One day towards the end of the 70s, a young woman came to Photo to show her pictures: strippers in the striptease booths on the Boulevard de Clichy. She was published in the following edition: this was Bettina Rheims. She has a sense of the erotic, the sensual and sexuality that doesn’t just belong to her. An exhibition at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie and a book from Taschen are devoted to her work. Go and see the exhibition ; it is quite an event. And don’t listen to the politically correct french critics. Trying to compare Bettina, Bourdin and Newton is photographically stupid. And regarding the attacks against the programation of Jean Luc Monterosso at the MEP, Jean Luc, can’t you tell them “Fuck You” !
We asked three of her close friends for a short text: Serge Bramly, who has always been her collaborator and was her first husband, her agent Jed Root and Gilles Bensimon, with whom she worked as an assistant.
« Each of these photos by Bettina is linked to a memory, to pleasure, to an unrealised desire. I love to put them up on my walls, like the frescoes in a private chapel. There is something Venetian about them, by a Titian who would have known the cinema of Buñuel and of Bergman. These are the friends of whom we never tire, who recall to order (when necessary) and make us dream. Who nourish the ghosts that they arouse. With whom we can have a beneficial conversation. Who can accompany you to the end. If I were Charles V and decided to abdicate, it is with them that I would want to populate the half-light of the hermitage to which I had withdrawn. »
– Serge Bramly
« Frozen and burning images,
edgy, neither modest nor shameless,
But terribly addictive,
To say more would be to clutch at literature,
Let’s look at them… »
– Gilles Bensimon
« Bettina Rheims is not a lesbian.
Over the years I was always surprised by how many people that knew her work, but did not know her, made that assumption.
Somehow that made me look at her work differently; perhaps more deeply.
It helped me understand , she masters a very unique visual language to evoke a woman’s desires, her self-image & point of view; always strong, confident and unapologetic, with never a hint of masculinity.
Sometimes knowing less about the artist can reveal more about the art. »
– Jed Root
EXHIBITION
Bettina Rheims
From January 28th to March 27th, 2016
Prints are made by Picto lab
Discussion with Bettina Rheims on February 10th at 6pm
Maison Européenne de la Photographie
5/7 rue de Fourcy
75004 Paris
France
http://www.mep-fr.org/evenement/bettina-rheims/
BOOK
Bettina Rheims
Texts by Bettina Rheims, Patrick Remy
Taschen
27,9 x 35,7 cm, 590 pages
(German, English, French)
ISBN 978-3-8365-5543-2
€ 59,99
Limited Edition 800 copies 500€;
Limited Edition 200 copies 1250€;
http://www.taschen.com
