Strip clubs of the Pigalle district - the hot bottom of Paris in the 1970s

The Pigalle district of Paris has traditionally been a place of concentration of various cabarets, strip clubs, brothels and sex shops. At the same time, it was a traditionally bourgeois area, perhaps because such 20th-century celebrities as Andre Breton and Pablo Picasso lived here. This combination of a bawdy past and a promising present gave Pigalle a dubious and somewhat sad atmosphere.

The author of these photos is Gilles Elie Cohen — in the fall of 1979, for several weeks, I followed the oldest and most respected stripper of the district everywhere, documenting the whole background of the most seedy places in Paris. (Further — the words of the author of the photo)

In September 1979, I followed Lolo Pigalle everywhere for several weeks. She was the oldest stripper of the Pigalle district, now she is no longer alive. She was an intelligent and refined woman and was highly respected in the area. For me, she was a kind of pass—through ticket - if you came to the club with Lolo, you are untouchable. I could go anywhere.

When my parents moved to Paris from In Tunisia in the early 70s, they settled near the Pigalle district. I didn't live with them, but I visited them often, walking up and down Montmartre.

Of course, as a real Parisian, I went to sex shops and even saw a couple of peep shows. However, now, thanks to the construction boom of recent decades, there are no more prostitutes standing at the doors of hotels.

As for strip clubs, I've never been able to, and still can't afford to go to them. Filming Lolo Pigalle that fall, I realized how many men are happy to part with the last money in exchange for a little affection and striptease. I never understood it.

What was revealed to me during filming in these places is a dark and pernicious world. A world of sexual squalor and exploited women. Maybe there was some glamorous aspect to it all, but I didn't see it. It seems to me that the Pigalle district lived its best years in the late XIX — early XX century. Unfortunately, I came later.