This is a rather long interview, in the vein of the old Playboy magazine interviews. However, I would suggest that aspiring models take the time to read the full interview. Vanessa drops some very good insights. Reach Vanessa on Twitter here. (All pics are enlargeable by clicking)
From Nov.'08 to Nov'09. It was brief, but very productive.
--Were you involved in selecting which models were featured in the magazine?
Yes and no. I discovered a few unpublished girls. I also helped us get back in touch with past girls. Sean has a very specific vision of the talent in SHOW and it's mags. He's very hands-on in the selection process. We had a very long ongoing list of new and old girls to shoot/reshoot. Most of the time I'd say, "Hey OMG you gotta check out this girl!", and he'd say, "Yeah, I just got off the phone with her" or "We shot her a few months ago, about to show you her layout." Lol.
But even before my tenure at SHOW, and since my departure, if I meet or see a girl with the qualities I know Sean will dig, I'll send her over. I cast Bianca Eva long after I left. I'm a connector in the most Gladwellian sense. Amazing Amie is too. We like to help people that are helping themselves by matching, submitting, introducing. If we see a hole, we fill it.
--By my count, you’ve had three show covers. Is that accurate?
Yes! Show BL4, SHOWCase, & BL 11. I also had a spread in the Premier issue, feature in the '10 Calendar, one of the top grossing wallpapers, and a few fun shoots for SGE.
How did your covers at SHOW come about and did have a hand in making any of them happen during your tenure as editor?
My first cover was shot in '07. SHOWCase was shot in October '08. So it was shot before I was invited to work for the company, but published during my time there. My third was actually shot during my time at Cummings Media (as was the Calendar), but was published well after my departure.
I wasn't able to make sure any girl got a cover, least of all myself. I did, however, have a schedule completely dedicated to Sean. I sacrificed my full-time modeling to work over there. I had to turn down a lot of travel/hosting gigs, and shoots for other mags. I'm sure he'll say I totally earned the shoots I was put in while I was there; but I also think there was a bit of charity on his behalf because he knew modeling wasn't totally out of my system.
--Meanwhile, girls like Khrysti Hill and Bria Myles – industry favorites by all accounts – have barely eked out one cover at SHOW. How do you account for that?
I actually coordinated/directed both Khrysti and Bria's cover shoots during my time at SHOW. Khrysti is one of my "real life" friends. Bria and I had worked together before as well. She's so sweet with a unique work ethic only a few of us have.
What the outsiders don't understand is that there are factors on both sides that make your favorite girl appear in magazines consistently. First off, your favorite model might be a bitch on set, a diva, hard to work with, require excessive airbrushing, be pregnant, be in a relationship with a guy that doesn't want her to model anymore, having family issues, etc. Just because you love her, and see her active on twitter does not mean she's desirable, or available as a model to the magazines.
--I read once on a message board that Sean (the publisher of SHOW) is your cousin. Is that true, and if so, did it have anything to do with your being hired as editor at SHOW?
*doubles over in laughter* ...Negative.
Sean is of West Indian decent. I am of partial West Indian decent. So we like a lot of the same foods. That's as related as we get. The Editor at another magazine fabricated that lie in an attempt to justify how I could've possibly gone form modeling to making more money than him.
Sean Cummings and I met while he was Editor over at SMOOTH Magazine in 2005. After Sean left SMOOTH he invited me to a casting for a new magazine called SHOW. I made the cut. So no, not related, never dated. We have eaten a lot together though... Sounds silly but most good biz deals are made over lunch tables.
--Don’t you think there’s a conflict of interest in your serving as the editor at SHOW while also being a model that was featured in the magazine? That would be like Reese Witherspoon buying out the William Morris Agency and suddenly getting packaged in all the good movies.
Yes. It's a MAJOR conflict of interest in the way you probably define what my position was. My title was Editor. However, my duties were not the same of a typical large publishing house. As I stated earlier I didn't have control over final selection of talent or booking myself, so your comparison becomes void. I ran the office, made sure people got paid, fixed subscription issues, quenched fires, brainstormed new concepts and names with Sean, implemented marketing ideas, damage control, assisted SLICKFORCE on sets, etc. And yes, I also proofed issues for errors, wrote a few editors letters, and represented the company at events.
I didn't have one complaint from a model during my time over there. I've been helping my peers get work since I started doing this. I was more like a sorority den mother. Girls felt comfortable to come to me with issues. They knew I could relate because I was one of them. I could see things from their perspective.
--How is it that you finally stopped serving as editor at SHOW?
We changed a lot of things internally that made my position less and less necessary. I knew when I took the job that it would be short-term; I just didn't know how much I'd grow from the experience. I learned so much under Sean. It really was more like a crash course in Publishing. If the economy and future of magazines were different I'd totally start one.
--In your earlier years, you were thicker, but in last couple years you’ve gotten considerably thinner and lot more toned. What caused you to go in this direction, especially given the fact that the urban market favors thicker models?
That's not completely accurate. This is the thickest I've ever been in life! lol. I admit I do go up and down a lot, and with all mags and photogs releasing content at different times it gets a little confusing. Models are supposed to be consistent and I'm anything but when it comes to my body. I work out in spurts, gorge when I'm in love or sad, lose my appetite when I'm stressed.
I saw the "thick" picture you referenced on this site. I was in love and engaged back then. All I did was cook! lol. I wasn't even really modeling at the time. I was sneaking and shooting web content with Robert Fein, Ron Johnson for fun.
--Where you clearly surpass the competition is in your PR skills, as verified by your 30,000+ Twitter followers. How important do you think it is to interact with your fans as an up and coming model?
Thank you. I went to college for PR, I'm from a huge family; my mother's side is almost all educators, my father's side artists and entertainers. So I think it just comes naturally to me. I also worked as a bartender, promo girl, golf caddy, and bikini model for Hooters for years and there it's mandatory to interact with guests. I've noticed all the models I've met that have been successful Hooter's girls have the same "engagement" quality. We don't treat our fans as if they are beneath us. We talk to them like we're chopping it up over a cold beer. We are approachable -the girl next door.
Upcoming models have to know how to interact with their fans & deal with people in general. I only know a few successful girls that can get away with that "aloof, untouchable, mysterious" thing. The money in urban work isn't in the magazines and music videos anymore. It's in the hosting gigs you book because of them, and in spokes-model work/campaigns, etc. If you get to a club or event and act snobby with fans or don't have a presence, word travels quickly. Models like Rosa Acosta are everywhere not just because they are hot, but because in person fans are drawn to them and everyone behind the scenes truly enjoys working with them.
--What are you currently working on and what do you have coming up?
My Supreme/Terry Richardson shoot really expanded the range of the work available to me. Counter-culture brands here and abroad are warning up to curvy Black women.
I have a ton on the horizon, but my most immediate project dropping is my collab with DGK, a skateboard/apparel brand. It's a collab in the truest form. I was involved creatively from start to finish and learned a few things along the way. The ads and products drop in Feb. '11.
All SHOW fans can expect another issue soon. Not sure the date that drops.
--The urban modeling industry has taken quite a hit in recent years due to many coinciding factors. Where do you see it going in the future?
There is no industry. There are urban models, urban mags, urban music, and events, but we have totally lost the small industrious nature of it we were slowly cultivating in the early '00s.
I don't think it will ever recover. Models are being replaced by strippers who don't need the money and beautiful, insecure women who shoot mags only to validate themselves. Any dude with a camera is now a photographer; any dude that can code has an online magazine. Music videos have no budgets and no one watches them anyway. It's a circus.
On the bright-side (kinda), mainstream media continues to become more and more urban. So you will begin to see more of our type of models that know how handle themselves professionally integrate into more international campaigns, acting, and the radar of pop-culture in general. Examples (Rosa Acosta, Tae Heckard, Suelyn)
--What's your stand on the excessive Photoshopping in urban modeling, that has to some degree impaired the integrity of the industry?
Photoshopping is out of control. I remember Trya Banks saying that she earned her photoshop. lol I think she meant that after you've paid your dues and done enough QUALITY work, sure you can go and have a baby and expect that the photographers you've developed a great report with will erase those stretch marks.
I agree with that. When I started in this biz if you had a potbelly, sagging boobs, excessive marks, and blemishes, or too many tattoos, you weren't a model. Period. Now Photoshop has changed the rules. Smh. Magazines will even over airbrush girls that don't need it to camouflage the ones that do.
I now make it a point to always do video and behind-the-scenes pictures for my shoots, just to ensure there's a level of reality for my fans in case the post production of the images goes too far. It took a lot of years of brainwashing for my parents to get me to love my flaws. I refuse to let Photoshop come along and f*ck that up!
It seems to me that to be successful in any aspect of entertainment as an attractive women who have to be able to deal with fragile egos of casting directors, video directors, photographers, etc. You have to be able to finesse the fine line of not making these guys think they couldn't date you, while at the same time not leading them on. It's a very delicate area, but I truly believe women who can master this excel in the industry. Any words on that?
I've witnessed the full range. From girls that are extremely professional, but personally as cold as ice, to girls that make it known they will do "anything" to get booked. As an Editor I even had moments where I had to go, "Wait, was that GIRL coming onto me?!?" Smh.
If you sleep with directors, editors, publishers, photographers, etc., to get gigs, it may work short term, but it will kill any hopes of longevity. Most productions are cast with the overall energy in mind, and if there's a girl who's had sexual history with someone behind the scenes that didn't end well she will most likely be omitted to avoid any possible issues.
Models make a grave mistake by thinking every man in the industry thinks with his penis. Some do. But the most talented know how to separate their personal sexual preference from what's trending, or best fitting for the gig. Excessive flirtation with a man in power on set can really backfire. He may not take you seriously, take it as an insult to his vision which is much bigger than sleeping with you, or it may make things awkward. He could have his wife or girlfriend working or visiting on set. There are a ton of scenarios I could throw out to say I just don't think it's a good idea to flirt and come onto men on set.
If you find yourself the target of excessive, unnecessary, or unsolicited flirtation while working I think it's best to shut it down in an indirect way to leave all egos intact and not disrupt the project. You can jokingly say something like, "Keep flirting with me and I'll forget my lines mister!" or "Thanks for the invite but the only after party waiting on me is beauty sleep for my gig tomorrow. Nice meeting you". Things that say you're not completely offended, but you're the girl that's about her business.
On set always stay alert, be positive, witty, engaging, all of those things that make you you. Don't jump into convos about politics or religion. Don't gossip. Say please and thank you. Follow up. This will always trump being the girl they think they could date.
Conclusion:
After interviewing Vanessa, I think I understand the secret to her success as a model a little more. Obviously, she's very attractive, but perhaps even more importantly in this time, she knows how to deal with editors and photographers and deliver what they want. In many cases the choice between two models is the flip of coin looks-wise, and that is where professionalism and a good attitude truly make the difference. As someone who deals with a lot of these models, I can tell you it is in short supply unfortunately. So if you have it, you will stand out.