Tactics for being Discovered
Aspiring models, just waiting to “be discovered.” The notion is that they can hang out, doing whatever they do, and someone will come along, spot them in the crowd, pluck them out of their hum-drum day-to-day life and suddenly they will be “discovered” and on their way to modeling success.
The worst of it is that once in a while, once in a very, very long while, something like that really happens. When it does it happens to fashion models, not commercial models, and it is a very rare event. Models aren’t “discovered,” they work their way through the system very much like you do in any other job.
But in another sense, the more successful models are “discovered.”
It is a great benefit to a model’s career if someone (or several someones) takes an interest in them, sponsors them and chooses to give them opportunities in preference to other people who could have gotten those chances. Photographers and art directors like to work with people they know, like and have had pleasant experiences with. Agency staff chooses who to send on jobs, and who to recommend to clients in preference to others in their agency who may be equally qualified. There are lots of models, few jobs by comparison, and choices have to be made. It is human nature in all of business for those choices to go to friends and people we like, and in the subjective world of modeling it is all the more true that personal relationships can make or break a career.
Models should always take advantage of opportunities to gain that kind of sponsorship from people with influence in the industry. Virtually all of the most successful models have used “sponsors” to achieve their success.
Beware the phony talent scout: These are sometimes people representing organizations that promise you jobs in return for some investment. Generally these have mixed results.
Another point: Hang out in places where you will be noticed. Walking red carpets, partying at the Playboy Mansion, and dating rockstars sometimes does benefit. Generally, as a rule, photographers do not have connections either, no matter what many may say.
