Contributors

Jimmy Buffett
MUSICIAN/AUTHOR

You might have heard that Jimmy Buffett is the mayor of
Margaritaville, but he has also written No. 1 best sellers in
fiction and nonfiction, which helps explain his welcome
contributions to this issue in two media: a story about chasing
tarpon in the Virgin Islands and his CD single, License to Chill.
"My only complaint is that they didn't let me be in a thong for
the CD cover," Buffett says. He wrote the song--which has a verse
about skimpy swimsuits--with guitarist-producer Mac McAnally, and
it will be on his new album License to Chill, due out later this
year. "A critic once called me a shameless entertainer," he says.
"He meant it as an insult, but I took it as a compliment."

M.J. Figel
ASSOCIATE EDITOR

The Swimsuit Issue's two associate editors are the people who
really make the photo shoots happen. They get all the
participants to the location--from the models to the makeup
artists--and then make sure they have what they need. M.J. Figel,
a veteran of five issues, has had to dodge charging warthogs and
engage in international diplomacy after accidentally stepping on
sleeping Bedouins one night in a Tunisian desert. This year's
shoots were, she says, relatively disaster-free, so her biggest
occupational hazard was a perennial one: seeing men start to
salivate like dogs when they hear what her job is. "When I met my
fiance´ and told him I worked on the Swimsuit Issue, he could not
have cared less," she says. "That's when I knew I wanted to marry
him."

Jennifer Kaplan
ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Among the stranger items that came across Jennifer Kaplan's desk
last year was a swimsuit made of dental floss, sent in by a
dentist hoping to get his creation onto a model and into the
magazine. Picking through such entries--designers send in about
10,000 suits a year--is but one of her many duties. Kaplan, who
has worked on six Swimsuit Issues, is a big sports fan and has
met Roger Clemens, Ben Crenshaw and Joe Montana while
coordinating the shoots for athletes and their wives. "Last year
Dale Earnhardt Jr. took me for a spin around Daytona at about a
hundred-gazillion miles per hour," she says. "Traveling the world
is a great perk, but nothing will ever top that."

Tiziano Magni
PHOTOGRAPHER

After 30 years as a fashion photographer (Vogue, Vanity Fair,
Calvin Klein, Christian Dior), Tiziano Magni still loves his job.
And that's not just because of all the beautiful women and exotic
locales. "The real excitement is the pictures," he says. "It's
always interesting to see what these beautiful women bring to the
shoot, because each woman is different." And what did the former
tennis star Anna Kournikova bring to her shoot? "She has the
discipline and endurance to work hard all day," he says. The
Swimsuit Issue is special for Magni because it means his work
reaches a broader audience than the fashion world. Magni, a
native of Italy who resides in New York City, says, "It's a
pleasure to contribute to something that is such a large part of
the nation where I live."

Stewart Shining
PHOTOGRAPHER

As a teenager in Rapid City, S.Dak., Stewart Shining posed family
and friends in front of his camera and dreamed of making it big
as a fashion photographer. Nice to know that some people get to
live out their fantasies. Shining, who has also shot for Esquire,
Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair, enjoyed the convenience of this
year's location: instead of jetting to another continent, he
simply had to drive from his New York City studio to the
Adirondacks, on Upper Lake Saranac. "Of all the places I've been,
it has some of the most beautiful light," he says. This is
Shining's fourth Swimsuit Issue, but he says he is still
impressed by the SI models. "Sometimes I'm behind the camera and
I could almost drop it because I can't believe how beautiful the
woman in front of my lens is."

Chris Hercik
DEPUTY ART DIRECTOR

Chris Hercik jumped to SI from Backpacker magazine in November
2002, and his first assignment was to design the entire 2003
Swimsuit Issue. "Backpacker is very much a how-to magazine," he
says, and then laughs. "The Swimsuit Issue serves a whole 'nother
purpose. If you're looking for something the two jobs have in
common, I guess you could say I always loved the outdoors."
Hercik spends two months laying out the issue and admits that he
occasionally gets lost in an image on his computer screen--the
biggest distraction this year was the picture of Marisa Miller in
a pink bathing suit that appears on the table of contents. Hercik
also enjoyed the American settings, and he says the Wyoming shoot
brought back memories of his Backpacker days. "Looking at all
these pictures made me really want to take a vacation."

COLOR PHOTO: PAMELA JONES

COLOR PHOTO: TIZIANO MAGNI

COLOR PHOTO: DIANE SMITH

COLOR PHOTO: NATALEE HERCIK

COLOR PHOTO: FREYA STERN

COLOR PHOTO: M.J. FIGEL