Modeling Journey

An exhibition featuring the Supermodels of the 70s and 80s is due to open on the 28th of January at the Steven Kasher Gallery in New York. The exhibition features ten portraits of legendary supermodels shot by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. The images of models; Christie Brinkley, Carol Alt, Cheryl Tiegs, Lisa Taylor, Beverly Johnson, and Nancy Donahue amongst others, were taken in 2009 whilst Greenfield-Sanders was working on a project for Vanity Fair magazine.

In an interview for stevenkasher.com, Greenfield-Sanders pays tribute, "These women, now in their fifties, were once the reigning queens of American beauty. As ultimate icons of world-wide marketing, I knew their stories would be extraordinary, and I wanted to hear what they had to say." By photographing these icons of beauty, Greenfield-Sanders hopes to draw attention to "how we deal with ageing in our hopelessly youth oriented society."

The portraits of some of modelling's most famous faces, provide a moment to reflect on our perceptions of beauty and the ageing process, and illustrate that the two need not be mutually exclusive. 

The late Francesco Scavullo's name is synonymous with the seductive, head to toe all out glamour that was represented by the quintessential Cosmo girl. Over a thirty year period beginning in 1965, Scavullo captured the essence of the Cosmo girl as a sensuous, confident and sexually liberated woman. During this period, Scavullo together with his long time companion and stylist Sean M. Byrnes, was responsible for the selection of the model, the cleavage revealing outfits, make up and hairstyles that would eventually appear on the cover. Every model wanted to be a Cosmo girl and the Cosmopolitan cover was accompanied by a model profile and interview which provided  an insight into the personality and life of the cover model. Scavullo's stable of beauties included Lauren Hutton, Naomi Sims, Brooke Shields, Gia Carangi, Janice Dickinson and Christie Brinkley. I have many Cosmopolitan covers in my collection and the following selection is a chronicle of some of the most influential models of our time.