Scout - Zurich, Switzerland

Recently signed with a great agency in Zurich - Scout Models, headed up by Bettina Schaefer and Brigitte Gubser!

Vegetarian Festival - Thailand

This time last year, I was in Thailand enjoying the first few weeks of what would ultimately extend into a lengthy four-month stay. Little did I know that I'd be arriving in the midst of my epicurean paragon - the ten-day Vegetarian Festival. Occuring every October, it's a time when many Buddhists partake in a cathartic ritual of abstaining from their traditional diets and instead, eating healthily and cruelty-free. Supply shifts comfortably and rather seamlessly to meet demand, as stalls quickly transform themselves under the omnipresent yellow banner to sell meat-free variations of their best sellers. The Festival just started a couple days ago and already I'm wishing I were back...
Pictures from last year:

Kite Heaven

Shot a TVC for Nokia right before I left for Thailand. From what I hear, it's catching some good airtime in Singapore, HK and Taiwan. Was a fun day made moreso by some great co-stars - Dali (son) and Clare (wife). Easily one of the best parts of business - the cool people you meet along the way...

Link to the English version of the commercial

Comfort TVC

hey guys, sorry for the prolonged silence. just got back from thailand and have lots to catch you up on! shot a tvc for comfort laundry detergent a few weeks ago and i've heard from a few friends in bangkok that it's currently on air. the shoot itself was relatively painless save for some 30+ tumbles off a bike. scenario: pass by a group of five ladies and one in particular is so captivating in her olfactory charms that i lose concentration and take a spill. yes, there was a mat to cushion my fall but i was pretty bruised up the next day. serves me right for not getting it perfect on the first take!

Milano

What New York is to bankers and Mecca is to Muslims, Milano is to models (wow, perhaps I should submit that to the College Board for SAT consideration :p) so with the quick 1.5 hour flight from London and the ubiquity of low cost carriers here in Europe I figured it was something I ought to try at least once. Late June is when the menswear shows happen in Milan, so a few weeks prior, male models the world over (but mostly from Eastern Europe and North America) descend upon the city like vultures on freshly fallen prey.


Unfortunately for said vultures, prey is scarce and competition is plentiful. A friend recently mentioned that Milan is one of those places only worth going if you've already made a pretty sizeable dent in the industry and I would tend to agree. Show castings are huge cattle calls the likes of which I've rarely seen, and the odds are pretty slim given that a typical show doesn't use more than 20 models. Showroom castings are even worse - hundreds of models vying for a job that entails 12 hours of walking back and forth in a showroom for potential buyers and getting paid a little more than 100 euros a day for your efforts.


The city itself was also a bit of a letdown. Somehow I'd expected more from a city renowned as a big fashion hub, but what I encountered was rather provincial compared to NY, London and Paris. Public transport infrastructure was downright primitive, food options were uniform and unsavory (after 9 days of pizza, pasta and foccacia I'm happy to pursue more culturally diverse fare), and beyond the Duomo at the center of the city, there isn't all that much to see or do.


Still, it was a good life experience and a trip of many firsts: first time
working in a market where i do not speak the native dialect (though Spanish is a pretty effective surrogate), first time I've lived in a model apartment (roommate was a French chain-smoking teenager who would borrow my towel (nasty) and use the kitchen sponge to scrub his sandals at the end of each day (nastier)), first time optioned for shows for some of the big fashion houses.


Model Apartment - The Four Seasons this is not...

Ladies Who Lunch

Is a charity event ever truly complete without a cadre of models prancing around in silly hats and expensive suits? Such was the premise a few weeks ago for a mid-day soiree to raise money for a children's charity here in London. Attendees consisted of approximately 300 well-heeled women paying £80 a head to lunch with their similarly well-coiffed counterparts. As a yearly tradition, my agency here hands over ten of their male models to serve as eye-candy for the event. Turned out to pretty well-coordinated and it was for a worthy cause, so all in all a good day.

Offer Ends Fast!

Ohio 3 Seater for only £475!
Doesn't get much more glamorous than this folks :p

London Calling

Slowly but surely I've been getting around to checking out the monuments that London is famous for. Ben and the Eye didn't disappoint - here are some snaps complete with mood lighting...

Easter in Paris

Spent Easter weekend in Paris and had a nice time. Met up with some friends from college and since it was my first time there, the itinerary consisted of the expected destinations: Tour Eiffel, Louvre, Musee D'orsay, Montmartre, Arc de Triomphe, Ste Chapelle, Notre Dame. Lots of pit stops at some great cafes and patisseries and more than enough walking to work it all off. Some highlights:

Paparazzi - Helsinki, Finland

Recently joined up with Paparazzi, the oldest agency in Finland. Here's the link - I'm under the direct booking section:

Paparazzi Model Management

The Friends Along The Way

It's an overused cliche I know, but one of the biggest perks of this job is the people it's enabled me to meet - a really cool and diverse cross-section of folks with interesting stories and perspectives to share. Shoots tend to wrap rather quickly when you get along with your fellow posers, and I've been genuinely impressed with the warmth and sincerity of the models and crew I've been lucky enough to work with.
A few shots of the guys and girls I've met along the way...

Stella Models - Vienna, Austria

hey guys, just signed with a new agency in vienna. here's the link:

Stella Models

Misc

Miscellaneous shots from a few months back. Hope you're all having a great week!

What's Going On...

Hey guys, a short recap of the goings on of the past week. Worked two days on a print job for an oil company and shot a print campaign for a furniture chain - 8 hours lounging around on a sofa and getting paid for it - not bad :) Had options (shortlisted by a client for a particular job) for a tv commercial in Taiwan and another in Italy but those didn't materialize. After doing this for a while though you're less and less phased when things don't work out.
Starting to get back into tennis again - played eight hours this weekend and my shoulders are definitely worse for wear. Nice to be doing something other than just camping out in the gym though so I'm gonna try to keep that up.
Picture is from a beach shoot in Hua Hin for a travel magazine. Female model: Anouk M. from JIM Model Management

Hope you all have a great week!

Circuit Party

Ever wonder why the same model sometimes shows up on a bunch of different agency websites? Well since clients often rely on local agencies to cast their jobs it's in a model's best interest to have a few different people working for him/her. By having representation in a couple different markets, models maximize exposure while simultaneously hedging risk, because if things get slow in New York, there's always Miami or Madrid.
In Bangkok I met a bunch of people for whom constant travelling is a way of life. They take contracts (airfare and accomodations advanced and deducted from subsequent paychecks) with agencies in different countries and check them off their list one after the other, generally staying in each location for two-three months at a time. Common stops among those I met were Hong Kong, Singapore, Capetown, Rio de Janeiro, and Tokyo. What astounded me was that many of these folks start doing this as early as age 15 and only go home once a year if at all. I guess they're capitalizing on the most viable years of a traditionally short-lived career but it seems like an awfully hard life to sustain. Still, there's always that excitement you get when one of your agencies calls with news that you're optioned for a job in Italy or booked for a shoot in Malaysia, all without stepping foot in a casting. Pretty sweet.

Transcendence

Was sorting through some old files today and came across a poem I wrote a few years back...


Transcendence

An undirected focus, an introspective stare
From eyes so richly blessed by a life so well-exploited
Framed with the texture of the ages
Illuminated by a flame fueled by persistence
The commencement of a journey, a flooding of the senses

Timeless moments etched so saliently
Roused with effortless recall
A late night melding with Dante and Rousseau
Charged debates with friends from 'round the world
A glimpse into a world independently sustained
Tremulous nights of voidish uncertainty
The embers flicker anew

Emerging from the bubble with direction unknown
Yearning for fulfillment, a prophecy of success
Momentous struggle and tearful frustration
Culminate in hard-earned victory
A gesture of faith, the bestowing of trust
The lights dance a rhythmic jig

A warm embrace so reassuring
Dormant passion pleading to be felt
So exigent, leaping to the surface
Frustration absolved and pacified
Light and warmth permeate a barren fortress
Sustaining it with love
The flames surge to the heavens

Shoes so quickly overcome
Footballs thrown with pride and heart
Curfews so deftly negotiated
Bedtime stories long outgrown
A father's job so well-performed

The golden years gleam with splendor
Back burner plans inhale new life
Tenderness magnified through the years
Happiness unparalleled

Forged from adversity, molded by triumph
Passion made his life extraordinary
Patches of time were his ever-present friends
On a road so well-travelled
And as the flames dwindle to a spark
With soothing care they lift him up
To a realm where time stands still, and memories last forever.

--Richie Kul

Good Sport

Here's a good example of the last post - pictures are from a two day job in Pattaya for Super Sports, a chain of sporting goods stores in Thailand. Drove out with two Brazilians from my agency and spent the following 48 hours warding off mosquitoes and 100F+ temperatures (we shot along the way to the end destination) while trying to decipher bits and pieces of Portuguese. Not one of most favorite jobs of all time but it was nice to spend some time on the beach.

The Commercial Side of Things

The runways of Paris and Milan and flashy editorial spreads in high fashion magazines are what usually generate buzz and turn heads in this industry. And understandably so - they exemplify what people have long associated with modelling: edgy, chiseled facial features, impossibly long legs, taut, toned physiques. Adjacent to the glitz and glamour of this world and sometimes overlapping with it though is the commercial side of the market - the catalogs, commercials, billboards and print ads where pouty lips and mesmerizing stares are replaced with toothy grins and cheesy wholesomeness. Decidedly more approachable and mainstream, it's the segment of the market that I've personally found the most success. Highlights have been commercials for Sony, K-Swiss, and Panasonic and print work for Shell and QuarkXPress.
Nice thing is that people generally aren't exclusively high fashion or commercial. Many models manage to book both types of work though proportions vary depending on the model and the agency. Some agencies have an inclination/client base that goes one way or the other but for the most part, boards are broken down quite simply by male and female. So don't be surprised to see or hear of a model who shoots a sporting goods catalog one day, does a Versace show the very next, and then turns around and hawks toothpaste. It's the nature of the business and what helps keep things interesting...