Long known for his advertising photography across France, and his nudes published in various books, Bernard Matussière's little known documentary portraits of cotton workers in Kutilia, Mali (Western Africa) demonstrate a dimension the Frenchman has rarely exhibited. The series, taken in 2001, on trip with the French writer Erik Orsenna, brought Matussière to Mali's oldest cotton factory, CMDT. Here 1500 cotton workers separate the cotton from their plants, arrange
in bales, and organize shipment to the Far East.

"I was seduced by the science fiction scenario," says Matussiere. "Cotton flying everywhere, the workers in masks and goggles, the air was thick with cotton fibres and impossible for anyone without a mask to breathe." The workers, while they are not paid very much, are happy they have jobs. "What is truly bizarre is that the cotton they send out to Thailand or Vietnam comes back in finished clothes the cotton workers buy."

The black and white photos, hard and oftentimes nightmarish, have never been exhibited before "Carte Blanche" the photographer's second one-person exhibition in the United States.

Matussière, better known for his nudes and fashion photography, published his first book on the subject, Nues, (Fitways Publishing) in 2005. The photographer became a star in the advertising world in Europe with his series for Aubade lingerie, entitled "Les Leçons d'Aubade."

"I have had the great opportunity over the past four decades to meet extraordinary women from all over the world, and to have enjoyed very special relationships with them," he says. "They've posed for me mostly as friends, and the results are - even for me after many years - astonishing." Matussiere will exhibit several photos of women he photographed in Cuba, as well as others he shot in Paris. All photographs were hand printed by Matussière in his studio in Montparnasse.