Anneliese Seubert

The previous year to the year I was in the Dolly Covergirl Competition, Kate Fischer had actually won it, and she was at the same school, at Girls Grammar. My friend said, "Well if she can win it, "you can win it too." So we took some photos and sent them in, and then I was a finalist. And my little blurb, I mean it's quite fashionable if you're into STEM, as everyone is these days, but my favourite subject was maths, and I loved skiing. Because I didn't win, I just started working on weekends and in school holidays. And I think I was in year 10 when I was in the competition, so through year 11 and 12 I gradually started working a bit more.

My first jobs were for a magazine called Follow Me. And then a couple of Vogue jobs, Harper's Bazaar was around then as well. When I was 17, I had an Australian Vogue cover which was great, and some advertising clients, and off I went. I kind of did a preliminary trip when I was in year 12, I did the Ford Supermodel Competition, and I went to L.A. by myself. I won that competition and then went to New York for a couple of weeks, so I'd had a little taste of what it was going to be like, and then I went back to school.

So I finished year 12, and then off to Paris. And I just started going on castings. I thought I had great pictures in my portfolio, but people over in Paris looked at them and like, "hmm," you know, they're kind of a little bit, "daggy Australian," in a way. So I started working, got more pictures and then started doing shows. Then I got very busy traveling and... so many markets around, there's Paris, Germany, Spain, Italy. I was flying from one job to the next. Sometimes you didn't come home in between. But I was kind of just let free. I don't know if I'd do that with my kids now.

Back in the '90s, you would either get a telephone call from your agency in the afternoon before and check what you had to do for the next day, or sometimes you got a fax. You would have to go and visit a client and show them your pictures, maybe try on some clothes, talk to them about what you'd been doing. It's more of a collaboration. The client and the photographer, usually an art director as well. They will all say, "This is what we'd like." They often have reference images. They can tell you a story.

I used to do John Galliano's fashion shows. And he would always make this huge story, and each character, which was essentially each dress or outfit, had a story and a part in the story. So when you were walking around through the scene, the set, you would be imagining that you were this lady on the rooftop who was running away from something. There was always a little story. But I think there was a difference between putting on a Galliano dress, it just made you feel amazing. So just channeling that and thinking about how fabulous you look is really the way it works, I think. 'Cause if you don't believe it, no one else will.

When I was 24, I was based in Paris. I used to come home three times a year, so I was home for Christmas, home for August, and there was usually either I'd meet mum and dad somewhere, or I came home for an extra trip. And I often worked in Sydney while I was home, and the portrait that's hanging, it was funny, because I was so used to turning up at a shoot and having hair and makeup, and they would turn me into a different character. This time, they're like, "Oh no, we just want you." Like, what are you talking about? Where's the hairdresser? "Oh, we just want it to look like you did your own hair." Are you serious? And no makeup? "No, no, look how beautiful you are!" I'm like, "Oh my god." Worst nightmare. My hair is hard to do for a hairdresser at the best of times, so I was a little bit in shock. But I mean, the photos were beautiful, and it was quite an interesting shoot because it was full sunlight and flash, I think. So the lighting is quite harsh. There's definitely a difference between the light in Australia and the light everywhere else. And, yeah, I've got my little bunch of flowers.