February 1978, a week after the shooting with Ara Gallant, Gia went on a go-see to Lance Staedler’s studio. “Gia came by the studio, and her hair was a mess, and all in her face,” Staedler recalled. “I asked her if she wanted to do some tests.
During this session, Staedler heavily made up Gia’s eyes and lips, and had her remove her top and just wear his own leather bomber jacket. In each shot, she threw her hair back at a different angle and left the jacket open a little more or less. In between poses, she ate raisins from a box, he clicked off a few shots of her doing that as well.
He told her to lay down and prop herself up on one arm. Staedler took a few shots in that position, and the session was over.
After reviewing the processed film, seven frames of the standing poses interested Staedler, but the shots he found himself drawn to, were the reclining ones. After painstakingly editing down the images, one finally emerged.
It was a stunning photograph. The oversize prints he made of the shot drew the viewer into the folds of the jacket, the shiny sweep of hair, and a pair of sadly seductive eyes. It was easily the strongest picture anyone had ever taken of Gia.
When Staedler showed the photo to Gia, she immediately asked to see the contact sheets. but Staedler had gotten out of the habit of sharing them. Gia got really upset, but was smart enough to take the one photo over to a Color lab and had copies made for her portfolio. She had 100 Xeroxes made for whoever should have one. It was the kind of picture that could make a model’s career.
I remember the first time I shot with her, I was doing her hair. She was looking in the makeup mirror and I was looking at her and I didn’t quite know what I was going to do. She looked at me and said, ‘Well, don’t look at me, I’m just some dumb girl from Philadelphia.’ She just seemed so real, not like the other models.”
Lance Staedler:
“I also did another shot of her, just at her apartment one night after we had gone out, just a snapshot with a little camera. She was just wearing a pair of gym shorts, no top, and holding this little Charlie Chaplin doll she had in her room. No makeup, totally natural. I printed it up for myself, but I never showed it to anyone.”
Sean Byrnes, Scavullo’s Assistant and significant other: “I remember when Gia’s book came into the studio, I stole that black and white picture and sent the book back. I never did that ever before. I finally met Gia when she came around the studio to get the photo back.
Sean Byrnes/Thing of Beauty
~ Source: Thing of Beauty