Nick Suarez's studio-Brooklyn
Nick is a Brooklyn based photographer I met early on after I signed with Wilhelmina NY. My booker at Wilhelmina at the time requested I do a book overhaul and shoot with Nick for some updated photos specific to the New York market. Let me interject now and say that these are not the photos from that shoot. But that’s how Nick and I met. Per the agency, we shot stock standard fashion shit. Which is fine but also made me look like every other Joe Blogs on the street with a modeling agent…which is New York is pretty common. Nick got paid a test rate, which was charged onto my Wilhelmina account and would later my deducted from a pay check that came in.(Now’s a great point in the story to mention that this is how all agencies work. Agencies never pay for anything out of their own pocket, they front the money and charge it back to the model later when money comes in. I don’t mention this as a criticism of agencies, more are a little truth that most people don’t realize. Everytime I mention this to someone outside of the industry I’m met with the same eye-widening shock-”really?” Yes. It’s a business afterall, alas! Nothing’s free here.) I remember the stylist throwing me in a bodysuit, a denim shirt over it that was tied in the front, and strappy stilettos. I felt pretty stupid truth be told, but I wanted to make a good impression on Nick, the stylist and my new agents so I shut up and did as I was told. Acting the entire time that I knew what I was doing. By this point I had been modeling for while so I wasn’t totally out of my comfort zone…a 2 month stint on a contract in China had zapped that out of me a couple of years prior. But still, I didn’t feel like those initial photos did me much good…but what did I know. A year or so later however, Nick wrote to me (after discovering I was a dancer) and asked if I’d shoot again. This time free of charge, that proudly put artistry and athleticism at the forefront of our shoot. Ironically enough, I daresay these photos got me more work than the initial stock-standard test ever did. They still live in my books today in both NYC and LA. The shots from the initial test are long gone. Nick has such a timeless, effortless style in his work. His techincal knowledge of lighting and editing is superb and he’s an easy going dude who puts anyone in his company at ease.
Photos Nick Suarez
