Photographer Karen Bystedt is an accidental rule breaker who does everything for love, and that sometimes gets her into trouble—but mostly it gets her into hearts, minds, galleries, clubs, bookshelves and international art collections.

In her career as a portrait photographer, Bystedt has published four wildly successful books, each with a unique perspective on the worlds of film, fashion and pop culture. Not Just Another Pretty Face (1983) was a portfolio of the male models of New York’s fashion world. The New Breed (1988) was a series on the “next” generation of movie stars, which presciently included soon-to-be icons like Brad Pitt, Sandra Bullock and Robert Downey Jr. Some of these and related portraits formed the foundations for both Before They Were Famous (1992) and They Dared to Dream: Hollywood’s A-List Before Were Stars (2009). It’s been a long, lovely and wonderfully wild ride. But as it turns out, it was back during the early production of Not Just Another Pretty Face that Bystedt would unwittingly sow the seeds of a creative awakening some 30 years in the future. Because that was when she shot Andy Warhol.