“This place that you are about to discover is my photographic studio. I have worked here, I have even lived here, and I have done most of my work, my images, my meetings, my life here. (Bettina Rheims, excerpt from the virtual tour)

The Institut pour la photographie is pleased to present the virtual visit of Bettina Rheims’ studio, created as part of the donation of her collection to the Institute, at the Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris on the occasion of the Palais Augmenté 2 festival organised by Fisheye and the Rmn – Grand-Palais. Thanks to virtual reality technologies, discover the photographer’s universe in this incredible place where the artist has worked and lived throughout her career.

In the 1980s, Bettina Rheims moved into the former house-studio of the Argentinean sculptor Alicia Penalba, in the heart of the Marais district of Paris, where she took most of her photographs. This large duplex flat with its interior courtyard is a real living space, with a conviviality area, a shooting studio with rooms for preparing the models and retouching. Besides, the office is an essential room, with a large library and a glass roof for checking prints. Space is also set aside for the storage of all his archives.

Before the collection was moved, this emblematic place in the photographer’s career was the subject of a new project. Indeed, the Institute has launched the first virtual tour of a photographer’s studio in order to preserve the trace of this creative space.

The tour is also available online. It will soon be enriched with new content, and will reflect the research work carried out by the Institute on the photographer’s archives.

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This project was supported by the Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles (DRAC) des Hauts-de-France.
Produced by V-Cult and Art of Corner.

The Institut would like to thank :

Gabriel Acoca, Océan Boutaud, Serge Bramly, Sophie Bramly, Lucie Cherqui, Clément Dupeux, Xavier Flamant for sound technology, Harry Matenaer, Samuel Mound by V-Cult, Gwénaëlle Petit-Pierre, Frédéric Purgal by Art of Corner, and Bettina Rheims.