Les Reines du Bois is a photographic series born from the encounter between Françoise Evenou and Estrella, Jessica, Melissa… They left their country, 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 choice but prostitution.
For 18 months, by day as by night, Françoise Evenou listened to them, photographed them, recorded them, and was deeply moved by their life stories. Paths marked by suffering: awareness of their difference, family rupture, gender transition, migration, exclusion and violence.
And yet dignified, these women, beautiful. Proud in humiliation.
Why do people judge us when they know nothing about us?
Gina, Françoise Evenou is a photographer and writer of Spanish origin. Her artistic approach brings together images, interviews, sound recordings and short texts. Questioning identity and otherness is at the heart of her research. Her series Les Reines du Bois, a book of photographs and accounts published by Éditions Loco, has been exhibited at the Festival du Regard, the Photo Doc festival and the Galerie Taylor.