The world of the modern courtesan revealed in stunning photographs

Shot in smoky black and white and softly lit, the images in Vee Speers’ Bordello series could have been drawn from a book of 1920s daguerreotypes.

Antique though they might appear, the Australian professional photographer’s evocative images were actually shot in modern Paris and provide a modern peek at the world of the courtesan.

Now the photographs, which were motivated by the view from Speers’ flat in Paris’ Red Light district, are to go on display in the UK for really first time.

Amongst the images to be revealed at the Little Black Gallery in Chelsea is a haunting scene that showsa girl looking coquettishly over her shoulder in an oriental-themed whorehouse and another that reveals girls in dehumanising Phantom of the Opera style masks.

Others ape the decadent world of Paris nightlife in the 1920s and 30s and were shot in the same lavishly embellished bordellos that were eternalized at the time by Hungarian professional photographer, Brassaï.