In 1972, Blythe was born. She died later that year.

Mainly because her oversize head and peepers were deemed too scary for children, Blythe’s manufacturer Kenner summarily pulled this kooky, big-eyed doll from the shelves, preventing many young girls from meeting her – at least for the moment. One of those little girls was Gina Garan.

Gina moved from the suburbs north of New York City into Manhattan as a teenager, bringing her burgeoning doll collection with her. But among the thousands of 60s and 70s fashion dolls she had already amassed, not a single Blythe lived. Only after a friend described a doll on eBay bearing a resemblance to her did Gina first meet, fall in love with, and begin snapping up these originals, all for about $15 a pop. At one point, she counted over 200 original Blythes among her collection.

For another couple years, Blythe continued to live in relative obscurity, known only to hard-core collectors as a quaint curiosity. But Gina, living the peripatetic life of the young downtowner, moved into her nth apartment and among the detritus left by the former tenant found an old SLR camera. With no formal training as a photographer, she began taking pictures of her favorite doll. The result of this experiment was This Is Blythe (Chronicle Books, 2000), a coffee-table digest that reintroduced Blythe to the world. The book, named Firecracker Alternative Book of the Year for 2001, has sold over 100,000 copies and remains in print. Even before This Is Blythe was officially published, Gina introduced the doll to her agent in Japan, Junko Wong, of Cross World Connections (CWC). Their first project together was a stop-motionanimation Blythe commercial for the Japanese department store chain Parco. CWC, with the toy company Takara, soon began manufacturing new versions of Blythe. CWC designs each doll, its fashion, hair, makeup, and packaging and the style guide for all licensees. The result has been a miraculous (and slightly surreal) renaissance for the doll, especially in Asia. A new generation of collectors eagerly await the arrival of up to six new Blythe reproductions each year – and then promptly put the dolls up for sale on online auctions for double the price.

Gina, as Blythe’s official photographer, and Junko, as her producer, every June preside over the Annual Blythe Charity Fashion Show in Tokyo, where leading designers from around the world create tiny versions of their outfits for Blythe to wear as she is carried down the runway by whiteglove-wearing models. As a virtual model, Blythe has found fans among the leading design houses, including John Galliano, Prada, Gucci, Vivienne Westwood, Issey Miyake, Versace, Sonia Rykiel, and many others. Gina documented some of these designs in monthly full-page installments in Vogue Nippon in 2002. Blythe has also appeared in major advertising campaigns for Sony Europe, Nordstrom’s department stores, and as seven-foot-tall life-size mannequins in the windows of Bloomingdales.

Meanwhile, Gina’s photographs have become collectibles in their own right. She has exhibited in solo shows in Los Angeles; Santa Fe; Cherry Grove, NY; Tokyo; Seoul; Hong Kong; Nottingham, England; and Melbourne, Australia. A number of books of her work, including Blythe on Beauty (Chronicle Books, 2001); Dear Blythe, Love Gina, vols. I and II (CWC Books 2002, 2003); and Blythe Style (CWC Books, 2004) have recently been published. Gina and her work have appeared in countless publications, including The New York Times, Women’s Wear Daily, People, The Times (London), The Village Voice, The Miami Herald, and The Dallas Morning News. You may have seen Gina speaking lovingly about Blythe on VH1’s I Love the 70s (1972).

Gina lives in New York’s Gray Square neighborhood with her husband Asa Somers and their new son Carpenter, who was born on January 20th of this year.