For Just Like a Woman, Paris-based photographer Bettina Rheims takes an intimate and titillating look at the female body, positioning herself directly above a set of nude models as they dramatize the moment of orgasm.

Having photographed many nudes throughout her prolific career, Rheims was inspired to take on the role of the lover, observing the height of female pleasure from an elevated vantage point. The women, she explains, were unable to see her as she worked, their views obscured by a dark curtain. As the women luxuriated on a mock bed, made of a bed-sheet covering the studio floor, she herself reclined face-down above them, talking dirty from behind the curtain to get her models in an erotic state of mind. The physicality of the orgasm, she says, was achieved not only through the models’ expressions but also through makeup designed to resemble flushed cheeks and broken sweats, and imprints of bras and panties were made along the naked flesh.

Here, Rheims simulates the erotic without being explicit, choosing only to reveal just enough flesh to suggest an ardent sexual encounter. The instant she captures isn’t necessarily one of penetration but of release, when inhibitions are abandoned entirely to corporeal sensation. Ultimately, she hopes to capture that elusive space between delirium and ecstacy, a moment wherein “the body is compressed and finally freed.”

OLGA par Ellen von Unwerth

En vente sur AMAZON

OLGA : ce prénom ne vous rappelle rien ? Voir ICI

C'était avec Bettina Rheims comme photographe

Photo : Bettina Rheims

BETTINA RHEIMS : « EN PHOTO DE VACANCES, JE SUIS NULLE »

Entretien avec Bettina Rheims = à lire en cliquant ICI

Voir mes précédents billets sur Bettina Rheims

Photos : Bettina Rheims

En mode polaroïd