Mirror, Mirror On The Wall ...

WANT TO know what gets between Marisa Miller and her Guns n' Roses T-shirt? Nothing. "I sleep in it probably every night when I'm on the road," says the 2008 cover girl. "I love that shirt."

Artists will tell you that a self-portrait represents a window into the soul, an opportunity for the world to see the subject as the subject sees herself. To that end, we gave each of the 19 models who appear in this issue a camera. Consider it an exercise in self-reflection. "Nobody lets the girls express themselves the way they really look, totally unadorned, as natural as possible," says Swimsuit editor Diane Smith. "I thought it would be interesting for them to express how they want to look. It was giving them full control of the image, which they never get."

Anne V relished the chance to get behind the lens. She took 150 images, including the one on the following page in which she is standing half-naked in the lobby of the Avtovo Russian Circus in St. Petersburg. "No posing, no smiling," says Anne. "It's pure me."

Newcomer Melissa Haro was similarly inspired. "We're in a really beautiful hotel in the Cayman Islands, and there are all these mirrors around the hallways and my bedroom," says Haro. "I played with the lighting and the mirrors, and I was able to get my face [to appear] three or four times in [one] shot. I wanted the photos to be sexy but not vulgar."

Miller concurs. "I wanted to do something that showed some of my personality, and this does," she says. "Plus, let's face it: I think every guy thinks that a girl in a T-shirt is sexy."