黑料不打烊

The talented and prolific photographer Bettina Rheims is currently being showcased in solo shows around the world. Just like a woman is on view until July 16 at the Jerome de Noirmont Gallery in Paris. While Can you find happiness was presented in Berlin. It will then set out to the Centro Internazionale di Fotografia (鈥淐entre for International Photography鈥�) in Milan, from September 23 through to November 23, before moving on to Asia. Eyemazing presents an encounter with this photographer who pays tribute to women. Sarah Baxter: Your new series, Just like a woman, is reminiscent of your famous Chambre Close series鈥� Bettina Rheims: This is the very first time I鈥檝e talked about it. Just like a woman is a very recent work, I finished it just a few months ago. It鈥檚 a small series of 13 images. But there was an enormous amount of thought and time put into its creative process. I knew what I wanted. But I didn鈥檛 know how to achieve it. It鈥檚 an idea that came to me very early one morning. Often, when I have trouble sleeping, I wake up very early with an idea, and I start writing things. And this idea revolved around the notion of tribes. I鈥檓 always looking for new genres: new tribes, new families, new groups, people that express themselves differently. Upon waking up that day, I felt this was a rather magical moment: the passage from dreams to reality, when you are neither awake nor asleep鈥� It鈥檚 a moment when ideas come to you, still unclear, when you aren鈥檛 fully conscious yet. And that鈥檚 what I wanted to capture. For me, that鈥檚 a fleeting moment of pure creation. So I thought of putting women in the same mood I was in that morning, the mood of creation. Then I wondered how I could do this. I often think of recumbent statues. I frequently refer to art history鈥攑aintings or sculptures. And my reference here was to have upright images of recumbent figures. To achieve this, I needed to work from high above. The idea was then to lay down these young women on a bed, and shoot them from atop a 10-foot high construction that we built in the studio. The upper level of this structure is surrounded by walls, which prevented crew-members, hair and make up artists, etc. from seeing what was going on inside. The models were isolated in a box, so to speak, and on top of this box there was me, with my camera through a hole, just like a hovering eye. But they couldn鈥檛 see me, just the shutter of the lens. And that鈥檚 how it came to be. SB: Each woman has her own set of bed sheets鈥� BR: Yes, it was the same with Chambre Close. I took pictures of my models, and there was corresponding wallpaper for each one. That鈥檚 how I work. For Just like a woman, we would hold a bed sheet behind a model, and all of a sudden it would be the right one, corresponding to skin or eye colour鈥� Then, there鈥檚 the work that was done on body marks. The viewer isn鈥檛 sure what to make of them鈥� Are they sleep marks? The girls are quite red, as if caught in an emotional moment that could be pleasure, maybe sexual pleasure, who knows? They are red and marked from emotion! SB: How do you choose your subjects? BR: They are all models or actresses. I wanted beautiful girls, and they needed to be able to convey emotion. I also needed them to understand what I was after, to trust me in order to let go. It鈥檚 a matter of intelligence, and when people ask me how I choose my models, it isn鈥檛 because they鈥檙e tall, short, thin, blond or brunette; it鈥檚 because they鈥檙e intelligent enough to understand intuitively what the artist is looking for. SB: Do you ask them to pose in specific positions? BR: Of course. An artist must never abandon his models. Even if you want them to abandon themselves to you! But that is precisely the moment when you need to be there for them. Because you cannot leave someone lying on a bed with a black hole above them, or else panic ensues! So I am there to guide them, to direct them, to give them something to play with. The emotion comes from me, which I transfer onto them. This accompaniment process is extremely important, because it rests on something almost intangible. My models need to become characters that are pure invention, and these characters in turn tell a story. SB: Your intention is to represent women? BR: Of course, that鈥檚 my principal subject! We all have subjects. If I were a sculptor or a painter, I would sculpt or paint women. But I have a camera, and it鈥檚 the only way I know how to express myself. Yet photography is only a means for me to tell stories. Maybe one day I won鈥檛 need photography, and words will be enough. Maybe if I knew how to write, I鈥檇 be a writer. SB: Tell us about the exhibition Can you find happiness. BR: I like it very much. Jerome de Noirmont already organised a 30-year retrospective of my work that toured 10 cities in Europe until a year ago, so I wanted a different approach. So I gave Philippe Dagen, the writer and art critic for Le Monde, access to all my archives and gave him carte blanche as curator. He chose to structure the exhibition around 100 portraits of women. Only women! Whether the images were commissions, advertising or personal projects, didn鈥檛 matter to him. He chose the images he liked, and organised them in chapters. 鈥淏ettina and photography鈥�, 鈥淏ettina and literature鈥�, 鈥淏ettina and pornography鈥濃�� Just like chapters in a book. SB: What about the title of the exhibition? BR: [Smiles] I鈥檝e always had a slightly mystical approach to things, and therefore do not feel I need to offer any explanations. These are questions I ask people, or that I ask myself. One of my more ambitious works is titled Why did you abandon me? I鈥檝e always wanted people to react to these questions鈥� Maybe it makes them laugh, on a subconscious level, and makes them want to see my shows! SB: Your titles all seem to revolve around the condition of women? BR: Of course. And these questions are universal. They come from all the women I met and who shared with me their personal stories, their tragedies, their fears, their strengths and their weaknesses. I really love women; I love their ability to be everything at once and to accept it. There are very few men that accept their own fragility, their own femininity and their own weaknesses. That鈥檚 not meant to be part of a man鈥檚 world! Whereas women do have that ability to tap into both their strengths and weaknesses, and they fought hard to obtain it. In that respect, I think I am fundamentally a feminist. In the Western world, women have an extraordinary advantage to be able to work, have careers and be mothers鈥� SB: Do you wish to impose a certain vision of women to the outside world? BR: All it is, is my reaction to the position of women in today鈥檚 world. There are women in China or Japan that came up to me who really gave me the feeling that I鈥檇 brought them something. A glimpse of what their lives could be. My works seem to affect women most, and that鈥檚 probably because I intend it for them in the first place. SB: Women who come to be photographed by you are interested in your stylistic approach? BR: Very often, they鈥檝e never done nudes, but feel ready to do so with me. They offer me their trust, an enormous trust I cannot betray. I feel a great responsibility. A camera can give you a tremendous sense of power. Sometimes, with a camera in your hand, you feel invincible, a feeling that war reporters experience, wrongly thinking they are protected. But the camera is a powerful instrument, which protects you from the gaze of your subject. There鈥檚 a certain moment when you feel anything is possible; when you can take someone anywhere you like. It鈥檚 a very strong, very intense feeling. SB: Women trust you because you are a woman, and you have feminine vision? BR: That鈥檚 it. My work could only be done by a woman, I鈥檓 sure of it. And people who think that what I do is a man鈥檚 work, or who think that I photograph women like a man, they are dead wrong, let me tell you! There is no voyeurism. No traps. My gaze is direct, sincere and with no ulterior motive. Ulterior motives are what make the difference. That鈥檚 probably why women trust me.