Paris By Night: 1930s Paris - Prostitution

The photographs of Paris by Brassaï are beautiful and deeply expressive. Brassaï was a Hungarian photographer and artist who rose to fame in Paris during the 1930s. His book "Paris de Nuit" ("Paris By Night"), published in 1933, is a fasinating pictorial essay - from the elegance of the opera to the gritty world of prostitution. From high society to hookers and hoodlums, his photographs capture the essence of Paris nightlife in the 1930s.

Bordello

Beautiful, edgy, yet lush images by Austrian photographer Vee Speers appear in her book "Bordello: The Art Of Seduction". She has lived near the notorious Rue St. Denis in Paris for many years and used her photographs to create her own interpretation of the Paris red-light district from the 1920s and 1930s within the former bordellos, whose elegant interiors have survived.

“From my window I can see the girls waiting downstairs in the doorways, and it has always fascinated me how these women display their bodies up and down the street like gaudy trinkets in a second-hand shop.“

These photographs had been reproduced with Fresson, a unique 19th century hand-worked technique using a charcoal process, creating a sumptuous quality.

Speers' work recalls the decadence of Paris nightlife of the 1920s and 1930s as exemplified by this hauntingly beautiful photograph of a Parisian prostitute from Brassaï (1933):

Alluring, sensuous, feminine...the art of seduction...

Pigalle Red Light District in Paris: 'La prostitution à Pigalle'

Mata Hari

Mata Hari (Indonesian for 'sun': 'eye of the day'), was the stage name of Margaretha Geertruida Zelle (7 August 1876: the Netherlands ~ 15 October 1917: France). She moved to Paris in 1903 and by 1905 began to win fame as an exotic dancer. Her style and free-willed attitude made her very popular.

She was a courtesan to many high-ranking allied military officers during this time. On one occasion, when interviewed by British intelligence officers, she admitted to working as an agent for French military intelligence, although the latter would not confirm her story.

On 13 February 1917, Mata Hari was arrested in her room at the Hotel Plaza Athénée in Paris, accused of spying for Germany. She was found guilty and was executed by firing squad on 15 October 1917.

In 1985, biographer Russell Warren Howe convinced the French Minister of National Defense to open Mata Hari’s file; it was revealed she was innocent of espionage charges.