TOTEM(S)
Prostitution has largely taken over the forests of Ile de France. And this, since 2003, date of the first law prohibiting solicitation in public places. The law was amended in 2016, penalizing then customers. To show their presence, prostitutes, women, transvestites, transgender people, and men for less than 10%, hang plastic bags in trees, sometimes other objects, TOTEM (s).
They are from Eastern countries, South America or Africa, but also from the former sidewalks in Paris. Working in miserable conditions, in all weathers, they create, without knowing, art, raw, primitive works, of great creativity, sometimes close to abstraction.
For Philippe Fourcade, this series represents an allegory of the decline of our society. For clients, as for prostitutes, it’s a return to the earliest times. In the early days, before Homo Sapiens. He wished to pay tribute to these sex convicts. Out of respect for them, especially for their safety, he refrained from photographing their portraits. First, it was a constraint, then a chance. He therefore worked out of camera range. Suggesting rather than showing. Because he subscribes to "Less is more".