On A Serious Note

Stacey Eastman with his wife Shayna

This post is written specifically for potential models, and their parents.  As a Management Company we find the well being and safety of our models of the utmost importance.  Yes, we would love for each of our models to be on the covers of huge magazines and become fashion royalty, but we realize that SOMETIMES that comes at a cost.

Recently there was an article published about Terry Richardson, one of the most controversial and popular fashion photographers right now.  Richardson has a reputation for using his status to take advantage of models, and some of them are now speaking out about him.  We did not include the article because it is very graphic and we do not want that information on our blog.

We are not out to defend the bad parts of our industry, and we certainly are not going to pretend that there are not people that have nefarious motives.  We are here to tell you that we will never push our models to do something that they (or if they are younger than 18, their parents) are not comfortable with.  You may feel pressure from photographers or other agencies, but you will not get that from your management if you are signed with us.  We want you to know that you can call Stacey at anytime and he can help you navigate through these situations.  That is why you have a manager.

We have had a model shoot with Terry Richardson.  We will refrain from using her name, because we love this girl and don't want to cast her in a negative light. We advised her not to work with him, based on his reputation, but she found the allure of the success shooting with him provided and decided to model for him anyway.  She did become very successful, but not without sacrificing a little bit of herself.  A short while after she had her photo shoot she called Stacey in tears, regretting what she had done and lamenting that she never should have posed for Richardson.  Stacey was there to comfort her and make a new game plan about how she should continue her career.  (This model was older than 18, which is why she didn't have a parent or guardian accompany her on set)

It is very important for you models to understand that while we want you to be as successful as possible, we do not want you to feel like you have to sacrifice your personal set of moral standards or personal code of conduct to do so.  At the end of the day, we want you to be comfortable with the person you are, and the decisions that you make.  That is not the norm in this industry, but we want to help to change that. We want you to be successful, and we want to help you do that, but more importantly we want to make sure you feel good about how you obtain your success.