Mentoring · India
They are told to get pictures taken, to be confident, and to wait. So people spend two years and a lot of money learning by accident what somebody could have explained in an afternoon. I shoot and cast for the productions I make, which means I sit on the side of the camera that decides — and I will tell you what that side is actually looking at. It costs nothing, there is no course to buy, and I take no cut of anything you go on to earn or win.
What it covers
What a portfolio actually needs, in what order, and which of your photographs are quietly working against you. Most books fail on the second picture, not the first.
How to walk, where to look, what to do with your hands when nobody has told you. It is learnable in an afternoon and it is the thing people are most self-conscious about.
What happens in the room, what they are deciding while you talk, and why the person who gets booked is often not the best-looking one there.
The walk, the interview round, what a panel is actually scoring, and the book you turn up with. Also an honest answer on whether you are ready to enter this year or should give it six months.
What a shoot should pay, what a usage buyout means, and which requests are normal versus which ones mean you should leave. Nobody teaches this and it costs people the most.
How to turn something down without burning the contact, and why the people who can do that get booked more, not less.
Pageants
A pageant is not a modelling job wearing a sash. The walk is different, the interview round decides more than people expect, and the panel is scoring things nobody announces — how you carry a question you did not prepare for, whether you look like you want to be there, whether your book says the same thing your answers do.
What I can give you is preparation and an honest read: the walk, the round, the portfolio you arrive with, and whether you are ready to enter this year or should give it six months and go in far stronger. That last answer is the one people least want and most need. I am not affiliated with any pageant, I do not sell entries, and I take no percentage of anything you win.
And then the work
Mentoring on its own is advice. The reason it is worth anything here is that briefs actually arrive — shoots, campaigns and shows — and they go in front of the faces they fit. The booking, the schedule and the payment all run through me, so a client never has your number and you are never negotiating alone with somebody you have not met.
Nobody honest promises work, and I will not. Some months several briefs come in, some months none. What I can promise is that when one arrives that fits you, you are in front of it. Apply to the board →
Questions
Nothing. Not a joining fee, not a session fee, not a percentage of anything you go on to earn or win. If someone in this industry asks a new face for money to be represented or trained, that is the moment to walk away — and I would rather be the counter-example than explain it.
You have to have applied, because that is how I see your photographs and know what I am talking about. Whether or not I take you on, you get told what is working and what is not. Plenty of people are not right for my roster and still leave knowing what to fix.
Yes — the walk, the interview round, what the panel is scoring, and the portfolio you arrive with. What I will also do is tell you honestly if you should wait a year, which is not always what people want to hear. I do not take a cut of anything you win, and I am not affiliated with any pageant.
Neither, and it matters. I am a photographer and director who casts talent for the productions I shoot. There is no course, no certificate and no contract — you stay free to work with anyone else, always. What I have is the view from the other side of the camera, which is the side that decides.
Briefs arrive from brands and productions, and I put the faces that fit in front of them. The booking, the schedule and the payment run through me, so you are never negotiating alone with someone you have never met. Nobody honest guarantees work — some months there are several briefs, some months none.
Yes. The mentoring happens over messages and calls, so where you are does not change it, and briefs come in for cities all over the country. Where you live matters for a specific job, not for whether any of this is worth doing.
Send a few — phone pictures are fine — and you will get a straight read on what is working, what is not, and what to do next. Free, whether or not you end up on the board, and you keep the portfolio you build on the way through.