Differences between American Fashion Models and European Fashion Models.

While quite a few photographers had a remark on the subject, I choose to focus on the comments made by a qualified photographer with over 20 years in the community. His feedback were very informative and intriguing, to say the least. Whether they are true or not is of course unknown, and your experiences may vary greatly.

Photographer Interview:

Me: How long have you been in the fashion model marketplace?

Photographer:  I started about 20 years ago shooting for a small online organization that worked with stock pics. Mostly I worked with freelance models and generated the content that the provider would later sell along with the picture license. After about 2 years I branched out on my own and started to work in the fashion field. My job was 100% in the USA for the first few years and I worked well with models ranging from formal evening wear, designer outfits, to Playboy style artistic work and entertainment magazines like Maxim. I treated the job as a expert and always worked with top level models.

Me: So when did you start touring abroad to work with models and what distinction did you recognize?

Photographer:  My initial trip to Europe was about 6 years ago. I started out performing in Prague. The commitment for this built up progressively over time. Quite simply I was having more and more trouble finding appropriate American models. Not because of their 'look', but because the lifestyle was changing so fast in regards to on-line modeling and freelancer photographers. For example I would quite often be required to pay for for the model's boyfriend to be present at the photo-shoot to ensure that nothing 'funny' was going on. Or to pay for a bodyguard/chaperon to be present at the shoot and at the time of the interview. Now I fully understand the need for essential safety, but I am a skilled photographer with a huge portfolio and years of expertise. Also the models I worked with normally came from agencies and talent scouts, not Craigslist. So over time it became very awkward to work with American models. I even began to feel 'sleazy', as if what I was doing was in some manner shady. This experience was not from the content I produced, but from the model's behavior toward me. In addition to this the cost started to go way up while the quality started to drop significantly.

My very first photo-shoot in Prague was an unbelievable working experience. I arranged the casting call through an agency. Upon arrival I found out that there were over 100 professionals, some from as far away as Brno (a two hour drive). My regular pay-rate was more the double the ordinary pay-rate that models normally get from local photographers. The models treated me with excellent regard and openness, which was a significant difference from the paranoid US models. I traveled with a small-scale team composed of a make-up artist and crew. We rented a sizeable dwelling that we designed into a studio room for the photo-shoot. The house was over 5000 square feet and would have cost thousands in the states. However we were able to arrange the stay for $1200 (which covered 14 days).

The models also came ready. What I mean by this is the models essentially knew how to pose and what fashion of images I was in search of. Just before the photo-shoot we have a casting and I display the image variations and critique the specific type of work I am looking for. I do this in America as well but regardless of my prep work the models generally show up having no clue and I essentially have to spend around 20-30 minutes critiquing the posing variations and overall feel I am trying to obtain from the images. I was pleasurably pleased to see that all of the European models practiced preceding to arriving at the shoot.

Me: Does this indicate you will not work with American models any longer?

Photographer:  Well It looks like it may seem is if I am coming down to hard on US models and I don't mean for that to be the case. I have previously worked with some incredibly expert American models. Nevertheless the feeling lately in regards to American models appears rookie. I have experienced entire photo-shoots completely destroyed because the model was not prepared or simply changed her mind mid-shoot. So in the mean time It looks like I will carry on European models. teen male models