Tampa Photography Blog

French model Isabelle Caro died in November at the age of 28.

When I first heard of Isabelle’s death, I had mixed feelings. Isabelle was an underweight, anorexic model and posed nude for an Italian campaign against anorexia in 2007. The campaign was launched just before Fashion Week in Milan, igniting controversy about how the fashion industry promotes unrealistic and unhealthy women.

Now that I’ve read more about her and seen several interviews with her side of the story, I see that she was honest, true and humble in her message. She understood she had an awful disease that stemmed from her childhood and she wanted others to be shocked and appalled by her images. I think her hope was to turn women off from going down the same path.

Isabelle struggled most of her life because of her disease. She led a short, rough life and dedicated the last part of it to helping other women.

She said she was never once questioned about her weight by a modeling agency. So, does the media and fashion industry have an effect on young models?

Isabelle was 85 pounds the year of her death.

*Photo by Oliviero Toscani*