When I began reporting Double Click, my book about the McLaughlin twins, who set out to become photographers in New York just before America entered the Second World War, I already knew they were incredible characters. One twin, Frances McLaughlin-Gill, swiftly became a staff photographer in the Condé Nast photo studio, the only woman in a group that included Irving Penn and Horst P. Horst. The other, Kathryn Abbe, was a successful freelancer for such 1940s career-girl magazines as Charm and Mademoiselle.
They started out in a time when publishers were especially interested in young women and creating smart, savvy publications that catered to their tastes. They also had extremely long careers—unusual for women of their era. Sometimes they ascribed this to the luck of twins. Other times they said it was due to hard work.
