modeling is work

Filed Under Category modeling by souleye

there are some activities of human endeavors that are fun. but insofar as people perform duties and get paid it’s work. unlike workers who are employed and gets paid a salary, a model is an independent worker who is hired on a contractual basis. she gets represented by an agency that is in charge of finding her jobs for a commission. as an independent contractor you must manage your professional activity as a business.

though fashion merchandisers are the ones who hire models, they only deal with models through agencies. so as an aspiring model, you must first seek agency representation. agencies are in the business of making money. the model is in the business of making money. if they agree to represent you, that’s because you are marketable. the agency will incur upfront costs in trying to promote you as a new model, it’s in their interest to make sure that you have the potential of a good return on their investment. the model as a self-employed business person, she should should have good business sense. observing certain rules of business is the best guarantee of success. before the model gets represented, she needs to sell herself to the agencies. enter the photographer.

though there are some notable cases of models being discovered in most unlikely places, usually models do need to send their pictures to agencies. the photographer is in the business of taking pictures to make money. many models are contacting photographers to take pictures tfp/tfcd (time for prints/time for cd respectively), a barter system that has its merits and its drawbacks. the merit is that if the photographer wants to test some ideas, he may want to find a model who’s not charging him and accept pictures in exchange for her portfolio. in each barter system the parties involved receive something of value. the drawback is if a model has very little value to offer an established photographer, she may only find unskilled photographers willing to work with her. inversely, an established model will not likely consider working with an unproven photographer.

for an aspiring model, before you look for photographers, one act of common sense is to have a conversation with your mirror. get you a copy of a fashion magazine and ask yourself ‘what is it that these girls have that I don’t have?’. if you don’t find any answers, you’re off to a good start.

June 14, 2009 | 2 Comments  Tags: , , , , , , ,