Exposition « Ma chanson ne sera qu’un silence » | Avec l'association Solenciel

In France, an estimated 40 000 people are victims of prostitution. A large proportion are women from West Africa or Eastern Europe, recruited and then exploited by human trafficking networks.

Founded in Grenoble in 2017, the association Solenciel enables victims of prostitution to regain, through employment, a dignified and chosen life. It offers them an employment contract in stepping-stone jobs (cleaning, catering services), combined with personalized social and professional support for 24 months: help finding housing, assistance with asylum procedures, psychological support, training… Employment is the starting point of their rebuilding, and the support allows them to settle sustainably. Nearly 200 supported women have exited prostitution since its inception. Solenciel is currently present in Grenoble, Lyon, Toulouse, Nantes, and Nanterre.

Produced from November 2024 to December 2025 in Grenoble, this photographic work explores the long inner journey traveled by these women: a story of violence and destruction of their identity, followed by patient reconstruction, to heal multiple traumas and become actors in their own lives once again.

All exterior images are taken in the streets of Grenoble, particularly in prostitution districts, or in the surrounding region. Some of these women wished to remain anonymous and requested that their portraits not allow them to be recognized. Studio and outdoor work became necessary in order to offer a neutral location. One woman, however, agreed to have her portrait taken in her first apartment in France, the starting point of her new life.

Steve Fiehls

Trained in 2018 at the International Center of Photography (New York), Steve has since dedicated himself to social photography projects exploring, through intimate portraits, issues of fragility and resilience. His first project, Resilient Souls, an 18-month immersion in New York City homeless shelters, was exhibited in 2019 at the International Center of Photography Museum and published in several American photography magazines. It also resulted in a book.

Returning to France, he works in parallel on several projects, usually over several years. Passeurs, devoted to end of life, with sensitive portraits of people suffering from very serious illnesses sharing their relationship with their impending death, was exhibited at the UN in Geneva in 2022.

Puissantes, which explores the journeys of women entrepreneurs from neighborhoods in the Paris region and Marseille, has been on display since 2023 in the Hall of Honor at HEC, before resulting in a book published by Hemeria in December 2025.

Les Hérauts de l’Océan, a series of portraits of the planet's leading oceanographers and environmentalists expressing their anger and determination to save the oceans, was exhibited on the Quais de Seine as part of PhotoClimat in September 2025.

Steve currently collaborates with several associations on long-term photo projects, including the Salvation Army, Jesuit Refugee Service (asylum seekers), and Solenciel.