Question from @chipmunkrhapsody about discrepancy between portfolio and personal appearance.

Vika is a model, MUAH and one of my biggest girl-crashes. We were doing our 3rd photoshoot together when we started to exchange stories about awkward and weird collaborations. She told me that one of the most unpleasant experiences of her were when the photographers said she is not the same as on the pictures. Let’s maybe take a moment to talk about that..

I often travel, and when I do, I find people through www.modelmayhem.com It’s a very useful website with only problem that pictures there are not always accurate. For example they can be from 10 years or 50 pounds ago. Really fast I found a good solution — I try to video-chat with a model before we do the photoshoot. It allows to discuss details quickly and also solves the problem above.

Now, opposite problem is that some other photographer picked poses, light, retouch etc. so well that the person looks better then in life. That’s what a good photographer does, right? So after perceiving this pictures as “natural” or “polaroids” aspiring photographer gets frustrated with how model “actually looks”. Which is not on models, but on photographer’s own lack of vision or skill or ability to work with people. Many of the aspiring, but ambitious photographers complain that the model is not tall enough, skinny enough or symmetrical enough, when in reality the girl can be photographer brilliantly and publishably if you know what you are doing.

So, in short, yes, sometimes people send you old pictures, see them in person or video-chat or look at Instagram if in doubt. But to blame model you picked for not looking as you wanted is blaming yourself.

As usual, send more questions to aliona.kuz@gmail.com

NextUp: Evolution Of A Project in 8 Clear Steps, Step 3 — Mood-board and/or Statement