Les Reines du Bois : expo photo de Françoise Evenou

"It was by entrusting me with your stories that the word queen emerged. Queen of the night, queen of the wood, beauty queen. So I searched for a crown for a long time, a symbol of dignity, and when I showed it to you, Melissa, I saw your eyes sparkle. You told me: 'Come back later, I want to prepare myself like a queen.'"

Les Reines du Bois (Queens of the Wood) is a photographic series born from Françoise Evenou's encounter with Estrella, Jessica, Melissa… They left their home countries, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, to live freely in the land of Human Rights.

5, 10, 20 years later, we find them in the Bois de Boulogne, their New World, because they are migrants, transgender, and had no other choice but prostitution.

For 18 months, day and night, Françoise Evenou listened to them, photographed them, recorded them, and was deeply moved by their life stories. Journeys marked by suffering: awareness of their difference, family breakdown, gender transition, migration, exclusion, and violence.

And yet, these women are dignified, beautiful. Proud in humiliation. Why do people judge us when they know nothing about us? a queen of the wood, Françoise Evenou is a photographer and writer of Spanish origin.

Her artistic approach articulates images, interviews, sound recordings, and short texts. The questioning of identity and otherness is at the heart of her research.

Her series Les Reines du Bois, a book of photographs and stories published by Loco editions, has been exhibited at the Festival du Regard, the Photo Doc festival, and the Taylor gallery.