Christer Ströholml’s Vännerna Från Place Blanche and the Trans Body

This research explores Christer Strömholm’s 1960s era photographic depictions of trans women in Place Blanche, Paris.  Specifically, it considers Strömholm’s use of French Nouvelle Vague film stills as templates for the portraits. The photographs, provided to his subjects as gifts and later circulated in books and exhibitions, depict the women as movie heroines. Unlike comparable imagery produced by Parisian trans cabarets, Strömholm’s film still portraits do not undermine or qualify his subjects’ projected gender identities.