On Modeling

Modeling Perspective

Written By Ella Rudisill

I am by no means someone who feels comfortable in front of a camera. Growing up in the age of Instagram, where one presents their life through a curated series of portraits, I’ve always been haunted by the notion that I, inevitably, don’t photograph well. Going into the Fosnot Gallery shoot, I had this idea lodged in the back of my mind. I asked myself what would happen if the angle of my head or the way I unnaturally placed my hands became the ruin of hours of photographers' careful work. However, when I arrived at the gallery, my busy mind was calm. I realized that as a model, I was not the centerpiece or focal point of the shoot. Instead, I was a background character in a story told by the paintings. Models moved from piece to piece, first admiring and then doing their best to accentuate the bold colors and patterns within each canvas. We based our movements and attitudes on the personality of the art, and because of this, I felt relaxed and dynamic while modeling.