Best known as the face of Guess?, Chris O has been photographed by Pablo Alfaro, who he now counts as a close friend, by Bruce Weber on his first photo shoot for A&F, by Liz von Hoene, Dean Isidro and Randall Mesdon among others. Over the past year he has shot campaigns for A&F, Sean John, and Guess? Popular on the runway, he has also done shows for Sean John, Pelle Pelle, Liz Claiborne, Ron Chereskin, Fendi, Avirex and others.

But he traveled a long way to get onto those runways, and to understand even half of what Chris O brings to the picture, you have to understand where he came from and how he got there. Chris grew up in the Bronx, son of a Columbian mother and a Belgian father, in the heart of a Jamaican neighborhood at 241st and White Plains Road.

What was it like growing up where you did in the Bronx?

It was tough growing up there, especially as one of the few Latino kids in the neighborhood. It was a very rough place. I'm dark, so I look a lot like my mom who's Columbian, so I fitted in okay. There was always just a fine line as to how much.

But my dad is from Belgium, so he has blue eyes and blond hair. He was always getting jumped, because they thought he was a cop. Me and my uncles from downstairs would always have to go down and break up awful fights every time these guys would jump my dad. We all got it, my grandfather got jumped, people in the street would even give my mom a hard time. Once all these people in the street went after her and my mom ended up having to fight this guy in the street — all she was doing was walking us kids home from Pizza Hut.

How did you get the name Chris O?

There were 3 or 4 Chris's in my class, so we all got labeled Chris A, Chris B, Chris O, and so on. So I started out as Chris O and it just stuck with me.

What was school like for you?

I went to a Catholic school, but I was never really into school. I remember coming home once when I was twelve or so with this hickie on my neck and my mom was like "all you worry about are these damn hickies, you're not worried about school." I just told her "Ma, I can't help it, what do you want me to do?"

Did you play any sports in school?

We were lucky even to have gym class, I swear. No gym teachers would even come to that area, but by law they had to provide something, so our homeroom teacher had to do gym class with us, which was mainly jumping jacks and kickball. After school there was football — we had to play touch football because we played on concrete — and there were a lot of fights. It was brutal but everybody bet on them. I remember some great fights.