Bettina Rheims

Bettina Rheims - A model first, then photographer

Bettina Rheims was born on 18th December 1952, the eldest of three children of the French writer Maurice Rheims and his German wife Lili Krahmer; one sibling is the author and filmmaker Nathalie Reims. At the age of 14, she was expelled from school for decorating a baby bib with a skull and crossbones. She first came into contact with photography when a photographer from Paris Match magazine acquired her an internship in the photo lab, but she initially worked as a model herself before swapping to behind the camera in 1970 and starting to take photographs. From the very beginning, the naked female body was her primary interest; her first models were strippers and acrobats, whom she sought out in the glittering nightlife of Paris. In 1973, she made a brief foray into the film business, although her small role in the gangster comedy La bonne année by Claude Lelouch remained an exception, and in 1987, she stepped behind the film camera for the singer Desireless to shoot the video for the hit song Voyage, voyage.

Unknown models and sought-after celebrities

Bettina Rheims demands a lot from her models; the pictures she wants are often only created after long hours of posing. However, the artist attaches great importance to absolute voluntariness on the part of all participants in her projects, emphasising that she never exerts pressure or coercion. She usually uses unknown models for her famous photo series, but she is also frequently asked to pose celebrities: Her portrait of former French President Jacques Chirac once hung in thousands of official offices in France, and she has maintained close friendships with famous women such as Charlotte Rampling and Sophie Marceau since their photo sessions together. The special relationship with her models, whether famous or unknown, is an important part of Bettina Rheims' work. During the shoots, which often last for hours, the artist aims to develop a relationship of trust that leads the models to reveal their innermost selves, because behind all the physicality portrayed, it is the hidden soul that Bettina Rheims wishes to capture in her pictures.

Pioneer and provocateur

Bettina Rheims went further than many other artists before her in the play with gender roles. She was one of the first to photograph transgender models, most of whom she found via a Facebook advert. Together with transsexual Kim Harlow, she published the biographical photo book Kim shortly before her death. Bettina Rheims married four times and wrote several books with her second husband, the writer Serge Bramly, including the highly acclaimed volume Chambre Close (1992), in which Rheims' pictures frame the fictional diary entries of a "Monsieur X"; her son Virgile Maurice Bramly is also from this relationship, and she continued to work with Bramly even after the divorce. Bettina Rheims has received prizes and awards for her work, including the Order Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneuer for her life's work, which the artist herself considers to be far from complete. She lives and works mainly in Paris.