‘Charmeuse in Box’, ca 1955 On the boulevard between Pigalle and Place Blanche, the sideshows provided the ideal stage for Strömholm, who enjoyed photographing both the actors and their spectators. The snake charmer was a perfect subject and a very fitting metaphor: shedding its skin through molting, the snake symbolizes rebirth and transformation, just like the Girlfriends of Place Blanche on their way to becoming women. The man spookily peeking through the glass, the solitude of the charmeuse, the erotic connotation of the snake, as well as its lethal potential, set the tone for the overall story.

‘Little Christer’, 1955 This is one of Strömholm’s most popular images, and one of the few that were given a title. Strömholm often said that his photographs were self-portraits, and this one in particular, which hence became “Little Christer”. The original frame was wider but he preferred this tighter cropping, with the people in the background kept as dark as possible, putting the boy in the spotlight. This scene is filled with tenderness and melancholy, reminiscent of the 400 Blows by Truffaut, which was made around the same time, in 1959. © Christer Strömholm/Stromholm Estate

Nana, 1959 Nana’s elegance and versatility made her one of Strömholm’s favorite subjects. She appears several times in this show. Nan Goldin, one of Strömholm’s first American admirers and collectors, bought a print of this image in 2003. Indeed there seems to be a natural connection between the two photographers: an acute awareness of death and its link to eroticism, a radical attraction to the margins, and a powerful longing for freedom.

Gina & Nana, 1963 Strömholm was quickly and completely included in the Girlfriends’ circle of trust and friendship. This photograph shows a very touching complicity as well as a poignant spirit of camaraderie. There was a great sense of solidarity between the girls, and a cheerful sense of humor. This willpower helped them go through the dangers and hardship of their daily lives.

Belinda, 1967 Belinda wears diamonds over the kohl on her eyelids. Suavely lying on a hotel bed, she looks straight into the camera, her mouth slightly open, at once confident and vulnerable. The undulating fur on her silky skin, the line of her naked shoulders and the posture of her head, make her an impossibly glamorous Fellini-like goddess.

Gina, 1963 Strömholm shot mostly at night, in what he called « existing light ». This photograph, split in two between Gina and a man eerily looking at us in the distance, shows the somber routine of the Girls, looking for clients in the streets of Paris. They needed the money to go to Casablanca, Morocco, for a sex change operation. Working nights was very dangerous, and the Girls were often abused and arrested by the police for being “Men dressed as women outside the period of carnival”.

Fétiche, 1960 This is one of two fine art prints made especially by the Strömholm Estate for this exhibition. Strömholm made some of his most beautiful pictures in the Girlfriends’ hotel rooms, where he also lived when he was visiting. This photograph shows the level of trust and intimacy that transpired between them: they offered themselves to him completely. Like many of Strömholm’s portraits, Fétiche echoes a Renaissance painting. The light, and the pose: the delicate posture of her bust, the subtlety of her hands’ position, one hiding, one revealing her breast, symbolizing at once femininity, motherhood, a complex relationship to the body and to sexuality.

Nana, Brasserie Place Blanche, 1959 The café Place Blanche was the headquarters of Christer and the Girlfriends. In the background, a crowd of ordinary Frenchmen, both bourgeois and workers, contrasts bluntly with the delicate profile of Nana and her dignified posture. This violent juxtaposition shows her life outside the bubble, when confronted to the patriarchal 1960s France.

Cynthia, Hôtel Idéal, 1966 This incredibly delicate and classic image, another of Strömholm’s painting-like photographs, echoes the 1949 Provence Nude by his friend Willy Ronis. Every element -- the womanly curves, the reflection in the mirror, the white porcelain, the tender battle between shadow and light, the gracious posture -- combine into an idealized vision of femininity. Its purity and peacefulness evokes Baudelaire’s poem “Invitation to The Voyage”: “There all is order, naught amiss: Comfort and beauty, calm and bliss”.

Pepita, 1963 The beauty and modernity of this image is extraordinary. An androgynous icon, Bowie before Bowie, Pepita is wrapping herself up in her coat like in a carapace. Her physical mutation is only visible in parts: the bangs, the eyebrows, the make-up, the disturbingly long nails. Like in a surrealist painting, two white gloves are hanging in front of her on an almost invisible line. Pepita looks like she is floating on her back with two melancholy doves.

Jacky, 1961 Jacky may well be the most playful and charismatic characters of Les Amies de Place Blanche. She used to say: “Christer made the most of our narcissism”. She was a natural born actor and actually played in a couple underground movies in the 1970’s. In her fur coat, biting her earring, she looks like a lioness, showing off her wild survival instinct. Her strength and fearlessness invade the frame and burst out from it: she is the embodiment of life, hope, and resistance. In the background, the “Cyrano” neon sign provides a rather fitting and witty reference to a classic figure of French literature, Cyrano de Bergerac, famous for his ardent temper and dramatic charisma. It also constitutes a touching allusion to the Surrealists, who would meet at the Place Blanche “Café Cyrano” in the late 1920’s and had an undeniable influence on Strömholm’s work.

Sonia, 1962 This photograph of Sonia could have been taken today, for a fashion magazine. It is, in fact, a very dramatic and personal portrait made in 1962, in her dark hotel room. Her attitude, at once defying and distanced, is arresting. As is the contrast between the whiteness of her skin and the darkness of her clothes, the bleached blond of her hair and the blackness of the wig she firmly holds. Her body language -- the posture of her left arm, the way she raises her chin - is that of a fighter.