Viral photographs of an enigmatic Belle Epoque horsewoman set me hunting through archives and circuses from St Petersburg to Paris to uncover the lives of women who were artistes, survivors, and scapegoats of the nineteenth century. I’m telling their stories now in Amazons of Paris. Click on the images to read the original essays in the Paris Review Daily blog, and sign up here to receive the free Amazons of Paris newsletter on the work in progress, from Sélika to horse-riding seals.
Sélika Lazevski
An enigma in six photographs.
Sarah l’Africaine
A stuntwoman named for an entire continent.
Jenny de Rahden
The Baudelarean Horsewoman.
Céleste Mogador
The lioness of the Hippodrome.
The Amazons of Paris
Telling the stories of nineteenth-century Paris’ daredevils and stuntwomen.
Émilie Loisset
“I do not deign to be a princess; I cannot be a queen; I am Loisset.”