Bettina Rheims is a photographer best known for her erotic images of women. Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, Rheims worked as a model before turning to photography in 1978. Her earliest series titled Portraits (1981) featured striptease artists and acrobats posing in her studio. In 1990, she photographed androgynous youths for her series Modern Lovers. She has collaborated with the novelist Serge Bramly on several projects, including the book Chambre Close, published in 1992, which accompanied the fictional narrative of “Monsieur X” with Rheims’s photographs of women posing in hotel rooms.