Francois Nars

I love to collaborate with artists, like Guy Bourdin and Steven Klein, who don't have any boundaries.

I'm not so interested in perfect, plastic beauty, and I think it translates in the girls I've shot over the years for Nars, from Guinevere to Iris to Mariacarla. I love those girls. I love the more interesting faces, with maybe a strange nose, not just the Texan blonde. By picking those girls, I think it's changed what I've seen in other campaigns.

You are born with this love; fashion and beauty are a part of who I am.

I think Edie Sedgwick comes back, too. Every five or six years, there is always something about Edie, because she was so modern and stylish and elegant and hippie-ish, all at the same time. So I think that people will always love her.

I love so much the models from the '60s and the '70s. They were extremely professional, great models who knew how to work the camera so well and loved fashion and had a great sense of style.

It was the early Seventies, and I discovered makeup by going through my mother's fashion magazines. I fell in love with the photos, the models, the fashion.

In a lot of cases, makeup is a fantastic help, and that's why women love makeup in general. It's a fantastic way to help somebody look great. It's not the only way, of course, but it's a major accessory, along with hair, clothes, lighting, all those things.

I love strong looks, so to me, no makeup is strong. As long as it makes a statement, that's what I like. The girls look very real, and I'm probably the only makeup artist who will say that I love a woman without makeup.

I love the dramatic idea of having nothing on.

When you photograph someone, you have to make them feel good, and you know that they want to look good. It's the same relationship that you have when you apply makeup on somebody. We're almost like shrinks.

I love the architecture magazines and all of the French magazines for decoration or whatever. I end up enjoying them more sometimes than the fashion magazines.

I made contours and all that, but in real life, you have to be very careful with that because you can go out in the street and look terrible. All those girls who show how to do contour, they do it quite well, but they're like makeup artists. They're in artificial light.