​I brought my Rolleiflex cameras to Pigalle, the neon-lit night district of Paris. I was looking for unusual colors – deep reds, intense blues, vibrant purples, crazy pinks – to be captured by Cinestill 800T films.

 

I walked up and down the Boulevard Pigalle at sunset and at night, grasping for fresh air in the heat of the Parisian summer. I felt slightly frightened, trying to disappear behind my camera while I struck up conversations with the men guarding the many sex shops and X-cinemas.

 

It strangely helped being a woman photographer in this man’s world – nobody seemed to care about me, and doors would slightly open.

 

What was happening behind the red curtains?

 

I ended up blending into the nightlife of window shoppers (“window-lickers”, or “lèche-vitrine” in French), and for a few hours I could make this place my own, reclaiming my being in the street as a woman, at night, not for sex, but for the sheer pleasure of art.

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Photos taken in 2024 on Rolleiflex 3.5F / Cinestill 800T films 

(AI has been used to create the text on the title page)