For her photographic series Like a Woman, French photographer Bettina Rheims takes the role of the lover of the woman and captures her the time she is having an orgasm.
The photographer is no stranger to nudity and sensual portraits, as well known for her admiration for the female body and her repeated shots on this. This beautiful work dramatizes the final chapter of a sexual act, one of the most familiar, spiritual and joyful moments in one’s life.
Looking down over the models, she is talking dirty in order to lure them into an erotic mood. But the models were unable to see her since she was covered with a dark curtain. The beautiful, realistic result was achieved both through their expressions and make-up that was designed to emphasize skin color and the design of lingerie and fingerprints on their bodies.
This series is a perfect example of how gender can be illustrated clearly, in a way that shows the power and beauty in a way that is not explicit .. Rheims sees as a woman, but not only in a sexual way but as an illustration of the state of ecstasy at the time of release, a time when “the body is compressed and eventually released.”
