Iman has reflected on the true story behind her discovery as a model while speaking out against racism in the fashion industry.
The Somalia-born supermodel stars on January’s issue of British Vogue and, in the accompanying interview, spoke about her introduction to the modelling industry. She said it happened in Kenya, where she and her family had sought asylum in 1972, when she was approached by a photographer named Peter Beard.
Iman, who was waitressing at a hotel and studying for a degree in political science at the University of Nairobi at the time, told the outlet that Beard approached her on a city street in Kenya’s capital city to ask whether he could photograph her for an exhibition.
The 67-year-old said that Beard asked if she had ever had her picture taken, a question she told British Vogue amused her.
“I did think: ‘Oh, here we go again,’ white people thinking we Africans have never seen a camera,” she recalled.
Iman ultimately agreed to Beard’s request after he offered to pay her. She said she’d needed $8,000 to pay for university fees.
“He asked how much I wanted. I didn’t hesitate,” she said.
Although the encounter marked the beginning of her modelling career, Iman revealed that the photographer went on to fictionalise the story of their first meeting. Beard allegedly claimed that he discovered Iman herding goats, and that she didn’t speak English. At the time, the model, whose father was an ambassador, spoke English and four other languages.
Later, at a press conference, Iman tried to correct the story. She told reporters that she indeed spoke English and was not a goat herder, but Beard’s story stuck.
“I said: ‘By the way, I do speak English and four other languages. I’m not a goat herder,’” she said, adding: “I’d never seen a jungle in my life. But, they took the other story and they ran with it.”
This is not the first time that the supermodel has reflected on Beard’s “racist” claims about her discovery. She previously told Today: “[It was] racist because if I was not Black, he would not say I was herding goats and didn’t speak a word of English.”
Despite correcting the photographer’s claims, Iman said the media “ran with the story” because it “was much more interesting”.
Elsewhere in her interview with British Vogue, the supermodel spoke about the reservations she has about the fashion and modelling industries’ attempts to be more inclusive.
“There’s always three steps forward, five steps back,” she said, adding: “Look at what is happening across Europe, in America. We are seeing the rise of white supremacy reverberating across all industries. People are starting to feel like: ‘We’ve done enough.’ As if we are a charity. Don’t give me a handout, because that in itself is a racist act.”
The ongoing issues in the industry stem from those in charge of decision-making, she says.
“The reason a lot of [racist] things are happening in our industry is because there is nobody [non-white] in decision-making positions,” she told the publication. “These people exist. So this idea that we are asking for a seat at the table… I’m done with the seat at the table. Let’s just dismantle the whole table.”
