THE LAST WORD: Cavenaugh Photography

In an age of competitive edge, I’m truly amazed at what small percentage of models vying to get noticed or into the industry are willing to do in terms of creating their background information or illusion of stats…

For instance:

1. Height-

It seems models are becoming taller overnight. One day a model may be 5ft whatever, then a day, month, or the next year, they are now 5ft 11in or even more farfetched 6ft tall. The incidence of models doing this is becoming more common place but the baffling part to me is don’t they understand at some point somebody is going to catch them in their lie. If a photographer goes by the profile and wants to shoot the model, then the model arrives and is much shorter than the photographer expected. This blimishes the reputation of the model and most likely a canceled shoot. Nobody likes to be lied to. There are opportunities for different heights in modeling so it’s better to keep it all real and above board. That way it is what it is and everyone is on the same page.

2. False Profiles

More and more some models are stealing photos from other models and outright setting up bogus profiles as if they were the model on the same sight the model themselves are on. How stupid can a person be? Come on the impostor is going to get caught, profile disabled, and ridicule from others who’ve worked with the real model. What purpose can a false profile serve an individual. The internet unfortunately comes with the good, bad and ugly. People are desperate for attention; therefore, willing to go to great lengths to get positive reinforcement. After all everybody wants to be a model don’t they?

Real people modeling originated with the trend for some large fortune 500 companies after having done focus groups on product sales and believability in terms of customers purchases their products began over the last 7 yrs requesting non professional models to be placed in their ads and commercials. Real people appeal more to the masses for certain products ranging from computers, shopping, sports, etc. and the modeling industry is taking notice. A model doesn’t have to fit into the standard height and weight requirements or look for mainstream fashion modeling. Various placements can pay up to $1000.00 depending on the assignment.

As a result, agencies catering only to real people modeling have been sprouting up across the country. For instance in San Francisco, mainstream agency City models (www.citymodel.com) now has a separate division for real people.  Standalone agencies like Blackwell files (www.blackwellfiles.com) are free to join as well as submissions.  There are other companies, but a model has to do some research to identify them. So, if a model hasn’t gotten signed by a mainstream agency for whatever reason, broaden your horizons and look into real people modeling. There’s nothing to loose but time and opportunity.

A new niche, a new opportunity. Modeling is forever evolving.

Well, here we are now at Man About My Love Volume 14. I’m amazed as I look back considering I started with Vol 1. Writing poetry has always been like having euphoric experience for me even as a child. It allows you to become someone else, write a story about life, love or sex then at the end look back and smile feeling like you’ve had the best experience in your life. I don’t always know what I’m going to write about but it always seems to come to me whether I’m listening to a song, hear a headline story, feel a season change, hear a friend’s story or just think about my own experiences. We live in a world where feelings have become backseats for the material things…then all of a sudden we realize as a friend told me…We have so many ideas but what we don’t have is time. One poem called “Life-Suicide One Brother at a Time chronicles stories I’ve heard or read about in years past. It has a somewhat dark edge but it rings home how brothers both black and latin are dying by their own hands directly or indirectly by the hands of others but consciously making the decision prompting the outcome.

.

That is such a profound statement in so many ways I can’t begin to say or feel. MAMLV14 is the latest collection of poetry with poems hitting all areas from love, sex to death. That’s life right?

For the covers, I really couldn’t decide who to use even though I have shot over 100 models. I just took a break and let the shot come to me. Gabriel, who is a northern Ca model used to be on MM but I didn’t know that when I shot him. Using the red, I wanted to get a sexy glamour yet masculine pinup men’s underwear pose and look. We don’t see enough men of color in tasteful, seductive shots. Both sexes love good-looking brothers showing their swagger. Gabriel definitely gave that.

Being a Successful model is being willing to objectively research and decide what you want from the industry personally and professionally, to assess your strengths and weaknesses from looks, attitude, exercise and body regimes, networking, learning the business aspects of industry, to self managing your image even if you’re signed to an agency, to believing mind, body and soul that you are and will be a successful model based on what “YOU” not others has defined your success to be, to being a businessman or businesswoman about your career and lastly to develop and modify a model plan to guide you. Ignorance and “I don’t know” is unacceptable in the internet age we live in. Don’t wait for someone to tell you…find out and research for yourself so you know and nobody can lie or bs the truth.  Everybody wants to be a model no matter what size, what height, looks but the reality is many start, very few end up being true models. The fact is most people have misconceptions about what modeling is and what the requirements and fail to research the truth versus fiction. Be a step above…educate yourself first before you go around saying you’re a model. Know what it is and what it isn’t and what it takes to get ahead legitimately. It takes more than “tna” and “dna” to get to the top…it’s take thinking and a plan. Hustlers with no game burn out quickly.

Questions to ask yourself: 3 P Approach (Product, Plan, Preparation)
1. Am I ready as a product? Skin, physique, teeth, hands, feet, etc.
2. Where do I fit in? What are my sizes compared to what agencies sign? Action: Check agency submission, open call req on agency websites
3. What photos do I need as new model? Action: same as #2
4. How do I submit? Action: same as #2

In addressing a model’s portfolio, let’s establish some key points.

1. Pictures posted to a networking site are normally not a model’s professional portfolio; however, there have been instances where agency scouts have found new talent from their social networking pages. So as a rule of thumb, don’t post any compromising shots to social networking pages, even some jobs view pages these days.

2. Portfolio base shots- A model should make sure they have the base shots as a foundation to their professional portfolio prior to adding artistic or edgy shots. Foundation shots consist of headshots, body shots, casual shots, business wear shots, sports shots, formal shots. These will serve as a base….from there a model can build on those from shoot to shoot.

3. Portfolio poses- A new model should do their homework on reviewing industry ads, etc. to help them develop their own style and presence. What works for one model, may not work for another. Every photo should not have the same facial expression nor pose. I look at modeling as part model, part actor. You have to interpret the clothes you have on even if you’re nude…interpret the mood.

4. Portfolio clothes- A shoot should consist of no less than 3 clothing changes. This allows a different mood to be created for each outfit. A shoot with only one outfit is in my opinion not one dimensional. However, depending on the parameters and objectives of the shoot as well as length one outfit may have been the objective. But if it’s a full shoot, then one outfit should not be acceptable.

5. Agency sites- Check agency sites to get more background on models they have signed, poses, looks and what the agency is asking for in terms of submissions and open call visits.

More to come…stay tuned.

Hater/ By Maya Angelou
> A hater is someone who is jealous and envious and spends all their
> Time trying to make you look small so they can look tall.
> They are very negative people to say the least. Nothing is ever
> good enough!
>
> When you make your mark, you will always attract some haters…
>
> That’s why you have to be careful with whom you share your
> blessings and your dreams, because some folk can’t handle seeing
> you blessed…
>
> It’s dangerous to be like somebody else… If God wanted you to be
> like somebody else, He would have given you what He gave them! Right?
>
> You never know what people have gone through to get what they
> have…
>
> The problem I have with haters is that they see my glory, but they
> don’t know my story…
>
> If the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, you
> can rest assured that the water bill is higher there too!
>
> We’ve all got some haters among us!
>
> Some people envy you because you can:
> a) Have a relationship with God
> b) Light up a room when you walk in
> c) Start your own business
> d) Tell a man / woman to hit the curb
> (if he / she isn’t about the right thing)
>
> e) Raise your children without both parents being
> in the home
>
> Haters can’t stand to see you happy.
> Haters will never want to see you succeed.
> Most of our haters are people who are supposed to be
> on our side.
>
> How do you handle your undercover haters?
> You can handle these haters by:
>
> 1. Knowing who you are & who your true friends are
> *(VERY IMPORTANT!!)
>
> 2. Having a purpose to your life: Purpose does not
> mean having a job. You can have a job and still be
> unfulfilled.
>
> A purpose is having a clear sense of what God has called you to be.
> Your purpose is not defined by what others think about you.
>
> 3. By remembering what you have is by divine
> prerogative and not human manipulation.
>
> Fulfill your dreams! You only have one life to live…when it’s your
> time to leave this earth, you ‘want’ to be able to say, ‘I’ve lived my
> life and fulfilled ‘my’ dreams,… Now I’m ready to go HOME!
>
> When God gives you favor, you can tell your haters, ‘Don’t look at
> me…Look at Who is in charge of me…’
>
> Pass this to all of your family & friends who you know are
> not hating on you including the person who sent it to you.
>
> If you don’t get it back, maybe you called somebody out!
> Don’t worry about it, it’s not your problem, it’s theirs..
> Just pray for them, that their life can be as fulfilled as
> yours! Watch out for Haters…BUT most of all don’t become
> a HATER!
>
> ‘A woman’s heart should be so hidden in Christ that a man
> should have to seek Him first to find her.’
>
> Maya Angelou

People come into our lives for one or more of the three (reason, season, lifetime). I met Yvonne while attending college. We were in the same major and we both just gravitated to one another as study partners and close friends. She’s the sister I never had in so many ways…we keep it real and honest and love each other for who we are. After she got married to D. our friendship has lasted over 20 yrs. He a great guy with strong values where everything is black and white, no gray areas from a small town. Yvonne, ex model having grown up in Miami loving fashion and life. Opposites totally attracted to each other. Life has no plan or prescription about who a person falls in love with…that’s the beauty of life. As brother and sister, there’s nothing we don’t talk about and nothing that we won’t check each other about. I firmly believe our purpose here on earth is to learn, to teach and to love unconditionally. We’re not perfect but we strive to be.

On a cold icy evening during late 2008, Yvonne’s husband D was driving and his SUV hit a patch of ice and flipped over no less than 3 times. The miracle here is he wasn’t ejected from the truck even though he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, nor did he incur any broken bones, nor did he incur any major injuries yet the truck was totaled beyond repair.

As he awakened from the crash, the first thing he saw was a picture of his first eldest son when he was a young child. Yvonne’s mother who made her transition a couple of years ago had kept the shot of her grandson in the console. It had been her truck that was now in Yvonne and D’s family. As well, following in traffic were 2 registered nurses who were trained for emergencies. They are the ones who treated D. before emergency personnel arrived by making sure. In life, there is no coincidence or happenstance nor luck…everything happens for a reason. We each have a purpose in life whether we realize, do or complete it. There’s always the burning question why some people survive horrific accidents and other do not.

So, let’s sum up the story….we in certain instances are given second chances to continue work we’ve started and start life anew. Yvonne and D. have the immense blessing of first still having each other to be able to approach each day with special gratitude, and with renewed purpose in life to appreciate not the frailties nor misgivings of each other but rather the blessing of being, the blessing of togetherness, the blessing of love, the blessing of life and the blessing of appreciation to know stories can have very different endings.

Life is never to busy to stop and appreciate the small things we take for granted. Each other should never be one. Each day is an opportunity to tell those in your life that you love them and to give them that hug which could make the difference in a moment, an hour, a day, a week, a year, or a lifetime.

We are not guaranteed tomorrow…but we do have today…live in the moment.

Reason….Season….Lifetime

People will give you varying opinions on tattoos. Mine is people of color are held to a difference set of unstated evaluation criterion. My advice is if you don’t have any, don’t get any until you’ve finished modeling for the following reasons:

1. Tyson Beckford- He had an exclusive with polo. He did not get tattoos until his contract was almost to expire and if you notice do you remember seeing one ad where he had tattoos and polo underwear on? There aren’t any because polo airbrushed the out. On his short stint with Sean John which ended in a contract dispute and late resolved prior to the court lawsuit that he brought against them, he modeled moreso clothing which did not show his tattoos versus underwear. So, even though is he is a great example, look at his full career. He only got tattoos toward the end of his big contract. Also, the subsequent models of color for polo do not have tattoos.

2. Tattoos are associated with urban brands (phat farm, roca wear, etc.) not mainstream men’s labels. So, as to not be pigeonholed, you want the most options possible when modeling.

3. Fitness magazines- Think about it, have you seen models in fitness magazines (other than superstar athletes and entertainers) with tattoos? I mean Men’s Health, Fitness, etc. The thought is tattoos hide the muscularity. Yes some companies airbrush the out but there’s only so much airbrushing they want to do. However, it depends on the photographer and company that he is submitting your photos to.

Bottomline, is marketability and your not wanting in any way to just be an urban model but a diversified model in both mainstream and urban men’s wear.

If you ever go to the magic show in las vegas which happens a couple times of year, men’s fashion is separated into categories. Mainstream has its own huge showroom and urban has it’s own showroom. both men’s clothing but separate and distinct from each other. A point to take notice which translates into the models that are sometimes used. Now you will find Sean John in the mainstream because Diddy never classified his company as urban but a mainstream company who manufacturers both. This is why a couple years ago he won designer of the year over ralph lauren and calvin klein.

Hope that helps you understand my rationale for my points. This is why I encourage models of color to know the business and be businessmen and women to help avoid pitfalls. That’s not to say a tat will keep your from getting an opp but at the same time it’s not to say it won’t.

Yes, Tyson has tattoos but as businessman your questions should be “at what point and when did he get them and how much modeling has he really done after he got them? Tyson moreso now does consulting, appearances, host shows, etc. versus any huge modeling contracts.

LA:
http://www.lamodels.com/ (LA agency w/ weekly Open Call)
http://www.wilhelminaportfolios.com/contact.cfm (LA, NY, Miami info on submissions and model searches)
http://www.globaloneltd.com/ (Model/ Artist Mgt)
http://www.visionmodelmanagement.com/
http://www.visionmen.blogspot.com/
http://www.clickmodel.com/
http://www.qmodels.com/
http://www.danielhoffagency.com/
http://www.nousmodels.com/framework.php (Wkly Open calls)