In this catalogue, Bettina Rheims unveils her series entitled Just like a woman realized in Paris in January 2008. These 13 colour portraits of women take us to the very essence of the French photographer’s art.
Recumbent on sheets splashed with colour, the women in this series remind us the models of Chambre Close, who posed on different backgrounds of coloured wallpapers; in the same way, here each sheet corresponds to a woman.
By shooting her models from above for the first time, thus placing them during the shooting in a closer and more intimate relationship with herself, Bettina Rheims seems to capture these women while awakening in the morning, or in a moment in between, a “beautiful agony” between ecstasy and suffering… Only the expression in their eyes might guide us in understanding their intimate feelings in this fleeting moment.

Bilingual French & English text by Serge Bramly.