A Quote by Helena Christensen

I felt like I was in the best photography school in the world - I had Herb Ritts, Bruce Weber, Richard Avedon and Irving Penn teach me. — © Helena Christensen
I felt like I was in the best photography school in the world - I had Herb Ritts, Bruce Weber, Richard Avedon and Irving Penn teach me.
Having worked with so many of the geniuses, I'd learned so much. It's the best sort of photography school, to work with people like Penn or Avedon or Meisel.
I had a nervous breakdown when I was 17 or 18, when I had to go and work with Marky Mark and Herb Ritts. It didn't feel like me at all. I felt really bad about straddling this buff guy. I didn't like it.
I didn't do well in high school, but I took photography, and I loved being able to capture moments. It led to more and more photography, and fashion was the angle into photography for me. It was incredible to see photographs by Irving Penn or Helmut Newton. I was really intrigued by that, and that's what led me to New York City.
Richard Avedon is a true genius of photography and one of the greatest artists of our time.
My first big job was an Abercrombie &Fitch campaign. But my mom wouldn't let me skip school for it, so I missed half of the shoot. When we got there, we realized Bruce Weber was the photographer; we knew we had made a mistake!
There are a lot of photographers who have influenced me; some of the great ones, like Herb Ritts, Helmut Newton, and [Alfred] Stieglitz. I draw from all of them. You're supposed to steal from the good ones.
Richard Avedon taught me that if you go into a photo session and come out with what you had hoped for, it’s a failure. You need to be surprised if you want it to be magical.
I admired the work of photographers like Beaton, Penn, and Avedon as much as I respected the grittier photographers such as Robert Frank. But in the same way that I had to find my own way of reportage, I had to find my own form of glamour.
My favorite herb - lamb's bread. Kali. I like Hawaiian. But for some reason, you communicate better with Jamaican herb. The best Jamaican herb, it have more energy, more everything to it.
I like the drawings. And as a photography fan myself, I would look at Helmut Newton or Irving Penn and like to see the initial notes or drawings, to see where the ideas grew from. Also my sketches are key to my work because I came to realise early on that by doing drawings, I could formulate a plan of what I was thinking of - I could take control and direct the work.
Honestly, I was so happy for Bruce because I loved Bruce... and Bruce felt like my brother. You know, I wanted him to be OK, and I was just thrilled he'd found someone who had four children and someone who understood what it was like to be a parent - you know, just to have that great family life again.
I remember doing a shoot for Herb Ritts, hanging off the Eiffel Tower - that wasn't your usual day at the office. It was terrifying, and in the end, you couldn't really tell how high I was because the photographer was scared of heights, so he was quite far away from me.
American 'Vogue' and the Versace campaign by Richard Avedon were huge for me. It put me on the map.
I started modeling and after a while the photographer Bruce Weber introduced me to Joel Schumacher, who cast me in my first film, and I just fell in love.
I felt like the luckiest kid in the world because God had put me on the ground in Texas. I actually felt sorry for those poor little kids that had to be born in Oklahoma or England or some place. I knew I was living in the best place in the world.
The attention from the fashion world is something that I didn't expect. I've shot with Bruce Weber and met Karl Lagerfeld. Having that kind of attention is really exciting.
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