For years I had watched the most beautiful models in the world enter my studio, unmade up and stunningly beautiful. I’d go, “wow! You are beautiful”, and they would disappear into the dressing room, coming out several hours later with my (not always hidden) reactions of “what happened to you!” Rarely were they more beautiful after makeup. Somehow the original rawness of the face attracted me most. I guess I felt the same thing about the clothes. I wanted the clothes off.

Whenever I was shooting beauty, I learnt to start the session when they arrived with the idea that it would make an excellent counterpoint to whatever was to happen later. Bare and unmade up, scantily dressed in either a towel (after a shower) or holding a pillow (from rising first thing in the morning). It reminded me of being in love and waking to see that person next to you half asleep and dreamily sexy. Beautiful! It was real.

My fascination with the landscape of a face started when I wanted to reveal a personality behind the makeup pictures that I was taking for the most famous cosmetic companies in the world who were selling beauty, the lines of a smile or a laugh retouched. For me, they were the most beautiful traits that revealed an inner life.

I wanted the lines of life.