This post is also available in: French

It started like this, in 1976, without any experience et any preconceived ideas. Right before her eyes, there was an unknown and at the same time familiar world. She wanted to know and to get familiar with these men, these women and these transgenders whose bodies were for sale in the streets of the capital.
In 1976, Jane Evelyn Atwood who was not a photographer yet, lives in Paris since five years. She purchases her first ”true” camera and meets Blondine as well as other prostitutes from the rue des Lombards in the future Beaubourg district. In some months, she meets Barbara, Miranda, Nouja, Ingrid and all these people beating the cobblestones of Pigalle. Taking photographs little by little, she progressively enters the life of these characters and the universe of prostitution. Streets, bars and hotel rooms are the places where she writes her first stories in pictures reporting daily life. Without really knowing this, Jane Evelyn Atwood creates then her first reportages and starts a masterful and poignant work, guided by meetings ans the need to ”capture the human dignity”.
Michaël Houlette

This exhibition was conceived basing on the series Rue de Lombards created between 1976 and 1977 and the series Pigalle People created between 1978 and 1979. The exhibition Pigalle People was presented for the first time in Arles in 2018 and was produced as part of the 2018 edition of Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles, France.