Paging: Bettina Rheims

Bettina Rheims’ erotic portraits pulse with rough romanticism. Roses are a reoccurring motif. From the blossoming bouquet and blooming wallpaper behind a coquettish Madonna, to the blood-colored petals floating in a tub with Rose McGowan or all the rosy flesh that she films, the French photographer sees sexuality through a rose-colored lens. Yet Rose, c’est Paris the XL-format collector’s edition photographic monograph and DVD that Rheims created with her ex-husband Serge Bramly as an homage to Paris, consists of black and white images instead of her signature blushy hues. Printed by Taschen in an edition of 1,500, the photographic component includes scenes of public nudity, Sapphic love and uncommonly beautiful women whose essence is intoxicating. As Benedikt Taschen describes the project, “This is a Paris of surrealist visions, confused identities, artistic phantoms, unseen manipulation, obsession, fetish, and seething desire. Equal parts erotica, fashion shoot, art monograph, metaphysical mystery, social and cultural archaeology of the French capital, and neo-noir arthouse film Rose, c’est Paris is all this and more.”