Another Shoot, BIG NEWS!

A few weeks ago I had a shoot with photographer Thomas Dozol for a French magazine featuring models with tattoos. It was a really cool concept. Each model will have two shots. For the first shot he took a snapshot of the tattoo, printed it, then used a projector to place it on a different part of the body. The second shot was a portrait featuring the tattoo. Each model's second portrait was different, shot in different places. I personally think mine was coolest. The photographer brought me up onto the roof terrace of the loft in Tribeca and shot me with the Hudson River and New Jersey skyline in the background. I haven't seen any of the final photos yet, but I did see this polaroid from the shoot on his website.

If the polaroid looks this good I can't wait to see the final pictures. The magazine is biannual though, so it will be a while!

Now for the news... I'm moving back to Fargo at the end of November so I can spend the holidays with family and start school at NDSU again next semester in January. There were a lot of factors in play while making this decision. Trust me, it was an extremely hard choice. Harder than the decision to drop everything and come here. I kind of realized that modeling industry has been changing due to these economic conditions. It's primarily because retailers and magazines are trying to reach a broader audience. Who is going to reach more people, the all-American good looking guy with the buff body or the skinny, edgy fashion guy? I hope you see where this is going. This last show season was pretty much the nail in the coffin. Nobody like me worked.

My agents and I had a talk about this, about how I didn't feel right for the New York market, and decided to try to place me in London. They tried, but nobody wanted to take me on right now. After that, I called a meeting with the agents again and told them that since things are so slow I felt it would be in my best interests to get back into school. They were completely supportive and will still be representing me. They said that if a project came along that I was right for they would still submit me and I could just come back to shoot. That sounds really expensive but I can get round-trip tickets for under $250 and stay for free with friends. You also have to think that I'll be spending around $500 less a month on rent though!

I am a little worried about switching back to the old lifestyle. I'm going to really miss my life here. The energy of the city, the mindset of the people. The diversity, the style, the individualism. I'll miss it when I'm dropped back in the land of parking lots, identical vinyl sided boxes, and people wearing the same haircuts and Abercrombie clothes trying to fit in. I'm going to stick out in Fargo after feeling like I fit here for the last 18 months. Really, the only thing I'm looking forward to are my family and friends. That and going to school again. It'll be a big change but I know it's time.

New York will still be here. I hear they hire architects too.

I'm back!

Sorry, my computer broke and I just got around to getting it fixed.

So, where to begin. I went to Los Angeles last month to shoot that story for Italian Vogue. It was without doubt the most amazing experience I have had yet. The flight to LA on that Wednesday morning was probably the most miserable flight I've ever taken. Non-reclining seat in the last row. Crying baby in front of me, lavatory behind. Oh the glamorous life of a model.

Once in Cali, I took a shuttle van to the hotel where I stayed, the Hollywood Standard Hotel. Check out this celeb in his shades!

The hotel has a really cool mid-century modern design. Here's a photo of the lobby.

There was one other guy model who flew in from New York, Matt, who is also with Fusion. We shared a room to keep the costs down, as we were not paid very much for this job. After we got everything squared away in the room we went down to have dinner poolside, which we did every night we were there.

We wore our trunks down with the intention of swimming, but after the sun went down during dinner the air got too cold. Trust me, I jumped in anyway and froze! I said, "I didn't come all the way to California to NOT swim in the pool", then proceded to swim for three minutes, followed by a quick walk upstairs for warmer clothes.

Both Thurday and Friday morning we were picked up in a van to take us to the set at 5:45am. On the first day I was very excited, despite the early hour. As evidenced by this photo as we waited for the van to arrive:

(Yes, the hanging bubble chairs were fun)

So, the van pulld up and as I opened the door to the van to find one the most beautiful girls I have ever seen inside to greet us. As we started moving toward the set, she introduces herself to us. Of course she is the supermodel who the shoot is about. Her name is Rianne and she is Dutch, but lives in New York. Not only stunningly beautiful, but also very sweet and intelligent. No, unfortunately she was not interested in me! At one point in the shoot though she said, "Nathan, I don't think I've ever seen a boy as skinny as you." Not sure if that counts for anything. Back to the story.

We pull up to this newly-constructed high school where the shoot will take place. The concept of the shoot is a quarantined area with some deadly disease which Rianne is impervious to because she is so mind-blowingly beautiful. We, the 5 skinny boys, of course are all sick or dying from this. The school is all steel and concrete and glass. Very sterile, as any quarantined area should be. Biohazard!

(very cool architecture!)

We walked into the cafeteria, where we would wait between photo sessions. Also where the catering was. The three of us were joined by the other three boy models, all from the LA area. The stylists were there already unpacking racks and racks of clothes, at least six tables of shoes and four tables of accessories. This photo contains just a portion of the clothes they brought.

We grabbed a little breakfast and started fitting the clothes. While we were trying things, in walks Steven Meisel. He came and introduced himself to us (I was a bit starstruck, not going to lie) and left us to get dressed in our first look.

We wore the most amazing clothes! Think of a designer there was something there for us to wear. Dior, Prada, Roberto Cavalli, Raf Simons, Balenciaga, Jil Sander, Rick Owens, Ann Demeulemeester, etc. Rianne was in very 80's inspired clothes with strong shoulders and lots of gold jewelry, while the guys were in either all black or all white ensembles. We each had a hood over our heads, then a scarf wrapped over our noses/mouths. Think somewhere between ninja and arabian knight. We also wore a lot of gas masks as you might imagine one would in a quarantined area.

For each shot Steven would start with Rianne and maybe one or two guys, then add more guys in the shot if he felt he needed more. The first few shots used all of the guys, but especially the second day he used two or three guys per shot for most of the day. One of the guys from LA and I realized that the two of us were in every shot, and that we were requested on set first. I guess we were doing something right!

We had shots inside, outside, in the grass, by the pool, IN the pool (have you tried diving into a pool wearing Dior?) There were about twelve different areas of the school we used. Sidenote: I have no idea how the final shot will come out, but I am one of the extras on the cover. Hopefully you can see me!

So after two 12 hour days of shooting, we got back to the hotel with just enough time to get a few hours of sleep before heading to the airport to fly back to New York on Saturday morning.

I got back and switched from model-mode to broker-mode and began focusing on renting apartments. Recently I've been doing a lot of business in the Financial District, so I'm pretty much exclusively advertising there. It's an area that has really good deals, and not a lot of brokers are working there right now. I'm submitting another application for an apartment there tomorrow!

I've worked two more jobs since I got back to the city. About three weeks ago I shot a look-book for Uniqlo's Jil Sander diffusion line, which you wouldn't ever see, but it paid really well.

Two days ago I shot a couple pages and video for Soma magazine. The magazine is running a profile on German-American designer, Robert Geller. They had me dressed in his fall/winter 09-10 clothes and there were photos of us together in his showroom and outside on the street. On the block where his showroom is in Tribeca Julia Roberts was filming some movie and the street was all blocked off and full of set equipment. As we were leaving the showroom to take some photos along a brick wall at the end of the street, we took some really cool photos using the movie set as a background. I guess it was the right place at the right time. We finished shooting on the sidewalk and went back to the showroom to get our things and go home. Robert had popsicles in the freezer which were exactly what we needed, shooting outside in the hot August sun. Especially me, in my three layers of winter clothes and hat.

So that's about where I am now. I've been to two fashion week castins so far, and I'm sure there are more in the coming week or two. Fashion week is the second week of September and I'm hoping I book a few more shows than last season. We'll see what happens.

Long post! Thanks for sticking it out!

Exciting News!

I was awoken this morning with a phone call from my agent. It seems I booked this job that I was optioned for. It shoots next week. In LA! I will be flying to Los Angeles to shoot on Thursday and Friday with top-photographer Steven Meisel for Italian Vogue! I know, crazy right?

Now, before you get all excited reading this, I am not starring in the story or anything. The story is about some, as of yet unknown to me, celebrity girl. There are a bunch of skinny boys with her in the shoot... I will be one of these boys.

I just see this as an amazing opportunity to work with one of Fashion Photography's biggest artists. Who knows, if I impress I might come to mind for another project he works on... hmm...

I'm very excited. ...aaaaand hitting the gym!

Photo Shoot Today!

Today I had a photoshoot for And Men magazine. It's an Australian magazine with a focus on hair styles. The beauty story we shot today had 5 models, all from Fusion, and it will cover ten pages in the magazine. Do the math, and I get two pages. The photos were beauty shots, meaning shoulders up with creative hair styling. The magazine will be out in April... who knows, maybe I'll get this one before Dedicate. I looked again today and it's still not there.

For this shoot, they cut the back and sides of my hair down, but left the top long. Exactly what I would have done if I had picked it myself. Here's a picture after I got done with the shoot.The styling of the hair for the pictures was pretty interesting. One shot had curly hair and the other had wavy, wispy type hair. The mood for the story was a romantic, melancholy feeling. I saw some of the photos as the photographer downloaded them onto her computer and they looked pretty good. I think they are all going to be in black and white, so that should be interesting.

Then I went on a casting for Modern Bride. What? I don't really think that's my market! Ha!

On the Set - Pics!

I forgot to put my battery in my camera on Friday, so I wasn't able to take any photos in the studio. Luckily, the stylist's assistant took some photos and posted them on her facebook. Without further ado,

The Studio in SoHo where we shot:Accessories table. Fun stuff!Hanging out with the other models & the stylist. I'm in the yellow jacket on the left. It was wicked-cold in the studio and there was only one heater, up on the ceiling. Guess where the fan blew the heat. Yeah, we pretty much didn't move from that spot unless we were needed by the photographer.The finishing touches. Yep, I always keep it classy.Lovin' it! I had so much fun & I hope I get to do another shoot really soon!

Fresh Photos

I had a really great casting on Thursday which turned into a booking for the job! The next day, Friday, I shot an editorial spread for Dedicate magazine in France. There were four of us guys and one girl, all from my agency. It was my first time shooting with any other models, since everything I've done so far has been test shoots by myself. It was a lot of fun and I'm excited to see the finished product. The photographer was great and helped me out a lot. He taught as he shot, so I walked out of the studio with more confidence in my modeling abilities. We were there from 9am to almost 6pm, but I kept on saying throughout the day that I wish I could do this as my job every day. Maybe someday...

The shoot wasn't a paid job, but it doesn't really matter much. What I really need are some tearsheets in my book from magazines, so this worked out perfectly. Since we weren't getting paid, the photographer took solo portraits as he was working, just to help our books. He was so nice! I'll share photos as soon as I get them. The agency is closed for the holidays and doesn't reopen until January 6th, so don't expect anthing soon.

Having just returned home after only a month since my last visit, it's great to be able to have something new to talk about when everyone asks the same question, "how has modeling been going?"

The answer? I'm having so much fun!

Photos!

I checked the agency's website today and three of the photos from my shoot on Sunday were posted. I'm not sure if any other shots turned out, but they must have liked at least these three.

This first one I'm not sold on. I think I look a little bewildered in it. I don't know.

This next one is pretty good, but I have a lot of photos of my profile already. I've been told that I have a really good, unique profile but I really need to get good photos from other angles. Yeah, I'm showing some leg...

This one is my favorite. 100%! It's so high-fashion!

I'll have to see if any other pictures turned out when I visit the agency next. Probably Friday. I'm quite a bit more excited to get the photos back from Tuesday. I felt better about how that shoot was going anyway.

Shoot Today: Fun Fun!!!

First of all, you should hear Harlem right now. Cars honking and people shouting in the streets. Complete madness! Reed cooked a really nice dinner tonight and we were enjoying some wine when the election was called, so we grabbed the bottle and ran up to the rooftop and watched it all unfold. It's crazy out there!

Today I had so much fun at my photoshoot! It was a spec shoot for a hair editorial that will hopefully be popping up in a magazine soon. The concept was really edgy and avant garde, kind of an eighties, angry vibe to it. I showed up at 10am and sat down for the hair and makeup. The hair was caked in hair products and slicked into different shapes. The look was a bit dark with highlights of different colors of light. To get the light to illuminate the skin in an interesting way they covered my face, neck and shoulders with baby oil. I was so greasy! Each look had a different pop of color. The first one I had a pink stripe under my left eye with white on the eyelid, the second had teal on the eyelids, and the last shot had bright blue lips. It was pretty intense. For each shot the photographer had me twist my shoulders into intersting positions and crank my neck in a strange angle then then we went for the emotion. Angry! Scowling and clenched jaws and angry stares. It turned out to be really interesting and I can't wait to share the photos. I'll find out in about a week which, if any, magazine picked up the story. If nothing else it will add some diversity to my book. It was just fun to play around with an edgy look today.

I should be getting the photos from my shoot on Sunday tomorrow sometime, so I'll throw those on here soon.

NoDak in 17 days!!!

2 shoots in 3 days!!!

Things are going SO well for me this week! I had a photoshoot yesterday with Thomas Lohr that went really well. It was a test shoot (a big deal since he doesn't do tests) but it sounds like he might try to get the pics published. The clothes were amazing too, all 2009. I wore Lacoste, Burberry, Gucci, Jil Sander, Fendi, Moschino and Hermes. Incredible! I talked with my bookers today and the photographer was very happy with the results. I'll be able to see the photos in a couple days and I'll share them as soon as I can.

My booker also told me that an agency in Milan requested to have a video of me sent. This looks good!

I also booked a photoshoot for tomorrow! It is a spec shoot for a hair magazine. Yup, I'd be a hair model! Good thing too, 'cause in hair photos you won't be able to see that I just got done eating a pint of Haagen Dazs.

I worked my first day at Brooklyn Industries today. It was a lot better than my old job so I'm pretty happy.

My roommate Reed and I are going to Central Park tomorrow to hang out and see the changing foliage. He lent me a book that I'm going to start reeding. He said I'll like it a lot. I'd share the name if I remembered it; It's in my room and I'm to lazy to walk across the hall.

AND I'm going to be in NoDak in 17.5 days. I've had such a good day.