'I was very insulted' Iman asserts, of a chance encounter between herself and renowned photographer Peter Beard.

In an archive interview with CBS news station, legendary supermodel Zara Mohamed Abdulmajid - better known to the world as Iman - explains that a meeting that took place on the streets of Nairobi, Kenya, had a huge effect on her.

iman - model iman
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'Because I thought, "Oh, here goes, a white man thinking Africans have never seen a camera before in their lives!", she continues.

Iman goes on to give further details of the encounter, detailing that, at least initially, she thought Beard was trying to pick her up, until he made clear his intentions.

'He said: "I'll pay." And that was my first business transaction I made.'

Model Iman
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Fees from the first photograph went toward Iman's tuition, earning her a modelling contract and a ticket to New York in the process.

Along the way, however, Beard seems to have concocted a more sensational story of how he discovered the young model.

Rather than telling the same line about meeting Iman, the daughter of a diplomat and a doctor, in bustling Nairobi, Iman explains: 'Beard told the press that I didn't speak a word of English, let alone other languages, that I was goat herding! I am an ambassador's daughter!'

The model agreed to go along with Beard's fictionalised tale of her discovery, wearing traditional dress and a tusk necklace to a press conference at which she pretended she had just learned English.

Iman
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Since these early modelling days, Iman went on to play muse to some of fashion's biggest and most legendary designers, including Gianni Versace, Halston, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan and Yves Saint Laurent. She became known for her philanthropy, for a cosmetics line that at one time brought in $25-30 million a year and also, of course for marrying legendary musician David Bowie.

Iman with David Bowie
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