'They don't care. They let us die': Miami prostitutes and drug addicts reveal their harrowing tales from the streets in devastating new photography collection

Katrina became hooked on heroin after she lost custody of her baby boy. Alice was lit on fire by another woman working the streets. Trish ...

Katrina became hooked on heroin after she lost custody of her baby boy. Alice was lit on fire by another woman working the streets. Trish became addicted to pills while trying to treat her chronic pain.

These are just three of the women featured in American photographer Bruce Gilden's new devastating collection 'Only God Can Judge Me'. 

Gilden, who is part of the famous photo cooperative Magnum Photos, made a name for himself in the photography world with his close-up portraits of the many characters that roam the streets of New York City. 

But it was when he began taking pictures outside of the US, that Gilden found inspiration - and a personal connection - for his new portrait collection of Miami prostitutes. 

Famed photographer Bruce Gilden's new collection, 'Only God Can Judge Me', features striking and devastating portraits of prostitutes in Miami 

In all of these women, Gilden could see his own mother - who had been 'ravaged by pharmaceutical drugs, alcohol, and her lifestyle,' he wrote in his new book 

'As I traveled through America, I noticed the same pattern in many cities: in all the bad areas, I saw white women, generally young and at one time generally pretty, who were drug addicts,' he wrote. 

'And I'm talking serious heroin or crack addicts. Many of them admitted they were sex workers and in many instances they looked like a shell of themselves.' 

'This struck me very deeply bringing back memories from my youth.' 

In all of these women, Gilden could see his own mother - who had been 'ravaged by pharmaceutical drugs, alcohol, and her lifestyle,' he wrote. 

It was this personal connection that inspired Only God Can Judge Me, in which Gilden photographed prostitutes in Overtown, Miami. 

Gilden interviewed his subjects as well, pairing their harrowing tales on an adjacent blank page next to their striking portraits. 

Gilden interviewed his subjects as well, pairing their harrowing personal tales on a blank page next to their striking portraits 

'It's hard to imagine how much suffering and how little hope their stories contain,' Gilden wrote. 'We ignore them but they do exist and survive at the other end of the spectrum.'   

There is Katrina, the woman who lost her one-year-old son. She told Gilden that her mother - who 'collects foster kids for paychecks' - had set her up. 

'I couldn't get him back. I was really disappointed and my boyfriend introduced me to heroin when I was almost going to commit suicide,' she continued. 'I have been doing drugs for about five and a half years.' 

Also featured is Jessica, a prostitute who revealed that she looks at 'everybody as a predator'. 

'The most traumatic thing that ever happened to me was when I had people try to kidnap me and I had to jump out of the car on the highway and run for my life,' she told Gilden. 

It is Jessica, who has the words 'Only God Can Judge Me' tattooed across her chest, that served as the inspiration for the book's title. 

As is his signature, many of Gilden's photos in the collection are very up close and personal portraits of the women 

Trish (pictured) was married, a self-described 'ladies who lunch', before she got hooked on pain pills at the age of 20, she told Gilden during their interview 

Trish was married, a self-described 'ladies who lunch', before she got hooked on pain pills at the age of 20. 

'I have chronic pain in my body. I had never taken a drug prior to that and I said, "Oh my god, I feel so much better" and that was it,' she told Gilden. 'That got a hold on me and this is where I wound up.'  

Gilden also photographed a woman named Alice, who was set on fire by a fellow prostitute in 2001. 

'She drugged me and poured gasoline down the front of me and lit me on fire,' Alice revealed. 

'My theory is that if you're going to kill me, let me see your eyes first, don't come up behind my back as a coward. That's a coward and that's why she's at where she is now. I took care of that.'

Gilden also photographed a woman named Alice (pictured), who was set on fire by a fellow prostitute in 2001. 'She drugged me and poured gasoline down the front of me and lit me on fire,' Alice revealed

Kat, 42, has been living on the streets for the past 20 years. 

'I've been here most of my life,' she told Gilden. 'There is no kind of help for people that do opiates in Miami. They don't care. They let us die.' 

Gilden said he plans to continue the project, which he hopes will show people what drugs can do to 'anyone's loved one'. 

'It's always interesting when people say that they have trouble looking at these faces,' he wrote. 'Just imagine you have to look at your mother's face.'