ANJA ANCKER

One of the first supermodels in the world, Gia Carangi. Her short life in the 70's & 80's is a breathtaking story in itself. Her strengths and weaknesses helped form her as her own individual, a unique spirit, surrounded by people who all wanted a piece of the beautiful Gia. A person with a well established life, although with too many loose ends, which all ended in the worst way possible. 

 

Gia started out with a rough childhood after her mother left when she was only 11 years old, a mother figure was missing in Gia's life. When Gia aged 17 she got signed with Wilhelmina models and at 18 she had her first major shoot with Chris Von Wagenheim standing naked behind a fence together with the love of her life Sandy Linter. Gia was now a well established model and kept coming on covers of the most famous magazines all around the world. Then Gia's world started to spin and turned around completely in 1980 when Wilhelmina, who had been like a second mother to Gia, died. Gia started abusing drugs and quickly developed a heroin addiction. This all started to affect her work by showing up high, late or not even appear for a photo shoot. She then left Wilhelmina models and signed with Ford which only lasted a few weeks since Gia's drug problem was known by everyone in the industry. She went home to Philadelphia to take a detox program, but later got arrested for driving while being under the influence of cocain and alcohol. In 1981 she signed with Legends and mostly did work in Europe since they were the only once who wanted to hire her, and later she signed with Elite but later got dropped due to her problems. In 1982 she did her last cover for Cosmopolitan shot by her dear friend Francesco Scavullo. Early 1983 Gia was done in the business and left New York for the last time. She began an intense drug treatment back home, although when another sudden death of her aunt, Gia broke down and started using again. In 1986 she was diagnosed with AIDS and she died one month later.