Self-taught photographer Michel Comte's images of models and celebrities possess a unique sense of climax, as though everything has built up precisely to the moment he has captured. Often featuring women's nude bodies, his photographs are highly dramatic, suggestive of a larger, often sordid, narrative. In one of his most famous photographs—an image of Giselle Bündchen from 1999—the model scowls as she inhales from a cigarette. Naked from the waist up, she covers her breasts with her arms; her eye makeup is smeared and dripping, while decadent diamond jewelry hangs from her neck and ears. Such expressive portraits are complemented by Comte's ethereal landscapes, in which clouds disintegrate into the air and light flares accentuate bits of bright blue sky.