A new photobook celebrating the early working of the fashion photographer Corinne Day reveals a treasure trove of images that have until now not been seen in public.

Day, a former fashion model turned photographer who passed away last year from a brain tumour, is credited with being the person who "discovered Kate Moss" when she shot the then unknown teenager for The Face.

The photobook, entitled Heaven Is Real, contains text by Charlotte Cotton and Alicia Corria as well as an abundance of images that showcase her natural approach to fashion photography, a style that jarred against an industry known for its heavy use of lighting and post-production.

Coinciding with the release of the photobook is a retrospective of her work at the Gimpel Fils art gallery, which unsurprisingly exhibits a lot of her work with Moss, with whom she later became good friends with.

The pictures of Moss are notable for how youthful the model looks, which is fairly obvious given that she was 14 when Day shot her.

In many of the powerful shots, Moss is young and carefree, yet to fall victim to the trappings of fame, money and success, and there's a power to these images of a star in the making.
Despite having a few "blips" on the way to stardom, Moss has continued to be one of the greatest success stories in the entire history of the modelling industry, which without Day's early influence, might never have happened.

Speaking to Nowness, the art director Phil Bicker, who first commissioned Day to shoot for The Face, said: "Everybody thinks Corinne's work is very simplistic—that it just documents things that happen and that she was great at capturing the moment, but the reality is that everything is orchestrated, repeated, constructed.

"There’s a lot of contradiction about Corinne and her work, and the one thing that did her the greatest disservice was that she tried to claim them as moments. She could have been seen more as an artist rather than a fashion photographer."

Such has been Day's influence on fashion photography and indeed portraiture she has several of her photographs included in the permanent collection in London's National Portrait Gallery.

The exhibition runs until the end October 1st.