Visual Arts

Bettina Rheims - Photographer

French photographer Bettina Rheims is internationally known for her images of women. Her latest exhibition, entitled Liquid Gold, is sponsored by the winemakers of Chablis and it continues its world tour in 2008 in Tokyo.

Rheims has photographed the stars: Madonna, Andie MacDowell, Sharon Stone and Vanessa Paradis…, each time expressing intimate moments. This is her talent, extracting the deepest sense of femininity from her subject. Described as close to ‘Freudian analysis’, she captures fragility, sensuality, reflection, adventure, pride, elegance and desire. In her Liquid Gold exhibition, she shows women ‘rich with feelings and diversity like a glass of golden wine.’

Rheims’ retrospective work is currently on view at some of the world’s finest museums from Helsinki to Brussels. Heroïnes, her 2006 work showed 23 women in an ‘off beat’ kind of beauty. It is her skill for extracting a woman’s inner self that is so alluring.

She describes her childhood in Paris as a 'rock ‘n’ roll' lifestyle. ‘Sex is back’ she states, referring to a world in which adventure can happen and must be expected, where one can dream and build stories. She herself worked as a model, journalist and art dealer before taking to photography in 1978 at the age of 26. Acclaim followed with her first solo exhibition at the Pompidou Centre in Paris in 1981. Since then, world exhibitions, advertising campaigns for Well and Chanel, album covers, film posters and magazine work has followed on.

See Grapevine for details of the Liquid Gold Exhibition.