Strike a Pose

Strike A Pose

Photo courtesy School of Visual Arts

Christine Fellmuth, untitled sketch from SVA course (2005)

Photo courtesy of Register of Artists' Models

Life model Eddy Dickson poses for a RAM workshop

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“I remember actually shaking with embarrassment, then being even more embarrassed because I was shaking,” he recalled of that awkward-but-decisive moment more than 30 years ago when he climbed onto a platform naked in front of an art class filled with teenage girls. “When I got home I said that under no circumstances would I ever do it again.”

But he did do it again—and again, and again. In total, he spent an estimated 50,000 hours in the buff before finally retiring to run the Wales-based Register of Artists’ Models (RAM), a “hybrid of trade union, professional standards organization, and model booking agency,” including workshops and training, which he founded more than ten years ago.

Despite his shaky start, Stevens said he became enamored of life modeling for art classes after just a few sessions. “I actually became very proud of my professionalism and the fact that I [could] hold more and more extreme poses” (one of the most unusual included being “crucified”—tied to a makeshift cross for eight hours a day, with a rest every 20 minutes, for six weeks—as part of a sculpture course, he said).

Although the idea of baring it all in front of a group of strangers might seem terrifying to outsiders—something you’d run from rather than seek out—plenty of others share Stevens’ fondness for the job.

RAM, which offers membership by audition only, has 366 life models, most of whom are London-based. In the United States, there is no equivalent to RAM, but a quick tally of two of the top art schools in New York shows the School of Visual Arts having a stable of 150 freelance models (and at least 700 have passed through the school’s studios over the past five years, according to model registrar James Cavaliere), while Parsons the New School for Design has 103 models covering more than 180 classes each week (the school is also in the process of hiring more through referrals and joint auditions with the SVA, model coordinator Ivan Torres said).

And whether it’s the booming art market and subsequent swelling interest in formal art education, the fact that the SVA and Parsons started holding open auditions prior to each semester three years ago, or simply because more people want to pose, Cavaliere said he has noticed an increase in interest in the job. Eighty-five hopefuls came to the schools’ last audition in fall 2006, and he expects a robust turnout for the next one in August.

The Makings of a Model
Okay, say you, or I, want to be a life model. Once we get over the strangers staring at us… naked … wouldn’t the fact that they were all wielding pencils or paintbrushes— poised to immortalize our every imperfection—still make us hyperventilate?

“Yes, it does seem like your worst nightmare,” Cavaliere laughed. “I tell a lot of people who are anxious about auditioning that you’ll know instantly if life modeling is for you once you hit that first pose.”

Rachel Neuman, a 28-year-old Queens-based actor who has been a life model at SVA for three years, said body confidence is a definite requirement of the job. “We need to be really aware of our bodies, and creative with them.”  

Cavaliere explained that many life models come from creative backgrounds themselves—they are actors, dancers, and painters—so they are used to appreciating the nude body from an artistic standpoint.

“The best parts of the job are being a part of so much creativity and hearing people talk about art all day,” Neuman agreed, adding that she was drawn to modeling after she grew frustrated with her day job at a hotel desk.

“I always felt terrible and stressed, and would constantly run out of time and energy for my creative endeavors,” said Neuman, who had posed clothed for her mother, a painter, in the past. “I had to quit the hotel job for an acting gig anyway, and decided I would try to find something where I could make my own hours, feel inspired, and be treated well by the people around me.”