How I met...

I was 14 years old when I walked down Grand Street in NYC with my mom looking for
Arthur Elgort's studio. I have never heard of him, and I know they said to come with clean hair and clean face and be on time, but I had no idea the importance of that first visit.

Growing up in the Valley of the Sun we have cookie cutter homes, the rich have custom homes and the poor have homes in scary neighborhoods. I am pretty sure it is the same everywhere. I grew up middle class in a simple 5 bedroom home in a decent neighborhood, just as all my friends did. We never went anywhere that wasn't middle class, occasionally I would have a "rich" friend with a two-story home and that was like the best place to go, but I never had friends in scary neighborhoods. We just weren't that cultured to know what types of digs where in downtown Phoenix and at the age of 14, I guess I was fortunate.

I say all that to let you know we were very nervous walking down Grand St. trying to find a studio. Nothing looked like a studio, it all looked like warehouses and they were scary. Homeless people were everywhere, the streets were dirty, and this was our first week in NYC. We had never seen a place like that before.

Finally we find the address, look at each other and walk in. Well get buzzed in. NYC is so strange.

We get in a freight elevator and all I want to do is hold my moms hand, but I didn't. We arrive at the door and are greeted by his assistant. I walk in and see the most beautiful studio, not just studio, place I have ever seen in my life. And still to this day in relaxation practices it is the place I go to in my head. Gigantic, enormous, I have no clue the square feet, but I know it was like two of my houses in a wide-open space. Everything was white. There were windows completely surrounding the place, some of them were covered by sheer white fabric flowing the wind. The sunlit room was the most amazing thing I had ever seen indoors.

Then in walked Arthur, camera around his neck, pipe in his mouth, short and a little round. He first just wants to see my book; it is all very informal at first. Then he sees something. I have no idea what it was, but he looked up from my book and at me and said, "Sit on the floor", I obliged and he started taking pictures. I just moved in front of him and his camera in a way that was just so natural to me and he laughed and smiled and said I was "great!" and then we were on our way.

We went back to the agency to where they were jumping and kissing me and said he loved me and I booked a shoot for British Vogue! My first week in NYC I had landed two editorial shoots and was dubbed Super Kid! It was pretty exciting!

Arthur became the best thing to happen to me in New York. He got me jobs for British, German and Italian Vogue, plus other things that landed my face in places I have never been.
He also gave me "my" shot. Every model has one. It is the picture that shows who they are; it hides their flaws and shows their beauty. I did this one at 14 years old in his studio about a week or two of our first meeting. This was January 1994 edition of British Vogue.

I know not everyone who ventured off to places like NYC and LA, had such a desireable experience and I am so grateful. I am grateful to have met people like Arthur who knew how young and naive I was and didn't exploit me, but molded me, gently and lovingly.

Feeling nostalgic, that's all....