Marie Helvin

You recently returned to modelling - has the process changed much since the 1970s?
Absolutely - it has changed 100% - certainly from the viewpoint of the working model. There are so many people involved in a fashion shoot today. When I first started, and let's just take Vogue as an example, there would be Bailey, myself, the fashion editor and usually the hairdresser and make-up artist - who would be the same person. You might have had one assistant and that was it...! The last Vogue shoot I did was for a cover - which I think came out July this year - and there must have been 75-80 people on the Patrick Demarchelier set. I didn't know what half of them were doing there! The manicurist and her assistant! There were so many assistants. And the guy doing the digital thing on the side. When Jerry Hall and I did a Burberry ad with Mario Testino I just couldn't believe it - we two were the only models and there were 100 people on the set! When you finished up there was applause, which is really bizarre. In the old days it was simply: that's it - 'bye...! The girls have it so easy these days.

Does any photographer really 'control' the final image or does the model 'make' the shot?
Obviously its a collaboration. A good image would be useless without the input of both. Whether the photographer would agree is another matter because today there is so much digital stuff going on that the model does not even have to be there. The photographer needs to be inspired and I know that when I worked with Bailey my contribution was really important to him.

You have been photographed by the very best - do you have a favourite image of yourself. If so who took it?
It's one by Bailey - of course - the one where you see only his shadow. It's a landscape and I am lying on a sunlounger at the one moment in my life where I had the most beautiful, perfect body and you see Bailey's shadow taking the picture. Whether anybody realises it's Bailey is not the point - I do. The image is very sexual, subtly erotic, with a coiled hosepipe to one side... very Adam and Eve symbolism. Bailey might not see it like that, he just calls them snaps and never discusses pictures on that level. But it's my favourite picture.

Do you take photographs yourself - either casually, for fun, or with serious intent?
No - not at all. I once took a picture of Bailey with his favourite parrot, which gets used a real lot and I never get credited. It was for the London Sunday Times when he won the best 'worst dressed' award. Everyone thinks he got sick from those parrots but, in fact, what he had was a recurring bout of malaria that stemmed from his National Service days in Singapore. It was never psittacosis. Anyway, that was the best picture I took and I haven't done one since.

Which photograph(s) mean the most to you (for example: places, family snaps, gifts, etc.)
It would have to be family. I had a Mom that loved to take photos and, as I lost her within the last month, its great to have those silly pictures to remind me of her and our times together.

Have you ever bought a photograph - if so what was it? (at auction, in a gallery, from a friend...)
Sure, several. I have works by Bill Brandt - I own the image they used on the poster for the National exhibition, Nude Perspective No.4., perhaps one of his most famous. Sutcliffe; and Ortiz - quite an extraordinary photographer who made his own paper. José Ortiz Echagüe, to give him his full name, worked early on in the last century, covering Spain, the Spanish Civil War and also in Morocco.

Do you admire any particular photographers - and if so, why?
Oh yeah, José Ortiz of course. He has that quality of Antoine de Saint Exupéry, the author of The Little Prince. He was an adventurer, an intellectual, who did many different things yet was a very spiritual person in a sense. Ortiz' photographs are really iconic, and really really beautiful.

Photographers are usually scathing about fashion work - yet they all do it. Is fashion photography really an artform in itself?
Photography and writing are very similar I think - it's story telling. I don't see why fashion photography cannot be art, and artists have conflicting opinions. David Hockney said photography was not as important as an actual painting, whereas Susan Sontag would say that the camera is like a gun, that a photograph is like a rape. There are photographers that just happen to do fashion some of the time - I don't think you could call Richard Avedon just a fashion photographer!

Do you own a camera - if so what is it?
I do a lot of travel writing and I once asked Bailey to recommend me a camera that anyone could use. He came up with a Canon Sure Shot - but I still can't use it. The manual is about three million pages long. I really should get a digital camera that works with my computer. My travel editor always asks why I can't get a better camera but I always end up buying one of those disposable cameras at Boots - I'm so embarrassed - but at least the pictures come out every time!

If we could transport you anywhere in the world at any point in time to take a single photograph: where, what and when would you choose?
Well, now my Mom is dead my whole being is thinking about things to do with her and my memories of her. Also, I am working on my next book which is about my father and his wartime experiences in England and in Europe. So for me, my ultimate photograph would be... well, my parents met during the occupation of Japan and at the end, I think about 1952, all the Americans had to leave Japan and McArthur ruled that they could not return for a period of six months. As you can imagine, there were thousands of illegitimate children and the men just did not come back - well, my Dad did come back and I would like to have been there when they first met each other on his return. I don't know whether he went back by boat or by plane but that moment - a mixture of love and relief - would be very special. And of course, after that I was born! That would be my one image...