Model in sensational anorexia nervosa pictures reported dead

Dec 29, 2010, 17:06 GMT

Paris - A French model who allowed images of her skeletal frame to be photographed and distributed in a shock awareness campaign of the dangers of anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders has died, according to media reports.

Isabelle Caro stood 1.64 metres, but weighed only 31 kilograms, when she disrobed and allowed herself to be photographed by celebrity photographer Oliviero Toscani in 2007. The ad campaign highlighting her emaciated figure drew immediate worldwide attention.

Caro died in mid-November after a two-week hospitalization for a lung infection, the Swiss website 20minutes.ch reported Wednesday. Paris Match reported that she was in Japan at the time of her death.

Her age was listed as somewhere between 28 and 30. She first suffered symptoms of anorexia when she was 12 and endured several hospital visits after nearly starving herself to death.

'You're stuffed with awful food like a fattened goose. You're forced to gain weight,' she said once. 'And as soon as you're released, you lose all the weight again. At least that's the way it was with me.'

After her 2007 photo session, Caro told German magazine Stern that she felt like 'an ambassador for anorexia.' The photo session provided her with heightened media awareness.

Two years ago, she released an autobiography titled The Little Girl Who Didn't Want To Get Fat.

The thought-provoking photos of Caro were simultaneously an awareness campaign, but also advertising for an Italian fashion line. Toscani also photographed AIDS patients and dead soldiers for the campaign.

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