Modeling Industry

The Modeling Industry

by Marc Gagnon

Twenty Nine years ago, I got started in the photography area through an artist, Amanda Dobbs, who was from England. In fact, we almost married and at the time she was working for the Government of the United Kingdom, specifically at Balmoral Castle and Buckingham Palace. In fact, in 1981 she sent Wedding Invitations to my parents and me to the Royal Wedding which the invitation can be seen on my www.gagnonart.net site.

In 1982, I started working with models and helped them to gain access to top Model Management companies by mostly trial and error. I actually attained a greater understanding of the business after these six models started working in NYC for such agencies as Elite, Ford, Zoli, CED, Grace del Marco, and Wilhelmina.  Other agencies as William Morris, ICM, J Michael Bloom, Flick, APA, Reinhardt, Kim Dawson, David & Lee, Durkin, and Nina Blanchard, were introduced to me through these models and the photographers they worked with. I considered myself privileged to meet Richard Avedon, Francesco Scavullo, Jack Reznicki, Jay Maesel, Steven Meisel, Albert Mackenzie Watson, Patrick DeMarchelier, Peter Lindbergh, Bruce Weber, and many others. I also was privileged to meet Elysse Weisberg who was a photo rep who managed the top fashion photographers in the 80s and 90s as well as Ad Agency Execs through Saatchi and Saatchi and Grey Advertising. While in Boston, I worked briefly with Cabot Advertising and landed models with New England Telephone ad campaigns.

South Florida is a very interesting place. I have met some people who have a strong look for the business but there are numerous problems here. People seem to lack the common sense, business sense, and you may even say intelligence to become successful in the business. There are many Conmen/women down in South Florida who only has their mouths and very little substance to sway people to work with them. Con comes from the word “Confidence” and their only marketing tool is literally their mouth.

Recently, I have met two prospective models. One out of Wellington, Florida, was telling me that her videographer is preparing her for the field. I asked her, how do you know he has the sufficient knowledge of the industry?  She responded “because he knows.” Another one had a similar response, with of course no substance. It is true that South Florida people set themselves as virtual marks for deception. South Florida is dead last in the country for education. South Florida spends the least on education according to NBC Channel 6. With the migration of the elderly to Florida, the lack of community (transient people), the “Confidence people” find their way here. There is a large South American and Islander population here as well that further compounds the problem. People do not know nor do they have any idea how to discern whether a person knows the industry or not.

What a Person should have if they are claiming to know the industry-

First of all, if a person has never dealt with these modeling agencies directly, then they have no idea of the industry is about. They should have the Model Management Books (printed books of the model agencies themselves which are catalogs of their models), Head Sheets (larger posters of close ups of the models they represent) and the Composite Cards of the models that are with these specific agencies. They should have the following Directories of the Industry: 1.) Le Book for Fashion, 2.) Henderson for Casting, 3.) Call Sheets formerly Ross Reports for Commercial Print, Casting, and Film, 4.) Hollywood Reporter Directories for Music, Film, and Producers, 5.) Billboard Directory for Music, 6.) Ad-Week Directory for the Advertising Agencies which are the firms that actually hire the models, 7.) O’Dwyer’s Directory for Public Relations, 8.) Musician’s Atlas for the Music Industry, are among the basic directory information of the business.  

If a photographer is actually a professional, then they should have tear sheets themselves. They should have photo credits in magazines, newspapers, brochures, books, etc. Sometimes, the publisher will not actually give the photographer actual credit by the picture. In that case, the photographer’s original image is 99% bigger than the picture in the ad. In other words, the image is generally cropped to fit the spacing requirements of the newspaper, magazine, etc. A photographer who is featured in the news is the greatest honor a photographer can be bestowed. A photographer who does not have this is probably just a consumer photographer that does weddings, portraits, proms, sweet 16 parties, etc. It does not mean that they are not good for what they do; it means they are out of their realm with respect to modeling.

The industry is not easy to get into. Currently, I am working with Amy Vitale and I have begun marketing her to the larger industry. Obviously, I have produced two composite cards (a picture card with 3 or more images on it with body statistical as well as contact information on it) to market her. Packages are being mailed out to agencies I have worked with the past, which include tear sheets (copies of work she has done which can be magazine ads, articles, etc.)  including my vouching as to her professionalism. Some of the tear sheets include the For Our Troops collage which was featured on NBC News, the many tear sheets that was created from the piece itself, the Comic Books entitled Red Angel which bears her likeness, the Playboy article of Amy Vitale, the Wrestling articles showing her acting outside the ring as a manager of the wrestlers, and the local advertisers that have used her.