New Model Talk Radio Segment: Photography for all sizes: beauty, scars and self promotion

Modeling Photography for all sizes: beauty, scars and self promotion

This weeks segment of Model Talk Radio is called: Modeling Photography for all sizes: beauty, scars and self promotion.

When: 7pm EST Live 2/24/10 or listen anytime to the archive.

Isobella shares tips on creating your model photos and marketing them. And how to bring the best you forward in photos. And even how to put a scar to use as an aspiring model. Isobella advises that what you show in your photos represents what you can do, and showing in your photos you can model is how you get opportunities. Unlike what the media can expose about modeling and models, an aspiring model needs a compcard and professional photos ahead of time, before the agency. Isobella goes into detail on the step by step process of getting quality photography and marketing your photos to get opportunities as a model no matter your height.

Follow this link to listen:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/isobellajade/2010/02/25/modeling-photography-for-all-sizes-beauty-scars-and-self-promotion

Her modeling memoir called Almost 5'4" is based on being a shorter than average model. The memoir recently hit the UK through The Friday Project, an imprint of HarperCollins. You can also find Almost 5'4" on Amazon and BN.com. Isobella is also the author of her fashion illustrated graphic novel "Model Life: The Journey of a Pint-Size Fashion Warrior". Her books can be found on BN.com and Amazon.com and in bookstores.

Think twice before you post for the photographer's portfolio

A girl on Facebook recently told me she was going to shoot with a photographer and she would be “shooting for his portfolio.”

Well, I would think twice before posing for a photographer’s portfolio. Posing for The Photographer's Portfolio doesn't mean you will get anything of benefit for yourself and your own modeling goals. If you know the photos you need to excel as a model you will be better off, and the photos you need to start with are quite simple actually.

Focus on your face shots, your shots that show personality, and modeling products within your photos. Showing you can model something, a handbag, shoes, earrings, a cell phone, a cup of coffee, show your personality, and you will be picked up by a print agency sooner. Sometimes something that "sounds good" or "sounds too good to be true" is. And just shooting to shoot doesn't help your pursuits. Strive for more, aim for professionalism and focus on the photos YOU need. The Internet-age might seem like the easier way, but that route is full scams, so beware of TFP, and of course I would skip the Internet ads, websites, and model-sites, as well and amateurs. Get a comp card, focus on the photos you need, your experience will be better. and more productive.

Before you get in front of the camera here are some tips of what to ask the photographer and things to avoid all together.

http://petitemodelingtips.blogspot.com/2009/02/finding-photographer-drama.html

http://petitemodelingtips.blogspot.com/2009/06/ask-photographer-before-photoshoot.html

http://petitemodelingtips.blogspot.com/2008/12/models-finding-photographers-good-and.html

Behind the LensContinuing a Legacy,- a Photographer's Journey

Along with advocating on the pursuit of hustling as a shorter than average model, something I really love is history. History of all things, on Twitter, I saw this article from the NYTIMES ARTS section called Behind the Lens, Continuing a Legacy.
I love the history value in the article and reading about photography in the 50's turns me on.

Here is an excerpt: " For nearly four decades, starting in the late 1920s, James J. Kriegsmann, a Jewish immigrant from Austria, had a photography studio in Times Square. There he became the photographer to stars like Charles, Davis, Bill Robinson, Eartha Kitt and Pearl Bailey who had one thing in common: They were black and performing at a time when most white-owned studios refused to work with them. "
James Kriegsmann Jr., ( he has a studio in midtown) who followed his late father into the family business. “No matter how famous these people were, many photographers wanted nothing to do with them, but they knew that the door to my father’s studio was always open.”


The more your learn about stories based on the history of photography, the more you can appreciate it, and when you are starting out you should surround yourself with people who take notice of not just the technology in their hands but understand the craft and history of it. You will most likely get a better photo as well.

The Marketing Before the Model and Product

While sipping coffee, and wearing his shirt, I was discussing with my fiance' on this first today of 2010, on how brands should think of the marketing before the product is even made.

Many retailers produce too much product that does sell well. I just think of the waste of fabric, labor, and time. I think it is best to always consider the marketing and the sellablity before an item is put into production. Also consider the cost of production, marketing of the brand, before you set a price for and produce a certain quantity of the product. Also how does a brand expect to sell a product without considering the marketing that will help it's customers know about the brand and products to purchase. You can have a great product, even at a good price and a good quality item, but if no one knows about it, if your customer is not aware, then who cares?

Same with movies. The marketing should be in place before the movie is even made.
So much money gets spent and wasted when the marketing is put as something to consider at the end of the production.

I think of this mindset when it also comes to modeling. Before a girl thinks about working as a model, pursuing it, and gets in front of the camera,she should first think about what she has that is marketable towards editorials, ad campaigns, and what products and types of modeling jobs she could realistically get. Then shape her photos around the answers. This mentality should be carried through-out her pursuits and the production of her compcard and mailing the "right" agencies that work with models like her.

Many girls get infront of the camera too soon, just for the heck of it, and them call themselves models. Then their photos are just on social sites and there they are, without an agency to work with, without a real modeling job, without a marketable compcard, and with photos with bad lighting being commented on by perverts, they wonder why they are not really "working as a model."

Well, it is because step one, the very first step was not taken. Don't skips step one of "knowing what is marketable about you and researching the right agencies, and understanding what the word model really means and how it applies to what you are realistically capable of."

I hope this year your goals come closer and you captured them!

Isobella

When I spent my Christmas gift money on model compcards

I remember being in college and I would use my Christmas gift money on buying new compcards come the New Year. I remember not spoiling myself with those cute shoes, and buying new compcards instead. Before the cheaper opportunities you can find at places like Compcard.com there was basically one option, going to a printing company office and paying $100- $150 for 100 cards. You started with a place where headshots were also printed.

There wasn't the option to buy only 30 or 50 cards. It was 100, that's it! So you had to make sure you were printing something you wouldn't later regret spending your Christmas money on. At the start of my pursuits I made many compcards, many before I even started working with agencies. I was testing out what card would work, and also understanding my look as a model and how to promote myself and what I did have to offer print modeling. Trial and error was a big part of it. I think you grow from learning from mistakes and trial and error with printing compcards was a big part of knowing how I could fit into this modeling business, while being so darn short.

Usually around this time of year was when I would try to produce something amazing. Something that could be marketed and used until the summer. I would print the cards adn then spend the following weeks mailing and research agencies I could freelance with, and trying to get opportunities. Approaching better -more professional photographers, working on creating better images, so that I could again produce a new compcard and try again. It was a lot of trial and error and growth during those years.

But after I ended up working with a photographer which lead to getting my first tearsheet and after submitting my compcard inventively to photo-editors at magazines and trying to approaching aspiring brands, I got some credit, some proof I COULD model well. That I was a good model, and gave the agencies I would later end up working with the belief that I could, despite my height.

When making a compcard it is a good idea to be selective over the photos you put on your compcard and it is better to show two great images that are marketable, than a handful of just ok ones, to fill up the back of the card with 4 photos. It is better to show less-if it is good quality- than show a bunch of not so good images. You might waste your money.

Also I think it takes a creative mind, an energetic personality, and up beat approach to get ahead as a model. Showing up, being pretty, skinny, whatever, is not enough.

How do you find a professional photographer?

A girl asked me recently: How do you find a professional photographer?

In this digital and Internet-age it is harder and harder for a girl to find professionalism and the last place she should look is "the Internet". Here are my thoughts on the struggles of finding a "professional photographer."

You want to work with someone with a photography business, not just a camera. To get something for "free" is another story and many girls do, and make photography mistakes by not working with a professional and doing these sketchy TFP things, and it is harder when you only use the web to find photographers on social sites. So skip that. You will typically only find amateur photographers instead.

It is better to approach a headshot photographer, a photographer that has a full time photography business and these days even the yellow pages are more legit than the crap on the Internet. Or you could call the print agency you want to work with an ask if they can refer to a photographer. Or you could call an acting school as well. The first shots an aspiring model needs for print modeling is:
1. headshot
2. a full body shot that shows your personality/smile, like an ad for a cell phone co.

A professional photographer typically will also have “photo packages” listed on their website as well.

It is ok to invest in yourself and pursuits. When you are looking for that "free ride" it can lead to major mistakes, letdowns and bad photos.

No one said finding quality was easy or cheap. Finding quality and professionals takes time, and work, and the easy route, the short-cut can lead to a mess in amateur-land. In modeling your photos are your life line so aim high. Don’t settle just for “any old amateur with a camera” you will mostly get crap from it. I have had my bad experiences and I am sharing the ‘safer and quickest route” because you could spend “years” dealing with amateurs, and bad photography. These days in a world where so many girls want to be models you have to strive to create the best photography you can, and you have to cerate shots that WILL help you. Not just make you “another chick with her photo taken.”

A cheaper option: You could also go to a photography school or college and strive to work with students as well. A person who “knows the craft of photography” and “knows lighting” is best.

An actor leans about the important of a headshot in acting school; a girl who wants to model on the other hand tends to go to the Internet sign up for a model-site to show off her random pics but then never finds quality because all there is to mingle with is amateurs on the web. It is best to focus on getting in front of a professional photographer’s lens. Shooting “just for the heck of it, or for the “amateur” photographers pleasure is a waste of time as well. Many girls fall trap to these unfortunately.

The higher you aim to work with someone who “knows the craft of photography” the better. You wouldn’t want any random person giving you a gynecologist exam, so have the same standards with the photography you do and the photographer you choose. I am serious.

Having high standards is also a big part. If you just want photos you might end up getting crap so instead want "great photos" and aim to work with a professional photographer. Someone who knows how to work the camera, not just take a picture.

I hope this helps.

Who is Model Marion Morehouse and MET

The Edward Steichen: In High Fashion exhibit currenty at the International Center of Photography features the finest examples of his fashion and celebrity portraiture made for Vogue and Vanity Fair, of these a models I saw one specifically many times photographed. Her name is Marion Morehouse. I wondered who she was and I wrote her name in my journal and Googled her today.

She was an actress and a model and photographer, she was the third wife of poet E. E. Cummings. (who is known as an American poet, painter, author, and playwright)
Marion was one of the first models to be known in the public.

An up coming exhibit called Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion will also feature photographs of Marion at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art from May 6 through August 9, 2009.

"The exhibition will examine a timeline of fashion over the past 100 years through the paradigm of the fashion model," said Harold Koda, Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute. "We look at the power of clothing, fashion photography, and the model to project the look of an era. With a mere gesture, or the line of her body, a truly stellar model can sum up the attitude of her time, creating an alluring synergy between herself and the clothing to communicate a designer's message to the wider world."

"The emergence of the modern woman in prewar society and the photography of Edward Steichen set the stage for Marion Morehouse—one of the first models known to the larger public by name."

Both of these exhibits are something any model should see, to understand history is to understand the business today.

Photo by Edward Steichen, Marion Morehouse (aka Mrs. e. e. Cummings), Louiseboulanger dress, 1926

For more on models and the history of the modeling business and photographers who helped shape it read Michael Gross's book called The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women, -it is one of my favorites and it is quite a catch!

Martin Munkacsi Photography feature

I love how photography stops time, keeps it safe, and reveals it at a later date.

I visited the with my boyfriend at the International Center of Photography, and I enjoyed the exhibit of Martin Munkacsi very much this weekend.

I was drawn to his cropping and his action shots. I liked the first display of a woman in a car and her hair blowing, it looked like she didn't have a bra on under her polo shirt but the shot was sincerely sexual, the breeze and movement was capturing. It didn't too posed which I liked, only one of Katherine Hepburn and her plane looked staged.

He was very into cropping his photos. Which might seem obvious to shooters today but in the 1930's without Photoshop Munkacsi describes his own work by saying "The photograph you see signed with my name is sometimes only a fraction of the original photograph."

This exhibit shared the collection of over 4,000 glass negatives recently acquired by the International Center of Photography, organized by Erin Barnett, ICP Assistant Curator of Collections, this memorable exhibit includes vintage and modern prints, and original negatives, many still in their boxes with Munkacsi's handwritten annotations.

The boxes with the names written on them of those and things he photographed. Like we write on CD's to organize our photos today Munkacsi wrote on these small glass plate cardboard boxes, a few read:

"Harpers Bazaar Howard Hughes Flight"

"Harpers Katherine Hepburn & sister."

"Statue of Liberty"

"Helena Rubinstein luncheon"

"Fred Astaire"

I liked the negative of the Mercedes Benz automobile parade from 1933.

International Center of Photography for Models

Models should see the current exhibit at the International Center-Photography, for the historic value and beautiful crafted photography.

"The exhibition will feature hundreds of tear sheets and magazine covers from both mainstream and independent publications, by a range of photographers including Steven Meisel, Cindy Sherman, Mario Sorrenti, Nick Knight, Steven Klein, Miles Aldridge, Paolo Roversi, and Sølve Sundsbø."

"It will also consider the impact of graphic design on the way that fashion photography is presented."

I also loved the Martin Munkacsi lost archive exhibit, his glass negatives were so fun to look at and I love the history of photography. I will be posting a feature on him on my blog by tomorrow.

I think it is important for models and aspiring photographers to really understand the history of photography and appreciate it as an art. I love the story-telling in a photo, not even in what the final image looks like but imagining the work it took to produce it to that final state.

1114 Avenue of the Americas, New York -at 43rd street.



Afterward visit the New York Public Library for beautiful interiors, there is a lot more in this impressive building than books.

New York Public Library at 42nd Street and adjacent Bryant Park.