Bettina Rheims

Bettina Rheims' $1,000 Erotic Odyssey in a Bespoke Briefcase

Filed under: Art, Books

Famed French photographer Bettina Rheims' newest book is much more than that – it's "equal parts erotica, fashion shoot, art monograph, metaphysical mystery, social and cultural archaeology of the French capital, and neo-noir arthouse film", and comes complete in a bespoke briefcase. The limited edition work, Rose, C'est Paris, produced by Rheims and Serge Bramly, is priced at $1,000 and comes in a retro attaché case featuring "souvenirs" of the curious tale within: a rose, a mask, an Eiffel Towel statuette, a booklet, a DVD, and of course the photo book itself. A number of celebrities make cameos including including Naomi Campbell, Michelle Yeoh, Monica Bellucci, Charlotte Rampling, and Azzedine Alaia, in "a Paris of surrealist visions, confused identities, artistic phantoms, unseen manipulation, obsession, fetish, and seething desire." Of course there's quite a lot of nudity.

Tags: Azzedine Alaïa, Bettina Rheims, coffee table books, DVD, erotica, France, movie, Naomi Campbell, Paris, photographer, photography

Russian Billionaire Publishes Book of Wife's Nudes

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Books

Russian oligarch Sergei Rodionov married a notorious Moscow femme fatale named Olga and then commissioned famed French photographer Bettina Rheims to do a big bucks X-rated photo shoot. He liked it so much he talked Rheims into two more photo shoots, and the results have just been published in book form, to a decidedly mixed reaction from Moscow society.

Russian billionaires are not shy about displaying their wealth, and surely The Book of Olga (right), which is so incendiary we can only show you the cover here, is just another such exhibition of prized assets. Of course, as a limited edition of 1,000 signed and numbered copies for $500 each, it also stands to make some money. If it succeeds, perhaps other Riussian oligarchs will follow suit and such books could become the hot new status symbol.

Tags: Bettina Rheims, BettinaRheims, Book of Olga, BookOfOlga, Moscow, Photography, russian billionaires, RussianBillionaires, Sergei Rodionov, SergeiRodionov