Maia was trafficked to Moscow at 18. “They brought me to a group of 12 men, kept me there for four days, taking turns.” Moldova 2005 © Mimi Chakarova

For seven years, investigative reporter and photographer Mimi Chakarova has carried out painstaking, often dangerous, on-the-ground reporting into all aspects of the sex trafficking trade from Eastern Europe, including investigations into the countries of origin, the process of transit, and the initial allure and stark realities trafficked women face in the receiving countries. She has slowly built trust and developed relationships with young women in Eastern Europe who have been trafficked abroad. Over the years she has traveled through Eastern Europe, Southern Europe/Mediterranean regions and the Middle East for this project. Her work has won a 2008 Emmy Nomination and a 2008 Webby Award, and has appeared on PBS Frontline/World and CBS 60 Minutes. This long-term project was also awarded the Inge Morath Magnum Photo Grant for outstanding documentary work and has been supported by the Shifting Foundation and the Gruber Family Foundation.

CIR is now seeking production funding for Mimi Chakarova to complete a feature-length documentary that reveals the underground criminal network of trafficking in Eastern Europe and the intimate stories of its victims. The effort aims to shed light into this area of great darkness, which is difficult to report and thus rarely investigated in-depth.

Access has been the most difficult aspect of this reportage. Because of the criminal elements involved, it is not only a dangerous topic on which to report, but due to the shame involved—women are rarely willing to talk about what happened to them after they have been trafficked. Chakarova's background—a woman from Bulgaria—and her understanding of this field and long commitment to revealing it to the world make her one of the few journalists capable of the access necessary to report accurately on this trade. Through Chakarova's first person narration and rarely documented footage, this documentary will not only raise awareness and understanding of the hidden reality of sexual slavery, but will do so with sensitivity, compassion and exquisite visual storytelling.

Chakarova's stellar production team includes Stephen Talbot as executive producer and Stephanie Challberg as editor. View a sampling of her work in the multimedia project The Price of Sex: Women Speak, co-produced with CIR in 2009.

Chakarova will exhibit her photography and multimedia reporting at FiftyCrows Gallery in San Francisco in April. Please come support Chakarova's work at this event and help us spread the word:

The Price of Sex :: Photo Exhibition
April 10–May 15, 2010
OPENING RECEPTION: April 15 from 4-7:30 pm
FiftyCrows Gallery—Social Change Photography
49 Geary St., Suite 225
San Francisco, CA

Last week, photojournalist Mimi Chakarova presented her work on sex trafficking at the Tides Momentum 2009 conference in San Francisco. Chakarova talks about her personal story—specifically her experience growing up in Bulgaria—and how that drives her work.

"I want to ... let you know how surreal it is to be here right now. About two weeks ago I was in brothels in Istanbul, posing to be a prostitute for sale," she says as an introduction. Chakarova spent the summer gathering video material for a full-length documentary about sex trafficking in Eastern Europe. This past spring, she co-produced a multimedia website with the Center for Investigative Reporting called The Price of Sex: Women Speak—it includes four intimate video profiles of women who have been trafficked as sex slaves.

Watch Chakarova's presentation at the Momentum 2009 conference:

Women's eNews featured CIR correspondent Mimi Chakarova as "Journalist of the Month"—spotlighting her work on sex trafficking and the multimedia project co-produced with CIR, "The Price of Sex: Women Speak."

From eNews:

For the seven-year-long investigative series, Chakarova delved deep into the murky world of sex trafficking, interviewing dozens of women--and even posing as a trafficked woman herself. The result is a handful of profiles, narrated through photography, video and audio, which paint a picture of what these women must endure.

Chakarova, in conjunction with the Center for Investigative Reporting, based in Berkeley, Calif., brought these stories to the public in May of this year. They launched www.priceofsex.org, a Web site that unites these women's stories with resources on the issue, allowing people to take action, donate or learn more.

Over the course of the project, Chakarova estimates that she spoke with up to 50 women from Eastern Europe who had been trafficked. At times, her subjects were so traumatized that she could not bring herself to continue interviewing.

"You feel 'Why am I doing this?' It's painful. In those cases I did not push," Chakarova told Women's eNews in a phone interview.

The Inter Press Service, an international news agency focused on development and globalization, published a lengthy review of photojournalist Mimi Chakarova's work on sex trafficking today. Chakarova's multimedia project, The Price of Sex, was produced by the Center for Investigative Reporting.

Chakarova's work sensitively presents the tragic stories of women from countries such as Moldova or the Ukraine sold into brutal sexual slavery often by neighbours or acquaintances. The few women who manage to escape find themselves facing not only serious health issues or psychological trauma, but also the social stigma associated with having worked as sex workers.

One of the young women interviewed by Chakarova, Jenea, from a small village in southern Moldova, was sold into prostitution by a neighbour who had promised to help her get a job in Moscow. At 18, Jenea found herself locked in a hotel room in Turkey, forced to sleep with as many as 50 men on some days. She escaped after one year.

Back in her village, she now lives in a two-room house with her sister and niece, unable to find a job because of prejudice, and health problems - incontinence, a direct result of the sexual abuse suffered in Turkey. "It would have been better for me not to have been born," Jenea says softly, on camera.

Chakarova’s research certainly goes further than telling the terrible stories of trafficked women. The detailed personal accounts highlight the problems that need to be addressed if sex trafficking is to be controlled. Poverty emerges time and again as the main cause in each of her stories.