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.