You remember John Berry, the handsome Native American guy from California I got to know at a Rave at New Year's Eve, 2001; well, he is already signed with an agency (Bleu Models) and luckily gets modeling jobs on a regular basis. When he showed the results of our shoot to his booker at Blue Models, the agent called me to ask whether I was interested in "testing" (photographing for the first time) other of their models. He didn't need to ask me twice, and about a week later, Joey Awong was in front of the lens of  my camera. 
 

Joey is, as many Americans are, a product of many races. His grandfather, on his father's side, is Chinese. This explains his Asian last name, Awong, and if you look carefully, his almost invisible alluring Asian eyes.  His other forbearers are Mexican and European.  Joey was raised in Hawaii and therefore is a natural born surfer. "The water in LA is too cold" he moans! Well, this wimp needs to surf in the North Sea (between France, German, and England) to find out just what "cold water" is! 
 

Joey was one of my last models during my time in Los Angeles in 2001. Just a few weeks later, I flew away home.  I really wish that I had had the time to "interpretate" more Blue Models before my departure. Well, anyway, we met and shot twice within ten days. For the first shoot, he had longer, curly hair (those pictures are on the MalePerceptions CD 2001 and will be available on this site another time). For the second shoot, at the advice of his agent, his hair was almost shaved!  He looked like a totally different person with the shorter hair, and, indeed, as he told me afterwards, he got booked much more often having the shorter hair (the longer hair gave him kind of a "Latino look").
 

Joey is a "professional" model.  "Professional" (for those whose first language is not English) does not mean that you do something "right" or "good", it simply means that you can live from the income, that you can "pay your rent" from it. This is the case for both John Berry and Joey Awong, but believe me, during my time in Los Angeles, I got to know many many "pretenders", people who were just claiming to be this or that. 

This phenomenon is especially true in the Los Angeles/Hollywood area, where acting (= to be someone else, to play a role, to trick and to cheat) is "THE" spirit of the town.  Everybody wants to be a part of it!  A good looking person would, when asked about his profession, automatically answer with "I am a model". In case he is not that good looking, but at least young and well dressed, he would answer "I am an actor". 

If both would sound ridiculous, then there are alternatives: "I am a producer" or "I am a director".  Frankly, you get tired of hearing the same old story after a while!
 

This obvious fiction has even grown into somewhat of a joke among the locals.  If someone tells you he is an actor, you are supposed to automaticly ask back: "Oh, which restaurant are you working at?" - This little joke is simple to explain: Those who have really found an agent and have signed with an agency (but not necessarily "paying jobs") need to be "on call" during the weekdays. 

This means that they cannot accept another job where they work days. The only other suitable work, where working hours are concentrated during the evenings and weekends, is waiting tables in a restaurant. 
 

One consequence of this is that Los Angeles has the best looking waiters I have ever seen! The optical stimulation, is a nice side effect while going out to dinner, and, for many, this has become the only real reason to go out.  I have heard that there are people who select their restaurants, not by the quality of the food, but rather, by the beauty of their waiters.  Well, "when in Rome.....".

Now, just a few words about model agencies.  When you enter an agency, more often than not, you will get a very cool reception. I don't know why, but many agencies and bookers are unfriendly, moody and arrogant. Friends of mine and myself have noticed, on more than one occasion, that their employees are actually nice people trying to artificially appear arrogant and unfriendly. 

Perhaps, this is the part they themselves are playing.  They let you know, loud and clear, that you need something from them and not the other way around! No doubt this attitude is considered "professional" - Whatever! 
 

"Open calls" are regular hours maintained by an agency when you can go, without an appointment, to show your portfolio and get some feedback as to whether you are or are not suited for modeling.  I accompanied Ty Peterson to one quite memorable open call. The agent, upon reviewing their portfolios, almost laughed out loud at the guys and gals that were applying. Ty, seeing this, stood up, shook his head in utter disgust and left the agency, perhaps, in this instance, quite understandibly.

Personally, I think that a model agency should approach and treat their models and newcomers as correct, punctual and respectful - simply like they want to be treated by their models. Some do, many don't. I am only working together with the nice ones.

Back to Joey! As he had just moved from Hawaii to Los Angeles (a decision hard for me to understand), he wasn't "spoiled" yet!  Joey was aways reliable, friendly, respectful, timely, always returned my calls and put a great deal of effort into our shoots.  Also, he was quite charming and clever.

Speaking of Joey's cleverness reminds me of one very memorable situation. I always like it quiet on location. Having people around looking, starring, making noise or offering their "expert advice" is very distracting to me. My best creative work is done when me and the model can interact together in total privacy.  During our first shoot, we turned right off of Sunset Blvd onto a small street. As we found out later, the street was marked "private", but the sign was difficult to see.  There was a little creek there, also, nice trees and a small bridge. 

After about twenty minutes or so, a man approached us (on the run) and grabbed the camera out of my hands. He ended up being a security guard (the most honorable profession I know of, yes this was irony).

Somehow, he seemed to think that we were spying or that we had violated "his client's space" (though it was fairly easy to see that I was only photographing Joey, who stood there, bare chested, in nothing more than his shorts). When my concentration is disturbed during a shoot, especially in such a dramatic and immature way, I can get very angry and even shoot off my mouth. 

Joey, clever Joey, the cool headed one, saved the day by saying that we were both UCLA students and were only working on a portrait project in a natural setting. Because UCLA has a very good reputation and Joey said this with such persuasion, our security guard calmed down quickly and gave me my camera back. 

Lucky me! Otherwise, I wouldn't have my camera any more, MalePerceptions would have seen its end, and Joey's pictures would probably be hanging in the security man's bathroom!
 

Many more pictures from this and from our other shoot (!) are waiting for you on the MalePerceptions CD 2001.