![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/950x350-white-solid-color-background-2-1.jpg\")
Left: “Rene Dorski, Polaroid No.1”, 2005. Right: “Hannelore Knuts, Polaroid No.1”, 2005. Images: copyright Bettina Rheims<\/p>\n Left: “Rene Dorski, Polaroid No.1”, 2005. Right: “Hannelore Knuts, Polaroid No.1”, 2005. Images: copyright Bettina Rheims<\/p>\n
On almost all of her Instagram<\/a> posts, acclaimed French photographer Bettina Rheims uses the hashtag <\/span>#mycameraismyweapon<\/span>\u00a0\u2014 a paraphrase of a quotation<\/a> by African-American documentary photographer, Gordon Parks. From the outset, the use of this hashtag establishes Rheims\u2019 desire for her work to be understood as socially conscious \u00a0and politically aware. Rheims \u2014 who is a <\/span>prot\u00e9g\u00e9<\/span> of Helmut Newton \u2014 does not wield her camera as an innocent bystander, but hurls herself and her lens into the action. The result is a photograph that is far from being a passive record of a person or situation, but instead is a complex, multi-layered statement that demands the viewer to sit up and pay attention. <\/span><\/p>\n Certainly, Rheims\u2019 photographs grab viewers\u2019 attention. From her first exhibition of portraits depicting the strippers and circus performers of Paris\u2019 salacious Pigalle neighbourhood in 1981, to her more recent transgender portraits, Rheims\u2019 work sheds light on aspects of society and humanity that might be deemed too risqu<\/span>\u00e9<\/span> by another set of eyes. Indeed, the body \u2014 as sexual, vulnerable, intense, complicated, beautiful and ugly \u2014 figures profoundly in her work. However, her oeuvre contains a notable absence: with the exception of the occasional celebrity portrait, the bodies of cisgender men do not seem to interest Rheims all that very much, and it’s for this reason that she’s been dubbed the \u201cphotographer of femininity\u201d.<\/span> https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BRVPGPiAOBV\/?taken-by=bettinarheims Running concurrently with the exhibition in Paris, Rheims has another exhibition<\/a> of portraits of female prisoners, entitled \u201cD\u00e9tenues\u201d (“Detainees”), at Centre des Monuments Nationaux. Between September and November 2014, Rheims \u2013 who was encouraged to begin the project by Robert Badinter, the politician and lawyer who championed the abolition of the death penalty in France \u2013 visited four prisons to interview and photograph female inmates. The result is a deeply human body of work that intimately examines a group of people, who are commonly forgotten by society. As ever, Rheims was interested in the subject of femininity and how the prisoners engaged with gender under confined circumstances. Rheims\u2019 lens grants the prisoners a sense of dignity and emotional complexity that they are frequently deprived of.<\/span><\/p>\n https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BUxERzHAz23\/?taken-by=bettinarheims https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BS8cC1vA_3T\/?taken-by=bettinarheims https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BaEKv3rASf2\/?taken-by=bettinarheims As a new exhibition opens of Bettina Rheims’ work, we examine the ways in which the French photographer overthrows gender conventions.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63199,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11856,139],"tags":[2198,10348,655,8450,10349,10247,2101,6814,2473,10350,10351,2917,27,154,2635,3874],"class_list":["post-63189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sleek-art","category-art","tag-agender","tag-asia-argento","tag-bettina-rheims","tag-charlotte-rampling","tag-femen","tag-femininity","tag-gender","tag-gordon-parks","tag-kate-moss","tag-kim-noorda","tag-lara-stone","tag-madonna","tag-paris","tag-photography","tag-sexuality","tag-transgender"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/950x350-white-solid-color-background-1-2.jpg\")
Left: “Kim Noorda, Polaroid No.1”, 2005. Right: “Asia Argento, Polaroid No.2”, 2005. Images: copyright Bettina Rheims<\/p>\n
\nOn the occasion of her\u00a0latest exhibition<\/a>\u00a0in Paris, \u201cvous \u00eates finies, douces figures” (\u201cyou are finished, sweet figures\u201d),\u00a0 we reflect on five invaluable lessons we can learn from Rheims’ fearless questioning of gender norms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n1. Female sexuality is bold not passive<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nIn her equally celebrated and controversial series, \u201cChambre Close<\/a>\u201d, Rheims photographed ordinary women in stirring nude poses in shabby, chintz-wallpapered hotel rooms. Far from being merely titillating shots for heterosexual male viewing pleasure, this series takes a frank look at the ferocity of female sexuality. In many of these staged portraits, the models boldly look out at the camera. Their assertiveness is defiant; their pleasure is entirely their own as are their bodies. The lens just happens to be a witness to a provocative moment of self-intimacy.<\/span><\/p>\n2. Visibility promotes empathy<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/950x350-white-solid-color-background-7.jpg\")
Left: “Niniovitch II, Novembre 2014, Roanne” Right: “Vanessa Bareck, Novembre 2014, Lyon Corbas”. Images: copyright Bettina Rheims.<\/p>\n3. Gender isn’t binary<\/h2>\n
\nIn the late ’80s, Rheims started her groundbreaking \u201cModern Lovers<\/a>\u201d series that featured street-cast models, who transgressed gender norms. At a time when the AIDs crisis was just beginning to take hold, the decision to photograph young androgynous subjects was a particularly daring move. Photographed against a pale grey background, the subjects \u2013 including a very young Kate Moss<\/a> \u2013 are both awkward and striking as they confront the camera with their unique interpretations of gender. The \u201cModern Lovers\u201d series challenges our expectations around what it means to be male or female, both or neither, a concept that’s only furthered in her more recent series,<\/span> \u201cGender Studies\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n4. Femininity is complex<\/h2>\n
\nPerhaps the most significant thread throughout Rheims\u2019 work is her ability to capture the complexity of her female subjects. Whether she is photographing celebrities such as Charlotte Rampling, Kristin Scott Thomas or Madonna, or models such as Daria Werbowy or Lara Stone, Rheims imbues her subjects with an emotional richness often overlooked by other celebrity and fashion photographers. Much of her editorial work for magazines similarly pictures female subjects in multifaceted ways that accentuate their complex interior lives. First and foremost, Rheims is interested in capturing the contradictions of femininity, which she does through her unique sensitivity towards her subjects. <\/span><\/p>\n5. Activism is essential<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nContinuing her lengthy interrogation into the construction of femininity, Rheims collaborated with the feminist activist group, Femen, in 2017. The series, entitled \u201cNaked War<\/a>\u201d, photographs the activists naked with political slogans smeared across their torsos. The purpose of the project was to make visible the work of the group and to investigate the possibility of non-erotic nudity. The Ukrainian group claims that the body is the last site to resist oppression, and the outcry to \u2013 what they call \u2013 their “political nudity” proves just that. \u201cNaked War\u201d expresses two of the key concerns of Rheims\u2019 work: corporeality and power.<\/span>
\n
\n\u201cBettina Rheims:\u00a0vous \u00eates finies, douces figures<\/a>” runs from March 20 through to June 3 2018 at Mus\u00e9e du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac<\/span><\/em>
\n\u201cD\u00e9tenues<\/a>” runs through to April 30, and then again at\u00a0Les ch\u00e2teaux de Vincennes et de Cadillac from June 1 to November 4 2018.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"