Mardi 02 Septembre 2014 12:56:57 par actuphoto dans Expositions

CAMERA WORK is pleased to present the exhibition »Bonkers – A Fortnight in London« of Bettina Rheims starting on September 19, 2014. Having devoted herself to the artistic theme of femininity, self-expression and sexuality, the artist created a series of portraits in 2013 of women in London who, due to their appearance and personality as well as their presence in the media, polarized the public perception. The exhibition at CAMERA WORK will be the first worldwide to show these works.

After Shanghai and Paris – big cities that provided the setting for previous, internationally respected series of the artist – Bettina Rheims betook herself to the British capital for »Bonkers - A Fortnight in London«. In search of electrifying atmospheres and polarizing women of the Society of the metropolis, Bettina Rheims found herself in-between models, actors and British party girls. The artist and her protagonists plunge into a surreal and dull world of various visual patterns, erotic plays and the discovery of ones femininity. The large scale portraits and nudes show some women, whose societal as well as medial perception and reputation can at best be described as »It-Girls«. The portrayal of these women plays with stereotypes, consciously exaggerates clichés and challenges the deviation between their images in the media and their individual personality. The works are characteristically shaped by a noticeable intimacy and proximity with the artist and the models, in which Rheims manages to discover womanhood in new light and to portray it in a special, honest perspective.

The substantially complex works consist of the Bettina Rheims’ artistic creativity, the skills of stylist Sascha Lilic, the fashion of Vivienne Westwood and frivolity of the Londoner group including the young women Amber Le Bon, Harriet Vernet, Mary Charteris, Portia Freeman and Morwenna Lytton Cobbold.

Along the exhibition, the publishing house Steidl is releasing the eponymous photo book »Bonkers! A Fortnight in London« (38 Euro).
The exhibition takes place simultaneously with the »Euopäischer Monat der Fotografie Berlin« (»European Month of Photography Berlin«).

Amber le Bon has lost … her car keysok © Bettina Rheims

 

About Bettina Rheims

Bettina Rheims was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris in 1952. Her photography career began in the late 1970s following a short work experience as model, at which she consequently became interested in focussing on femininity and all its erotic and voyeuristic facets. Amongst collaborations with prestigious fashion magazines and advertising agencies – for which she photographed Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Claudia Schiffer – she also published several photo books such as »Female Trouble« (1991) and »Chambre Close« (1992). With the series »Modern Lovers« and the book project »Kim«, which was created in close cooperation with the transsexual Kim Harlow, she developed an interest in artistically examining the subject of transsexuality and transgender. With her project »Modern Lovers« she refers to the play with androgyny. Rheims is convinced that every person carries both, a female as well as a male, sides. The exhibition »Gender Studies« which was shown 2012 at CAMERA WORK, promotes acceptance for the transgender and shows in her portraits of models like the Australian Andrej Pejic that sexual flexibility supports the expression of ones individual identity. Her hometown Paris awarded Rheims the 1994 Grand Prix de la Photographie, a recognition for the visual discussion of project issues like sexual orientation, but also for her erotic electrifying production of the female body. The impressive work of Bettina Rheims has been shown at international exhibitions, including but not limited to Helsinki, Moscow, Hong Kong, London and Berlin. The artist works and resides in Paris.