Fun & Famous

THE HELL KNOWN AS POSING FOR A REAL PHOTOGRAPHER

I managed to maneuver myself into the plightful situation in which I’m not a model (obviously), but I am expected to pose for photographers on a regular basis. Now you might be thinking I enjoy this because you always end up with the who-would-have-thought-photos of yourself, but remember this, it requires a solid amount of agony.

My cherished Holland’s Next Top Model neighbor photographer Dirk Kikstra (who once gave me this) refuses to photograph ‘regular’ women because they seem to think that he can transform them into supermodels until they find themselves sobbing on the studio floor after seeing the result. Beautiful nonetheless, because Dirk is an impeccable photographer, but he couldn’t gift them with an added ten centimeters to their height, lose eight kilo’s and Maartje Verhoef’s bone structure.

Now I definitely don’t expect to become a Maartje, Nimuë or whoever else. But creating the best version of yourself won’t happen without a few embarrassing yet hysterical situations.

1. The photographer disappeared

Our shopping editor Lilian and I had to pose for a campaign photo for Renault last week. The location was a dark and damp abandoned old sugar factory right outside of Amsterdam in which the Renault Twingo was put in a fantastic spotlight, but everything around it was quite dark. Our poses had to be joyful and energetic. At a certain moment, we finally figured out what our best poses would be, so we jumped, gave it our all and looked over at the photographer for a look of approval. Who wasn’t there… Just his camera.

2. The photographer doesn’t respond

When you’r being photographed, it’s important that you take on a different pose at every click. Otherwise they’ll be stuck with forty of the same images and that’s not going to get you anywhere. Look to your side then to your right then down so that there is some sort of smooth movement in the photos. The most uncomfortable moment of all is when you take on a pose that you find somewhat exciting (because who knows what it’s going to look like on camera, it’s not like I’ve majored in the subject) and the photographer doesn’t click his button. I recently closed my eyes with my face in the direction of the sun for a photo. For some reason I felt it had a Lancaster vibe to it. But I couldn’t hear our photographer Vivian’s camera click. She was a little less enthusiastic about the pose.

3. Should I take a class?

I once showed my press photo which had been made for Holland’s Next Top Model to a friend of mine who owns her own modeling agency. Personally I was quite content with the photo, great outfit (check), good head of hair (check check) and I looked nice and slim (check check check check). My friend scanned the photo. “You look beautiful, May. But how about a class on how to pose?”

So are you the type who sits behind your desk and thinks: the life of online people is so glamours and exciting, just think of the daily dose of humiliation I go through. And yes, I did end up taking that class for posing (check out the result here). Maybe you can learn something from it too.