Babeth’s Feast - New York Times.
The French fashion editor Elisabeth Djian, who goes by the more wholesome-sounding Babeth, can often be found sitting, arms crossed, in the front row. She has the intimidating look of a French madam, heightened by stiletto booties, a wink of a black bra and a laugh as free as salt. There’s a knowing quality about her without an eagerness to reveal herself. I once asked Djian what her life was like in the 1980’s when, as the fashion director of the influential little magazine Jill, she captured, and created, the ultrafeminine look of that era. Her answer sailed as cleanly as an arrow over my bow. “Lovers,” she said." - Cathy Horyn, NYT
Anyone who has been to my house or gone with me on vacation knows that magazines are a MAJOR part of my life. Its no accident that my two most favorite jobs were as a photographer for the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine in the late '80's and as Photography Editor of The Washington Post Magazine from 1999 till 2005.
Growing up on Long Island, magazines were my escape; my dad brought home a bunch, including several photography mags, and National Geographic was always around. When I decided to make the switch from law to photography, magazines and photo books paved the way.
Jill was one of those magazines that helped me make sense of what it was to be a photographer. It presented challenging fashion and portrait images in a tactile format; you could get personal with this mag, it was never stuffy or elitist. You felt like you held art in your hands, and for a very reasonable import price of $4.95, you did.
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