toward the center

On Sunday, I'm doing a shoot in Kansas City, actually a series of shoots. I'm visiting there for a conference, and will be making a presentation on Monday and Tuesday, so basically am flying in a day early to have a little personal time.

This started as an excuse to shoot with a photographer friend there, someone I haven't seen in three years, someone who I think is really talented and has a style very different than mine. It's creative time, a chance to bounce ideas around and share a little creative energy. It's a chance to shoot for the fun of it, without a lot of expectations.

Initially I contacted two models from the general region, one I've worked with before, another who has a good reputation. Both wanted to shoot, but the timing didn't really work, one is going to be out of town this weekend, the other is only off work on weekdays. So we decided to throw it open, and I posted an online casting call on one of the big web-model sites.

I tried to scare them away, wrote the post in a way that I hoped would discourage mainstream girls. I have no interest in doing cheesy glam. I really didn't expect to get a lot of responses.

To date, I've heard from 15 models, and the responses are still rolling in.

We've long since chosen four; two for the morning, two for the afternoon. I'm assuming that one or two will cancel, if not it will be a pleasant surprise... to be honest, a couple of these girls are reaching, they've very inexperienced. If their courage holds, they're going to gain some useful practice and add quite a bit to the quality of their portfolios. That's especially true for the one who has nothing now that even approaches technically competent. She said that she hoped I'd see potential in her despite the lack of experience, and I do. Actually, I'm excited about one of the four, and think it's possible to do good things with all of them.

Once past those four, it falls off quickly. There's one more that's cute and confident, but she's a glam girl, not my style. Actually most of them do cheesy glam, apparently they can't or don't read because the post ruled that out. Several want to "make it big" or become a "top model." These are serious red flags. If they want to be on the cover of Maxim... which is usually what this means... they're approaching the wrong photographer. Phrases like that also imply a lack of grounding in the real world, especially when they come from girls who are perhaps cute enough to get hit on a lot in bars, but who are in little danger of suddenly becoming charismatic. It's sad, in a way. Some of them sound like they want it so badly. What have we, as a society, created? I really would rather not be the one to break the news that it takes more than looks to get by in the world.