Every Photo Shoot Begins with Getting to Know the Model

It is 9 October 2016.

Yesterday I photographed Mikayla in New York.

We had planned street photography, but the weather was not on our side, so we turned her apartment into a studio.

She is twenty-one, an American citizen and a professional dancer who would like to model one day. She has lived in a dormitory since she was fifteen and will finish her studies next year.

Before I begin any shoot, I always talk with the model — and for me, anyone who stands in front of my camera is a model.

So we talked about the style and type of images she had in mind, what she expected from the session, what she wanted to achieve with the photographs, and finally why she wanted to create them with me.

Our conversation turned out to be extremely interesting, and she allowed me to share it with readers.

New York is supposed to be the city of dreams. The place where anyone can find their path. That is what films show us, and that is the image America projects.

Reality is more demanding.

To break through here, a person often has to give several times more than they would almost anywhere else in the world.

Mikayla studies dance with a very good teacher and works incredibly hard. Even so, it is difficult to face rehearsals every day and see people who may be significantly more talented. That frequently undermines her confidence and inevitably affects everyday life.

Young people here can easily become machines marching relentlessly toward a goal while forgetting to experience their youth. Or the opposite happens: they live it too intensely and burn out.

It was fascinating to listen to her ambitions.

Despite all of this, she believes she can become a dancer who will one day enchant audiences as a member of a world-famous company — someone with a huge following.

I completely understand that ambition.

One of the things I appreciate here is that people rarely tell someone:

“You have no talent. Stop.”

Instead, they tend to point out what that person does well.

Back home, we too often do the opposite. People break one another's enthusiasm and, in doing so, take away the possibility of ever developing fully.

What you need here, in this global capital, more than almost anything else is belief in yourself.

For a single position there may be ten, twenty or even fifty times as many people competing as elsewhere.

But belief alone is not enough.

As we continued talking, Mikayla told me what she believed her real secret was.

She thinks she has identified what makes her unique. What makes her different.

And she has begun to emphasise that quality both in dance and in everyday life, so that people notice her individuality first.

After our conversation and the process of getting to know one another, we explored the location and began photographing.

That was where she gave me the real assignment.

In barely two hours, I had to recognise that uniqueness and bring it forward in photographs. And I had to do it in the visual language she imagined: mostly monochrome, slightly aloof and artistic.

Fortunately, I was not alone. Her mother was present as well and proudly told me exactly what she believed made her daughter unique.

For now, Mikayla cannot truly enter the modelling profession until she finishes school. But she strongly believes in the concept she has developed for herself.

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And the answer to my final question — why did she want me to create her portfolio? — was wonderfully simple.

She had looked through my reference images and felt that this was exactly the style she was looking for.

Authentic portrait photography does more than create a flattering image: it reveals character, presence and personality.

Part of the BANHALMI ecosystem

For the professional context and practical side of portrait photography, visit the BANHALMI professional website. Related art series, books and exhibitions are preserved in the BANHALMI ART archive.