Shocking News about American Fashion Models.

While a lot of photographers had a remark on the issue, I choose to focus on the opinions made by a experienced photographer with over 20 years in the industry. His feedback were very insightful and helpful, to say the least. Whether they are true or not is of course unknown, and your encounters may vary greatly.

Photographer Interview:

Me: How many years have you been in the fashion model industry?

Photographer:  I started about 20 years ago shooting for a small-scale online firm that worked with stock pictures. Mostly I worked with freelance models and generated the content that the corporation would later sell along with the photograph license. After about 2 years I branched out on my own and started to work in the fashion community. My work 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 entertainment magazines which include Maxim. I treated the job as a specialist and always worked well with top level models.

Me: So when did you start travelling abroad to work with models and what significant difference did you see?

Photographer:  My 1st trip to Europe was about 6 years ago. I started out doing work in Prague. The drive for this built up progressively over time. Quite simply I was having more and more trouble finding suitable American models. Not because of their 'look', but because the customs was changing so fast in regards to web based modeling and freelance photographers. For example I would generally be required to spend for the model's boyfriend to attend 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 recognize the need for safe practices, but I am a qualified photographer with a huge portfolio and years of expertise. Also the models I worked with quite often came from agencies and talent scouts, not Craigslist. So over time it became very distressing to work with American models. I even started to feel 'sleazy', as if what I was doing was in some manner shady. This feeling was not from the material I produced, but from the model's actions toward me. Aside from that to this the amount started to go way up while the level of quality started to drop greatly.

My very first photo-shoot in Prague was an extraordinary working experience. I contracted the casting call through an agency. Upon arrival I found out that there were over 100 job seekers, some from as far away as Brno (a two hour drive). My standard pay-rate was more the double the ordinary pay-rate that models regularly receive from local photographers. The models treated me with wonderful regard and openness, which was a huge change from the paranoid US models. I traveled with a modest group composed of a make-up artist and staff. We leased a huge flat that we created into a studio for the photo-shoot. The house was over 5000 square feet and would have cost thousands in the states. Nevertheless we were able to organise the stay for $1200 (which included 14 days).

The models also came organized. What I mean by this is the models literally knew how to pose and what form of images I was seeking. Before the photo-shoot we have a casting and I showcase the image variations and evaluate the actual type of work I am in search of. I do this in America as well but despite my prep work the models constantly show up having no clue and I essentially have to spend around 20-30 minutes going over the posing styles and overall feel I am trying to accomplish from the graphics. I was cheerily astonished to see that all of the European models practiced preceding to arriving at the shoot.

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

Photographer:  Well In my opinion 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 worked with some astonishingly specialized American models. However the atmosphere lately in regards to American models seems to be inexperienced. I have experienced entire photo-shoots completely wrecked because the model was not well prepared or simply changed her mind mid-shoot. So in the meanwhile It looks like I will carry on European models. teen modeling jobs