Alexandre Dupouy is a sex archaeologist. The French collector has spent his entire life collecting what he defines as "erotic and pornographic junk. It's a sort of small museum that traces the history of sex in France. In , he received a call from a bookseller friend who said that he had an old gentleman with "something special to show him.
He explained that he took most of the pictures in a brothel on the Rue Pigalle. Given that he could feel his days were numbered, the old man agreed to part with the pictures as long as he could remain anonymous. That man became known as "Monsieur X.
Nearly four decades later, Dupouy has decided to reprint some of this impressive collection as a book called Bad Girls La Manufacture Books, The book is co-authored by both Dupouy and Monsieur X. Given that the actual photographer is no longer alive, I decided to have a word with Depouy about the book. Alexandre Dupouy: The typical profile was a girl who came to Paris to make money so she could feed her family back on the farm somewhere in the countryside.
Hungry and unemployed, the girl often stumbled across a madame who would promise her shelter and warmth. One would usually end up staying with ten or 15 girls in the same situation. At that time, a prostitute earned roughly ten times more than a regular worker.
In , a worker was earning two francs per day, whereas a street prostitute charged five francs per jobβ20 francs if she was in a brothel. What were the working conditions for a prostitute of the time?
