Women Are Not Afraid – Partie 2 Le premier souffle

I started the first portraits for Women are not afraid one evening in September 2019. It was after a collage session against feminicide in the streets of Paris, with a few feminist activists. I found them beautiful, powerful and inspiring, these women who were taking to the streets again, together, at night. Who were not afraid, or who braved fear.

I saw them feeling legitimate, in their place.

I had seen the birth of this movement, initiated by Marguerite Stern, a few weeks earlier, at the end of August, in the Jardin Denfert.

I had followed several groups of women, documented their collages, shared my images so that they could circulate, so that they could tell the story of this revolt, this new feminist mode of expression. So that we could see. So that we know.

So that we never forget those who were murdered because they were women.

It reminded me a lot of my encounter with Ni Putes Ni Soumises. Except that this time I was involved. I was an activist. An activist for several years. And here I was with my camera in my hands.

With the power to tell my story. To create the images that moved me. And to offer them up, in the hope that they might inspire other girls, other women.

Like me that Saturday in Vitry, when I crossed paths with Ni Putes Ni Soumises.

When I understood what it felt like, the adrenalin of the struggle, the power of sisterhood.

That evening, I wanted to keep a record. To capture this moment beyond the collages. I asked them to pose, each alone, in front of my lens. Some looked straight in. Others above. Elsewhere.

I was searching.

The frame. The light. The angle. What I wanted to say. And how to say it.

We had another session a few days later. With some militant friends, in the 13th arrondissement. The Olympiades district. Where I grew up. I know it by heart. I love it for its towers, its footbridges, its memories.

I was still testing. Looks, gestures, postures. Chins raised. Eyes that hold their ground.

Then, as is often the case, I left to take a breather in Portugal. My refuge. A small fishing village. Far from the noise, far from the city, far from the struggles. There, I saw the images again. And I knew.

I wanted tight portraits. Piercing glances. Standing women. Strong. Proud. Unshakeable.

In the background, a few traces of the city: lampposts, cars, buildings.

But no humans. Because all too often, when we're harassed or attacked in the street, we're alone. Alone in an empty alley. Alone in a crowded metro. Alone in the middle of the world.

Witnesses look away. So I don't want them to be able to look away from these portraits. I want them to look. I want them to see. To feel the strength, the rage, the life. Survival.

The name just came. Out of the blue. Women Are Not Afraid. In English, without thinking about it. Maybe because it went further than France. Because this fear, this strength, this solitude, this anger, they exist everywhere. Maybe also because I needed a language that could circulate.

It was the beginning. The first breath of a project that continues to grow. And it's made me grow too.

I wanted to share the portraits of these badasses on my social networks. While looking for a caption, I found myself writing a manifesto, in one go, in just a few minutes:

"The time has come, for women, to take up space in public areas.

We shall not be afraid in public spaces any longer.

We shall live without being scared of going out, whether by day or by night.

We shall be free to dress as we please, to go to the places we wish, to not prescribe ourselves a curfew.

We shall be free.

Public space shall be shared, between women and men.

We shall be free.

Aggressors shall stop being aggressors. It is their acts that shall be condemned, not our freedom to be and to exist.

The fear shall switch sides."

I shared it on my Instagram account: the first individual portraits, the manifesto, the title. It was the public birth of Women Are Not Afraid. The series no longer belonged to me, I was offering it, to girls and women.

And I started getting messages. Messages from women. Reacting to the photos, to the manifesto. Saying that it spoke to them. That they recognised themselves. That they too wanted to join the series.

So I said yes. Of course I said yes. How could I refuse to be a tool of women's resistance?

I posted a story on instagram: "See you on Friday evening, in front of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. I'll be there to photograph those who want to take part in the series.

That evening, 25 women turned up. Some with friends. Some alone. I wasn't expecting that. Not that number. Not the energy.

To avoid making the same images, we walked. We walked together. I photographed each one. One by one. We tried group photos, in the metro, in the street.

But nothing convinced me.

And then one of them shouted: ‘What about that bus?’ An empty bus stopped. We got on. I asked the women to move to the back. Where you never feel safe, alone, late at night. That evening, they took over the space.

And that's how the first Women Are Not Afraid group photo came about. In a minute:

Women are not afraid, Paris, octobre 2019

When I shared this photo, and the new portraits, everything went crazy. The messages. The shares. The requests. ‘How can I pose too?’

And then it hit me. This series wasn't finished. It still isn't.

Maybe one day I'll stop it. When no one else asks to enter.

Today, May 2025, Women Are Not Afraid includes around 280 individual portraits and 70 group photos. Produced in around forty sessions between Paris, Ivry-sur-Seine, Vitry-sur-Seine, Annecy, Toulouse, Cardiff, Nantes, Lyon, Glasgow and Brussels.

It has been exhibited in Paris, Ivry, Vitry, Annecy, Boulogne-Billancourt and Glasgow.

She's on hiatus. For the moment. Scheduled to resume in the autumn. In Brighton.

Around Women Are Not Afraid, I'm also working in schools. In companies. We talk about the place of women in the public space. And I show the images.

All women are welcome, right from the start. There's no casting. No selection. No retouching. No Photoshop. I photograph women as they are. Authentic. Real. Powerful. As in the rest of my photographic work. Without sexualisation. No filters. Just them. Real.

I want these photos - whether you see them on an exhibition wall or scroll through them on your phone - to give you strength. To say: you're not alone. Other women are resisting too. Whether we're afraid or not, day or night.

The series lives, grows, travels. And as long as women want to be part of it, it will continue to exist.

- To be continued -