Bettina Rheims/Serge Bramly. Rose - c’est Paris, Art Edition No. 1–100 ‘Rose’ Edition of 100

Bettina Rheims and Serge Bramly’s Rose, c’est Paris is both a photographic monograph and a feature-length film on DVD. This extraordinary work of art, in two different but interlocking and complementary formats, defies easy categorization, a multilayered opus of poetic symbolism, surrealist visions, confused identities, artistic phantoms, obsession, fetish, and seething desire.

Equal parts erotica, fashion shoot, art monograph, metaphysical mystery, social and cultural archaeology of the French capital, and neo-noir arthouse film—Rose, c’est Paris is the steamy tale of twin sisters, known only as B and Rose, and a third principal—the city itself. An abduction leads to a detective story that unfolds in the streets, cafés, cabarets, museums, abandoned factories, and grand hotels of Paris. What happened to the missing sister? Was there a plot? Was she really kidnapped? Is she alive or dead? Is it in fact a case of mistaken identity?

Rheims and Bramly create a series of extraordinary tableaux suggesting all these possibilities and many more, featuring a host of celebrity figures including Naomi Campbell, Michelle Yeoh, Monica Bellucci, Charlotte Rampling, Valérie Lemercier, Inès Sastre, Anna Mouglalis, Audrey Marnay, Anthony Delon, Rona Hartner, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Azzedine Alaïa, Louise Bourgoin, and Hélèna Noguerra.

Fetishistically boxed up in a retro attaché case are souvenirs of this curious tale: a rose, a mask, an Eiffel Tower statuette (perhaps a murder weapon?), a booklet, a DVD, and of course the photo book itself. Invoke your inner detective: set the case before you, flip open the rusty latches, and devour the evidence...

Art Edition limited to just 100 signed and numbered copies, each with the numbered original C-print Rose, c’est Paris, 2009, 30 x 40 cm (11.8 x 15.8 in.), Harman Photo-Barythpaper, signed by Bettina Rheims

Serge Bramly is an artist, writer, and essayist and frequently collaborates on artistic and photographic projects with Bettina Rheims. His books include Leonardo: The Artist and the Man (1995) and Le Premier Principe (Prix Interallié, 2008).

Bettina Rheims is a French fine art and fashion photographer. She first won acclaim with a dramatic series of portraits of striptease artists and acrobats, gaining a solo exhibition at the Centre Pompidou aged just 29. Subsequent series include Chambre Close (1990–1992); I.N.R.I. (1998), picturing scenes from the life of Christ; The Book of Olga (2008 for TASCHEN); and Gender Studies (2014). She has worked on advertising campaigns for major brands including Chanel and Lancôme, and taken portraits of such famous individuals as Charlotte Rampling, Marianne Faithfull, Claudia Schiffer, Catherine Deneuve, and Jacques Chirac. Rheims won the Grand Prix de la Photographie de la Ville de Paris in 1994 and the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in 2002.