Public Forums > Modelling > Models of colour

I was wondering, what experiences have models of colour/different races experienced over the years? I worked with an agency where 90% of the models were white and I remember taking on some Asian models and there just wasn't the demand - it's not that we couldn't send them on castings for general jobs, but the fact was that they weren't mainstream enough.  Anyone else have experiences?

I think it's definitely a touchy subject in terms of why more models of color aren't mainstream. I was really shocked with I learned that many of the haute couture designers actually refused to work with models of color for whatever reason.

Speaking for myself it would get frustrating at times because I would be sent out to casting calls where I just knew the client didn't want "my look," but I didn't want to tell my agent that so I would go anyway and I could tell that they either wanted a Caucasian or an Asian person. I don't take it personally but it is difficult at times. I would try to get my agent to network with more ethnic clients that actually use girls with my look but it never fell through. Sometimes I feel like I would get more work if I only worked with clients that specialize in ethnic products but I think models of color deserve to be more mainstream...I mean all ethnicities are everywhere these days and should see more faces that reflect them. But that's just me.

Yes I think so - if you are advertising something race specific then perhaps it makes sense but....what is there really, that is race specific these days?!  Clothes, household items, cars, furniture - a while ago I had a kids photography portrait business.  It just happens that the friends babies that modelled were black or asian but I didn't think twice.  Then I went to a business coaching and one of the girls asked me if the service was specifically for ethnic babies!!! I never considered the fact that because there wasn't a white baby on the leaflets, people would categorize the business as 'specialized'.

It's so crazy that you mentioned that because a while back I was helping someone with their website design and I provided some stock images of golfers and the first round of images he liked so we used them on the site, which was under construction. He emailed the link to a few colleagues to get their feedback and they also had the same concern about whether the product he was selling was for ethnic clients...so we ended up having to throw on a few Caucasian models to balance everything out! I thought that train of thinking was so strange but I guess since you've experienced the same thing, it seems more people must have this way of thinking when it comes to models of color.

I can't say I understand it but then again, the modeling industry is good for turning certain things upside down!

That's true Dania!  We are so accustomed to seeing things in a certain way that seeing a person of colour may just stand out like a sore thumb to us.  I can't say I notice if its a black person but if its Asian I tend to pay attentione a bit more (because I am Asian myself).  Also there are those kind of adverts that try to depict a model of every race - cringy!