In 1956 Black Star, an agency in New York, commissioned me to photograph "Paris by Night", for a small men's magazine in the US: the assignment was all but prestigious, but I couldn't afford turning it down. My problem was that none of the better nightclubs would allow to take back-stage photographs. So I had to content myself with the "Sphynx", a second-class joint in rue Pigalle, whose porter pocketed my tip and introduced me into the dressing room. In the beginning, the girls didn't seem to mind, possibly because that night's audience was so dull, that anyone showing some interest in them appeared as a relief. I managed to shoot three rolls before one of the girls started fussing about modeling fees - which of course I couldn't afford to pay. So I thought it better to leave. But on the following day, when seeing the contacts, I found them so exciting that I rushed back to shoot some more: only this time the entrance was guarded by a different porter, who seemed instructed not to let me in at any price.
Luckily, the photographs from the first session seemed exciting enough to the American client,and even to many other magazines, including French Vogue, who subsequently published one on a double page spread.A publisher from Switzerland, EDITIONS RENCONTRE, commissioned me to do a small (but not at all sleazy) book about strip-tease, which was published in 1962 and soon sold out.