model behaviour

It was like any other day, really. Too warm to sleep, too lazy to do anything but pick scraps from the floor and port them, too un-enthused with the bad luck of a good day on a work day to really care where I ended up at the end of it. To my bike, up the hill, to the boulevard, to wait, to press, to sweat. He came in rather unassumingly, bought a pair of retro sunglasses and tried on a hoody - all the while telling me about what he was up to in this life. He was here with a gallery from Vienna; he is a photographer. A girl had cancelled on him and what a shame! He had hoped to photograph old port. Too bad he said as he paid, & parted & I continued to wait, press and sweat.

About ten minutes pass. He returns:

- Hello again! Vat ees your shoe size?
- Oh, hey! Uh, size ten... (?!?)
- Do you wear makeup?
- Not usually.
- Vat are you up to later on dis eefning?
- I work until seven.
- Would you like to shoot?
- me?

Me. Rushing home after shift, finding random things that could possibly be categorized as 'street' or 'evening' wear, (learning later that my taste is NOT the same as aforementioned european photographer), to my bike, to the old port, to prepare.

He had gone shopping in the afternoon and presented me with a pair of snakeskin, sequined pants and six-inch heels. I knew immediately that this would be unlike anything I had ever done before (and, as it turns out, it was more difficult than posing nude for the sake of art)

He also presented the other model he found along his way; an urban planning major, part time AA employee who has managed to get by in MTL for three years without knowing a word of French. (Damn the pretty ones!)

We drove, changed, posed, (chin down! lips open!) exchanged information and that was that - strike 'modeling' off the bucket list.

I was discussing this with friends and we couldn't agree upon the verb tense in which to turn the phrase (if it ever needs turning in my favour). I was/am/will be a model when the pictures arrive? Yikes. The word can technically be put on a CV (I would never!) but I still don't really know how it applies...

Anyways. The artist responsible for this experience and who I would like to thank graciously is Mr. Arnd Oetting, whose work can be found here.

Photos à suivre for sure, but WHAT a random day,

LOCO