Starting in the late 1920’s the author began prowling the back streets and alleys of Paris, going where tourists dare not go and would not be welcome. He mingled and took photos of the underside of Paris; the whores, pimps, cesspool cleaners, madams, opium dens, thieves, gays and gang leaders who lived in the dark alleys and byways of Paris at that time. His was not an easy journey for those who he wished to talk too and photograph were often wanted by the police and they lived in a world where there was little honor and every outsider was view with suspicion and was also seen as an easy “mark”.
His photo book is divided by chapters such as “lovers”, “houses of illusion”, “the underworld” and often centered on various personalities such as “Kiki of Montparnasse” and “La Mome Bijou”. Each chapter has sad and amusing facts such as the fact that one brothel had rooms with various themes such as Moorish rooms, Pompeian rooms, etc. One room was so beautiful that it was given an official prize at the 1900 World’s Fair as an example of French refinement and taste!
That world is largely gone now as “modernization” of Paris straightened the streets, “gentrified” the neighborhoods and the small time crooks were replaced with larger, more professional gangs. But the photos give us a glimpse into the not too distant past that was much grittier, more down to earth and in some ways, more interesting that our sanitized lives of today.
This book will be hard to find but if you should run across it, pick it up, look at those photos and try to imagine their lives and how they would view how you live.
