Interview Simon Rasmussen

We interviewed stylist and art director Simon Rasmussen, one of the two creatives behind 100 Great Danes. When did you start thinking about this book? About seven years ago I started to work with Bjarke Johansen and during one of those shoots we had the idea to create a clean, beautiful nude book. All images are inspired by the 90s super model era celebrating strong, beautiful women. How did you find and select those 100 beautiful Danes? We chose girls from our network to begin with and soon expanded our search through model agencies and friends. The book is not a selection of the top 100 most beautiful Danes in the world – it is a hand picked selection of personalities and features we find inspiring. All models worked on this project on a pro bono base supporting the art project in form of this book. Why and how are you supporting the White Ribbon project with this book? We decided very early on to link this project to a charity organization, when we found the White Ribbon and Sloggi team fighting to raise awareness about violence against women, we knew we could help. Our book is a tribute to all women and it has created a lot of media attention for this cause. What is your favorite photo? That’s a really tricky question. I have some favorite moments. For example when we shot Lykke May on a ranch in Colorado, we asked her spontaneously if she could ride a horse. Without any hesitation and fully nude she did it - with absolute grace - a beautiful moment. Or when we shot Christine Sofie in front of the Ayers Rock, jumped a fence - and got caught… What’s the next book, “100 Great Men”? (Laughs) No, we don’t know, we might do an international version. Also I’m working on a new magazine focusing on art culture and fashion called "Office“, so I’m pretty busy. It is made in New York and is an eclectic mix of what me and the two other editors like. Office is a very serious title, we like the clash of the artistic content and the conservative title of the magazine.