We celebrate the new issue of Twin with founder Becky Smith's Bookshelf

Yesterday marked the launch of the brand new issue of bi-annual hardback Twin magazine, the defiantly substantial glossy publication that clubs fashion, art and culture together through interviews and gorgeous imagery. This issue includes photographs by Petra Collins, an archive of childhood shots of Kate Bush taken by her older brother and an interview with the remarkable Neneh Cherry, so to celebrate we thought we’d have founder Becky Smith show us the five books which have inspired and influenced her. In the process, we learned who her favourite photographers are, whose rare books she’s lucky to have laid her hands on and the unlikely inspiration behind the name “Twin”. Read on!

Sally Mann: At Twelve

I had Sally Mann’s classic photo of the young girl smoking on my wall for many years. I discovered this book and then watched the documentary on her, called What Remains. At Twelve is sometimes a controversial one. The girls photographed all live in Rockbridge County, Virginia. Mann explains that she had access to the girls and their families because her father was an obstetrician and delivered thousands of babies there during his life. Some would call the images “taboo,” but for me the girls aren’t displaying themselves to titillate. Rather, they seem to be sharing with Mann their state of self-knowledge, showing what they have begun to take possession of – physically and emotionally, with pride, joy or defiance – as females. Trust is the main ingredient in making portraits as beautifully intimate as these.

Raf Simons and David Sims: Isolated Heroes

This is a really rare book that I’m lucky to have! This is the cover of Isolated Heroes, the fashion photo book by Raf Simons and David Sims, published in 1999 based on their collaborative work together in the summer of that year. Raf is now the newly appointed artistic director of Dior. I love how Simons and Sims sidestepped established male models and cast from the streets of Antwerp. The styling and, more than anything, the haircuts redefined menswear as a direct product of street culture. It’s an inspired book. Simons was heavily influenced by Joy Division and Kraftwerk and their stylistic legacy.

Peter Lindbergh: 10 Women

Peter Lindbergh is my all time favourite photographer. I met and worked with him recently and he’s a gorgeous guy, a big friendly teddy bear! Here he captures the ten famous supermodels of the time – Naomi Campbell, Helena Christensen, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Kristen McMenamy , Kate Moss, Tatjana Patitz, Claudia Schiffer, Christy Turlington and Amber Valletta. Peter is one of the best because he concentrates on the women, not the clothes. I also lovr how he doesn’t always over retouch or Photoshop his subjects to become “plastic fantastic.” He respects the natural beauty of real women.

Juergen Teller: Louis XV

Teller really does it all in this book – getting drunk at his father’s grave, carrying a tray laden with German food, wearing a bomber jacket. He seems to be trying to expose the myth of maleness, even exposing his white German ass to the camera, which takes some balls! That some of his subjects – O.J. Simpson, Kate Moss, Yves Saint Laurent – are not German does not mean they are immune to being “Germanised” by Teller’s lens.

Diane Arbus: Revelations

I love that Diane always dared to photograph the “freaks,” or subjects that were seen as forbidden at the time. I remember exactly where I was when I first saw these images. It was around the time I was thinking of a name for my magazine, and in this instance I took inspiration from the “twins” series. An image can bring back such a poignant memory for me.

I had just read the Diane Arbus biography by Patricia Bosworth, which was where I read about Ruth Ansel for the first time – she was an art director at Harpers Bazaar US at the time when Diane started working for them. I found many similarities between Ruth and myself, working at Vogue and Harpers, and ended up emailing Ruth, then meeting her, and I put her in Twin magazine early on. She’s such an amazing lady! I’m so glad to have found out about her through the book.