Going back to 1965, I’ve photographed five Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues. Lots of beautiful, hard-working women. Some supermodels, all wonderful.

Then, for the last one I did, I got to photograph Elle Macpherson. She was amazing. I was overwhelmed. It really was almost impossible to get a bad image of her. 

Sometimes you hear how the photographer made the model look good–in this case she made me look good. She was a natural at looking magnificent. 

She was different from shoot to shoot. When I look at these images I’m struck by how many “looks”, or personas, she has.

There was a quality that changed with each day of shooting. Always breathtaking. Always beautiful. Never a false move or an awkward movement. And a hard worker who brought perception, insight, and execution to each thing we did. 

If this sounds like an unabashed love letter, so be it.

Judge for yourself.

PS You’ll notice in a few cases I have shown two of each , and in one case, four each of a set up. The reason is simple: I just couldn’t bear to take them out.

PPS Thanks Elle.