CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 12/23/2015

Niki de Saint Phalle

"Very early on I decided to become a heroine. Who would I be? George Sand? Joan of Arc? Napoleon in skirts? What did it matter who I would be? The main thing was it had to be difficult, grandiose, exciting." Featured photograph of the renowned French sculptor, painter and filmmaker Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002) while she was still working as a fashion model in 1953, is reproduced from La Fabrica's exemplary new monograph, one of our top Holiday Gift Books of 2015. "I liked and didn't like that profession. I always turned up like a slob. They said my hair was never right, and I wasn't that good at being made up. Nevertheless I did get jobs because some photographers liked me. It was a quick and easy way of making money. I never took it seriously and I knew it wasn't something I would do for very long."