From the upcoming exhibit “Scarlett Muse” — at New York City’s Daniel Cooney Fine Art Gallery — revealing images from the long relationship between pros, gigolos, and the photographers inspired by them

An exhibition titled “Scarlet Muse” at Daniel Cooney Fine Art will examine the work of 20 photographers from the 19th century to the present, tracing the storied and complex relationship between photography and prostitution.

The alliance between sex work and photography has been convoluted from the start, teetering back and forth between empowering and exploitative, empathetic and objectifying.