Ultimately, it was thanks to word-of-mouth that Odette’s project finally gathered steam. The initial shoots for the series that was to become ‘Belles Mômes’(Beautiful Girls ) took place in a studio where Odette had previously worked as a life model. After photographing her first subject, Sylviane, Odette found that the more images she accumulated, the more material she could show her prospective models to reassure them: “I think people can see there’s nothing degrading in my pictures.” During that ride, Odette recalls, the retiree started crying, explaining that she felt she had lost her purpose in life since hitting menopause. She felt undesirable. “Her husband had cheated on her with a younger woman — so this lady had gone to get a boob job and botox, so she could feel a bit better about herself physically.” The conversation made a strong impression on Odette, who got out of the car feeling sad to be a woman in such a society. Lots of people said no,” she says. “It was pretty demotivating. I was putting up ads in the street, anywhere I could. And the fact that I’d started the project during Covid didn’t help.”

Not all the women agreed to pose nude; Odette lets the subjects set the tone. “I ask them where and how they’d like me to take their photo, what parts of their bodies they don’t like — or rather, which ones they’d like to spotlight.” An unexpected result of the project has been new relationships. “Some of my subjects became friends of mine,” says Clélia, “and that’s been amazing.”