Bettina Rheims: Retrospective

Rating:
Summary: A Marvelous Photo-Retrospective of a GREAT Artist.
Review: Starting in 1979 with Female Trouble and going all the way to 2002 with Shanghai, this softcover retrospective covers twelve different periods and bodies of work from Ms. Rheims. Born in Paris in 1952, Bettina gained fame with the publication of her nude photos of stripper in 1980 in the exhibition called Egoïste. From there she went on work with numerous high profile magazines and publishers and became well known for her work with celebrities. But through it all she retained her original focus on photography as an artistic medium. This book wonderfully conveys this, that despite all her success, Bettina Rheims held fast to her artistic vision with what Serge Bramley describes as her way of "seeing", which in the end propelled her to ever greater commercial and artistic accomplishment. All twelve chapters except Animal 1982-1983/1994 feature the human form as the central component to her work, and the naked female form is the star. We are treated to portraits of both the well known, like Kate Moss, Karen Elson, Eva Herzigova, Madonna, and Laetitia Casta, but also to those whose names we'll never know. But we get to see them all in the glorious manner that is so uniquely Bettina Rheims. Intriguing, inventive, and sometimes quite provocative, the nudes of Bettina Rheims are never short of spellbinding and across more 200 pages we are presented with a succulent treat to the work and vision of one our generation's greatest photographic talents.

Rating:
Summary: A RHEIMS RETROSPECTIVE TO RETURN TO
Review: The book has soft covers but is relatively well made. Printing and binding is done by EBS in Italy and it is produced by Schirmer/Mosel, Germany. The size is 240x300x17mm and it's printed on 170g/m2 galerie art silk paper.
The book I have in my library was printed for the retrospective exhibition Finland and Norway.

The Bettina Rheims Retrospective exhibition was held in Helsinki, Finland 13.2-2.5.2004 and Oslo, Norway 29.5-11.7.2004.
I had the opportunity to attend the exhibition in Helsinki and consequently purchased the book at that occasion.
The book contains all the 133 exhibited work of the retrospective.

The work within are monochrome and mostly color and show models nude or partially clothed. Several celebrities are photographed. Other objects portraid are stuffed animals. They represent a selection from different collections of work over quite some time from 1979 to 2002; Female Trouble (1979-91), Animal (1982-83/1994), Modern Lovers (1989-90), Les Espionnes (1991), Kim Harlow (1991), Les Aveugles (1992), INRI (1997), X'mas (1999-2000), Morceaux Choisis (2001), Porquoi M'as-tu Abandonnée (1994-2001) and Shanghai (2002).

The size of the pages is suitable to present the work and the quality is good. One strange sensation was to review the plates in the book after the exhibition and find them to be miniatures when compared to the large photographs in the art hall. Perhaps a bit of the magic is lost in lesser size.

Personally I do like most of the photographs within. Some contain or portray messages on the borderline of distaste or grotesque, but I'm sure that has been the intention of the author. Size and especially color works in Bettina Rheims favour. The book is worth attention.
My special favourites are plates 68, 105, 109 and 123.

Robie Kulokivi
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