“My friend Lisanne Falk and I—both 13 years old and Ford models at the time—were close friends with Betsy Cameron, another model, who happened to be an aspiring photographer and who was like a big sister to us.
One day, Betsy asked us to visit her home in Southport, Connecticut, and take a series of fun photos for a possible book about friendship. We got to play dress-up in vintage costumes and crimp our hair and wear makeup, and we were thrilled to create fantasy worlds for Betsy to photograph. This particular picture was the last of the day. We wore red lipstick and felt so grown up.
The book never came to pass, but this photo was chosen to run in the first issue of Life magazine when it was revived as a monthly, in 1978. I couldn’t believe I was in Life! This image elevated us into a different category: we were no longer just catalogue models but had transitioned into a more credible and artistic realm. It was also controversial at the time for girls to project womanly poses, but that’s what girls did when dressing up. And, looking back, this is the photo that sort of put us on the map.”
Read more from *Vanity Fair’*s “The Photo That Changed My Life” series.
The Photograph That Helped Misty Copeland Realize Her Responsibility as a Black Woman in Ballet
How a Portrait of Photographer and Actress Berry Berenson Changed Jamie Lee Curtis’s Life
How a Single Selfie Helped Alan Cumming Confront His Mortality
How a Photo of Planet Earth Changed Tony Bennett Forever
How a Sailboat Poster Showed Author Nathaniel Philbrick His Destiny
The Family Photo That Changed Carly Simon’s Life
How David Bailey’s Portrait of Jean Shrimpton Changed His Life
Cindy Crawford Explains How a Single Portrait Changed Her Life
The Photo That Changed Candice Bergen’s Life
How a Roy DeCarava Photo Changed Wynton Marsalis’s Life
