Cheryl Tiegs calls her iconic “Sports Illustrated” white fishnet swimsuit photo a ‘throwaway photo’: ‘Not my favorite’

The supermodel recalls the making of the 1978 classic in new documentary ‘Beyond the Gaze: Jule Campbell’s Swimming Issue’

Two of Cheryl Tiegs’ most memorable photos to appear in Sports illustrated’s Swimsuit problem arose spontaneously.

The supermodel reveals in the new documentary Beyond the Gaze: Jule Campbell’s swimsuit issue what went into the 1978 photo shoot that produced the now iconic result SI shot of her wearing a white fishnet swimsuit.

The upcoming documentary, premiering at the DOC NYC Film Festival on November 17, chronicles the progress of Sports illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue, launched in 1964, and the late editor behind the brand’s signature tentpole, Jule Campbell, who died in 2022.

Tiegs, now 77, says in the document that the photo of her walking on a beach in Brazil wearing the striking swimsuit that exposes her nipples was unplanned.

“The white fishing net was a throwaway shot,” Tiegs says of the shot that sparked public protests.

Photographer Walter Iooss Jr. adds that it was “a photo you wouldn’t want to show to anyone. It was shot on a miserable afternoon in the middle of nowhere in the Amazon.”

“It was terribly light,” Campbell says in a voiceover. ‘I went to Cheryl and because the light was bad I said, ‘Would you please get wet?’ Because I thought if her skin sparkled, we’d get some highlights.

“It wasn’t ‘I’ll see more when the suit is wet,’” she adds.

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“Wetting the suit made it so translucent,” says Tiegs. “It used to be just a bunch of cotton.”

“The simplicity I think of a girl walking on the beach in a swimsuit like that was intriguing. I don’t know. I don’t know,” she adds. “It’s not my favorite shot.”

Tiegs, Campbell and Iooss did not expect the photo to make Tiegs a superstar. “It wasn’t just that there was a beautiful woman with visible breasts on the pages Sports illustrated. She was a beautiful woman, that Sports illustrated The readers felt like they knew,” Iooss says in the document. “It was Cheryl who drove Tiegs crazy.”

Tiegs also talks about her first cover for the Sports illustrated Swimsuit issue, noting that the photo was not part of the official photo shoot. Tiegs first graced the cover of the special issue in 1970, when she was 22.

The crew was on a boat heading home and Campbell offered Tiegs a long-sleeved swimsuit when the model said she was cold.

“I put on my sunglasses. Jay Maisel was taking pictures. He said, ‘Take off your sunglasses. Take off your sunglasses.’ I said, ‘No, I’m tired. I don’t want my picture taken,” Tiegs recalls.

But he still photographed the young model relaxing in her sunglasses and long-sleeved swimsuit. “And they put that on the cover,” says Tiegs. “That was me, a real person. I wasn’t a model at that time.”

“I felt very comfortable that it was a woman (in charge) because it is a very vulnerable situation,” she said of Campbell. “I had the confidence and certainty to do what I had to do.”

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Tiegs appeared nine times in the issue and on the cover a total of three times, first in 1970, then in 1975 and 1983. The issue with her ‘nude’ white fishnet swimsuit also featured her memorable ‘pink bikini’.

Beyond the Gaze: Jule Campbell’s swimsuit issue will screen at DOC NYC on November 17 at 4:15 PM and November 18 at 12:30 PM at Village East by Angelika and will be available to stream online from November 18 to December 1. Tickets can be purchased here.