Explore Modeling

Roy Cox

Video Transcript:

Cristina interviews Model Photographer Roy Cox in Baltimore, Maryland. He offers advice to models on getting the best portfolio pictures for their book and what types of photos will get them the most work. You can check out more of Roy's work at his website Roy Cox Photography.

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Video Transcription

Cristina: We are here with Roy Cox and I want to ask a few questions about your career as a photographer.

Roy Cox: Sure.

Cristina: Take me through those steps. Let’s just pretend I’m an aspiring model, I have found you which is a great photographer to find…

Roy Cox: Oh thank you.

Cristina: For your first shot if you’re looking for a testing photographer or a photographer in general, take me through those first steps for an aspiring model.

Roy Cox: Some models starting out call us after seeing our website because with the case of a photographer, what you see is kind of what you get. The work is already on the website so it’s not like there’s a product beyond that, so a lot of people make their decision based on just seeing the site and then they usually call us. Some people will request a meeting because they might have had a bad experience before or they know nothing about modeling and they want to come in and make sure it’s legitimate. You know people want to know where their money is going and they want to know what they’re getting. Anybody can take decent pictures but they’re also buying me and my experience

Cristina: It’s so true.

Roy Cox: That’s what they are here for, me.

Cristina: Which is so true. They get to meet with you and know your personality and see that you’re going to help them behind the camera as well.

Roy Cox: Absolutely.

Cristina: And you’re going to walk them through it that is so important for those models starting out. There are a lot of photographers out there that don’t even make appointments, and you just have to schedule a shoot with them, and that makes me uncomfortable because I want to know the photographer doing the shooting.

Roy Cox: Sure, yeah and that is just as important.

Cristina: Tell me some other things. Everyone asks what a model should do to start modeling. What should models not do?

Roy Cox: I would probably say, the first thing is that you want to make sure that you don’t do is- have an idea for what you think modeling is all about and there is no convincing you of otherwise. We have first time models that come in here whose friend is modeling or, you know they’ve taken pictures, or they’ve read Vogue, or they’ve done this or that and say, “This is it. This is what it needs to be. I want my pictures shot like this.” And the hairstylist, the wardrobe stylist, the makeup artist, there’s no one telling them any different. They won’t trust us. You know they won’t trust us. This is all we do. This is all we do and it doesn’t necessarily mean that we know everything about modeling, but we know a whole bunch about a little. Does that make sense like…

Cristina: Exactly. So if you hire a photographer, makeup artist, or anyone trust them when they’re trying to tell you what to do.

Roy Cox: Yeah and give us that chance to take you to that next level. I would say the other thing too is you want to make sure, like I said, that the pictures are in your potential market. If you’re commercial, you want to make sure that your pictures are of a commercial nature.

Cristina: Commercial Print…

Roy Cox: Absolutely.

Cristina: Because a lot of people are commercial but then they go get all these fashion shots…

Roy Cox: Exactly.

Cristina: And then, it’s not their market, so they’re not going to work.

Roy Cox: And as far as that goes what I do is, if I think a model is right here in the middle like a commercial model as far as…I’m going to shoot them a little bit to the right, a little bit to the left, and then the bulk of it in their market. There’s no point in greasing you up from head to toe, putting the fan in your hair and having you take it to your agent when you do Target. It’s not what its all is about.

Cristina: That is so true.

Roy Cox: People open up their book, they show me these pictures, and they look great. They really do. They look great. I’m not saying that they can’t be improved upon, but they look great. But not a single one of them, if you’re a commercial model, looks like a Target ad.

Cristina: Or even looks like them sometimes. Sometimes, you look at their pictures and you look at them…

Roy Cox: And it doesn’t look anything like them.

Cristina: …and it’s a totally different person.

Roy Cox: You want to make sure that your pictures are not edited and retouched to the point to where you can no longer…you no longer represent that picture at all. Like you were saying about how it doesn’t look like them. Agencies really frown upon pictures that are just so digitally manipulated that you do not look like…

Cristina: Doesn’t look like you anymore.

Roy Cox: It doesn’t look like you anymore.

Cristina: And if you’re a client…if your client instead of an agent, they think what are they hiding?

Roy Cox: Because…what are you hiding? Yes, yes what are you hiding?

Cristina: Thank you very much for sitting down with me.

Roy Cox: I hope that was helpful, I really do. These things are important things for you to know if you want to be a model.

Cristina: It was very helpful.

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