach.”
“The truck was my home”
“Over a period of two and a half years I wasn’t allowed a single break.”
"I think i was dead inside.That is how I survived. "
“Head over heels in love, I was even willing to work in prostitution for him”
“My mother-in-law sold me.”
"The men I was taken to had entirely different plans for me. They forced me to work in prostitution. "
"When they set off to drive me and the others to another location, I seized my chance to escape."
“I was pregnant through rape and at a loss for what to do”
"I have been to so many places that i sometimes did not even know in what country i was."
"I fell prey to the traffickers, the criminals, because I was so eager to work and had no other means of making money. "
"My mom always called me Precious, she never used my real name. I have not seen her in 5 years. I think if she knew what has happened she will not call me that name anymore."
"I was locked up for months, getting abused by many."
“Thankfully they never hurt my little boy, but for months he did have to stay locked in a small room”
"I made long hours and had no home, lived and slept on the front seats of the truck."
"Most people won't believe i was a forced to please men, they think it only happens to women."
“He was so nice and promised to pay for my operation.”
"We were forced to work and live on that farm, the children had to work too."
" Do you mind if I don't talk?"