Pigalle, the fall of Babylon

This exclusive report that was carried out for 9 full months over a seven-year period (1997-2004) is the last testimony of a district that used to be one of the hottest and most famous around the world: Pigalle.
World-known as a hot spot for its nocturnal fantasy life, Pigalle has definitely lost some of its panache. This long-before picturesque district where erotic tourism melted passers-by from all around the world with touts, bar girls and prostitutes is bound to change and become quieter and softer. The strip-tease bars -usually called cabarets-, the sex-shops and other lingerie shops were still heading the field on Clichy Boulevard a couple of years ago while down below, girls' bars living on prostitution were just plenty.
The new planning of Clichy boulevard - literally the spine of Pigalle - since 2004, the urban pressure from the capital city as well as a clear policy aiming at cleaning up some Parisian districts tend to win over fringe inhabitants who had found shelter there. Shady establishments are closing down month after month, the heterogeneous population is yielding ground to young bourgeois, the Moulin Rouge remaining the only one to welcome thousands tourists from...China.
Photographer Gilles Crampes conducted a long investigation, willing to show the slow death of both a place and an era. Following Boubat, Doisneau or Brassaï, he night and day tried to show the everyday life of people working in Pigalle. Their image is sometimes far from glamorous for people in general, but actually, beyond appearances and provoking attitudes, they did let him see their fragile and sensitive personalities. In the cabarets, dead lapses of time can be long and hostesses or strip-tease girls off duty can often prove engaging beyond their pseudo names. This is also true for many transvestites and transsexuals staying in small hotels in Pigalle, still keeping alive the crazy nights that built up the glory of the district. These people who are fewer and fewer today, used to bring an international and exuberant spirit that is now lacking. This district still benefits from a bad name thanks to the crowd hanging about and bold touts soliciting at any cost, aware as they may be of the urge to fleece some last piggy banks, yet, you can notice, after spending quite a time there, that these people are part and parcel of a guild with a large sense of brotherhood. This not beloved part of society is just the soul of the place. With their vanishing, it is the district that created strip-tease and the first jazz club that is fading away. These are the last echoes of Toulouse Lautrec and crazy Parisian nights.

Tourists in front of the Moulin-Rouge. The fast-food restaurants have spoiled the place for a long time.

Two hunters look at passing a transsexual in the early morning.

Angelina and Laura, transsexuals, have a breakfast after one sleepless night in Folie' S Pigalle.

Larkova, Hungarian gogo-girl, putting her make up on before going to work.

Illustration of the colorfull crowd of Pigalle : opposite the Moulin-Rouge, a gogo-girl and a nun are passing each other.

A guide gives the tickets of entry of the Moulin-Rouge to a group of Chinese tourists.

Chasers waiting for customers at the entrance of a stiptease bar.

Darling, a 20-year-old hostess, chaser and strip teaser. A recent phenomenon at Pigalle, the girls who work in the cabarets have several jobs.

Charlene, an Algerian chaser and stripper.

Ibrahim, commissionaire. His job consists in convincing the passers by to enter cabaret to attend stripteases during which, some hostesses try to cajole customers into buying drinks at stiff prices.

Tramp and tourist in a bus station and phone box.

Courting between a commissionaire and a stripper.

The last popular bar of Pigalle, Veron street.

Dona, transvestite, is getting ready in her room before going to work.

Dona a transvestite has worked for 32 years in the upper part of Pigalle. She is combing her wig in the studio where she has rendez-vous before going to work.

Last glance before going to solicit in the street.

Dona, a transvestite who has been working on the same sidewalk for 32 years.

Magda, 56 years, transvestite and emblematic figure of Pigalle, has worked for 30 years on the same end of pavement. Witness of the evolution of the district,she deplores the disappearance of the many bars and bars with girls who drained a whole population variegated in the high part of Pigalle (streets between Clichy Boulevard and the Montmartre hillock).

Dona, a transvestite, is lost in her mind, before going to work.

First-aid workers try to reanimate a homeless after a fight between tramps.

Hesitation of a tourist in front of the entry of Sexodrome, the largest sex shop of Paris.

Children have fun looking at articles of lingerie exposed on show in the window.

Crystal, Peruvian transsexual prays each week in the small crypt of Santa Rita, located opposite the Moulin-Rouge (Sainte Rita is the saint for the prostitutes and the desperate cases). A former prostitute, Cristal organizes famous transsexual parties in several discotheques.

Hostess in waiting of customers. The customers being less and less numerous, the idle periods are increasingly long.

Backstage, a stripper gets ready for the show. Strippers work in several cabarets at a time, a closed circuit where they appear on stage about 30 times every evening, six days a week.

A tourist couple at the museum of the erotism.

Window of a store of lingerie and accessories.

A commissionaire undertakes a tourist in front of a lingerie shop.

A fake model in the window of a sex and lingerie shop.

Reflection in the windshield of a tourist bus.

At once left scene, Vanessa quickly dress herself to go to make a show in another cabaret. She makes each evening 32 passages on scene.

An afternoon in a cabaret, Pamela works as a hostess during the day and as a stripper at night.

In the cabaret, strippers and entertainers cajole clients to consume high-priced alcohol.

After a few drinks, an ex stripper improvises a show at the cabaret.

Pamela, hostess during the day and stripper at night, wears a panther costume she made herself.

A hostess awaiting a client at the window of a cabaret.

During summer evenings, those who work in Pigalle meet at a side walk café to have a drink.

A couple of lovers dances at the Chat Noir, in foreground one of the famous posters of Toulouse Lautrec.

Around 4 hours of the morning, drunk young people have fun to the detriment of an old man.

Mrs Francoise is one of the last representing of the old generation. She started to prostitute in 1948. Today she holds a bar with girls.

The Sexodrome, biggest sex shop in Paris.

Plays of mirror in the Clichy-Montmartre academy of billiards.

The singer Pierre Carré has occurred on the scene of the Night Bird for more than 40 years.

Pierre Carré is one of the figures of Pigalle. Each weekend he sings old french songs up to late in the night.

Hugo, barman, long after is work at 6 in the morning.

Clichy-Montmartre Academy of billiards where some figures of the district are found.

Players of billiards in the Clichy-Montmartre academy of billiards.

Clichy-Montmarte Academy of billiards where some figures of the district are found.

Jenny Bel' air, egery of the Parisian nights on the terrace of the Lux Bar, Lepic Street.

Djamel, a North African transvestite in a night bar.

Transsexuals grab a taxi on their way to work at the wood of Boulogne, principal place of prostitution for the transsexuals in Paris. The transsexuals live in Pigalle but do not work there.

Mirelia, a transsexual from Ecuador, on the stairway of her hotel. The Latin American transsexuals are a majority in Pigalle, next come the North Africans, Tahitians and Asians.

A transsexual prostitute going back to her hotel room where she lives and doesn't work.

Hotel rooms in which live most of transsexuals and transvestites. They generally share these expensive rooms in which any visit is prohibited.

Two Latino-American transsexuals get ready in their hotel room before going to work to the Bois de Boulogne, the main place of prostitution for the transsexuals in Paris.

Samantha, a transsexual, in her hotel room.

Samantha and Dalila, get ready in their hotel room before going to work to the Bois de Boulogne, the main place of prostitution for the transsexuals in Paris.

Samantha, get ready in their hotel room before going to work to the Bois de Boulogne, the main place of prostitution for the transsexuals in Paris.

Dalila, transsexual, putting on her make up in her hotel room.

Condoms provided by the social assistance office, on the bed of a prostitute.

A transsexual gets ready to go to work to the Bois de Boulogne, main place of prostitution for the transsexuals in Paris.

Victoria, a Colombian transsexual, drinks coffee with her friends and colleagues in a bar in Pigalle.

Samantha, a transsexual, eight months later, after her first plastic surgery.

Transexuals from Ecuador wait for friends and colleagues to go to work to the Bois de Boulogne.

Crystal, transsexual Peruvian organizes transsexual parties in several nightclubs.

Transsexual night out in a Pigalle nightclub.

End of party at Folies Pigalle. A client picks up an Asian transsexual.

The Folies Pigalle, a nightclub in Pigalle.

Shaima, a North African transsexual on the stairway of a night-club.

Miss Transsexual competition at the Folies Pigalle.

Male stripper at the Folies Pigalle entertaining transsexuals and transvestites.

Slam (poetry and song) evening at the Club-Club, a night-club in Pigalle.

Two o’clock in the morning, a drunken client takes a nap in an all-night bar.

Drunk night birds leaving a night club at dawn.

A night bird, awaits his taxi at dawn in front of the exit of a night club.