Columbine Goldsmith

Certain individuals manage to effortlessly capture the spirit of the times. Coco Young—model, muse, photographer and self-publisher—is one such girl. Currently one of the subjects in New Paintings, an exhibition by artist John Currin at the Gagosian, Madison Avenue, Young has also worked on several projects with photographer Ryan McGinley, been shot by Richard Kern and walked on Marc Jacobs’s runway. All this happened before the New York-born, Marseille-raised Young even signed with an agency. For today's story, shot in Paris for NOWNESS by photographer Columbine Goldsmith, Young took a ride on the carousel in Montmartre and made a long-awaited visit to the Rodin Museum. “I had a dream about coming here, and in the middle of the night I sent Columbine an email about it,” she says with a laugh. Young takes her own pictures too, some of which she posts on a visual diary blog, and is working on a limited-edition print zine, to be distributed through the aNYthing store. The zine is a platform for her inner thoughts, but Young also turns her eye on those around her—increasingly other models as her career in the industry takes off. Between castings, fittings and photo shoots, her peers spend more time waiting around than most: “Some pick up a book, others talk on the phone or to each other, some are drawing,” says Young. “What I do with this time is take pictures.” Young explains how she found herself sitting for painter John Currin here.