Cobb, who spoke Tuesday night in the Alumni Memorial Union Ballrooms, said the experience opened her eyes, though it's safe to say she had already tuned in to the human trafficking problem.,”

Washington, D.C., police recently raided a brothel next door to the wine store Jodi Cobb frequents, underscoring the proximity of modern slavery to her life.

Cobb, who spoke Tuesday night in the Alumni Memorial Union Ballrooms, said the experience opened her eyes, though it's safe to say she had already tuned in to the human trafficking problem.

The National Geographic photographer traveled to 11 countries producing the magazine's immensely popular September 2003 feature, "21st-Century Slaves." The feature has received more response than any story in the magazine's 120 years, she said.

Tuesday's presentation addressed the human slave trade's haunting themes: prostitution, forced labor, corrupt adoption and even human organ smuggling. She joked that her goal was to "depress everyone thoroughly."

"When the story came out, human trafficking was the third-largest criminal activity in the world," Cobb said. "Now it's number one. This is the dark side of globalization."

Though human trafficking is outlawed everywhere, a United Nations study found evidence of slavery in every country – even in America.

"This isn't just a Third World problem, though most of my photos were taken there," Cobb said. "There's a parallel universe that exists alongside ours, and we must take notice."

Stefan Dostanic, a College of Arts & Sciences senior, agreed.

"It's inevitable that with positive things come negative elements," he said. "This is a global problem."

Cobb's photo slideshow contrasted sharply against the darkened room, transmitting the human sadness and physical pain that comes with forced labor and prostitution.

According to Cobb, poverty is the source of slavery, and the lure of profit must be the reason people turn to trafficking. Women and children, naturally vulnerable, are commonly victimized, she said.

Child beggar rings in India, she said, are organized by women – "mothers" – who often maim the children to arouse more sympathy.

She photographed children using toxic inhalants to "keep their appetites down and their senses numbed."

Slaves trapped in workplaces with such perilous conditions, Cobb said, cannot escape because of debt and outrageous interest rates they incur each time they are sold.

Photos Cobb took of brothels in India, Israel and Thailand capture the pain of forced prostitution. One photo showed Surekha, an Indian woman who lives and "entertains clients" in a 4-by-5 foot room where she was infected with HIV.

Cobb said slavery and prostitution destroy women mentally and physically.

"These women have a brief shelf life in the eyes of their pimps," she said. "They disappear. They just vanish."

College of Arts & Sciences senior Emily Johnson said Cobb's presentation, along with her photos, painted a horrific picture of slavery happening around the world and in our country.

"I think it really surprised everyone," she said. "We should all be aware of this tragedy and take action."

According to Cobb, shelters such as Children of the Night, which has rescued 10,000 women from sexual slavery since 1979, are helping former prostitutes to recover. The women, she said, are kept secret under armed guards from former owners or pimps.

Ten percent of migrant farm workers in the U.S., such as tomato and orange pickers, are currently enslaved, Cobb said.

Awareness of these criminal activities are growing, though, she said, and groups like Florida's Coalition of Immokalee Workers help authorities shut down small operations that feed into the industry like "streams into the Amazon."

Cobb ended her presentation on a hopeful note.

"Everybody is in a position to help in some small way," she said.

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