Supermodel Tyra Banks knows how to work a photographer's lens: She's all about manipulating her body using the strategies she invented, like the "smize" (that's smiling with your eyes) and the "tooch" (posing in a way that best accentuates your butt). And now she's stepping in front of the camera using an entirely new attention-getting strategy: transforming herself into different people altogether.
Specifically, the America's Next Top Model personality sat through hours of makeup and hair sessions to transform herself into 14 other models — like the iconic Kate Moss and Cindy Crawford— and went behind the lens of fashion photographer Udo Spreitzenbarth, all in the name of art.
It's for a photography exhibition called "Tyra Banks Presents: 15," a series of unretouched black and white photos that show the star remade into her colleagues and competitors. In addition to the 14 other models, Tyra also transforms into herself at age 15 for the show—that's the age at which she began her professional modeling career.
So how exactly does someone who looks like Tyra become someone who looks like the notoriously waifish (and white) Kate? By hiding her signature curves, primarily, as she reveals in a Twitter preview:
And how did she become Cindy—whom Tyra described on Twitter as her "idol?" By emphasizing that signature beauty mark, big hair and sultry look.
Here she is as Cara Delevingne.
And there are images of Tyra as 11 other models in the show, including the likes of Twiggy, Linda Evangelista, Iman, Grace Jones and more. It opens today at New York's Jack Studios.
Alesandra Dubin is a Los Angeles-based writer and the founder of home and travel blog Homebody in Motion. Follow her on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.
A version of this story originally appeared on iVillage.