BETTINA RHEIMS
Her Provocative Eye and Erotic Magic
It’s hard to write about Bettina Rheims‘ work without getting distracted by her life’s provocative nature. The photographs call to you and then they capture you. I always wonder what the connection was between Bettina Rheims and each of her subjects to get such powerfully erotic images.
Bettina Rheims started to work as a model, journalist and gallerist before becoming a photographer in her late twenties in France. She brought attention to herself and her work with a collection of photographs of acrobats and striptease artists, which earned her a solo show at the Pompidou Center in 1981. The rest is history and offered us some of the most arresting and intimate portraits of women ever photographed. Her subjects included models, celebrities, fashion campaigns and men. It is her more private moments with her camera that are rapturous. When we don’t know the faces or bodies and are boldly introduced and connected to them, we are without reservation.
Her Instagram page is a wondrous journey of her life’s work and unfortunately censored at times for showing nipples and pubic hair. Instagram can be such a nightmare. We intend to unveil her entire Instagram page with Bettina Rheims as it was designed without censorship later. Her work is art and deserves to be viewed as intended for her audience.
In Bettina Rheims’ collection of androgynous adolescents, Modern Lovers, she delivered exceptionally tender portraits of a delicate age, which many found shocking. She convinced all kinds of women to pose nude. She wove into many photographs a genuine sexual tension between two women. Her Gender Studies series of photos of trans men and women or those who preferred not to be labeled are superb. Bettina Rheims is magical.
We could talk on and on about Bettina Rheims many distinguished exhibits and awards, but it is the mystery of who she becomes once behind the lens that is of much more interest; how she works and creates is the real intrigue.
We hope to reveal more with an interview with Bettina Rheims and share those images freed from Instagram’s censorship. It is our pleasure to show some of PROVOKR’s favorite pictures of Bettina Rheims here.
