Modeling is one of those professions that require both raw talent, and endless work to hone that talent into expertise. While many models work hard to maintain a certain "look" they are comfortable with, physical appearance plays only a minor role--within broad parameters--in a model's professional development. This is especially true for art photography, where model and photographer have to work together to create an image that conveys the intended message; an image that does not simply record reality, but rather an idealized version of it.
- Early in the medium's development, photography was seen as a means to simply record in visual form what was presented to the camera from the physical world. Architectural and landscape photography retain to an extent this purpose, as do the millions of children's yearly school portraits that parents dutifully purchase each year.
- Art photography, however, has evolved; and that evolution has revolutionized the model's role in a process that has become both complex and demanding. I'd argue that most good art models could--and probably should--teach university-level courses in image layout and design to both art and photography students.
Emily Rose is a world-class model based in Pennsylvania with a highly developed range of posing talent. As a model, she has the whole package: raw talent; high intelligence; a trained dancer's body awareness; an understanding of the possibilities and limitations of photographic technology--particularly the role that light plays in the recording of an image; and a psychologists deep understanding of how her poses will translate into the audience's perception of the finished image. She marries this talent to an ability to infuse her art with a deep sense of the personal passion with which she lives her life. That passion makes her modeling exceptionally expressive. Emily's passionate fearlessness comes through the lens with immediacy. Indeed, she evokes visions of wild horses, thundering through the vale.
And the white horses of the windy plain...
Still out of hardship bred.
Spirits of power, and beauty, and delight.
Have ever on such frugal pastures fed.
And loved to course with tempests through the night.
--From the poem "Horses on the Camargue," by Roy Campbell
All images by Archangel Images, all rights reserved.
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