Bettina Rheims Biography

Paris, 1952

Bettina Rheims started out photographing striptease artists and acrobats in the late 70s. Far from being simple reportage, this work involved studio-based reconstructions of the models' worlds. So there was already a hint of things to come: from the peculiar staged quality of the images, to a predilection for female nudes treated as portraits.

Published in Egoiste, these early images gained Rheims access to the worlds of press, fashion, cinema and advertising. Research and commissions then went hand in hand, and often even blended together - as is evident in her first two monographs (Bettina Rheims and Female Trouble). Strangers, models, literary figures, movie stars, transvestites, stuffed animals . . . Rheims examines all of her subjects with the same inquisitive yet sincere lens, revealing some kind of connection - even if only a gaze met - between photographer and subject.

Rheims' work is the result of exhaustive searching, happenstance and coincidence. She depth-charges the conventions of fashion photography by using non-professional models found on the streets of Paris and London, particularly ones who flout traditional gender roles - boys as diffident and pouting girls; girls as macho and gym-cut boys.

'Searching is exactly what is suppressed in advertising and fashion photography. Usually there is a person who scouts for and selects those models. All the photographer does is make the final choice' says Rheims. But she decides who appears in her work, even if that means seeking out strangers in bars and night clubs.

Rheims' 'Modern Lovers' series, begun in 1989 and recently re-exhibited in Australia, places models who display a minimum of gender identity against neutral backgrounds: just as their sex is undefined, so their skin shifts in and out of the background, giving an incorporeal effect to their being. As she notes: 'my desire was to photograph angels', but she also propels them forward, 'way beyond the image they had of themselves'.

Youth is central to Rheims' work, and her models are rarely older than 20 - they are personalities in the process of being formed. Her work riffs on debates in gender activism and queer identity, the instabilities that are mapped in cross-dressing, transvestism, and cross-gender identification: matters that, for her, question the established conventions of female sexuality.

Rheims frequently photographs celebrities, and addresses issues of voyeurism and confession, particularly in her 1991-92 project 'Chambre Close', a collaboration with Serge Bramly. This series can be seen as a work of fiction with an obsessive curiosity about women's bodies - trapped in hotel rooms with flowery wallpaper. Yet her work always returns from voyeurism to an examination of gender instability.

Rheims opened the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie with a body of work entitled 'Why Did You Forsake Me'. These images - all magazine commissions - were mostly large, color portraits of famous women.

Prior to this, in 1995, Rheims had taken the official portrait of the President of France, then later went on to spend two years working on the photographic series 'INRI'. This further collaboration with Serge Bramly is a colossal project intended to represent the life of Jesus today. It is based on a close rereading of Biblical texts: drawing on original sources while seeking to combine history and legend. The series is comprised of 200 color photographs relating to the life of Christ, and a set of black and white photographs based on the miracles. After opening in Berlin at the Deutsches Historisches Museum in November 1999, 'INRI' moves on to a major world tour.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

'INRI', Thaddeus Ropac Gallery, Salzburg, Austria, 2000

'INRI', Maison Europeenne de la Photographie, Paris, 2000

Accrochage d'une sale au MMK, Frankfurt, 2000

'INRI', Kronprinzenpalais, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, 1999, and world tour

'Photobiennal Moscow', The Moscow Museum of Photography, 1998

'Modern Lovers', Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, 1998

'Anthology', Thaddeus Ropac Gallery, Salzburg, Austria, 1997

'Retrospective', Kintetsu Museum, Osaka, Japan, 1997

'Retrospective', Odakyu Gallery, Tokyo, 1997

Centre Culturel Français, Seoul, 1996

'Pourquoi m'as tu abandonee?', Huyndal Gallery, Seoul, 1996

'Pourquoi m'as tu abandonee?', Art Frankfurt/Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria, 1996

'Pourquoi m'as tu abandonee?', Galerie Gilbert Brownstone, Paris, 1996

'Ouverture de la Maison Europeenne de la Photographie', MEP, Paris, 1996

Sho Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 1995

'Animal', Galerie Beaubourg, Vence, 1994

'Chambre Close', Galerie Bodo Niemann, Berlin, 1993

'Retrospective', Artotheque de Vitre, 1993

'Chambre Close', Galleria Photology, Milan, 1993

'Aveugle', Visa pour l'Image, Perpignan, September 1992

'Les Esplonnes', Galerie Apicella, Cologne, September 1992

'Chambre Close', Hamiltons Gallery, London, October 1992

'Chambre Close', Galerie Maeght, Paris, September 1992

'Modern Lovers', Robert Klein Gallery, Boston, 1991

'Modern Lovers', Pace Mac Gill Gallery, New York, 1991

'Modern Lovers', Fahey Klein Gallery, LA, 1991

Galerie du Chateau d'eau, Toulouse, 1991

'Modern Lovers', Hamiltons Gallery, London, 1990

'Modern Lovers', Maison Europeenne de la Photographie, Paris, 1990

'Modern Lovers', Palais des Beaux Arts de Charleroi, Belgique, 1990

Namba City Hall, Osaka, Japan, 1990

Parco Gallery, Sapporo, Japan, 1989

Parco Gallery, Tokyo, 1989

Stadtmuseum, Munich, 1989

Musee de l'Elysee, Lausanne, 1989

Espace Photographique de la Ville de Paris, 1987-88

'Animal Portraits', Artists Space Gallery, Australia, 1985

'Animal Portraits', Daniel Wolf Gallery, New York, 1984

'Animal Portraits', Galerie Texbraun, Paris, 1983

'Nude Portraits', Galerie, Texbraun, Paris, 1981

'Portraits', Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1981

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

'Faith', Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Cnt USA, 2000>br> Musee Bourdelle, Paris, 1999

'Fashion Photography', Company H20, Seoul, 1999

'Pictures for Pleasure', Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria, 1999

'The Erotic Sublime', Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria, 1998

'Fetishes and Fetishisms', Passage de Retz, Paris, 1998

'Photobiennal Moscow', The Moscow Museum of Photography, Moscow, 1998

'Permanent Collection of Fashion Photography', ICP, New York, 1997

'Face to Face', Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, Paris, 1997

'Antlitz', Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria, 1997

'Foto Szennen - Short Stories', Alte Rathaus Gottingen, Germany, 1996

'Ceremonial', Apex Art, New York, 1996

'Picasso. A Contemporary Dialogue', Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria, 1996

'Ligne de Mire', Autour d'un ouvrage critique de Bernard Lamarche-Vadel sur la Photographie, Galerie Jacques Barbier, Paris, 1995

'Kim Harlow', Nordic Art Center, Helsinki, 1995

'Portraits of Women', Galerie Beaubourg, Vence, 1994

'Das Bild des Korpers', Frankfurt Kunstverein, Germany, 1993

'High Heeled Art', SE Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach, Florida, 1993

'High Heeled Art', Center of Contemporary Art, North Miami, 1993

'Lemand, Lemand en Honderdduizend', Koninklijk Museum voor shone Kunsten, Anvers,

Belgium, 1992

'How She Looks, Stanley Wise Gallery, New York, 1991

'Bestiaire Photographique', Montpellier Photo Visions, France, 1991

'Noah's Arc', Rome, Italy, 1988

'Noah's Arc', Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 1988

'Photography Biennale', Nancy, France, 1988

'Audio-Visual Collections of Paris', Mairie de Paris du 16eme, Paris, 1988

'Splendeur et Misere du Corps', Musee d'art Moderne, Paris, 1988

'Nudes', Fondation Angenieux, Galerie Photomagazine, Paris, 1986

'Man Gave Names to all the Animals', Galerie Nikon, Zurich, 1985

Weird Beauty Palladium, New York, USA, 1985

'Biennale de Turin', Turin, Italy, 1985

Galeries Contemporaines, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1985

'Animal Portraits', International Art Exposition, Chicago, 1984

'Fashion Photography', Galerie Texbraun, Paris, 1984

Salon de la Photographie, Porte de Versailles, Paris, 1983

FIAC, Paris, 1983

Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1983

Galerie Texbraun, Paris, 1982

Chez Jean-Marc Bustamante, Paris, 1980