Bettina Rheims/Serge Bramly. Rose, c’est Paris. Art Edition No․ 101–200 ‘Magic’

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 (No. 101–200) signed and numbered copies, each with the numbered original C-print Magic City III, 2009, 30 x 40 cm (11.8 x 15.8 in.), Harman Photo-Barythpaper, signed by Bettina Rheims

Also available in a second Art Edition, with an alternative print