Top American Fashion Models.

While several photographers had a say on the topic, I choose to focus on the reviews made by a pro photographer with over 20 years in the business. His feedback were very insightful and interesting, to say the least. Whether they are true or not is of course unknown, and your experiences may vary greatly.

Photographer Interview:

Me: How long have you been in the fashion model field?

Photographer:  I started about 20 years ago shooting for a small-scale online company that worked with stock photographs. Mostly I worked with freelance models and created the content that the corporation would later sell along with the image license. After about 2 years I branched out on my own and began to work in the fashion community. My job was 100% in the USA for the first few years and I worked with models ranging from formal evening wear, designer outfits, to Playboy style artistic work and leisure magazines for instance Maxim. I treated the job as a specialist and always worked with top level models.

Me: So when did you start travelling abroad to work with models and what variation did you observe?

Photographer:  My first trip to Europe was about 6 years ago. I started out performing in Prague. The inspiration for this built up bit by bit over time. In essence I was having more and more trouble finding ideal American models. Not because of their 'look', but because the customs was changing so fast in regards to online modeling and self-employed photographers. For example I would quite often be required to pay for for the model's boyfriend to be present at the photo-shoot to ensure that nothing 'funny' was going on. Or to pay for a bodyguard/chaperon to be present at the shoot and at the time of the interview. Now I fully realize the need for safe practices, but I am a experienced photographer with a huge profile and years of expertise. Also the models I worked with normally came from agencies and talent scouts, not Craigslist. So over time it became very uncomfortable to work with American models. I even started to feel 'sleazy', as if what I was doing was somehow shady. This experience was not from the content I produced, but from the model's behavior toward me. Moreover to this the price started to go way up while the quality started to drop greatly.

My very first photo-shoot in Prague was an extraordinary experience. I organized the casting call through an agency. Upon arrival I found out that there were over 100 applicants, some from as far away as Brno (a 2 hour drive). My standard pay-rate was more the double the standard pay-rate that models normally collect from local photographers. The models treated me with wonderful value and openness, which was a remarkable difference from the paranoid US models. I journeyed with a modest group consisting of a make-up artist and crew. We hired a big house that we made into a studio for the photo-shoot. The residence was over 5000 square feet and might have cost thousands in the states. However we were able to organise the stay for $1200 (which covered Two weeks).

The models also came prepared. What I mean by this is the models essentially knew how to pose and what fashion of imagery I was looking for. In advance of the photo-shoot we have a casting and I display the image designs and evaluate the specific type of work I am searching for. I do this in America as well but in spite of my prep work the models generally show up having no clue and I simply have to spend around 20-30 minutes reviewing the posing variations and overall feel I am trying to achieve from the pics. I was pleasantly surprised to see that all of the European models practiced previous to arriving at the shoot.

Me: Does this indicate you will not work with American models any more?

Photographer:  Well I'm sure it may seem is if I am coming down to hard on US models and I don't mean for that to be the case. I have previously worked with some astonishingly skilled American models. Nevertheless the atmosphere lately in regards to American models seems to be novice. I have experienced entire photo-shoots completely spoiled because the model was not well prepared or simply changed her mind mid-shoot. So for the time being I do think I will carry on European models. fashion models