Spending a month at the international catwalk shows was a shock. I had never taken photographs of fashion before. It is not something that I know anything about. I spent eight months last year covering conflict. I had been to Somalia, Sudan, Congo and Kashmir, and the images that arrest you from places such as those are powerful. I wanted to clear my head by trying something new, a contrast to what I had done before. New York magazine wanted someone who had no preconceptions of the fashion world, someone who was completely lost. They found the right person.
