Photovoice E 55 – Reflecting on social inequality through images / Photovoice E 55 – Reflexe sociálních nerovností prostřednictvím obrazů

Project funding: German-Czech Future Fund, Friedrich Ebert Foundation
Project leadership: Alexandra Geisler
Project cooperation: UJEP – Jan Evangelista Purkyně University Ústí nad Labem, Faculty of Social Work

The images from the Czech border town of Dubí are still vivid. Along the E55 European route from the Zinnwald / Cinnovec border crossing to Dubí, a kilometer-long prostitution zone emerged in the 1990s, including various guesthouses, erotic bars, clubs, and brothels.

After 1989, the North Bohemian spa town of Dubí—near the border with Saxony—developed into what was sometimes called the “longest street prostitution area in Europe.” About 50 brothels existed along Ruská Street, connecting Teplice with Zinnwald, with estimates of up to 400 sex workers, often serving clients from Germany. On the Czech side, this development was sarcastically referred to as a “toll to enter the European Union.”

In 2006, the motorway from Dresden to Ústí nad Labem opened. One year later, Czech Republic joined the Schengen Area, eliminating border controls and long waiting times.

Key questions explored by the project

What did it mean to live in a social space known across Europe as a paradise for paid sex?
How do people on both sides of the border cope with the mentality of cross-border clients and a “cheap-is-cool” culture?
What does social inequality mean in this border region, and where and how is it perceived?
What has happened 15 years after sex work lost part of its business base due to the decline of heavy freight traffic along the E55?

Photovoice as a research method

Photovoice allows participants to represent complex and hard-to-explain social conditions through photographs. Developed in the 1990s by Caroline Wang and Mary Ann Burris in rural China, it is a qualitative method for community-based participatory research.

The project uses Photovoice to provide a starting point for German-Czech dialogue on a still-taboo topic. Its unique approach encourages participants to begin a reflective learning process on exclusion, discrimination, and social inequality, especially in relation to the East-West gap in (Central) Europe.

The project emphasizes:

Strengthening participants to express and question their experiences in their specific social space
Revealing and addressing problems through the photographs
Stimulating awareness of social inequality in daily life
Creative engagement with the lived reality of the border region, particularly regarding sex work along the E55
Collective reflection, discussion, and critical dialogue on personal and shared perceptions

The focus on participants’ lived experiences encourages reflection on social inequalities in everyday life, using an intersectional multi-level analysis. Both the structural level (power relations, exploitation, discrimination) and the representation level (norms, values, stereotypes) are addressed and made visible through the images.

Goals of the project

The project aims to explore and influence social reality collaboratively, enabling participants to reflect on their everyday lives and to critically consider invisible, normalized inequalities. Visual documentation is paired with storytelling and group discussions, culminating in collective narratives, giving participants a voice for their individual and collective experiences (VOICE).

If you are interested in the project, please feel free to contact us via email.