Queer Lens: A History of Photography

Two works by Bettina Rheims, from the photographic collection held by the Institut pour la photographie, are being added to the exhibition Queer Lens: A History of Photography on view at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles from June 17 to September 28, 2025.

The first is a portrait of François Braunschweig and Hugues Autexier, founders of the Texbraun Gallery. This gallery was one of the first in France dedicated to historical and contemporary photography at the turn of the 1980s. It helped bring Bettina Rheims’s work to the forefront. In December 2023, Bettina specifically mentioned the importance of this gallery and its owners during her early days as a photographer in an interview conducted by Paul Martineau, curator of the photography department at the Getty Museum.

The second one is from the series Gender Studies . In response to the social and political tensions of the 2010s, this series presents portraits of people who have come forward to assert their identities. Through them, Bettina Rheims challenges norms and brings to light those who are often overlooked or misunderstood. She documents the faces of a generation engaged in a reflection on gender—its construction, representation, and fluidity.