During the sixties and seventies, TWEN (german slang for teenager) was a large-sized monthly, founded and directed by one of the most innovative art directors of the time, Willy Fleckhaus. His concept was the exact opposite of what other magazines used to do: rather than expecting his photographers to "cover" their subject, by showing all its aspects from all possible angles, he would instruct them to concentrate on one significant point, which he would then spread out on several pages of his layout. "Other magazines try to crowd eight photographs on one double-page" I once told him "while you would rather spread out one photograph on eight". He was so pleased by this remark, that on the spur of the moment I managed to sell him one of my pet ideas: I would do all the photography for a whole issue of the magazine, and select the subjects in such a way that each of them (be it a face, a detail of fashion, a food still-life, or whatever) could be presented in actual life-size, on a double page spread. He agreed enthusiastically, and the "life-size issue" we produced became a kind of journalistic landmark. The photograph of the kissing couple (which was meant to illustrate an article about interracial marriage) was part of that issue - but of course the "life-size" effect doesn't come across on the screen.

At the end of the sixties, TWEN became the magazine of sexual liberation. At first I believed that this would give me the freedom I missed in other magazines (Harper's Bazaar had just refused one of my photographs, because I had got the model to undo three buttons of her blouse...). But I soon realized that liberation had its drawbacks: how was I to express eroticism, which to me is a matter of suggestion, when the preceding or following pages were full of stark naked young people, about to get engaged into group-sex?