POMPEII NEVADA, Beauty in the Ruins

• Prize
  Honorable Mention
• Photographer
  Ben Sarao, United States
• Studio
  Primary Image

Tourists stood in lines to visit Pompeii brothels. Beds of stone with paintings of sex scenes are the main attractions. Tour guides approaching the Lupanare Grande informed the tourists... “This brothel is shaped like a V... like a woman’s vagina”. Guides recount stories about sexuality in Pompeii as if sex in the ruins of Pompeii still occurs. Maybe, it does.

Nevada is the only state in the USA that permits prostitution. Most Nevada brothels are now closed. Some remain. POMPEII NEVADA documents the intersection in life of love, lust and loss between two civilized worlds spanning centuries.