jack strutz // blog

Hello, in case you are new here, I’m Jack. In case you haven’t met me, I’m a huge goofball. However, I haven’t let that stop me from trying to move up in a world where professionalism reigns. I am still new to and am by no means well known in the fashion world, but I have picked up a few very important bits of knowledge about the fashion industry that I am asked about quite frequently. One of these things is shooting agency models. Please don’t take this post as me being cocky–these are just things that I wish I knew

Quite often, I have friends of mine come to me, desperately wanting to advance their work, but not really having the know-how on where to go from just shooting their good looking friends. That’s where agency shooting comes in. I’m not too good at writing these things so I am just going to go ahead and put my thoughts on the page and then if you are able to follow, great, if not, you clearly don’t have ADD. (I’ll probably put a numbered list at the end of the post with the basic rundown on what has been said).

I wish that, coming into the fashion world the way I did, I had people telling me the information that I know now. There are so many little nuances that agencies and the fashion world require for your work to be considered “up to par”. I hope this information is useful and just know that this is my method, I know no other method as I have stumbled across all this information completely through my own experiences.

Establish your style

 

This is probably the most important part of whether or not you are going to be successful in the fashion world. Going into your first testing relationship (will explain in a bit), you probably don’t have your style down. I know sure as shit that I didn’t. My work was still in, what I like to call, the “bokeh monster” stage. Basically, the bokeh monster stage is the stage of your photography where you will rarely be caught out of a shady area in the trees, off of ƒ/1.4 on your 50mm lens. This stage, while crucial to the development of my own style, I now realize was not an effective way of shooting, nor was it sufficient for when I  finally decided I wanted to move my photography forward. During this time period, I was living in San Francisco (in my opinion, the greatest city in the world) so I had somewhat of a kick in the pants because there was no forest or field that I could hide in. I was forced to either start shooting an urban style or not shoot. Not going to lie, that was not an easy transition. Looking back now, though, I realize that this push was the greatest thing to ever happen to my photography. It was also around this time that a friend of mine showed me the works of Norman Jean Roy. This guy is a legend in the fashion/celebrity world. As you start looking at more top end fashion work, you will start to realize that this guy’s work is freakin everywhere. He has been published and has covers of almost every single major fashion magazine and has a style that is almost unrivaled in his genre of photography.  The color grading in his work is seriously beautiful. This made me realize that in every genre, and every magazine, there are certain patterns that repeat. Whether those patterns be the colors, styling, light style, etc, there are always patterns. Picking up on these patterns and then thinking about how you can utilize and implement them into your own work is a pretty important part establishing a style that is viable in the fashion world (referred to from here on in as FW).  So you are starting to pick up on these patterns, now it is time to start shooting with these in mind. How you implement these things will determine your style, at least for now. If I have learned anything over the past 8 months, it is that your style should be constantly evolving, pushing forward, and improving, until you have gotten to the point where you are booked consistently for your style. I am, by no means, at this point of my photography, but I’ve gotta imagine that it is pretty freakin badass to be wanted in an industry that is so incredibly selective for a style that you have created for yourself, by yourself.

So a summary of this section, start to bring your work up to a point that can be considered industry standard. Get yourself a subscription to Vogue or GQ or whatever it is that you admire, just start to look at more work. Strive to be the guy getting published in these magazines. Ultimately, these qualities in your work are going to be what a booking agent at whatever agency you end up going into is going to look for.

 

Get in contact

 

This is the part that get a lot of people flustered. I get asked 2 to 3 times a week about the process of actually setting up a relationship with modelling agencies. In this process, there are a few keywords that you should avoid and a few that you should definitely use. The process of using an agency’s models for your own portfolio, while also building the model’s portfolio, is called “testing”. Thus, the relationship that you are wishing to establish is a “testing relationship”. This is a pretty important thing to include in the phone call/email/smoke signal that you send in to the agency when you are in the process of setting yourself up with them. On the other side of the spectrum, you really should avoid including phrases like “I would like to build my portfolio” or lines similar to that. The booking agent doesn’t care one bit about your portfolio. They are only concerned with getting their models booked so the agency receives its 10-20% cut from the paycheck.

People often over complicate this initial process. Here is the verbatim transcript from the email that I sent into the agency that I currently work with most often:

Hello,

I am a commercial lifestyle and fashion photographer new to the LA area looking to set up a testing relationship.
I shoot both men and women.

Best,

Jack Strutz
Photographer
website | flickr | facebook

It is literally that simple

If you are serious about getting set up with this agency, you should follow up this email with a phone call into the agency, asking to speak to the booking agent. Tell them that you have already sent in your portfolio and that you are just following up. Like any job interview process, following up is important. They need to know that you are serious. Another little suggestion that I can make for you is that the phone call you make should be some time in the morning. If you call them late afternoon/before the agency closes for the day, they will have less time to speak with you. This is the time that most agencies inform their models of all the bookings that they have made during the day.

The booking agent will respond to you, most likely within a week, asking you to supply some inspirations that you have or concepts and styles that you wish you shoot. You should be prepared for this. Do your homework and find some ad campaigns that you really like or an image that you are inspired by. What the booking agent is looking for is some sort of an idea on what you will be shooting if/when they decide to send you some of their models.

Something else that you should keep in mind is that you are not going to get paid right off the bat. If you are truly looking to forward your work, you need to be ok with shooting for free for a while. Many agencies won’t do paid testing, even when they completely trust a photographer. They do this because the money for test images comes straight out of the models’ pockets, and they don’t want the model to be discontented because they are paying for images that end up not getting them booked. Basically what your images need to be to the model is an investment so that their “look” will be appealing to companies that are going to book them and put food on their table. Most of them are just college students (sometimes younger) and flat broke. Keep in mind how broke you were/are in college. I can say as a current college student that I am frickin flat broke. No money. I get my 14 meals a week that my parents graciously paid for and that’s it!

 

Figure out your market

 

The following section is going to be written specifically towards the people who are gunning for paid testing.

This one is a little bit easier, but will require you actually going in and meeting with the booking agent at the agency of your choice. Basically, all agencies have specific clients and a certain market that they attempt to book their models for. Modelling agencies make their money by taking a certain percentage cut out of their models’ paychecks when they are paid by client (could be a clothing line, television commercial, whatever). Knowing this, you can use this to get on the booking agent’s good side. If you know what style the model is going to be used for, you can use this to shoot images that will make the model more attractive to the agency’s well playing clients. Study the client’s ad campaigns  and you could find yourself on the agency’s paid tester list sooner. I personally prefer to just shoot my own style and not put the agency’s clients as a number one priority, but I have friends who have been successful exploiting this knowledge.

That being said, you still need to keep the agency’s clients in mind when you are shooting. It does the agency no good if all you are using their models for are crazy conceptual pieces (not to mention they will probably seize to send you models). You always need to keep in mind that when it comes down to it, the reason you are shooting for the agency is to provide images that can be used to advertise the model’s look and make the model attractive to paying clients.

 

Be prepared for new faces

 

Modelling agencies remain successfully because they are constantly casting new models. This also means that they always need test photographers to build their new models’ portfolios. While this is useful for someone who is new to agency testing as the agency feels less risk sending you new people as opposed to potentially wasting the time of a model they are already booking consistently, it also definitely has its downfalls.  Basically these new faces are just pretty people that the agency sees potential in, but has little to no modelling experience. This means the posing problems that you had when you were just shooting your pretty friends are still going to be there. This also means that you are going to have to step up to the plate and give direction to the model. Just know that each successful shoot you do with the agency will build their confidence in you and make them more inclined to send you their more seasoned models.

 

Be prepared for the review

 

Especially when you are first starting out with an agency, the booking agent is going to ask the model for a report on how the shoot went after you have shot with them. DON’T BE A CREEP. A positive report getting back to the agent is going to be important for the agent to trust you when you ask them for specific models when you need them for your own personal projects. Be professional, but personable. My personal style is very high energy and my brain moves at 100mph, but I try to always put the model’s comfort first. They have to be comfortable shooting with you. The quality of your images will depend on it.

 

GET A CREATIVE TEAM

 

Good heavens… I wish someone had sat me down when I was first starting out in the FW, slapped me in the face and told me, “Jack, damnit, get yourself a styling team.” I cannot emphasize enough how important this is to creating industry standard work.  It is very, very rare that you will come across a model who is fashion savvy enough to style his/her own shoot according to the standards of the always changing FW. And even when you do come across a model who has enough fashion sense to style their own shoots, they will not always have enough diversity in their wardrobe to do everything that you would like to do during a shoot. This is where a good creative team will be able to step in a provide what you need in order to accomplish what you would like during your shoot. It will take a little bit of experimenting (I am just getting into this stage so I know this first hand) for you to find a team that really is on the same page with you and is able to come through with what you were hoping for, every time they style a shoot for you. A solid team is an important piece of your photographic puzzle, especially when trying to gain the agency’s confidence and trust.

A friend of mine, Brandon Andre, also pointed out this:

When doing testing, most agencies prefer the test shoots with minimal make-up.

A natural look allows for [the agency's] clients to get a better feel on the type of model they are hiring.

Now you’re probably wondering, “sure, I would love to get a team… Where do I start though?” You will need to do some searching around. The obvious solution is ModelMayhem. Even though it is, for the most part, a giant black hole of shitty work, there are still very talented artists on there. I would begin your search there. Past that, I have had some luck with employees of small fashion boutiques in LA. Usually they are working at the boutiques because they are fashion forward and enjoy being part of the fashion world. Sometimes you will even get a boutique owner who is willing to style your shoots in exchange for the advertisement that your work will bring their store, as well as being able to use your work for advertising. Another outlet that I personally have not tried is art schools. Almost all art schools have a fashion program which requires its students to style photo shoots with wardrobe that they themselves have either designed or put together. They will almost always be willing to work for free, just for the experience.
 

Know what looks good

 

Wow, this section should go on for days… There are so many things that require you knowing what looks good. Believe me, if you are a smart person, you will be able to figure this part out for yourself, as it is hard to put into words. I was talking with Brandon earlier before writing this article and it’s just one of things where when you know, you just know. I will do my best to describe what I mean by knowing what looks good.

This part takes a little bit more of a trained eye. Once you have gotten with a creative team, you need to look at enough well done work to start to recognize what is good makeup/styling work and what is crap. This will take some time. You will start to recognize things like what makeup suits which models and how you would like things to be done.

You also have to develop an eye to recognize what different looks the models have. When it comes down to it, there are really two types of models, commercial and editorial. You will need to learn to differentiate between the two and recognize that a certain model might fit your concept or style much better than another. This ability is extremely important to developing a respectable portfolio once you have decided where you would like to go with your style.

 

What about personal projects?

 

I have gotten to the point in my photography where I have started to plan out different projects that require models from the agency to complete. While this is not necessarily a problem for me, since I am more of a commercial photographer than editorial, people who shoot more high fashion might have more problems. You will need to establish a very solid relationship with the agency. This also has a lot to do with knowing your market. Where I am, in LA, the market is very commercial, and thus editorial pieces are not necessarily useful in the models’ portfolios. However, if the relationship between the photographer and the agency is not solid enough, or you are not supplying the agency with enough work to book their models, they will often times require tear sheets (basically showing that the model was published in some sort of a publication) in exchange for their models. This creates the problem that you must have work that stands out enough to be published in a source that the agency deems worthy of their models’ time.

Basically, you need to realize that there is very little money involved with high fashion work and the agency has very little opportunity to monetize the images that you have delivered to them.

 

MAKE SENSE

 

This is something that a staggering amount of people fail to grasp, even though all it takes is a little bit of studying and common sense. You have to make sure your work makes sense. Like I already said, your purpose for the agency is to provide images that they can use to book their models. The agency’s clients will normally have creative directors who have been in the industry for quite some time.  They know what they are looking for and have very strict criteria for what they are looking for in the model’s look. If your work isn’t up to a certain standard, the booking agent can’t use it for the model’s book and you will most likely notice a dramatic decrease in the booking agent’s desire to send you the agency’s models.

With that being said, let me go into what I mean by having your work “make sense”. You always have to think contextually. You need to recognize what your style is photographically and then theme your shoots accordingly. For clarification, by recognizing your photographic style, I mean you need to break down all the different portions of your photography. Try to factor out things like the model and the wardrobe styling. These things are easily replaceable and interchangeable. Break down your photography according to colors, locations, preference in lighting, editing styles, whether or not you shoot in a studio, etc. There are a million things that you can use to try and define your style, and when you have a loose definition of your style, that by no means keeps you in the corner of that style. Diversity in your portfolio is never a bad thing–but you should try to develop at least one aspect of your photography that could be  marketable in the FW.

 

Ask for advice

 

Booking agents are always willing to give you 30 seconds of their time and tell you what they feel like would make your work more useful for them. Whether it is a certain thing you are doing in your editing style, or something you are doing with your lighting, they will usually be willing to point these things out if you ask for them.

 

 

There are so many things that you will learn as you get further into the industry, but I think the information I have written down is pretty basic and a good start for photographers trying to break into the FW and shoot agency models. I hope I was helpful.

 

Until next time friends,

 

Jack