In 1977, Iman was the new sensation in New York. Discovered by Peter Beard, originally from Somalia, she arrived with her first major modeling assignment for Vogue, and suddenly everyone was paying attention.

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At the same time, my own career was already moving on two parallel tracks. The fine art nudes were getting attention, and that attention was feeding directly into beauty and fashion assignments, which then fed right back into the fine art work. One side kept opening doors for the other. Because of that momentum, the model agencies started introducing me to their top girls, and that is how I began working with Iman. I remember thinking immediately, she was going to be something special.

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By then I was already photographing fashion and beauty, so when my publisher came to me and said, “Let’s do your next book on fashion,” it wasn’t a left turn. It was simply the next step, without me even realizing how much that parallel growth was shaping everything. They assumed it would be a technical book, but I pushed for something different. I said, let’s do the missing book, the one I would have needed when I was starting out, because I hadn’t come up through the traditional route of assisting. I didn’t even know the basics back then, how to book a model, what a stylist really did, how the whole system worked. So we made it glamorous, approachable, and real, and it took off. It even led to an invitation to the Today Show.

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For the cover, I chose two models because the contrast felt powerful. Iman’s deep skin tone against the pale complexion of the successful model Franziska Carrera created a graphic elegance that felt modern and unforgettable. Iman loved the concept, and because we were already working together on other shoots, the collaboration felt natural.

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And while the cover image did its job, the book also gave me room to photograph images like this one, not for a client, not commercial, just for my vision and hers. This photograph was about that creative exchange, two people early in their careers, feeding off the moment, the mood, the possibility.

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Iman would go on to become an icon, long before the world added the David Bowie chapter to her story. And I stayed true to my own work, continuing to evolve. Years later, this image took on a life in the fine art world, shown in galleries and museums. For me, it still holds that feeling of the beginning, when everything is opening up and you can sense, even then, that the future is going to be bigger than you realize.