hether on one of her regular fashion shoots for Nylon magazine, a high profile commercial job, or in her ongoing personal work, Valerie Phillips affinity for uncalculated beauty never rests. Her fifth book frames a favorite subject, Viktoria, a striking and unusual girl "lost in her own peculiar world." Phillips shot Viktoria over the course of five years in England and Norway, including trips to Viktoria’s childhood home in the Norwegian forest. Through the course of the book, Viktoria’s imaginative, unpredictable spirit is revealed, both "magical and ordinary."

Fascination with such female characters isn’t new for Phillips, whose previous books also find charisma in a young woman's inner world. Her knack for drawing out these private realties owes in part to a shooting style that's uninhibited by fussy lighting and camera equipment. "It’s an antidote to the shiny photographic untruths we are bombarded by daily," says Phillips.

Many shots in the new book find Viktoria wearing PF Flyers, a favorite brand of Phillips. "My best pictures are done very quickly, trying to capture a moment that is unique and unthought through. To me PF Flyers have always been about that quirkiness and fun."

"I Can't Believe a Girl Is Playing Me Metallica" is published by Longer Moon Farther in London. Available in art, photography, museum and gallery bookstores in most major cities such as New York, LA, Paris, London, Tokyo, Berlin. Also on Amazon.com from March 2008.