A photographic project on the rebuilding journeys of people who have been victims of prostitution, created by Steve Fiehl, on view from November 4 to 28, echoing the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. With the Maison des réfugiés.
In France, an estimated 40,000 people are victims of prostitution. A large proportion are women from West Africa or Eastern Europe, recruited and then exploited by human trafficking networks. Founded in Grenoble in 2017, the Solenciel association enables victims of prostitution to regain, through employment, a dignified life of their own choosing. It offers them an employment contract in stepping-stone jobs (cleaning, institutional catering), combined with individualized social and professional support for 24 months: help finding housing, assistance with asylum-related procedures, psychological support, training… Employment is the starting point of their rebuilding, and the support enables them to settle into this new life for the long term. Nearly 200 women supported by the organization have left prostitution since it was founded. Solenciel is now active in Grenoble, Lyon, Toulouse, Nantes and Nanterre. Created between November 2024 and December 2025 in Grenoble, this photographic work explores the long inner journey these women have undertaken: a story of violence and the destruction of their identity, followed by patient rebuilding, as they heal from multiple traumas and become agents of their own lives once again. All outdoor images were taken in the streets of Grenoble, particularly in prostitution districts, or in the surrounding region. Some of the women insisted on remaining anonymous and asked that their portraits not make them identifiable. Working in both the studio and outdoors was necessary in order to provide a neutral setting. One woman, however, agreed to be photographed in her first apartment in France, the starting point of her new life. Steve Fiehls Trained in 2018 at the International Center of Photography (New York), Steve has since devoted himself to social photography projects that use intimate portraits to explore fragility and resilience. His first project, Resilient Souls, an 18-month immersion in New York City's centers for reintegrating homeless people, was exhibited in 2019 at the International Center of Photography Museum and published in several American photography magazines. It also led to a book. After returning to France, he has worked on several projects in parallel, generally over the course of several years. Passeurs, devoted to the end of life and featuring sensitive portraits of people with very serious illnesses who bear witness to their relationship with their approaching death, was exhibited at the ONU in Geneva in 2022. Puissantes, which explores the journeys of women entrepreneurs from neighborhoods in the Paris region and Marseille, has been on display since 2023 in the Hall d’Honneur at HEC, and will become a book published by Hemeria in December 2025. Les Hérauts de l’Océan, a series of portraits of the planet's leading oceanographers and environmentalists expressing their anger and determination to save the oceans, was exhibited on the Quais de Seine as part of PhotoClimat in September 2025. Steve currently collaborates with several organizations on long-term photo projects, including the Armée du Salut, Jesuit Refugee Services (asylum seekers) and Solenciel.
Admission: Free
Source: paris.fr — photo: Steve Fiehl