Bettina Rheims: Female Trouble

Afterimage, July-August, 2005 by James Rajotte

BETTINA RHEIMS: FEMALE TROUBLE

by Bettina Rheims. Schirmer/Mosel/152 pp./$34.95 (hb).

Paris-born photographer Bettina Rheims is well known for her perspective on sexuality and fantasy. Her book Female Trouble features an introduction by French actress Catherine Denueve who describes Rheims' work as "... at the same time masculine and feminine." The majority of the monograph is dedicated to sophisticated and erotic celebrity portraits. Actresses like Denueve, Julictte Binoche and Sophie Marceau cast their gaze, sustaining the reader's attention throughout the 102 color and black and white plates, presented as either full page or doubletruck spreads. The book, with brief texts in German and English, also contains some of Rheims' earlier work with striptease artists and acrobats from the early 1980s. Although this is not as topical as Rheims' Modern Lovers series from the late 1980s or her more recent INRI series, Female Trouble is a good example of Rheims' intriguing style.

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