Andy Warhol—From A to B and Back Again

2018

“Andy's work really goes to the heart of the matter of what it means to be a human being and what our potential is . . . It's the real deal.”—Jeff Koons

Hear from a range of contemporary artists, curators, and scholars speaking about iconic works on view. Contributors include Jeff Koons, Hank Willis Thomas, Deborah Kass, Peter Halley, Sasha Wortzel, and Richard Meyer.

Transcription: Fashion: Male Models, 1979

Running time: 30 mins

Andy Warhol: Fashion.

Michael Holder: I have really dry skin so I don't use soap on my face but maybe a couple times a day. Maybe when I wake up and then before I go to bed at night. I do wash my face just with plain, warm water several times a day.

Annibal Llende: [inaudible]

Russell Todd: You walk down the street and there are times where people will stare at you and God knows what they're thinking. But as a model you do have an idea that people are looking at you and watching you.

David White: Millions of dollars are off us, actually being a model to sell their product. So, I don't see why we shouldn't make what we make. Sometimes I think we should make more. I mean that's the way I think it is.

Marcus Able: It's not hard. Oh no, not at all. At $125 an hour, hell that's not hard.

Tony Sanchez: Why me, as opposed to sixteen other guys?

Zoli: I would say of the new people that walk in to this agency for an interview, I would probably say the percentage to chance of them being accepted is somewhere between two and five percent. Of the people that walk in will accomplish that. Out of that two and five percent, it's hard to really nail down a specific number. I would say a good half will not last the first couple of months.

Marcus Able: I guess it was my girlfriend. She just said that, look there's a lot of money to be made and you can do it. So, I tried it and I'm making okay money for a schoolboy.

Tony Sanchez: I was raised with my Cuban family, and I'm Cuban, when I first said I'm going to Paris. I said I'm going in two weeks to Paris and I'm going to be a model. I had done several things before. I was a dancer and then I started going to theater. And the first time I did something for television I was doing Godspell and they came over and said, we want you guys to come over and do a soft drink commercial. So, that's the first thing I ever did. So it was like, first they got scandalized when I started dancing and second they got more scandalized when I started acting and dancing. And then when I said I was going to Paris and I was going to be a model, they just didn't take me serious. They just laughed and then one day they went into my bedroom, I was packing my bags, and I said, I'm leaving tomorrow.

David White: I started modeling in Fort Lauderdale and I was a lifeguard in Fort Lauderdale. And it was a shooting from New York City, a bunch of models came down and a couple of photographers and everything. And they were shooting and they needed lifeguards and I was sitting on the lifeguard chair and they said, we'll give you fifty dollars for the day if you'll come over tomorrow and model for us. So, the first thing I thought was, fabulous. Fifty bucks cash, why not?

Michael Holder: I was collecting unemployment and drawing. I was going to art school. And I had worked in the shipyard there in San Francisco for three years, up until about six months before I started modeling. I started modeling in San Francisco a year and a half ago. I was—I basically needed a job. I was looking for a good part-time job. I went to an agent who someone at a gym where I worked out told me that I didn't have to think of myself as a model ahead of time and have a portfolio together. But I could just talk to the people and see whether they thought I could do it or not. And I went and they were very enthusiastic from the beginning and had me working two days later.

Zoli: I first became aware of modeling and the modeling careers when I was about seventeen or eighteen. I passed, a friend of mine took me to a modeling agency and just for a lark to look in and see what goes on in a place like that. And the phones were ringing. So, I picked up the phone, nobody else seemed to be picking it up. So I said, hold on please and I picked up another, said, hold on please, and I spent five hours there saying, hold on please. At the end of the day they asked me to come back the next day.

Michael Taylor: I think the male models I interviewed in the book, for example all of them started modeling as through the recommendation of a friend, A. And that no one went out to become a male model. They were doing other jobs and someone said, oh, you might make a great model. Why don't you see this friend of mine? And through that they went into the business. What has changed now is that men are going out to become a male model. They are leaving their homes and coming to New York to invest their time in that as a business.

Renauld White: So, I looked in the phone book and I looked under models in the yellow pages. And I found a list of agencies. So, I picked the first one, or the one that was familiar to me, which was Ford. I went up to East Fifty-Ninth Street and I walked in. Again, I was totally unprepared, I had no photographs, no knowledge. And they said to me, "Well, you're too tall, you've got a scar on your nose and there isn't really any demand for black men. We don't really have that much for young, black men." 

Russell Todd: Models sell an image and that image that they sell is a creation of both how they look and what they do with it. A couple of days ago I was working on a shooting and it happened that the art director on the job was in the picture, we were doing something where we needed another person and he was playing the part in this picture, and he did not know what to do. At one point I turned to him and I said, you really have a great opportunity here, because I feel he'll probably appreciate what models do when the picture is being taken. Because a good model makes it look like it's very easy. I get really crazy when I hear models—and on talk programs too—talk about how they don't like modeling and how they—somehow or another there seems to be this apologetic attitude that they have to convince people that they really don't like what they do.

Annibal Llende: Some days it's a real pain and you don't want to do it. Taking your book on go-sees, going around the city, but other days when you think, I'm doing this, I'm going to get a job, I'm going to appear in print, I'm going to be paid for it, it's fine. It depends on the weather a lot also.

Joop: When I came from Europe it was sort of culture shock that so many clients and photographers are not really considered with the model as a talent. Not everybody does it but in general, they just treat you, if I don't know how to explain it. It's just for instance, the don't say hello, or they don't shake your hand or tell their name as an introduction. And you don't really get a rapport and that annoys me because basically you want to have a rapport because you and the photographer have to work together to get a good result. And that's the picture.

Marcus Able: I think if a photographer is good he does limit the model because he knows what he wants. He knows the kind of image or kind of mood he wants portray in his photographs, so he'll direct the model.

Tony Sanchez: Dealing with new persons with new mentalities all the time, you always, when you get to a job the first thing you have to do is know who you're working with. That's not, like, the easiest thing because you either hate the person working with and that's really hard if you don't get a rapport with the photographer. You're supposed to be kissing a girl on the bed and you think the girl is the worst thing you've ever seen in your life because she has no mind or whatever. And it's really a lot of psychological strength you have during the job. Sometimes you just go back home and physically you're not tired, but you're drained.

David White: I think it takes a lot of willpower and a lot of intelligence to do your job and do it right. A lot of people can stand up and say, now pose and take your pictures and all this, but as far as knowing how to pose and how to wear your clothes and all this, I think it takes a lot of training and a lot common sense, more than schooling ability. I think you have to be street smart and have common sense to be a model. I don't think you have to be extremely intelligent, no.

Michael Holder: I guess before I started working as a model I shared a lot of the myths about models. That they were dumb or they were loose.

Renauld White: I do get perturbed when models try to come off as being intellects. When in reality, I mean come on, you're making money from the way you look. And don't try to overemphasize the fact that you did acquire something up there, that's fine. But for the grace of God, you could be working in McDonald's serving coffee, but there's nothing wrong with that either.

Joop: Models as intelligent as somebody who has studied for doctor. Because it is an incredible business.

Tony Sanchez: There's nothing much you can learn in this business if you don't know something already. If you get surrounded by all the people in the business and you only talk about modeling all the time, how much can you know?

Marcus Able: No, I'll say that models are not stupid. And not get into any trouble, I don't know.

Zoli: Models generally are thought of I think by the public, I believe a bad public image. They're thought of either as stupid or not too productive or lazy or kinky or some bad terms. And I don't think that that is really correct. If you take one hundred lawyers, I think you're going to be, find some stupid lawyers, some kinky lawyers, some lazy lawyers, and some unproductive ones.

Russell Todd: My agency's really good, Zoli. I've only been there for about six, seven months and things have been really great. Things are coming out very nicely. The people are friendly there. The bookers are wonderful. I haven't had any passes with them and I don't believe I ever will. I hope not.

Tony Sanchez: My parents are very excited about my success as a model. When I first started off they thought, they didn't know what was happening. They spent all this money on a college education and look what you're doing and what does it mean.

Annibal Llende: There's a book on the market, it's called Male Model and one of the quotes from the book says that every model is a whore. Which, I don't know, there's different levels, because you're selling yourself but you're really not trying to sell yourself. You're selling whatever you're wearing. But some people do feel they're selling themselves and some people do behave as a whore in the business. But I can only talk for themself and I don't feel like a whore at all.

Marcus Able: Outside of modeling my image is just whatever it is, it's not anything I'm consciously trying to portray. For my clients I guess the image does change, if you want to look older, grease your hair back and pull it back like that and don't smile, give them the mean look. And if you want to do some junior ads you have your hair dry and smile. It's, you know.

David White: People think that $100 an hour or $1,000 a day or something like that is a lot of money being making, but I think if you take your money and you spend it wisely as far as the days you don't work and the days you do work. I mean I've gone like three weeks without working, strange as it might be. But [inaudible] it's alright as long as the averages out to the end of the year where you've made a fairly good salary because after Uncle Sam hits you, you paid your rent and you've done all your partying that you have to do being a model, buying new clothes. I don't think we make any more money than a doctor or a lawyer.

Michael Holder: I wish I went to the gym every day, but my schedule is such that I'm really not able to do it regularly. But I try to do a complete program. I try to swim a lot and I do it because for health and just because it's the mental relaxation I get from it. Otherwise I start to get tense and rundown.

Russell Todd: You do have to [inaudible] a lot of time. Sometimes it's a hassle but you have to look at the clients, you have to shave, you have to do your hair right, try to keep good skin as possible.

Speaker one: You think you'd ever get tired of it?

Russell Todd: As of now I don't think I'll ever, I don't think I'll get tired of it. Who knows what will happen. I enjoy the work and never mind going through these preparations to look good.

Annibal Llende: When you go and see a client and they always have these incredible expectations, they always tell you, if you had your hair shorter or if you were blonder. Then why did you call me in the first place. It's a point it doesn't really affect me that much because you do some things and some things you're not meant to do. But it's really funny sometimes because it's like if you were blonder you'd be perfect for this job.

Marcus Able: Well, some people use it as a stepping stone to acting careers. Also, as a means of saving up money for a business or let's say restaurant or something. I guess some people are intrigued by the quote, glamour of it. None of those really appeal to, especially I guess for me the glamour is nonexistent, really.

Zoli: For male models the business has changed quite a bit since I started nine years ago. It has multiplied I would say tremendously. When I started very few designers had a men's design. American male was not very fashion conscious. They had no flair, no style, and now every women's designer seems to have a male line as well. They do very well. People are better dressed. GQ has become a very big selling magazine. And male models’ income has increased tremendously because of all this in the last year I think it is. It doubles every year. The male model industry because of that has grown and become much larger too. And many more models now and it's keeping more models at work. And it's keeping more photographers at work. It's a whole new outlet.

Michael Taylor: A professional male model? What is my idea of one? Well, A, it's one who has a strong cliental who works constantly at his business, who knows how to do his job, to be expedient, to do his job excellently, to take a garment, to take clothes, to take a product, know how to remove himself enough to enhance a product. So that that sells.

Joop: Sometimes I create a competition myself, but basically there's no competition because everybody has their own looks and everybody has their own, what do you want to say, specialty. And I know there's not another Joop. There's so many other models that I cannot compete with because they have their specialty. And what I do when I work from nine till six it is my business and I have a good rapport with the models, very human. I have work with them and I want the result to be good. And after six o'clock then my private life starts.

Zoli: If someone comes from the street, brand new, has never done, has a few snapshots as it happens, to build their career can be a drawn out process, a lengthy process. The first thing one has to do is probably groom the person a little. Then try to get that person in front of as many cameras as possible until, so they can get some good pictures for a portfolio. And until also, the only way to get good pictures is to be at ease in front of the camera. And to build confidence, this is done through trial and error of many test shootings and just practicing the craft.

Speaker two: [crosstalk] Yes.

Speaker three: She asked me. I said, well I know it's some like that.

Speaker two: [crosstalk] How are you?

Speaker three: Yes, yes.

Speaker two: Okay, either a photographer, ad agency, magazine will call up, ask for certain time on a model. And we will mark the time off on the chart, take the information, who's calling, what it's for, how long it's going to be, how much, hopefully lots of money. If it's going to be a weather permit, wardrobe. And we get in touch with the model and give him all the information and coordinate the time and place between the client, the photographer and the model. 

And that's about it. We also set up go-sees for models to see advertising agencies or photographers, magazines, calls. Take TV—our TV department gives us all their information for our charts also. We recommend models to the clients, they'll ask us for a certain type and we'll suggest certain people. Models they didn't know. A lot of time they know most of the models and we'll just book them but it comes up quite often that we have to suggest people. I have been doing this for sixteen years.

Speaker one: And you love it?

Speaker two: And I love it.

Speaker one: That's great. Thank you very much.

David White: That's what annoys me the most. People don't treat you as David, they treat you as the Devin Man or the GQ cover or something like this. They don't treat you as the person you should be treated as, so that annoys me the most. They don't give you the opportunity to have a good time.

Russell Todd: There's this whole image of models being great jet setters and being out on the town every night doing this and doing that and staying up till all hours and still looking absolutely fabulous at eight o'clock in the morning. And I'm sure there are people who do that, I mean I do go out, I mean if I want to go out dancing I go to Studio 54.

Annibal Llende: I very seldom go out, as out I just go to friend's house and whatever, to the movies. But if I just feel like going out dancing or things like that I—yeah I'll go to Studio and jump for a while.

Joop: I'm going out of course. Lately because of my study and because I'm in rehearsals and the house that I'm decorating in the country, I don't have that much time to go out. But I did my whole thing when I started to come out in New York. Went to all the discotheques that at that moment were popular. I do it less right now because my time is really very important. But if I go out I go to Studio 54 because I think it's a wonderful place to unload and to get rid of all your anxiety by dancing till four or five o'clock in the morning.

Marcus Able: I stay home basically or go to movies or sometimes I'll go to a bar or something with a friend, but it's not, it's just with people basically I go out with people I know. I don't, I've been to Studio 54.

Annibal Llende: When I go out at night usually I go dancing, possibly to Studio 54 or Xenon. Sometimes, occasionally down to the Mudd Club to see what's happening there. I like to catch a show on Broadway.

Renauld White: Last night I went to the Beacon Theater, they have concerts there. I like going to concerts. I like discos occasionally. I don't really go out that much. I prefer staying in.

Michael Holder: It was set up by my agent basically. He brought all the people involved in that together, the manufacturer of the jeans, the Peter Rogers Associates who is the agency, and also I assume he had something to do with getting the manufacturer to get the franchise to use the name from the people at Studio 54. But this all kind of set up as a package deal and Zoli recommended that Peter Rogers use me, as the art director on this. So, I worked with Peter once before that and his only question was, well, I have to see your body. I have to know if it's right for this ad that we want to do. I didn't know what they were planning on doing and I said, well I'm changing my clothes so take a look. He said, okay it's fine.

David White: It's getting to the point now were a lot of photography is nude and as far as fashion. So, you can get away with that, but I don't think they like the idea of a model doing their job and they've been laid out in the sack with a couple of people. They don't like that at all. But I see nothing wrong with it whatsoever.

Zoli: I'm thirty-eight years old, going on thirty-nine I think. Yeah.

Michael Taylor: I'm thirty-six years old. I've been a model for ten years.

Michael Holder: I'm thirty-two.

David White: Well, some people think I'm thirty, some people think I'm twenty-three. It depends when people ask you when you go on a job, my real age is twenty-six, but when you go on a job and they want you, they'll say we want an eighteen to twenty-four, so you comb your hair back and you shave real closely and you look like you're twenty-four. It all depends on the attitude you take and what you have to do and then that's how old you are. Age anyway is no big difference.

Annibal Llende: I'm twenty-one.

Tony Sanchez: I'm twenty years old. Just turned.

Michael Holder: I used to think this is incredible that they are paying me this money for doing this. But now I realize that I'm confident at what I do. People want me to work for them for a reason because it's a competitive field. There are a lot of people that want to do this. There are a lot of people that are modeling. And those of us who are successful, there's a reason for it. Part of it is my mother's cheekbones and part of it is because I'm as professional as I can be when I'm working with people in this field.

David White… Somebody that I would think had better eyes or maybe a better smile or something. It used to bug me because I'd go home and try to smile like the other model and it doesn't work. You have to be yourself and if the competition is there, but as far as trying to look better, everybody's got their own look and if you try to copy, say Ted Dawson's look or Michael Holder's look, or something like that it doesn't work. You just have to be yourself. That's why you're here and if you don't look at it as a business they're not going to use you any longer. They're gonna take somebody else. They say you're only as good as your last picture.

Speaker four: Okay, now hold that [inaudible]. Steven, you [inaudible] my right. But don't [inaudible] just the head. [inaudible] Move the elbow in. That's good. Okay. [crosstalk] positions. [inaudible] Alright [inaudible] After the shooting. [inaudible] your jeans there. That's fine. I'd like to see your face a little bit clearer. Chin up.

Andy Warhol: Fashion.

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