When the camera stops rolling: Intimate black and white photos reveal the real life of a Spanish porn star

  

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From working out at the gym to walking her dog, these striking black and white images offer an intimate look at the life of a porn star after the camera stops rolling.

Photographer Katia Repina first met 23-year-old actress Marta on the set of an x-rated film in a village on the outskirts of Barcelona three years ago.

Ms Repina had started work on a project looking at the industry as a whole, but, struck by Marta's sincere and open nature, befriended the actress and later shifted the focus of her work.

The resulting photo series, titled Llámame Marta, or Call Me Marta, is striking in its candour and sensitivity. It captures daily moments in Marta's private and professional life over two years.

Marta applying makeup. At 23 years old, Marta decided to enter the porn industry. 'I realized that guys were always staring at me,' she explains. 'If I could turn guys on without even trying, what would happen if I made an effort?'

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Before starting in the industry, Marta had no partner but craved a relationship. Although surrounded by men in her work life, she finds her personal life is spent mostly alone. She was in the industry for over half a year when she met her ex-boyfriend

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Marta with her ex-boyfriend, a Ukrainian body-builder, whom she lived with for a year

'This project is not about sex,' Ms Repina told MailOnline. 'It is about the human, the person, behind the job. It is a job like any other. This is about this person, this particular girl.'

The images document Katia's life as she finds her way in the industry, offering insight into her daily life. In one image, the actress dabs on make up in a bathroom mirror before a shoot.  In another, she strolls down the street with her dog. 

Some of the images do capture Marta on set - frozen in a pose, ready for the director's instruction. 

'On the shoots she felt more comfortable,' the photographer said. 'But it took more time to be allowed into her personal life.

'It was more difficult and more interesting for me, to find out who she is, where she comes from.'

She added: 'Normally you think people in porn come from broken families, with a father who is an alcoholic but this is not the case with her. It is not the story you see in the movie.' 

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Marta explains the world of pornography is very different from what she imagined. 'I have to separate [porn and my personal life], because I can be very aggressive or vicious during shooting… but in my personal life, I’m myself, I’m humble, I’m not a primadonna.'

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Marta shooting a scene. She had originally intended to only work in the industry for a year

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'I’ll always have the gym… People come and go in life, except for family and a handful of lifelong friends and the gym, my lifestyle.' When she was younger, Marta competed in and won female body competitions. She still regularly trains for the competitions, which she hopes to enter again, but she doesn’t consider herself ready yet

As their relationship developed, Ms Repina was invited to meet her friends, celebrate birthdays and was introduced to her family. 

After Marta told her parents about her choice of career, they stopped talking to her for a month. 

Ms Repina said: 'It was a shock. Then later they were like, "we don't like it, we don't accept it, but we love you anyway".' They have since reconciled and live close to each other.

Marta's stable personal life contradicts many accepted ideas surrounding porn actresses. In fact, she fell into the industry after spending years training for body fitness competitions.

'She was in good shape but she wasn't feeling very feminine. So she had a breast operation [augmentation] and started to realise there were men recognising her all the time. 

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Marta’s boyfriend accepted her job as part of her life, but had difficulty dealing with it. He watched her videos and saw her posts and pictures on social media. Marta admits that she wouldn’t date someone in the porn industry herself — and recognizes the paradox of asking her boyfriend to accept her job

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Marta separates her public personality, the porn actress, and Marta, a very normal girl

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Once she started in the industry, Marta explained the choice to her parents. She says they’ll never understand or accept it, but they stand by her. 'They love me and are the greatest thing I have,' she says

'She thought, "I like sex, I can try it". She thought she would try it for a year, get a lot of money and go do something else. But actresses do not get paid as much as they used to.'

Three years into her career, Marta is now able to set boundaries on what she will and will not do on film. This sense of empowerment and control is part of what attracted the Ms Repina to the actress.

'She was very open, natural and sincere,' Ms Repina said. 'She was very direct.

'A lot of people in the industry want to be liked so that they can be filmed but she is not like this. It is very attractive when people are honest. '

She added: 'She feels in control. I don't think she was obligated to do anything. She would control who she would work with, what she would do.  

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Marta is not a victim of circumstances: she has no small children and doesn’t come from extreme poverty. She chose porn freely

'Other girls are easy to manipulate because they are young, they are not sure what they are about. But she was not like that.' 

While images of Marta with her then-boyfriend remain part of the series shown online, Ms Repina was forced to remove others of the actress with her family after they were taken and reprinted without permission.

Call Me Marta was first released two years ago as part of a multi-media project. Parts of the series is still available online.