Models that make my knees weak… (Fashion Only Forum 2/4/00)

Models come in three types: Awful, just fine, and, transcendent.

Awful models have one of two problems. Attitude or looks. A good attitude can do wonders for looks. I've photographed three awful models, and I'll never show pictures of them.

Just fine models make up the bulk of the ones I've worked with. They show up, work hard, look good and make fine photographs. Their attitudes are good, demeanors friendly, features interesting, and they take care of themselves. If I were to only work with these models forever, I'd be absolutely content. My best work is with "just fine" models, as I can actually direct the shoot, know what I'm doing, and use my own vision to make it work.

Transcendent models make my knees weak. Talking to them, I hear myself sounding like a blithering idiot. They know more about me than I do, as they seem to be able to see my soul (not that there's anything bad there, or anything...). Transcendent models scare me silly. To date I've worked with three female models I consider to fit this category. Leslie is one of them. Another, also tall and skinny, is on some of my pages. The third, a girl of about 5'3", contacted me asking that I "please" photograph her. I did. She isn't on my site yet - but will be. She'd never modeled before.

Transcendent models are hard to photograph. Heck, it's hard to load film around them. I get silly, and feel incompetent. And they know the effect they have on photographers - well, at least the male ones I've talked to.

Going back, and rereading what I've just written, it sounds a lot like a personal problem of my own. It sounds like I've got a high school crush on them. But the counterindication is that they have that same effect on others I've talked to. That makes me believe that it's something that they have in common that causes the effect.

So I'll try to look at what common traits could do this.

The three models are about as different physically as they could be. They don't share appearance, body type, carriage or race. None of them fits the mold of classic beauty, but they all are beautiful. One thing they share is awesome self-confidence.

Sometimes I strike people as having self-confidence. It's more like bravado though, as you have seen by my sniveling angsting posts. These models have a confidence in themselves that goes well below the surface. They seem to know who they are, what they're about, and never seem to consider that they'd be found lacking.

They have the correct view of the photographic process. They reflect light, and I make pictures. If the pictures are bad it's my fault. Now that is exactly the truth. Bad pictures are ALWAYS the fault of the photographer. Not the model, not the equipment - the photographer. But it's surprising how many otherwise fine models think they share the blame for bad pictures. Not the transcendent ones. Nope.

Another shared trait is that they aren't shy. They may not choose to have nude pictures floating around, but they aren't physically shy. It's a reflection of that supreme confidence again. "I'm fine - you handle it." They also don't flirt. They communicate, model, work hard, and are all business. I flirt. Flirting sometimes works for me to make pictures. Not with these models. They will tolerate it, but I know it's just being tolerated. And it isn't necessary to build confidence, as that's something they have no lack of.

So is it good to be one of those transcendent models? I really don't know. I'd speculate that they've lived their lives with a power that they take for granted, and probably couldn't understand that others don't have it. I'd speculate that transcendent models are a subset of transcendent women, who share the same qualities, but may not be as photogenic.

My experience is that "just fine" models are easier to photograph than the ones who make my knees weak, and they make photographs that are just as good, or maybe better. But there is something to be said for the experience of photographing a woman that makes you feel like a 15-yr-old, and still coming out of it with photographs that were properly exposed and composed.

Any other photographers out there want to add to this, or do you all just want to slap me and say, "Grow up!"

-Don