Credit: Silence (Laura LeMoon)

What The Earth Knows: Award-Winning Photo Collection

Northwest

When

July 2–Aug. 1, 2026

Days vary, Times vary

Free

Where

imperfecta gallery

809 NW Flanders St, Portland, OR 97209
Portland, OR, 97209

The following description was submitted by the event organizer.

Imperfecta is proud to present What the Earth Knows, an award-winning photo collection about violence against people in the sex trade by sex worker artist Laura LeMoon.

The Green River Killer, known as Gary Ridgway, is a serial murderer that targeted people in the sex trade between 1982-1999 in Washington state, until his arrest and conviction in 2001. When asked why he targeted sex workers, his response was because “no one cares about prostitutes.” A significant number of Ridgway’s victims were teenage runaways forced into prostitution, and adult female sex workers working the Seattle area’s “tracks.” The images in this exhibition are portraits in negative space, not merely landscapes.

Laura LeMoon gives a voice to those silenced by violence against people in the sex trade. She explains: “The hatred against us is overwhelming, including hatred by society that doesn’t want us in it, the extortion from police, or the beatings, robbings, rapings that seem to come from everyone, from strangers, to law enforcement, pimps, and customers. The hatred is palpable from our hostile criminal “justice” system and our hostile medical system, to the federal and state governments that pass laws to annihilate us, to partners and family members who are disgusted and ashamed of us. Gary Ridgway is an amalgamation of all the immense hatred from society that we, as sex workers and sex trafficking survivors, face every day. And we will not remain invisible for your comfort anymore.”

The series, exhibited in Tokyo, London, Greece, NYC, Los Angeles, Seattle and more, won Italy’s International Prize Leonardo da Vinci.