Bettina Rheims

Bettina Rheims is a pretty wicked photographer. Her work is provocative without being trashy, sexy without being sleazy. It's playful, seductive, beautiful, and artistic. She shoots women from a woman's perspective and is able to draw out this raw sexuality in her photographs without making her models look like skanks. Rheims prefers to shoot celebrities but over the years she has approached hundreds of women on the streets asking if she can photograph them and of course most of them agreed. You can see she uses a lot of bold colours in her photos, mostly reds and black with a lot of flesh tones and gold. As the daughter of a french artist (her mother was a member of the French Academy, a big deal in the art world) and a photographer, Rheims was immersed into the arts her whole life. She began working as a model but at age 26 switched over to photography. Her work is documented in several books such as The Book Of Olga (which is $850!!) and Chambre Close. I would love to have my photo taken by Rheims one day, maybe if I go wander the streets of Paris I have a slight chance!
Peace xox