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Modelling ARTICLES

Frank Interview with a Model

18th August 2008

By MELANY KARRMICHAEL

Thousands of young men and women move to London every year hoping to enter the glamorous world of modelling, but all most of them find is serious competition and bitter disappointment.

The biggest downside in modelling is that, unless you are lucky enough to join the ranks of International Top Models like Heidi Klum or Cindy Crawford, your career is likely to be rather short-lived. My best tip would be for you to try and get as much work as possible while you can. It would also be sensible to learn another profession in your spare time so that you have something to fall back on when the first wrinkles start to show.

Finding a good, reputable agent is one of the first obstacles you will have to progress. There are a lot of unscrupulous agents in the business who either don't pay up or go bust before they have a chance to pay up. You will also come across agents who like to take more than their 20% commission or try to push naive models into doing jobs that won't do their careers any good at all. Agents seem to forget that it is actually the model that employs the agent and not the other way around.

With or without an agent, there is no getting around castings. Some models make up to 10 appointments per day and have to rush from one casting to another, changing outfits and fixing their make-up in the busy underground. It is exhausting and often disheartening as the customer or photographer frequently dismiss you with a wave without even bothering to look at your portfolio, not caring that you've been waiting for hours to be seen.

When you do finally get work, you will soon realise that the castings were a walk in the park compared to the dangers that could lie in wait for you on a shoot. I've had to pose in sexy lingerie on a frosty winter morning, been covered in sticky sweet chocolate from head to toe, had a randy photographer chase me around the studio trying to tweak my nipples, had an apparently harmless snake clamp its fangs into my arm and during my last session - tried to smile as naturally as possible while dangling topless from a crane 30ft above the ground.

Models are legendary for being bitchy, vain and difficult and this is often the case, even with male models. The industry is becoming more and more competitive which increases rivalry and there are some models who will even sleep with the photographer or customer in order to get the job. You must also remember that modelling work is extremely unreliable - you could be booked solid for a month and then have nothing at all for the next few months. You don't always get paid on the day of the shoot either and sometimes have to wait until the photos are actually published.

Just as in other professions, modelling had good points as well as bad points, but if you find success as a model, you'll lead the kind of exciting and glamorous life that other girls can only dream of!