masked woman at telescope magic city III, 1990

Bettina Rheims is best known as a French photographer. Her biggest inspiration is drawn from the female model, which showed in her first exhibition; a series of strip tease artists and acrobats. Rheims' subjects range from famous and unknown females and other gender related themes, such as the exploration of androgyny. She often likes to pose questions about her subjects to create a focused piece of work. Up until the 90s, Rheims worked with black and white photos. She slowly transitioned into a variety of color series, as she felt it brought the flesh of her subjects to life, adding to the reaction she was trying to evoke. Her color photography involves plenty of social commentary on the id of women and parodies of gender roles. Her later work reveals stories through photographs, collaborating with Serge Bramly, a French writer, to bring autobiographical events to life. She has also been involved in advertising campaigns for large house fashion brands, such as Chanel. Her wide success has also led to her to take portraits of famous women for international magazines.