Model Citizens

Sara Ziff and Ole Schell were at it again over the course of New York Fashion Week. Treking about with their cameras, they nabbed several impromptu interviews with models around the city and after shows to bring us a three-part miniseries in the same vein as Picture Me for New York Magazine`s blog, The Cut.  

Part one deals specifically with age in the modelling industry; i.e., what is old for a model? What’s the average age? Discussions with Barbora Dvorakova and Siri Tollerød speak to these questions as well as the widespread lying about age in castings if a model is too old or too young. Barbora and Ali Stepka also talk about pay for doing fashion weeks, and the emphasis (or lack thereof) of education.



Part two focuses on the abuses faced by models, particularly the unfortunate fact that some top agencies double as prostitution businesses. Photographer Sean Cunningham relates this, while Karolina Kurkova speaks on the problems faced by being a young girl on your own in the industry. Anja Rubik adds insight on the declining state of respect for models’ privacy, and why a union for models is unlikely to happen. Oh, and Derek Blasberg... appears to have misunderstood the question.



In part three, Vanessa Perron and Amy Lemons talk about the prevalence of anorexia and other eating disorders, which are not just fostered by the industry, but blatantly encouraged by agencies, while Elizabeth Wellington and Blasberg discuss the lack of racial diversity on runways from two different perspectives.



I’m glad that this project was supported by the magazine, because it will help with the publicity surrounding these issues and the original documentary, which is still stuck in limited releases. By the looks of things, Ziff and Schell are having difficulties finding a company to distribute the film on DVD, however, the popularity of the film is growing exponentially during these fashion weeks, with people all over the world searching for ways to see it. Unfortunately, it has yet to make it online (not that I condone film piracy), which is leaving the viewing community limited to those attending film festivals where is playing. Fingers crossed that the widespread demand for Picture Me helps recruit sponsors for wider distribution and a video release!

Peace, love, and floating,
Gill Ford