Nana, Place Blanche, Paris (1961) by Christer Strömholm

In the late Fifties, the Swedish photographer Christer Strömholm moved to Paris where, in the seedy streets around Place Blanche, he found a community of transsexuals who would become both his subjects and his friends. Over the following decade he created a series of portraits – eventually published, in 1983, as Les Amies de Place Blanche, the book that would make his name – that captured the hard-earned glamour of these “night birds”, as well as what he called “the roughness of the streets”. Strömholm’s pictures are now on show as part of Photo España, taking place in venues across the Spanish capital until August 27.