Goals

Photo by: Michael Barton Art

It is good to have goals... in life,in business, in anything you do. It gives you that next level to reach for, the next step to take the next direction you need to push for.  I ,for the past 10 months,have kind of been treading water.  Mostly because of the unfinished state of my tattoo. I haven't been PUSHING. I have been doing shoots as they come up, and not really searching for them. I have been doing lots of Art Modeling,because then it is the purely up to the artist at hand if the tattoos are to even be included in the piece. ( not to mention that it is paid)
 
As I look at the tattoo being done in a couple weeks,what ARE my goals for this year? What is my next step.  ( and some of these I have touched on before,but here, I clarify them in my own mind)

1. To be in a print magazine,that can be found in a bookstore or newsstand.  ( or even more than one) A Tattoo magazine, a photography magazine.  Something that anyone could just buy, or subscribe to and have it come in the mail)

2. To be in one of the amazing online magazines, like Dark Beauty, or Giuseppina Magazine that focuses on amazing art photography.

3.To get a cover, of any magazine.  ( I know better than to be picky)

4. To work on more collaborations with clothes designers, accessory designers. I will be working with the amazing Econica very soon, but I want to do more

5.  More paid bookings.  ( MORE is such a nebulous word, what does it mean...for me,MORE is at least one paid shoot a month, every month...maybe even 2) This is, after all how I pay for groceries.  I LOVE TFP type shoots, mostly because it seems that there is more give and take between the photographer and myself, there is more of a willingness to just see where things go. BUT running with what is needed for a specific use, or the photographers vision, or a companies vision, that is good as well.  I need more bookings.

6. Stretch more, explore more,do more that I have not tried before.  Things like underwater photography, wind / motion/ fabric photography, Extreme make up/ body paint photography. Editorial photography, couture photography.... the list goes on of things that I want to try, things I want to do.

Realistically, will  all of this happen this year? Probably not, but if they don't, they roll over to next year, and if they do... well then ,I have to set higher goals for myself !  

  

Publication and Making it

                          Photo by: Michael Jones Sootie's Doll Photography

Many models have a goal... to "make it" but what does that mean?  Undoubtedly for many, Publication.  In a book, in a magazine, ads, bill boards. I am no exception, though my version of "making it" might be slightly different than some models.

I will never be a runway model ( with the slight possibility of being a"gimmick" in some show....you know the ones that use older people in mohawks, or people that are real sized.  Every year, some designer mixes these types  into the mix of the more typical runway fare. But then, the "gimmicks" are really never seen again)
I am too short, not thin enough , not young enough, and I am fine with that.

But my goal is still publication.
And I have been, over 13 times, in the last year- year and a half.  All of them small, web based magazines ( which means you can get them as a solely digital copy or order a printed copy, which is printed up and  bound per order...one at a time.  Usually though portals such as MagCloud)
I am also in an online catalog for a   clothing rental and sales business targeted to models  called The Clothed Image      and I will soon be online for a company called ECONICA ( so far just on Etsy, but she will be launching a stand alone website soon)  BUT..

But does that mean I have "made it" ? Not in my own eyes.  Not one of the publications paid, or the catalog work. ( aside from barter...which is awesome too, I have zero complaints) So what does "making it" mean to me?

Paid work,weather it be being paid by the photographer, or by the business that pictures are being taken for.  Publication in a magazine that one could get at a newsstand.  Work for more catalogs . So what am I saying? More steady paid work.  So goals for this year:
1. Publication in print ( I have done sort of...more on that later-though I will work on a magazine as soon as my tattoo is done)
2. Representation of more clothing and accessory lines .
3. Continuing to be in web based magazines, and web based sites for exposure.
4. Continuing entering contests, not necessarily to win ( though that would be nice) but for the exposure.

 I DO have agency representation ( which for some people, never happens...not with a real life, brick and mortar agency) But as wonderful and nice as they are , over at Kingdom Model Talent Agency I do not leave my working solely in their hands.  I submit sets to magazines, web sites, I check the sites for gigs, almost every day. Lots and lots of e-mails....and network, network, network.

Sometimes things fall into place, sometimes they do not.
I submitted images from the set above to a very arty magazine, I just got word that they like the look, but they are not of the quality that they are looking for.  Such is life....do I resubmit them somewhere else?  Possibly. Or I post them on my FaceBook fan page, and then that is as far as they go.... these are decisions to be made.
I responded to a casting call on ModelMayhem from a wonderful photographer I had worked with a year, maybe a year and a half ago, Gracie Hagen.  She is bubbly and funny and very talented with an unusual eye( and has a great smooshy faced /exotic shorthair cat)  
She is doing a series called Illusions of the Body that has been written up in the Daily Mail  and  Huffington Post  as well as a host of other blogs and websites.  ( note, if you visit the links....they may not be suitable for work viewing, they are nude portraits)
Her concept is this. Create double images with the same model, lighting, post process, background.  One image is in a more conventional "pretty" or model like pose. One that shows off and is meant to be gorgeous.  The next image is sloughed, pulled in, hunched over.... very definitely not pretty.  What I took from it ( and I will not put words in her mouth, this is simply my take on it.  ) It speaks to how we present ourselves, and others perceptions.  If I stand or walk or look "thus"  I am pretty, If I stand or walk or look "this" then I am awkward, and not attractive.  But I am the same regardless.
She has used models, non models, male , female and ALL different body types.  She needed a redhead... and there we go.  I will be published , along with the 49 or so other people in her 8x10 book "Illusions of the Body" around May 1.
SO...Into one publication yesterday, and refused by another....that is this business.  Some you make,some you don't .