Model Bartenders

For many of even the most successful models, modeling is not always a full-time job that pays the rent. That’s the reason why major model markets like New York and LA always seem to have an unusual number of good-looking bartenders, waiters/waitresses and hostesses.

It’s not just coincidence.

For those about to rock the world with their model-good looks, the first step after getting off the Greyhound is always a good agency – and the second step is registering with Model Bartenders.

With placement service in New York, Miami, LA, Chicago, DC and Dallas (and almost any other city upon request), Model Bartenders serves up hot dishes to satisfied clients.

Founder Marc Levine, who has been running Premiere Party Servers since 1988, is a smart cookie who found a niche in the industry.

“About seven years ago, we started getting a lot of calls for our clients requesting a certain look for their events,” he says. “The one thing you can’t do when you have a party in the past was pick your staff. You pick your caterer. You pick your band. You pick your florist. You pick your dress, you pick your tux. The one thing you can’t control or have any say in choosing are the people who serve you. And that’s the one thing that people remember when they’re at an event. A wedding, a bar mitzvah, a store opening, a movie premiere, or any of these events that we’ve been asked to help organize.”

Since its inception, Model Bartenders has provided quality service for clients, as well as a pillar of trust for modeling agencies and models who place there.

Of course, Model Bartenders may not be the only game in town, but, for sure, it is fair game. Of his competition, Levine says, “The problem with a lot of these mom and pop stores that open up left and right is that these guys and girls go to them because a friend of a friend said to go register with them. A lot of time it will take them three weeks, four weeks, a month to two months to get paid. We’ve heard stories of people not getting paid for two months, because they’re taking the word of a friend. The company is not a legitimate company. Somebody is running it out of their house. It doesn’t pay to work for a company that is not a legitimately run company. Here, they get paid every week, they get their W2 forms. We run a very legitimate operation. That’s why the agencies feel very comfortable sending us their staff.

“A lot of agencies send us their people because they trust us. We’ve been in business eighteen years. They know that whoever they send to us, they will get paid properly, they will be treated well, and they will not have to track us down to get paid.”

In the modeling business, this kind of practice is worth its weight in plus models. And any model will tell you that when the rent is due, the rent is due.

“We have had some models work for us for five, six years,” Levine says.

In fact, often it will not be a casting, but it will be an event serviced by Model Bartenders that will land a model a job.

The networking opportunity is as thick as a model’s lashes.

“We work with some really great clients,” Levine says, “and it offers models some really great exposure to some really great events. We do a lot with Fashion Week, and we do a lot of high-end retail, as well as fashion, photography and art-related events. It’s good exposure, and that’s what models need. When they come to New York, they need to be out there. And we give them the opportunity to be out there in an environment that is hard but fun. They meet great people. We’d even have had people hook up and get married.

“We’ve had people land billboards in Times Square, we’ve had people go on cruise ships for six months to sing; we’ve had people in commercials. Many of them are from parties where they met people.”

Although Model Bartenders serves a number of markets, it’s based in the town of the toughest customer.

“New York is a tough place,” Levine says, “but you need to keep a good attitude and enjoy it and have fun doing what you’re doing, knowing that it’s an incredibly competitive field. Go out there and meet, network and have fun. And work with reliable people.”

Still, the networking opportunities stretch from coast to coast.

“It’s fun to know that we’re getting calls from clients all over,” Levine says. “We have a client in Dallas who is going to fly one of our guys to Dallas, because he looks like a young King Tut.”

Not only do the opportunities stretch, but so do the schedules. Model Bartenders is sensitive to the hectic and unusual work calendar of a model.

“We will work our schedule around the schedule of an actor or a model,” Levine says. “We’re geared toward giving our staff the flexibility to work and to align themselves with people that they trust working for.”

This allows for plenty of plenty-hard work, but also the peace of mind of knowing that the bills are getting paid while the career is getting built. It’s the very thing that saves a model from developing worry lines.

Levine is sure of it.

“I’d put my twenty females against the women on Deal Or No Deal anytime,” he says.

For more information, go to www.modelbartenders.com and www.premierepartyservers.com

Brynda Mara

Psst…wanna buy a modeling agency?

Model Brynda Mara’s agency is officially up for sale, as she has decided to focus her energies instead on writing a self-help book for aspiring models.

“I am writing a book about modeling and how to manage yourself as a model,” she says of her new venture. “The book describes every single type of modeling on the market, and what kind of body you should have if you want to be in that market. It’s all about how you go about getting a job and how you get started. I did research with agencies all over America. The book is going to be really great. There is no book like mine, and it is going to be published sometime this summer.”

Whatever the Rio-born model does, it is done in the name of helping her fellow man (and woman, and child). Her modeling agency, BMNY (which stands for Best Models Near You) took a portion of its proceeds and donated it to the education of poor children in Brazil.

“The whole reason why I started the agency was to help children in Brazil,” she says. “I took some money out of my pocket to keep them in school, and that’s okay with me. However, I can’t keep coming up with five thousand dollars every year to keep them in school.”

The agency, which is website based and focused on getting trade show and photography work for models, is now looking for a loving and caring new owner.

She says, “Best Models Near You could do very well if it had the right people behind it. It would need model managers who can start a team. I am not the right person because the only experience I have is as a model.”

Brynda, who has two college degrees and speaks seven languages, is based in New York.

“The New York modeling market is the number one market,” she says, “especially in America. New York is the greatest, biggest market for modeling. There is so much work. You just have to look for it; you have to go after it, especially if you are self-managing yourself.”

Considering herself “self-managed,” she has free-lanced with a number of commercial agencies; however the majority of commercial and trade show work she scored was as a result of getting it on her own.

“Working for myself as a model, I mainly only booked myself,” she says. “Being a trade show model and traveling all around America as a show model really was great. I did shows for swim suits, for resorts and for bridal. I traveled all over the US full time the whole year, doing that. It’s great because everything is paid for you, the hotel, the food. It’s fun. You get to meet a lot of nice people.

“I could book myself all the time because I am a reliable model and my pictures are exactly what I look like. There was no problem.”

The problem, however, presented itself in the models who desired to be represented by her agency, and the false impressions they harbored as to what they could actually do in the business.

“The models just lie about their height,” she says. “Many of them were not honest. They were not reliable. It was a nightmare. They don’t size themselves properly. They send pictures that are not fresh; the pictures may be three or four years old. I spend the whole day trying to get the models castings and then they don’t show up.”

Her experience booking others is what inspired her to write her book. She had found a major, gaping whole in the expectations of certain models, to the point of serious delusion.

“Models have got to be able to judge themselves right,” she insists. “You’ve gotta be true to yourself. Make sure you look like the modeling jobs that you are looking for. Because you cannot be high fashion if you are not at least 5’10”. It’s not going to happen. It’s just not going to happen. You have to have somewhat of an exotic look if you’re going to be high fashion.

“You can be a trade show model when you’re not 5’10”, but you cannot be a high fashion model. What I am writing in my book is that you have to be straightforward with yourself so that you don’t waste time in the wrong market.”

Brynda herself never had any delusions about what she could do within the modeling business. She says, “I am only 5’7”, not 5’10”. I am not skinny. I could never be a high fashion model, and I don’t really care about being a high-fashion model.

“My modeling career was great because I wanted to pay for my schooling and I didn’t want to work in a restaurant. Modeling gave me quick, easy, not-too-hard working money. I have two degrees, and I got those degrees through modeling, instead of working in a restaurant full-time.”

Unfortunately, her own desire to build a good cause did not match the needs and demands of developing and managing other models.

“When I tried to be a model manager, it was not what I was expecting,” she says. “I tried for three years. I started not so much because I wanted to be a model manager, but because I wanted to help the children in Brazil. People were always asking me for models, and I was always giving them the names of girls I knew for free. So I thought, why not make some money with it? And while making money out of that, helping a good cause?”

She had first been scouted while living in New Jersey, and turned a lark into an entrepreneurial pursuit.

“I participated in a pageant for a sports club,” she recalls. “There was a designer who attended the pageant who really liked me, and he needed a model to do runway shows on TV stations because those models don’t need to be so tall. That’s how I started.”

She continued to build a modeling career, and now she is prepared to share her advice with young aspirants. Her hope is to steer them clear of the pitfalls she sees in the road everyday, and rescue the models who fall into them. She feels that her book will maneuver them around those pitfalls.

“To trust in God that is what we should be doing,” she says. “Don’t panic. It’s very easy to panic. It’s easy to work, and then three or four months later is when you’re going to be getting a check. You never know when you are going to have a job and when you are not. So you worry about how you will be able to pay your rent. But trust in yourself, and in God. Don’t give up. Continue to just work hard and look for new clients.”

It is her hope that her new book, entitled The BNMY Modeling Guide For Every Body, will enlighten with practical advice.

“It’s a modeling guide for every single body type,” she says. “Every single woman can model no matter what size or height they are. It’s just a matter of focusing on the areas that they can work.”

As she turns to the world of writing, she leaves her bittersweet experience in modeling behind her.

“I’m retiring as a model and I’m finishing writing my book,” she says. “I want to help other models. Not every model can do high-fashion, but almost anybody can be a model. There is not enough material out there for models starting out who are not high fashion models.”

Now, at last, there will be.

To take a look at Brynda’s websites, go to www.bmnymodels.com and www.bryndamara.com

Almost Fabulous

I longed to be a "real writer," which to me meant not working in a suburban Philadelphia corporate center, which is what I was doing. I felt New York calling me. When all this happened, I was no kid. I followed the calling at the age of 33, the same age as Jesus when He was crucified.

While establishing my writing life, I worked a number of odd jobs in New York, the oddest being a nun at Covenant House (but that's a story for another blog).

Eventually, I sold stock photography on 21st Street, in the same building as a modeling agency. I watched stunningly beautiful young people step on and off the elevator, me getting off most of all.

My world was rocked.

I told myself that I shouldn't be selling stock photos; I should be selling the people who were actually IN the photos.

This was just before the dawn of the internet age, so I got myself the Manhattan Yellow Pages and faxed my resume to every modeling agency in town. I had no experience in the industry, but I knew sales and marketing and never took a vacation or called out sick. I was also used to living on spare change.

A small mom-and-pop agency took a chance on me. Eventually, I worked my way up to becoming a small-potatoes commercial agent and talent manager.

I booked beautiful people on non-union TV commercials, obscure music videos, magazine print ads, low-rent showrooms and, ironically, stock photography shoots.

I also escorted models to fancy restaurants, a-swingin' nightclubs, and even to the MTV Awards. I was the only person in the mosh pit over thirty. I got to see Sisqo perform "The Thong Song."

I stayed in the business for the next decade. I barely made a dime. I never graduated to the big, established agencies. My models and actors never became superstars. But it was the most intense, fabulous, wild ride I ever took.

This blog will attempt to find out why. What is it about the modeling business that is so compelling? What defines beauty, and who makes the final decision as to who is beautiful? Who exactly are the other people drawn to this business, like I was?

In essence, let's talk to those who get to sit at the cool lunch table.

Last but certainly not least, we'll get closer to gorgeous models themselves, and contemplate why their faces are so symmetrical and what they think of the business and their role in it.

Of course, some amazing photo shoots couldn't hoit, so I'll have those for you too.

Close your eyes and read along as we discover something about models and the people who use them. And ultimately, in discovering this, we may learn something about ourselves. Or maybe not.

Ya'll come back, ya heard?!

Big Pimpin' Up In NYC

No two days were really ever alike. As a modeling agent, I never knew how my day would begin and end. I could never anticipate what spectacular, career-changing castings would materialize, or which stunning superstar-to-be would walk into my tightly strung life.

Occasionally, but not often, someone would arrive on my doorstep who would stop my heart.

It was like love. Your pulse races and a feeling comes over you. You ask yourself, "could this be the one?" You wonder if this is the model who will make a name for your agency -- and for yourself.

In most cases, no.

As an agent, like it or not, you become a mother hen who develops a line of adoring little chickies who follow you. You often wonder if they like you for you, or if they're just kissing up to get the castings and the favor. You also try not think about it.

It's not a business that invites you to think too much. It's not about the brain.

Still, many models ride you. You wonder about their intentions. Other times, like when you're partying at a reserved table in a club at three in the morning on a weeknight, it doesn't matter if you're being used. They could use me till they use me up.

You learn that beautiful people have problems too. They have problems with their girlfriends and boyfriends and landlords and parents and other models. They also eat more than you think. And you are there for them. It's not a 9-5 job at all. Lives intertwine dramatically, usually for only a short time.

Models often don't think of themselves as beautiful. I very rarely came across a model who was stuck-up. Most of them come from the middle of nowhere. Many of them are raised by decent, middle-class families and their parents worry about them. Some of them fall in with bad people. Others have their wild ride in New York, go on some castings, and go back home, out of breath.

It is a difficult business. And it is indeed a business. Most outsiders think that the modeling world consists of posed, odd people standing around looking contemporary. But it is hard work, and heartbreaking. It is cold calling and frantic faxes and emails and billing and collections.

It is a sales job that is completely based on opinion. You could be the best salesperson in the world, but if your model isn't winning the audition, you still lose. And if your models don't make money, you don't make money. The models are usually never to blame for this. It's a strange game of chance. A model being placed "on hold" for a job doesn't pay your bills. It's the only business in the world where you can go broke and starve from encouragement.

Casting decisions are almost never explained. You move on to the next casting. There is very little time or room for reflection. You're trying to make a buck, and models appear and disappear like beautiful ghosts.

Bookings are very subjective and often not logical, at least not to me, especially when my model didn't book. It can be very political. My career consisted mostly of cold calling and trying to elbow my people into castings -- especially the good castings, which were always reserved for the larger, more established agencies.

Every day was a hustle. There was no order-taking; it was all about scrambling for castings and trying to get a foot in the door. And winning a casting never guaranteed that you would be called again for the next one. It could be infuriating.

When casting directors have huge budgets, they often didn't bother with the smaller fish. However, sometimes they do throw a bone, and I would leap for it without an ounce of pride and become a hero to my models.

There was nothing more satisfying than being able to give everyone a good number of castings for the day. And it is a numbers game: the more castings you get, the more chance you have of booking something -- anything. And the more likely it is that you are able to keep the good models.

The energy was palpable; the people, beautiful. I took hundreds of Polaroids. Sometimes, but not often, I would be so intoxicated by the surrounding beauty that I would become woozy.

If I thought a model was marketable, or even if they had a twinkle of potential to develop, there was nothing I wouldn't do for them; no door in this city that I would not force open for them.

I'll wind up sounding like a ranting old man, but I will go to my grave insisting that the people I represented were as beautiful and talented as anyone in a larger agency or with an established career. The only thing that stood in the way was fate and luck.

Models would come and go, for a variety of reasons. It was a kaleidescope of attractive faces and bodies and muscles and hips and abs and eyes and full lips and shiny hair, blurring together and coming apart.

Sometimes -- and this was always the most heartbreaking reason of all -- they would leave me for a bigger agency, once they started booking jobs. Most times, however, the reasons were not as melodramatic: they would have their fill of castings and rejection and New York City, and they would go back to school or go back to their suburbs and once again become the hottest person in their neighborhood, or marry early or marry well.

My dreams of stardom for them were never realized. I often wonder what may have been had the stars shined upon us. Where would these kids be today? Where would I be?

I'm sentimental by nature. I have a need to know what happens to everybody I come across. I want to know their fate, and see if it would surprise or shock me. However, I've lost touch with most of the people I've repped. I'm no longer relevant to them. That's not bitterness. It's just life -- the way it goes. People drift apart.

I guess I was used after all. And if it felt that good getting used, it was worth it.

I was older than all of these models, and many agents. I knew something these young people didn't: beauty can often be fleeting. The bloom can be off the rose before very long. And now, for the last cliche: youth is wasted on the young.

However, I hope that the short ride was worth it. It truly was a real adventure, filled with hope and aspiration and drama; there was something decidedly life-affirming about it. People often look at this business as being rather superficial, but for me, I was never more alive.

I did, by the way, book some truly amazing projects for people. The big, expensive, career-making bookings were not consistent, but they happened. An advertising campaign here. A national network TV commercial there.

However, believe it or not, the little bookings are the ones I remember most. I was not supposed to be overly excited about my models appearing in feature photos in magazines ("My Boyfriend Is A Jerk," "How To Tell If She's Cheating"). This was considered low-end work, but every month, I would stand at the magazine rack at Barnes and Noble and marvel when I would see my people appearing in minor shots in Maxim, Cosmo, and Time Out New York. It would be nothing less than a thrill for me.I wanted to approach nearby strangers and point out my models to them. I was so proud.

The same thrill possessed me when I booked my people as extras on Saturday Night Live and Conan O' Brien sketches, or as day players in soap operas, or when I would see them in TV commercials or music videos. I wasn't supposed to get excited over such things. I did, though. Every time.

The little victories are the ones I cherish the most. Because I surprised even myself.

Alexandra Donhoeffner

"I always felt like too cool for school," Alexandra Donhoeffner says about her early feelings on the modeling business. "I thought I was too smart to be a model. My mother is a scientist and my father an entrepreneur.

”My parents looked down on modeling back then, especially my dad. Germany looks at modeling very differently. In the US, beauty pageants are very common. It's common to put makeup on your little kid and put them in a beauty pageant. In Germany, people are outraged about it. It's looked at as the dumbest thing on the planet, because you are pushing someone for their looks and children are getting the worst value system. Their worth is based on how they look and how much lipstick mommy has applied."

However, because of Alexandra’s natural beauty and early, excessive height, fellow Dusseldorfians were coming up to her in the street, insisting that she model -- and not taking no for an answer.

She was an immediate success, walking the European runways for big designers. Her attraction to the business, however, was based on practicality.

"Of course, there was the money aspect," she says. "There were supermodels then, talking about how much money they were making. I thought, 'oh, wow, this industry is very glamorous and these women actually are business savvy.' People kept approaching me and I thought I would make a little pocket money."

She did a little better than pocket money. She had been modeling – for a living – ever since, on many continents. Yet even Alexandra experienced the wrath of rejection, at least at first.

"I went to a well-known agency when I was fifteen," she recalls. "I was incredibly thin, maybe due to the fact that I was very active and I grew up on organic food, very different from the US. I don't think I was even in a McDonald's until I was about fifteen. I had a rather unusual look, with a big head and a tiny body.

"This agency said, ‘you look awkward, you will never be a model, and you are way too skinny.’ I was like, ‘okay, that's it; I am done.’

“The next thing I know, I'm walking down the street, dressed in my funky clothes, and a man starts running after me from inside a store, excitedly shouting 'you're it! You're it!' It turned out that he was one of the top editorial stylists, very flamboyant, but I somehow trusted him instantaneously. A week later, he put me in Style magazine. And I've never modeled before. Everything on the shoot was top notch, very high end. I simply had fun and did not comprehend the impact of this photoshoot."

That started a chain reaction of editorials and runway shows that built her book to overflowing, resulting in a long, warm and easy relationship with the photo lens.

"To be in front of the camera," she says, "I think it comes just like the need for painting or the need for understanding computers. That is, if you enjoy what you do it will come naturally. Creative endeavors fall into place with joy and passion and won’t reveal themselves by force.

”I don't particularly see a difference between my first photo shoot and today, although, of course, each shoot demands a different character from me. Maybe because no shoot can be replicated; you can not compare them."

However, the one big difference may be in her business acumen, which has been chiseled to precision, like her cheekbones. She was forced to develop and hone her savvy since she was a gorgeous young guppy in a tank full of hungry sharks.

"I looked at it as a business," she says. "I laid out my goals to my first agents in terms of 'I want this, this and this.' My attitude didn't earn me best friends, but certainly respect. I was so afraid to be tossed around and to be taken advantage of, since neither of my parents were able to help me, let alone advise me, that I probably came off a bit tough. Which turned out just fine. I was a grown up in a kid’s body."

With both feet planted firmly on the ground, she was still able to take a beautiful flight.

She says, "I was sent to Paris right away and I hit it off there much better than Germany. I was ultimately too awkward for the German market. I had a very angular look. Yet I went to Paris and everybody wanted to book me. In Milan, Paris, Tokyo and New York, I walked many of the top shows without even knowing how big of a deal they were.

”In Germany however, I couldn't get arrested. And Germany was and still is a money market. My agency's idea was to send me to Paris for all the editorials, so that I could come back to work with the big catalogs. That didn't happen then.

"In the editorials, mostly I was plastered with wild makeup in wild settings, often dark and grungy, which didn't fit the clean-cut German industry."

However, America and its commercial market came calling, where Alexandra would ironically fit into the mold of "All-American girl." She found her way to New York, where she was able to successfully toggle between the two very different worlds of fashion and commercial. It was in Manhattan she remained as home base ever since, while traveling to many different markets, each with its own specific demands.

"Modeling allows me to be exposed to so many different cultures, and live life as a grownup very early on," she says. "There are many things I could not have learned in an office environment, nor would I have been happy in another profession. We are all different beings, designed for different careers with our perfect place in life.

”I am very grateful to everyone I encountered through this business; it has my respect and yet can only be taken with a big dose of self-deprecating humor. America has its larger-than-life egos; however the market is a 'safe' one for young girls, compared to Paris or Milan.

"I feel very, very blessed, to always be guided by a force -- some indescribable power which never let me be harmed. No matter what the situation. Of course, there will be a few traveling the world alone -- I was always perfectly safe. And I am very, very grateful for it.

”I learned that no matter what other people’s intentions are, it is none of my business, therefore it will not have an effect on me. It is an inherent understanding that is not really teachable, because it has nothing to do with trained logic. It's knowing who you are and not compromising your values to any amount of money or promises.

"If you are comfortable with taking your top off for a photographer for a lot of money, that may be your thing. It's not mine. Unfortunately, a lot of models don't know what the boundary is.

"It can be a very sex-oriented and foolish business, especially when it gets artistic. Where is the line between artistry and being taken advantage of?"

Today, Alexandra realizes that the rules of the industry are not as rigid as when she was a young teen.

"Everybody's time comes," she says. "This industry is changing so fast. What was considered not okay a few years ago is in demand now. Really edgy looking girls would never be in a Target commercial. Now, they are. Everything is possible nowadays: both very commercial people as well as models who are odd looking, which is simply another word for ‘outside the norm.’ Society is changing. It's aging. It's more multi-cultural than ever.

”It is no longer just black, white or Asian. How many people are mixed today? African American mixed with Asian creates outstandingly beautiful facial features. I think agents are also opening up to a much broader spectrum of possibilities since the demands are expanding as much as our universe."

In this brave new world, Alexandra shares the ultimate importance when taking your place in it:

"What living the model life taught me is that I'll always be okay standing up for myself," she says. "And if there is anything that I want to pass on to younger models, it’s this: know who you are; don't compromise your values.

”In most of us, there is a good little girl or boy who is afraid to do wrong. I can’t tell you how many times I saw models being intimidated by someone threatening them with 'I will tell your agent if you complain.’

”You have to learn to walk a diplomatic line of selling the product but never losing your self worth to the ego of a client. It is also imperative to find a booker who has your best interest in mind, humanly.

”Come from a place of joy and power to this biz. As my favorite author, D. Hawkins, says in the book The Eye of the I, 'power simply is' and honors everyone involved. This is in contrast to force, which needs noise, drama and is a sign of hopelessness.

”Sometimes you may have to say no even to a seemingly great offer. Saying 'no' to others means saying 'yes' to yourself. It ultimately produces the best results for everyone involved when you are congruent. Always."

To see more of Alexandra, please go to http://http://2nyc.net/alexandradonhoeffner/index.html

Anthony Ames

“I had appeared once on a big billboard in Union Square, that took up the whole side of a building,” says actor and model Anthony Ames. “My brother saw it, and he was like, ‘dude, I’m walking down the street and there’s your effing mug on the side of a building!”

There was also the time when Anthony appeared in a story in Men’s Health magazine, and brother Louie marveled again. Says Anthony, “I didn’t care at the time, because it was just a regular job, but my brother was like, ‘dude, you are in an international magazine! That’s pretty cool!'”

Despite his success as a commercial print model, Anthony is not easily phased by it all. In fact, he’s rather unflappable. That may come with being a polished Ivy Leaguer, but maybe not (“after all, George Bush has an Ivy League education too,” he points out.).

Still, Anthony has had a good run since he first arrived in New York in the summer of ’99 and a girl in his acting class eagerly took his headshot over to Gilla Roos. Being the epitome of the All-American boy, he was just what the commercial print casting directors ordered, and they ordered him super-sized (hence, the side of a building).

“In one month I made like ten grand doing this,” he says. “For me, I recognized that I could make some money based on what I looked like. It was nothing more than that. I never had any experience in being invested in getting a job. I was never upset because I didn’t get it or feeling good because I did get it. I never really had that because I never really had all my eggs in that basket, and I didn’t make it mean anything about me when I booked a job or when I didn’t. I’m All-American apple pie. That was my market, and I knew it was pretty limited and I had a good understanding of why I got a job and why I didn’t.”

He grew up in an All-American, apple-pie-eating family, one of five siblings in Atlanta. True to the All-American form, Anthony’s whole life before New York was playing sports.

“I had the option to play football and basketball in college,” he says. “I ended up choosing football. I was a quarterback at Brown and went out for the pros, then decided to go live in New York. I had the opportunity to play football in Europe, but I wasn’t too hot on that.”

New York was more of a hot spot, as well as a hot spot for a hidden passion that he decided to explore further.

“Acting was something I was really thinking about in college,” he says, “but my schedule didn’t permit it. I was a history major. I knew I liked athletics and I knew I liked to read books about history. I also knew I liked acting and entertainment. I wasn’t sure, and I was afraid to pursue all of them. You have certain comfort zones and then you have a lot of things that you don’t have a lot of experience in. The fear of failure comes up. I went into the acting thing sort of unsure of myself because I had never done it. But I just grew from there.”

His experience as an actor fed his success as a model.

“With acting as well as modeling,” he says, “I realized that, more than anything, it’s working on yourself. I think people get into the industry – any industry – because they have a vision of what they want to be in the world, and they want to build that, or they think they can get something from it and make themselves feel better. Models often get validated. They get attention. I got a lot of validation from being successful in one field, and I thought I could do it in another. For me, it became more about exploring why I want to do something. If you want to model, you should ask yourself, ‘why would you want to do it? Why is it important? What part of you are you expressing?'”

The expressing part has always been the most interesting for Anthony, and often the bigger payoff than the paycheck.

“I always have fun,” he says of photo shoots. “You’re getting paid to sit around, most likely with a hot girl, and probably some other people who are pretty cool. It’s a great networking experience. I eat good food. And you laugh and have fun in front of the camera.”

Although he continued to model while pursuing his acting career, he, like thousands of other models, felt the strain of the economy and the changing current of the industry as the new century set in.

“That was the time of all the strikes, and everything shut down,” he says. “I originally thought I would be making ten grand a month. Then it wound up being much less predictable. More sporadic. I would hit hot spots: I would book two jobs in a week and then one in two months. So I really started to get a pulse on how the industry worked and how it didn’t work.”

Taking his career highs and not-so-highs into consideration, his advice for young models, male or female, is crystal clear.

“Be clear on every exchange,” he says of modeling jobs. “There shouldn’t be any problem about being clear in the exchange. That’s why they came up with money. You clean up the leaves in my yard and I give you $20 an hour.

“I never felt like I was in a situation that I couldn’t get myself out of. If you get a feeling in your body, a bad feeling about it, don’t suppress it, don’t ignore it. Address it. Be clear: I’ve got this going on within me. If some clients ‘mad dog’ you, or what I call get ‘big head momentum,’ and raise their voice and get defensive, you probably touched on something. If you’re not clear about where you are going, you are going to be a pinball.

“Don’t be afraid to ask questions in the fear of losing a job. If you lose a job because you asked questions, there is your answer. You didn’t want that job. I ask myself 'why' everyday. Why am I doing this? Why am I doing that? If you don’t get an answer, the question just deepens. The result is that you know you better. And you know how you interface with everything that you’re doing.”

For more information on Anthony, check out www.anthonyames.com

Blanche Mackey

“With beauty shots, it’s all about the beauty. But with headshots, it’s about the humanity,” says esteemed New York headshot photographer Blanche Mackey. “You need to have an insight into someone and be able to get your finger on the pulse of who they are in a relatively short time. If you don’t make that connection, if you don’t have that particular talent, it’s very difficult to get a headshot that really shows who the person might be. Not simply just what they look like. You see many beautiful headshots where people just look gorgeous, but the lights are on and no one is home. You have no idea who this person is past what they look like. That is not a successful headshot.”

Blanche knows about successful headshots. She’s been taking them for quite some time, and is one of the major go-to photographers for actors and models who are looking to take their personal marketing to the next level.

A native of Manhattan who nurtured a life-long love of photography, Blanche has managed to forge a career – and a loyal following – in a business where many come and go.

“Photographers go out of business because no one returns,” she says. “I’ve stayed around because people come back. I just shot somebody yesterday where the first time I shot her was thirteen years ago. She’s come back to me every three years since then.”

She and many others return to Blanche like the birds in spring. Those who swear by her work do so because it is natural and appealing – something that casting directors crave. And even though the world of photography has morphed into a new dimension since Blanche first began clicking, she has managed to stay way ahead of the learning curve.

“The digital age, of course, has streamlined things,” Blanche says. “It’s much easier for clients. There is no waiting for the film to come back. You can look at things as you’re shooting. It has become sort of foolproof. That’s some of the best parts of it but also some of the worst parts of it. Because it’s fool-proof, any fool can get a digital camera and say they are a photographer, if they come out of college and they took Photoshop. However, the cream rises to the top, and the bad gets weeded out after a time. The market, particularly headshots, has gotten so glutted, because everyone thinks they can do it.”

After a short stint as a print journalist and a long soul-searching trip to Mexico, Blanche found her career love connection.

“I started going nuts and started shooting,” she says. I couldn’t put the camera down. It was always people, but it was a lot of street shooting at that time.I wanted to be a fine-arts photographer, but I knew that making a living as a fine-arts photographer was going to be a lot harder than finding some sort of niche. Being a waitress at the time to support myself, I was working with a lot of young models and actors, so I started shooting them. I started building a portfolio that way. They were friends and friends of friends.

“Then I found the studio that I currently have (526 West 26th Street), which I have been in for fourteen years now. Thirteen years ago, the neighborhood was all transvestite hookers. A bit seedy. But great spaces, and you knew that. Now, all these years later, it’s the hottest neighborhood in the city. It’s full of art galleries and clubs. It’s gotten very hip and very expensive. My landlords have been very kind to me, though. And they have not jacked the rent out of the ceiling so I can actually stay here. I’m just in the heart of it now, which is really nice.”

Her studio may be cozy, but Blanche brings a whole world of shooting experience into the space. She learned from some of the best photographers in New York.

“I had the bug and this is what I wanted to do,” she says. “The miracle was, I had a friend who I went to have lunch with at The Riviera Café down in the Village. I’ll never forget this because it was such a turning point for me. She was dating a photographer. He was a young, hot, fashion photographer. I don’t remember his name. I wouldn’t know him if he stood up in my soup. He came along while we were having lunch, and I had a whole bunch of photos from Mexico that I was showing her. So he said, ‘oh, photos, let me see!’ He was looking through them and he said to me, ‘are you a photographer? You should be. You have what you can’t teach anybody. You have an amazing eye. These photos are beautiful.’ This stranger out of nowhere is the person who actually gave me permission to go live my dream.”

She soon connected with theatrical photographer Martha Swope, whom Blanche calls “the doyenne of Broadway photography.” With Swope, Blanche became a staff photographer and shot such stage performers as The Blue Man Group, The Alvin Ailey Dancers, The American Ballet Theater, and Shakespeare in the Park.

“Martha was a really wonderful mentor,” Blanche says. “Very generous. After almost five years of working for her, I wanted to go out on my own. Headshots were most accessible in terms of making a living. Martha knew I had a propensity for it, Whatever headshots came into the studio, she would give to me. I became the studio headshot photographer. So I started to develop a client base and a name.”

Today, Blanche handles a large and loyal list of actors and models, as well as a as a dedicated following of commercial print and lookbook clients. As well, she is enjoying a burgeoning career as a child photographer.

Her advice for young actors and models is rock solid, as she feels that attitude alone will reflect in the photos taken.

“Don’t go into it because you seek fame and fortune and glory and parties,” she says. “Do it because it’s something you really think you want to do. If you’re modeling and you’re not having fun, and you’re not fully, one-hundred per cent there, then you are not going to get good pictures, no matter what the photographer does. That’s because you have to bring your spirit to it.

“If you’re just kind of showing up and think it’s going to be easy, like ‘I was born beautiful so I can be a model,’ it doesn’t work that way. Many beautiful people don’t make it as models, and that’s because they don’t have the passion or the discipline, or they get too involved in the life of the model instead of the work of the model. They are out partying until three or four or five in the morning and showing up at the jobs looking like hell. And late. And the photographer doesn’t want to work with them again.

“You really need to be professional and focused and serious, with anything and any job you do. A lot of young people have to understand the work ethic, and it takes a lot of work. Just because you’re great looking and you’re twenty years old, doesn’t’ automatically mean that the world is yours, particularly with young people where the emphasis is all on their beauty. I think it is a curse in some ways, when the first thing everybody reacts to is beauty. Then their value system gets skewed.

“I think the people who are healthiest in the business are people who come from families where they are not making appearance the most important part of who they are, and they are teaching them to work hard and teaching values past the surface. And then they can go into the modeling world, which, yes, on some levels is superficial, but it’s also a very important part of our economy, our aesthetic as a society. But nothing is easy. Nothing ever worth anything is easy.”

To see more of Blanche’s work, go to www.blanchemackey.com

Bryn Taylor, Stylist

“There is this mystique of the fashion industry itself that it’s all very glamorous,” says stylist Bryn Taylor. “I often talk to younger women who think being a stylist would simply be the greatest job in the world. But it’s about ten per cent glamour and about ninety percent grunt work when you first start. If you really want to be a stylist, you have to be prepared to really be in the trenches for a long, long time. You really have to commit yourself to it. You are not going to just go in there and be this glamorous person who gets to throw clothes on beautiful models. It takes a long, long time and it takes a lot of work.”

Bryn served her time in her share of foxy foxholes. In those trenches, she worked hard making a name for herself as one of the more preferred stylists in the highly competitive New York fashion market.

Originally, her goal was the stage -- on it and not behind it. The New Jersey native and Northwestern University graduate took her love for theatre and transferred it to the modeling industry.

“After school, I moved out to LA, and I tried acting for a while,” she recalls. “But I just kind of fell out of love with it. Instead, I really got interested in costume design. There wasn’t a lot of theater in LA, but I did find it, and I got into designing costumes for some small theater groups out there. When I moved back to New York, I was still part of a theater group, but I was really more into wardrobing and helping costume designers.”

Whether setting the look for a magazine editorial or a runway show, Bryn incorporates her love for theater, as well as some other passions.

“I tend to be struck by magazines that combine art, design, architecture, and fashion,” she says. “Paper magazine is one that comes to mind. Also, Surface. To see a building or artwork that they’re showcasing interests me, just the angles and the colors and how that comes together. I’ll get ideas for an editorial that I may want to collaborate on with a photographer. Or I’ll get an idea for colors or shapes that I might want to combine.”

Bryn prefers company when she builds her concept. She is more of a team player than a lone diva.

“Personally, I love collaboration,” she says. “I love to get input from people I am working with. I don’t necessarily want them to be doing my job, but I really love to hear what people have to say. I really don’t like putting something out there, whether it’s being photographed or walking down the runway, and having someone hesitant to tell me or critique me. I would love to just get input from everyone else. Everyone has an opinion about what it is going to look like.

“This business is absolutely based on taste and opinion. But once you find people who agree with your tastes and opinions, you’re good. There is a certain standard and aesthetic in the industry. From the feedback that you get and the jobs that keep coming in, you kind of realize that you are getting there; that you are on par with their looks, with the industry’s ideas. And you can shift and evolve from there.”

According to Bryn, that collaboration effort extends to the models as well.

“We love when models really give us something,” she says about creative teamwork. “The hardest thing is for a model to come in and we’ll start shooting and we’ll really have to direct her, down to how to pose her head and her face. The model often needs to take charge and give us some ideas in that way. Otherwise, it’s really kind of a lost cause. I say, bring personality and brains and assertiveness to it.”

Wise advice, but of course, often easier said than done in the thick of the fashion shoot, when the static electricity is not just on the clothes.

“Everybody is on edge,” Bryn says of a typical job. “When everybody walks on set for a shoot, you can feel that tension in the air. No one really knows each other, for the most part. You don’t really know how concepts are going to blend, how it’s going to work out. Models may be uncomfortable because they may not know us. I try to make it a relaxed, humorous environment. My personality really is laid back. I try to make jokes. I have a self-deprecating manner. I don’t want anyone to think of me as a pretentious, untouchable type. I always ask the models if they’re comfortable; if they want to change in another room or if they want me to be with them. It’s always about them first. It’s about their comfort zone. I’m not pushing myself on them. Once they understand that I am offering them a choice, then they relax and we get more out of it and the mood calms down.”

As more photographers and models gravitate toward Bryn’s comfort zone, she discovers more excitement that is waiting in the wings of the ever-evolving business.

“When I think of the New York market, I think more of art, of the edge,” she says. “I think of myself as creating art. I don’t think of it as much as from the glamour aspect or the va-va-voom aspect of it, which is why I think New York is the only place I can possibly do this. I can pull all these artistic elements into my art. The New York market, for me, is the only place I can think of where everything is art.

“I tend to go a little edgier sometimes. I love vintage pieces, but I’ll throw modern takes into them. I can’t really pinpoint my style per se, because it really does change all the time. It depends really on what we’re going for.

“I tend to be a little more minimal, accessories-wise. I’ll really try to focus on one piece, as opposed to throwing everything on the model. I like cleaner lines. I like bolder colors. I like the architectural type look.

“When I first started, I was very girlie and very romantic. It was very soft and feminine. I think now I am trying to focus more on the angles and the colors. It’s just fresher and more modern. But it always evolves.”

Much of it evolves from her theatrical roots.

“I approach it like a play,” she says. “That’s my background. If you’re designing something for a character, you have to know the background, know the story, know who the person is. I, as a stylist, pull all of these elements together, to create a character or to create a vision. If it’s for an editorial, it’s creating something that’s cohesive and has a common thread. I love to look for different ingredients and put them all together. As opposed to being a designer, where their talent is amazing. But they create from nothing. I like to have my raw materials in front of me, almost like my paintbrushes."

Watching designers on the upswing is one of Bryn’s favorite spectator sports; in fact, often she’ll get hands-on with these up-and-comers.

“I’m a real advocate of young designers and new designers,” she says. “It’s so amazing to me that they are trying to create a name for themselves. When I see a designer who is almost there, I just get so excited.”

The excitement, with Bryn on the scene, is contagious.

To see some of Bryn’s amazing and extensive portfolios, go to http://bryntaylormade.com

Henry Tibensky

“My first job was being a Seventeen boy,” recalls Henry Tibensky of his first modeling gig, in a feature for Seventeen magazine. “A group of girls are running after me down a street in Queens. That was my first shoot and I didn’t know what to expect. No one taught me anything. No one told me what was going to happen. They dropped me off on a street corner with all these girls there. And I had no idea that it was going to be an eight-hour shoot in Queens, running up and down the street with all these girls chasing me, yelling, 'Henry, Henry!'”


Ultimately, being thrown into the proverbial pool is nothing new for Henry, himself a lifelong swimmer. He sports a hardcore lifestyle of diving in head first, even when attempting something rather off-the-Great-Wall, like heading to China to teach English to six-year-olds.

“I didn’t speak one word of Chinese,” he says of that experience. “In fact, it didn’t occur to me until I was on the flight over.” And with that swimmer’s mentality doggy paddling throughout his life, he states, “I’ve always gone with the flow. I sort of find my way while experiencing. I try to move forward.”

That included giving the modeling world the old college try.

A native of Oak Park, Illinois (he attended the same high school as Ernest Hemingway and Dan Castellenata, the voice of Homer Simpson), he was scouted on campus while studying poly-sci at Yale. Before long, he was cramming for finals while on the train to castings and auditions in Manhattan.

His Nordic good looks were a no-brainer for the magazine feature editors and the commercial casting directors; he was booking immediately, covering the spectrum from the shallow end (tiny feature stories) to the deep end (major advertising for serious advertisers like Redken hair products).

“Redken was the biggest campaign that I did,” he recalls. “It was a great shoot. It was great to get pampered for the day. They gave me a million dollar haircut! The only problem is that they’re still using the picture four years later!”

He also dabbled in acting (he was up for a role on a soap), but he recalls now, “I enrolled in Stella Adler classes for about three months. It was brief and it wasn’t enough. It’s a tough business, and you really have to know how to do it well to make it big. “

That often involves a high dive on a gusty day, where many others don’t have the guts to venture up the ladder.

“I’m always excited to do something new, something exciting,” he says. “I’ve always been interested in new things but I never really dreamt of one particular thing. I have always juggled a lot of different activities and that’s where modeling came in.”

Although he was captain of his water polo team, and excelled as a varsity swimmer and baseball player, nothing quite prepared him for the bizarro world of modeling.

He says, “My whole life, I had a baseball coach or I had a teacher teaching me [his mom, in fact, is a Spanish teacher]. With modeling, you just get thrust into this whole world that you have no idea about and you just have to do what you’re supposed to do while at the very same time figuring out how to do it.

“When I first began, I didn’t understand how to model and I didn’t understand how the business worked. And that was the toughest part for me, not understanding the in’s and out’s of the business. Some of the other guys understood the biz and took it much more seriously than I did. That’s part of my regret that I didn’t take it seriously enough.”

His modeling career was short-lived, but he racked up a number of credits that other male models might only dream of. And although he has not ruled out another shot at the modeling big-time, for this particular lap he would make his re-entry being a bit older and wiser, but still very commercially viable.

“You’re selling a product,” he says. “You’re a salesman. You have to realize that is what you are doing. Until you realize that, you are never going to do great work. You’re never going to get all the jobs. You really have to leave all your worries and inhibitions at the door and take on a unique character. You really have to visualize what you’re going to do before you do it. And at the same time, you have to work with the people around you, the photographer, the client, the agent and listen to them and try to adapt to what they’re telling you. People should really, really know what they’re getting into when they get into it.”

Regrets? He’s had a few, but then again, too few to mention.

“Of course, I wish I knew back then what I know now,” he says, “One of my biggest regrets was not going all out for the acting and the modeling. I really wish I had gone all out and given it my all. I wish I would have a had a goal in mind, focused on that goal, and realized that modeling and acting could have been a career, or even a career for a short time. It takes a lot of work and discipline to do it well. Yes, there is a lot of fun that goes with it. Parties, ladies. But you have to treat it like a profession if you're going to make it one."

His bright flash of realization came not in the noisy hustle and bustle of New York, but in faraway China, where they were wild about Henry and his “exotic” look for print advertising.

“I went to China on a whim. My friend told me, ‘Henry, you’d love Shanghai.’ So there I went,” he says. “I took some of my headshots and my New York modeling portfolio. In Shanghai, western models still have a lot of clout. The Chinese still respect our culture and America as a whole so it was fairly easy to start landing jobs. I emailed a few contacts with my headshots and pretty soon I was doing a runway show and some print work. I loved Shanghai and China so much, that I canceled my flight home and stayed for another six months.”

It was in this city of 12 million to 16 million people (the government’s not quite sure) where he learned to work the camera.

“My best shoot was the very last shoot I did, when I was living in Shanghai,” he says. “For some reason, it just clicked; it was like a mini-epiphany where all of the sudden I just understood how to model. I forgot that the lense was there, but instead worked with the people in the room.”

For now, he busies himself with legal work in Manhattan, and this is where he’ll stay – for now.

“New York,” he muses, “I don’t know. Something always pulls you back in. New York is so efficient, so vibrant. Everybody is so good at what they do. It’s easy to live your whole life with such efficiency. You can go 100 blocks in fifteen minutes. You can get a slice of pizza at four in the morning. You can do your Christmas shopping without having to get in a car. There’s a magnetism here and maybe that’s why this is the first time I’ve been in one place for more than eight or nine months.”

For Henry, that’s about as quick as a New York minute. And often the window of opportunity for modeling is even quicker.

He says, “What they judge you on is a thirty-second pose for a Polaroid.”

Yet one more lap in the pool is still a possibility, since the first time around, the water was fine.

“I would never rule it out,” he says. “Who knows? Next week is a new week.”

Ken Hammerschmidt

“There is something called an ‘editorial king,’” says former model Ken Hammerschmidt. “It doesn’t mean that you’re king of anything. It means that you have an interesting look, and at the time you work well for the stories that they’re putting in the magazines. You get to do a lot of magazines and you get to have a lot of fun. You maybe get a little prestige from that. But when it comes to the money jobs, like a JC Penney catalog, you’re not going to translate into that.”

Ken, in his brief but wild ride as an editorial male model, was more of a prince than a king, but he had come a long way and made a lot of inroads, mostly due to his determination and self-discipline. As well, his mid-western work ethic (he hails from Mankato, Minnesota) worked well in The Big City. When New York finally called him, he came prepared to work – he had the look that New York was after.

“From my perspective,” he says, “the look I was going for was more pale. I had really good skin. Cool hair. I was in the best shape of my life. Two-to-three per-cent body fat. A lot of muscles showing. I had a clear complexion. A strong jawline and a strong nose. Sharp cheekbones. All that combined made for a possibility of making it in the business.”

Everything was good to go, except for one “small” detail: he was 5’8 ¾”.

Even under normal circumstances, being a successful, regularly working male model is a tall order, but height is a major consideration when booking jobs.

Regarding this roadblock, he says, “I always knew I was one big reason away from why I shouldn’t be a model. I figured, I’ll get pictures, and if I’m supposed to be a model, they’ll be spectacular, and things are just going to take off. If not, I have pictures of me, and the time of my life of sorts. Maybe I could get a job or two around Minneapolis. There is a small market in Minneapolis and people do get jobs. There are a handful of people who can do the entertainment business for a living out of Minnesota.”

Although he was born with the look that modeling agencies drool over, he claims, “I wasn’t discovered. Through all my life, I’ve had people here and there say I have an interesting look: ‘You can maybe be a model.’ Just random people here and there. And you just take it with a grain of salt. But it starts to grow on you after a while. I always wanted to be a part of the entertainment business, but knowing the competitive nature of it, I don’t know what the realities would have been.”

He started out with baby steps, enrolling in the Caryn International modeling training camp, out of Minneapolis, just to see what kind of hand Fate would deal him.

“I already had my [mass communications] degree,” he says. “So I figured it was time to get my feet wet and have some fun with modeling. At this camp, you pay to get some pictures taken and some comp cards done. I knew what it was going in. A lot of people look at it as a scam; I looked at it as a fantasy camp where I got to pretend to be a model for a day and I could get these pictures and go out in the world and see what happens. They give you tips on how to get into the business; they give you tips on your looks. They set you up with a good photographer.

“From what I understand, they had a couple big names that have come through their agency, and of course they promote those names as part of their training. Sean William Scott is the big name that they brought up at the introduction. He supposedly went there for some acting classes before he took off to LA and became famous.”

Once his feet were wet, he started sending out comp cards and resumes to the smaller agencies around Minnesota.

“I didn’t even know if I could get one agency,” he said. “I just waited for responses and I got a handful. The first one I got was Perfectly Petite, which was an agency in the Midwest where they deal with shorter models. So I thought, that’s perfect – they’ll accept me for who I am. That’s about what I expected – people coming to them are looking for people who are shorter than expected.

“I was thrilled to death to be represented by Perfectly Petite. I also got represented by Meredith. There are about five agencies that are considered agencies you want to be with, and Meredith is one of those, and I was happy about that.

“I was also repped by Arquette and Associates, which was an upstart. They were intriguing because they came out of Los Angeles and they had an agency there, so they could possibly get me castings in the big market. That’s kind of what they were promoting they could do for you. At that point, I had three agencies, and I got turned down by two or three others. They just sent me letters and said that I was ‘on file.’”

The jobs, at first, were low-level and modest.

“I started getting a couple minor castings for hair shows,” he says. “I got a small little runway show for a mini-mall. I got a twenty-fifth anniversary show for the City Pages out of Minneapolis. The artist made all the clothes out of newspaper. I got to wear pants made out of The City Pages. And I did the runway show for them. Small little magazines around Minneapolis. I got into a little magazine called The Industry. That was body work.

“I got one job with a company called Pineapple Appeal. I was twenty-six years old at the time, and everybody else was between twelve and seventeen. We were all supposed to be huddled together with our arms around each other. I had my one arm around this girl who was like fifteen. They were just so young and I felt like a dirty old man. We were smiling at this camera like we were a bunch of little kids.

“I also got involved with Mannequin in Motion. It’s like when you dress up as a mannequin of sorts. You might see them at tourist attractions. People are dressed up as statues. You stand in one spot, and if you do move, you move kind of like a robot. I did about seven or eight gigs with Mannequin in Motion. I thought anything and everything could lead to something else.”

Still, he had the larger markets in the back of his mind.

“In my heart of hearts,” he says, “I knew that if I had a chance to go to a big market, I had to take it. There is no going back at that point. I would hate to say ‘what if?’ But at the point I was at, I figured it was going to be a fun hobby, something to do, something to talk about. It was cool to me. If I could get two castings a month, it would be a bonus. I’ll just go out and use these comp cards that I now have, and then that would be it.”

Then the Big Time came calling. Vision, a well-respected agency out of Minneapolis, got a hold of Ken’s comp card.

“They told me they liked my look,” he says. “Vision is known for their high fashion. They are looking for a very particular high-fashion model. They’re a boutique. They specialize in getting these models into bigger markets. I went to them and they wanted me to be exclusive for two years, and I thought that was kind of a bummer, because I had just met up with these other three agencies and I was now on their websites. I was ready to go; I had a good relationship. So I said no. I said I would love to be with you guys, but not exclusively. They said, ‘fine, you don’t know what you’re missing.’ They took Polaroids of me anyway. They sent the Polaroids out to New York and Paris and some in LA.

“About a month later, they called me back and said that people are interested. At the time, I was just blown away by the fact that an agency in New York would even look at me, because of my height.”

Eventually, his arm was successfully twisted and he signed exclusively with Vision. They sent him to New York, where he had never been and had no contacts, but stayed for eight-and-a-half months.

“I had a budget,” he says, “and I knew that when my money was gone, that if I had not made any money or had a future in making money, that I would probably just have to call it. I didn’t know that I was going to quit the business, but I knew that it was time to go home. After eight and a half months I was pretty much broke. I felt that I had peaked with my look and what my look could offer. I gained some editorial success. I was very happy with that. Doing what I had done with my height just blew my mind.”

It was the call of the cattle, and the endless auditions and castings, that gave him an up-close view of the inner-workings of the modeling gears.

“Going on castings was pretty interesting,” he says. “It’s funny to be a part of it. I never saw myself as this high-fashion, intense person. And I would look around and see all these people. It was like being in this exotic land. You walk into a room and there are all of these interesting-looking people from all around the world, and there I am amongst them. Being at a casting just blew my mind, that I was even considered a part of it. Of course, being shorter than most of the women, blew my own mind in my own head. The guys, of course, towered over me.

“The whole first couple weeks, the whole process of taking Polaroids and trying to get jobs is just so intense, but you love every minute of it. You’re finally living the life that you’ve seen on TV a thousand times over.”

Now, Ken is back home and working the overnight shift in a custodial capacity at a local college. It’s not exactly the glam life he lead for almost nine months in New York, but it’s where he gets a good salary and benefits, plus partially free tuition. He is unsure of his next move, but he knows that his modeling experiences will influence the way he moves through life.

“The number one thing that it showed me,” he says, “was how difficult it is to actually make it and how much competition there actually is. It actually gave me more respect for anybody in any form of entertainment, just knowing what they go through. All the pressures of physical looks and just trying to live off the seat of your pants and live day to day with no money. It just gave me more respect for the whole entertainment business. Everyone from photographers who have been trying to make it for the last ten to fifteen years, to the actors who are trying to get a gig, to the models who have been all over the world and barely have a dime to their name but have the experience to show for it.”

Ken is willing to share his experience with anyone considering venturing on a similar path.

He says, “If I were to talk to someone who was just about to go out to a bigger market, I would definitely say, ‘don’t do anything you’ll regret as far as relationships with people in the industry.’ There is a lot of opportunity to do that. Also, try to enjoy it, regardless of whether you will get jobs or not. It’s a different type of experience. It’s tough. But I’m always searching for things that excite me. I always want to be working on something that inspires me. It helps the inspirational process to find out who you are and who you want to be.”

Ken is currently working on a screenplay called "Two Inches Too Paris," which documents his experiences in the modeling business.

Kinga

“I worked in a high-end nightclub for ten years,” says Kinga, now an in-demand New York makeup artist, as he reminisces about his heady early days. “I was a very recognizable club kid. It gave me a lot of notoriety. I was interviewed by the news. Because I was out there. I wasn’t really being used for anything other than for what I looked like. Then I decided to turn that into music and I got a little bit of notoriety from that, because I had a little bit of talent. I had a regional hit song. But that gets you things, like interviews. I got around. I have posters of myself.”

During the karma chameleon era of Culture Club and Dead or Alive, Kinga, with his spectacular, eye-popping makeup and boy/girl look, was nothing less than out there. And yet, his warm, quiet, folksy, almost midwestern demeanor would surprise you. The last way that Kinga would describe himself is as an “extrovert.”

“You would think that that would be the case,” he said. “The way I looked for ten years, I don’t want to say I looked like Ru Paul, but more like a Boy George. Androgynous. Bizzare. I discovered that I really wasn’t an extrovert, but when I walked into a room, everybody looked at me, so does that mean that I really am an extrovert? It actually gave me anxiety. I was just being who I was.

“I would disappoint people, because I looked like the type of person who would party all night. However, I’ve got extreme family values. Working in a nightclub for ten years, I made money, and it was good money, but I never partied with it. I never did drugs with it. I had never been a drug user, or an alcohol abuser.”

However, the 24-hour party-people turned their heads in his unavoidable, alluring direction, and led him to discover one of the few hidden secrets he didn’t wear on his sleeve: makeup artistry. He honed and developed this skill so that he could share it with the beautiful people, and make them even more beautiful than they believed themselves to be.

“That’s where I learned to do makeup,” he says. “I never took any training as a makeup artist; I just started doing it on myself. Then I started doing it on other people, once people realized I could do it. Local musicians would come to me. I would do it for free even. Basically, rock and roll is where I got my roots.”

He made his way to New York from a small town in the Upper Northwest, near Seattle. It was in The Big, Fabulous Apple where he found he could be more understood, but only to a point.

“I would get called to do record covers because they knew I had talent,” he says. “But I find it way easier to do my own face than to do other people’s. I personally didn’t realize I had a talent.

“I stopped doing makeup for ten years when I finally took my face off. Then, ten years later, when I realized I didn’t have a career, I wondered, what can I do? I’m not corporate. I don’t look conservative. I’m too old to be a musician, and I already tried to be a musician.”

In fact, he opened for Deee-Lite, and like they sing in their mega-smash, “Groove Is In the Heart,” Kinga was “going to dance and have some fun.”

“I never thought I was ever going to be on this side of the business,” he says. “I assumed I was going to be on the other side of the business, as a talent. At around thirteen, I did a little TV training, and I thought I would be an actor. By the time I was sixteen, I was so crazy looking as a result of being part of the whole post-punk scene. By that time, we’re talking about the whole Boy George thing.”

Today, Kinga works faces full-time, but his emphasis has switched to soft and warm from hard and wild, both in his makeup style and in his communication with the models.

“I want this to be an enjoyable experience for the person I am doing it on,” he says. “So I try to communicate with the person without driving them crazy. Put them at ease. You have to be very close, you have to touch people. It’s often nerve wracking to be that close, but this really is physical contact between two people.”

The application of makeup is delicate, as is the handling of clients’ feelings.

“I’m a little delicate myself, so it can be hard,” he says, regarding dealing with egos both astronomical and flimsy. “I hate to be told no. But you are going to get a lot of ‘no,’ and you have to rethink how you can make it work for you. When I was a musician, the reality struck me one day that this would be a bad move to continue down this path. But now, I’m doing makeup. I just branched. You find a different road. You have to be realistic.

“There are a lot of delusional people. A lot of people who think they are a model, but you have to ask yourself, are you the right height? Do you photograph well? But actually, I would never say to somebody, you can’t. It’s like if you said to Madonna in the early eighties when she first arrived in New York, ‘you can’t sing like Aretha Franklin; you’ll never succeed.’ I’m a very, very cautious person that way.”

As well, it is caution under the gun.

“I always like to book more time than what is realistic,” he says. “I can’t do it in twenty minutes. If you use me, I need at least the block of an hour, but let’s be safe. You might want to have a cigarette. Your cell phone might ring. My airbrush might jam up. Something can go wrong. Let’s have an hour and a half. The longer you have, the better.

“I did the Legends portion of [AMC’s] Mad Men. It was hard. Ten minutes per person. I did my job in ten minutes. And I’m not having a coffee while I’m doing someone’s makeup. I get down to business. You have to organize before you get there. There has got to be a lot of things with your kit that should always be organized. You always have to know where your stuff is.”

Still, being as subjective a business as it is, it all boils down to the brush and the stroke of opinion and temperament.

“There are people who are going to take it out on you,” he says. “Models want to look flawless. I do my best, but I don’t rely on post-production. I am stunned by certain makeup artists who rely on the photographer to do their work in post-production, where they may say, ‘the photographer is going to perfect it.’

“Women who see my website often assume that I am making them look as perfect as that image. That’s an impossibility. Post-production is imperative, but no makeup artist should rely on it.”

Still, given the wide range of faces Kinga has to work with, he is able to flex his creative makeup muscles, no matter who is sitting in the chair.

“There are only so many rabbits you can pull out of a hat,” he says. “Although, there are rabbits you can pull out of a hat.”

As a result of this rabbit pulling, Kinga has built quite the reputation as a magical miracle worker.

“I once had a person who was really hard looking, and she needed to be softened up,” he says. “So you get in there with your special techniques. Contouring. Shadow and light. How am I going to make this face look better with shadow and light? I think a lot of makeup artists just apply makeup. But what was the first thing I learned? Contour.”

Airbrush is another technique that is a huge consideration in the makeup of makeup.

“The ten years I was away from makeup, I got rid of all my stuff,” he says. “I didn’t have anything left over. So when I came back, I took a little refresher course to figure out how airbrush was. There were a couple things I wasn’t certain of, like how to makeup hygienically. I hadn’t done makeup in ten years, so I did feel a little bit green at that point. Once I got myself out of the class and gotten myself organized, I realized that I shouldn’t have taken the class. You don’t have to go and train to be a makeup artist. You just have to have talent. It’s just something you just have to somehow do. But go to a class if you want to go to a class.

“I’m an airbrush artist now. People assume it’s cutting edge. I don’t think it’s cutting edge. Somebody with a sponge and a brush can do it just as good as an airbrush. I think the reason that airbrush is important is the high definition. There is a theory that sponge and a brush might ‘show up.’ But big pores still are big pores whether they are airbrushed or not. Wrinkles on the face are still wrinkles on the face.”

Men too, get makeup, but as Kinga notes, “For men, I’m not allowed to use the word ‘makeup’; I’m supposed to use the word 'grooming' for men. You can take a guy and do lots of contouring and lots of shadows and light, and really improve their look. It’s just that the makeup can’t be apparent. That’s the real key.”

With his career firmly established, he is now keeping busy with a steady flow of magazines, shows and print advertising. He had come a long way from his original career search.

“I didn’t have a specific idea of what to do as a career,” he says. “I was floundering. The minute I decided to do makeup as a career, I was so focused. That’s it. Every day I feel confident, that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. And that’s a wonderful feeling. At all times, I am studying things. My creative eye is always looking around. Just walk around the streets of New York City and you will get your inspiration.”

For a closer look at Kinga and his amazing work, go to www.kingamakeup.com