Supermodel Helena Christensen has spoken out about what inspired her to take to the streets, on both sides of the Atlantic, earlier this year in support of the women’s marches.
The former Victoria’s Secrets angel spoke exclusively to The Huffington Post UK, about how she believes fashion and politics should be coming together in 2017 in order to achieve something historic.
Christensen said: “I think there shouldn’t be a separation between anything these days, it all flows together in a way where we can learn and absorb one from the other.
“Maybe in little ways at first, but historically this really is something that can give people a bigger role as a whole, as a voice.”
Christensen, who is originally from Denmark, said that the movements were part of an all-inclusive “uproar” that has started across the world: “What was beautiful was that there are both men and women, and children. It was not just a women’s march, it was for everyone. Just seeing everyone together, it was exhilarating.
“What I’ve learned from going to, a few of the marches, getting people together and the collective spirit and power, and the effect of having that happen. You feel it when you’re there, you feel the surge of strength coming from everyone and it obviously does make a difference.”
And ever with her finger on the fashion pulse, the mother-of-one, who has a 17-year-old son Mingus, added said that all those women wearing red “looked pretty amazing” too.
Sharing images from the women’s march on her Instagram page, she reflects that it wasn’t long ago that the photographer, 48, was “physically forced” into signing up for social media by her friends.
And while she still hasn’t changed her mind about the platform and hates the rules - “Oh those rules, you only post two a day to get the most likes and I’m like screw that, I’m gonna post as many as I like. Who cares?” - she agrees that it has allowed her the privilege of sharing visuals that people might not otherwise have access to.
Particularly in her role as an official photographer for The United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees [UNHCR], which has seen Christensen travel to Colombia and more recently Ukraine, where she was responsible for capturing images of elderly displaced people.
“When I read the comments, when I have people from those countries being like thank you for showing this. Saying to me, ‘you have no idea how hard it is’, and it is great that the visuals show a different kind of what we’re going through, a different side, a side that the western media might not show. That makes me be so proud and grateful to be on a mission like that and have the opportunity to share those pictures with in the anyone in the world.”
She also credits the platform with allowing her a form of escapism, saying: “It is a great distraction for me to have Instagram, because there are a lot of times, be it physically or mentally just need a distraction. Sometimes to be like I just want to look at visuals and get out of my headspace.
“For me it is more a selfish thing, because I don’t think about the followers looking at them [her pictures], in the same way as I think about it being a visual diary for myself when I’m ninety-years-old and I can sit and look at it and be like look at what happened back in the day.”