Pamela Hanson
"I had a lot of model friends, and I just kind of recorded our life," recalls Pamela Hanson, whose candid photographs of larger-than-life models put her on the fashion map. "At that time, the looseness was really unusual." That time was 1980, when Hanson was one of the only a handful female fashion photographers working. That life was in Paris, where the self-taught photographer (she started taking pictures at 13, and had a darkroom in her basement) got her break when the art directors of Per Lui and Elle magazines discovered her reportage-style images of her "super" friends. Ok, sure, it's nearly impossible to take a bad picture of Naomi or Christy. But through Hanson's eyes, we get to see their charm, their natural beauty, their soul. Above all, Hanson's gaze is one of optimism—something that feels oh-so refreshing right now.