How to Be a Truly Great Artistic Model

While I am not young, perfect, or uberlean, I have made many photographers feel exuberant when working with me as a model. I have had one photographer after another tell me I am the best model he has ever worked with, often over a long career. I wasn’t born with natural charisma, being non photogenic and shy in younger years. I would like to share with you how you can be an artistic model too.

It isn’t my body’s shape. I do keep in shape by working out, yoga, walking, biking, dancing, and a lot of athletics under the sheets. It is a given that you should be as fit as possible, and eat healthy foods. But still, I myself have many flaws; and health issues have left their mark. Being able to avoid self-consciousness about my imperfections makes all the difference, however. I have a large bust, which at times can be useful, obviously particularly for men’s magazines, but as I do very little of that work, their size is almost irrelevant in many cases. Sometimes photographers are drawn to working with a large breasted woman. But traditionally, fine art photography models are not busty.

I do accentuate my hair color with natural henna, and I feel the red color has helped somewhat with getting attention by photographers, as it is an artistically fetching color. Anything you can do to make yourself stand out, with pizzazz and memorable feature accentuation can be helpful. Often, however, the photographs are black and white, or the artist is making clay figurines of me, and hair color is not what drew them to me.

I am in a variety of modeling sites, and some give chances to write a descriptive profile. At times I have posted ads on craigslist to model, and taken advantage of the chance to wax poetic. Don’t describe yourself in a mundane way. Reach into what it is that makes you special, put forth a strong statement, write with verve and grace. Create a vibrant persona. You are not just your appearance, but energy, a soul, a force of nature. This is really what most photographers respond to if they are interested in creating artistic works. They have a hankering to capture precious human beauty and show it to the world, evoking a deep, heartfelt response from their audience. It is this level of interaction they are most often looking for in a model, and let them know in your description that you are ready to go there with them, capture your own essence, or the essence of their artistic vision. The photographers and artists want to be truly seen as well. A modeling session is interactive. Refine who you are not only as you, but in relationship.

Being real with the photographers goes a very, very long way. Be all that you are, a whole person, rather than getting too caught up in your looks, or the idea that you are a model. What else are you, what else can you bring to the photosession, and how can you make the photographer feel about his work and life in general, just naturally? The photographer who is going for artistic content may well be doing his work out of pure creativity, the desire to create beautiful images that represent his inner self. So approaching a session as a simple job, with you as a physical being, with polite distance between you too emotionally, and with being paid as your focus can leave an artist cold. He may wonder why he is spending his time doing something so clinical. He wants to share himself with you, have a human connection, within prescribed boundaries. He wants to have an experience that touches him and that is how he knows it will also touch the audience. I know this not only from modeling for many photographers, but also because I am myself a photographic artist working with many, many models. He wants to be transformed, and you can help that happen. Reach into your deepest resources as a being to bring forth the best, most euphoric, productive, and life changing few hours possible. Put that out as your intention to the Universe: that you will channel though spirit in a way that is enlivening for all involved. I didn’t say this is how to be a good model; this is how to be a great one.

Much of your power to create a spark on paper is through your eyes. If your eyes are vacant, too harsh, expressing insecurity or hesitancy, boring thoughts, a non electric sensibility, the shoot is often worthless. Even though eyes are tiny, they influence the whole image more than anything else, and the facial expressions in general show more than you may realize they do. Work like an actress to express whatever mood it is the photographer is going for. Get into character. And see yourself as a character, pushing your personality to the surface, celebrating it. Still, only showing the individual personality has limitations. We are much larger than simply our incarnated selves. We are spirit, large, maybe endless, connected with all things, divine power manifest. I am not talking about any particular religious belief, but just in general terms, even quantum physics terms. For me, being able to bring through that spiritual energy through my eyes has been a phenomenal aspect of a rewarding modeling life. If I work with a photographer who is tuned in to me, especially if he has worked with me often, we find an uncanny synchronicity with the shooting timing. Just as I gather and intensify and project the energy through my eyes to the camera, and thus to the audience of the image, the photographer will feel the precise moment and shoot the photo. This has amazed me each time it’s happened, even if it occurs hundreds of times in one evening.

Using your body, you want to tighten your muscles, feel the power of expressing through them. Sometimes photographers or artists will want very relaxed poses. Definitely relaxed and balanced facial muscles are necessary for good appearance. It’s good to be able to melt into languorous supine positions, or play goofily on film. However, being able to create a splash with excitement through muscle tension, dynamic poses expressing power and potency, drama, and strength is important for making your mark as a model. Standing there like you normally would, or in poses you are placed in doesn’t create the kind of fire we are talking about here.

Practice poses, looking in the mirror, seeing what looks good. You will be called on to come up with most poses yourself, and the better you can do that, the happier the photographer or artist will be. So many photographers have complained to me about models not knowing how to come up with poses, having boring poses, doing the same thing, with the same stock expressions over and over, being lifeless, too superficial. Practice posing as if you are dancing. Get into it, and enjoy it. Try doing interpretive dance, acting out the essence of anything, a bird, an animal, a plant, a concept, whatever brings you new ways of moving you never would have thought of before.

Photographers and models both are known to be “flakey” when it comes to seeing up artistic shoots. If you can be known for actually going to shoots you schedule, keeping up communications, being on time, having all the details straight, you will be very appreciated.

But primarily, think of expressing, not only through your eyes and muscles, but your face, the angle you hold it at, the subtle changes that make each image unique, the open glimpse into your soul. Imagine you are talking to your favorite movie star, or a man you have a crush on, and think about how you move, are aware of and project your qualifications for being loved and seen for who you are. Your face would look different at those moments, more lit up, more alive, more intense. Being a great model means moving beyond even this, though, to keep that sense of beauty and specialness, but to express a wide range of feelings. Really get into the character you are playing. This may require screaming, crying, turning red with anger, burning with lust, haughtiness, edgy avant-garde explorations, childlike innocence, surreal, or bizarre moments, full on laughter, irony, or any number of expressions. Being an artistic model very often requires you to have the range to push yourself to your edges of your experience, and to be creative, extreme, subtle, much more than just a pretty face. This is where most models fall short, according to photographers I have talked with. Models tend to get stuck on the idea they are supposed to be like mannequins. Boring.

Being a great model requires getting in touch with your inner greatness as a whole person, your photographer’s inner greatness, and showing reverence for the greatness of life itself.