A Week in South Beach

My agent told me there was room for me in one of his model apartmets and that I should come down to Miami for a bit and go to some castings. So I took a train from Orlando down to Miami and then a cab to the apartment in South Beach. When I got to the agency in the morning my agent told me to go to the beach immediately and get my tan back. I lost it when I was in Milan. So every day I have been going to the beach for at least an hour. The weather is perfect and the water is a bit cool but not bad. Casting wise, it was a slow week. Now it being a couple days from Thanksgiving I am heading back to Orlando. Planning on living in South Beach for season January through March.

Alvaro Beamud Cortes

Alvaro is a photographer that I shot with in Milan. A cool guy and a great eye for the camera. And he looks like the famous spanish male model Jon Kortajarena lol

My agency in Milan said that my book needed a sharp european edge so they set me up with Alvaro. They told me he is very good and had me wait until he became available to shoot. Stylist Lorenzo Posocco worked with Alvaro during the shoot. He put together all the pieces you see in the images. The shoot went great. We worked well together. I understood what Alvaro wanted and the shots just came with ease. And looking at the pictures I can see why my agency wanted me to wait and shoot with him instead of shooting with someone else.

Since the shoot our pics have been up on a few fashion blogs.

Here is one of them

http://thefashionisto.com/portrait-bart-colom-by-alvaro-beamud-cortes/

Hopefully I will get to work with Alvaro and Lorenzo soon.

Check more of Alvaro's work at

http://alvarobeamudcortes.blogspot.com/

And check out more of Lorenzo's work at
http://www.lorenzoposocco.com/online/index.html

Back Home! Recap of Milan

I just arrived back in Orlando a few days ago. I was scheduled to stay in Milan unti December but the market there turned out to be slower than everyone anticipated. After being there 6 weeks my mother agency got me with NEXT London agency and was talking with TRAFFIC in Barcelona. I was going to go to either of those places straight from Milan but the bookers there said that it is also really slow. At the same time models from my agency in Milan were leaving due to barely working. So after another week, my mother agency finally decided that its best to save my money and come back home until they set me up with a model apartment in Miami and work the market there for the month of November. I am probably going to be in Miami within a couple weeks.

To Recap on Milan:

It was a great experience. I learned many things that are going to help me not just with modeling but in life. For modeling it gave me a deeper look in the modeling world. I saw more of what happends behind the scenes of the business. I learned that in the beginning of a new models carreer, things take time. That you need to stay persistent and positive. If you begin to be negative it will show in your personality at castings and you will book less. It is personality that books jobs, not looks. I got to build connections and friendships with other models from around the world. I got to work with a European agency and see how they differed from my agency back in Miami. Always good to have things to reference to. I also learned that it is crucial to drink as much water as you possibly can. I have always been good about drinking enough water. But you really need to drink tons of it. It keeps your skin clean, your eyes clear, and your face thin. When youre dehydrated your body holds water, so you look bloated not just in your body but also in your face. Once I learned this I was easily able to tell the difference. Another thing that gave my trip meaning is now I can be a source to others who havent been over there yet, to answer questions, offer advice, provide some guidance. That aspect is very important to me. I know there are more things that I havent mentioned, if I think of more Ill repost. And you can always ask me questons bcolom@gmail.com.

I got to shoot with 2 amazing photographers as well. Lorenzo Marcucci and Alvaro Beamud Cortes. My book is twice as strong now with the variety of professional photographers that I had before and the most recent ones. I will post in detail more on each photographer from Milan and pictures of our work later.

Lorenzo Marcucci

I met Lorenzo at a test shoot my agency set up. He is a very nice guy and talented photographer. We had fun shooting and one of the main things I learned from him during the test shoot is that when doing an action shot, actually go all the way through with whatever it is you are doing. For example, I was taking off my jacket. I was doing it very slow because I wanted him to get the shot. But by doing that it looked unatural. So he gave me gave me the tip and we shot it again. I could immediately see the difference it made in the image. I attached the shot here. (ap)

After the test shoot Lorenzo contacted my agency and told them he was going to present an idea for an ad campaign for jeans to some clients. And that he was going to do a photo shoot in San Savino Italy at a extravagant country hotel on the mountains and wanted me to be one of the models. Also he told my agency that I would look good with the haircut that one of the models have in the DSQUARED2 ad campaign and that he wanted me to have the same cut for the shoot. (ap)

My agency agreed. So that weekend I took a 5 hour train ride south to San Benedetto where and arrived there at 10pm. Lorenzo met me at the statoin and drove me and 2 other modes to the country hotel. The next morning I walked out of my room and was in awe of the scenery that was hidden from the nights darkness last night. So beautiful. I attached a pic here. The hotel was amazing. We had delicous meals every day and delectable wine at night. We would relax all day and then shoot for about 3 hours and then come back and relax again. It was like a weekend getaway. I wish every shoot was like that lol.

The first morning after breakfast the stylist cut my hair the way Lorenzo wanted it. It turned out great. It wasnt as short on the sides, but I liked it better. I attached before and after pics of my haircut. (a p)

After the cut, we relaxed for a couple hours and then drove to a dock where we took some shots.The next day we shot a couple minutes from the hotel in the country side. The shots were more editorial like. They turned out really good. (ap)

It was a lot of fun working with Lorenzo and his team of stylists. Hopefully I will get the chance to work with him again.

Check out more of his work at http://www.lorenzomarcucci.it/

Milano

Im here in Milan Italy at my model apartment. It is 3:20pm here which means its 9:15pm in the states. I arrived here last Thursday morning at 8:15am. From the airport I took a bus to Centrale Station. From there I took the subway to Lotto Station and and walked to the agency. I have no idea how I made it from the airport to the agency. I never took a bus before or a subway. I just kept asking the locals where to go in my extremely limited italian. It pays to put some effort in learning a new language especially when you are going to that country. So I arrived at the agency at 11am and as soon as I walk in my agent tells me to leave my luggage because I have 3 castings to got to. He had me go buy a map and gave me a print out of the addresses.

I was running on no sleep in the last 40 hours with just a protein bar for breakfast. I got my book and map and ventured out into the city. Surprisingly I made it to all the castings. I got back to the agency at 5:45pm. I was wanderting around the city for 7 hours getting lost and taking wrong subways. I grabbed my luggage and tried to find my apartment. I said try because it took an hour and a half to find the apartment that was 15 min from the agency....it was the most disorientated day of my life. I got home, ate, and passed out. I was back at the agency the next morning and repeated the day before.

Since then I've got their public transportation down, I know how long traveling around the city takes, what castings here are like, what to expect when I order drinks at a bar(costing an arm and a leg lol), and just so much more. Its been a little over a week now and I have been having a blast! Enjoying Italy, seeing sites, going to Fashin Shows, partying, meeting new people, and living life!

til next time

See you in Milan!

So its 5:00am and Im doing some last minute packing. Tomorrow at 1:25pm I am flying from Orlando to JFC Airport NY, I will have a 2 hour lay over, and then Im flying to Milan and will arrive there at 8:15am. Its a 6 hour flight from NY to Milan so I am staying up all night so that I can sleep on that flight. I have already downed two 24 oz energy drinks lol.

I will be sure to post once I get settled in.

I am adding some photos from a guy girl shoot I did with photographer Kathryn Page. Nicole Lucas was the model I shot with. We got on location by 6:45am to catch the morning light and shot on a sand dune/sand field. Besides the occasionaly sand fleas the shoot went perfect. Kathryn was very precise on what she wanted for the shoot and once she got the shot we moved on. She was very efficient and focused. It made the shoot quick and smooth. Nicole did awesome as well. She recently came back from Singapore and you could tell by the way she moved in front of the camera that she is very experienced. We also worked well together and it shows from our shots. It was great time :)

Aeneas

Aeneas is from the poem "The Aeneid" written by Virgil. Andy Armano created a cinematic series of images where I model as Aeneas during the Trojan War period who later traveled to Italy, ironic :) to become the ancestor of the Romans. Andy organized the project very well. He created a shot list where the whole story was broken down into segments. It made shooting the project very smooth and fluid as we went through each segment. We worked in a movie director and actor style where we focused on the segment at hand and talked about the story in relation to what we were trying to capture.

Andy gave me the shot list a few days ahead of the shoot so that I knew exactly what to expect. In some segments there was a need for a lot of intense emotions. So as I learned the shot list I decided to make notes on what to focus on when the time comes for me to express the emotion for the shot. Then the night before those specific segments I thought it would be good to focus on those feelings and bring out the emotions. To be honest it wasn't a pleasant exercise. I literally had to mentally put myself in past experiences that were painful and uncomfortable so that I could truly express the feelings that Aeneas went through. Ironic enough, I went through some similar experiences and it worked out in the sense that what I was focusing on was very close to the story. I did this exercise the night before so that it was easier to get in that state of mind faster when it was time to capture it. When it was actually time to shoot it, the exercise paid off and I was able to emotianally get there quicker in order to keep the shoot going. As the project went on I learned more and more that modeling is very similar to acting. Its acting without words. And the image looks the best when the expressions are real and true.*What is Amazing now is that since that exercise I am more able to get to those emotions quicker on demand at any time* It was well worth it, not only for the shots but for the experience and how it improved my "expressions inventory".

This project was such a learning experience and I am so grateful to Andy for allowing me to be apart of his series of Heros. I am very proud of our work and how it all looks. We truly brought out all our creativity for this project and made sacrifices to make every image radiate beauty, originality, and art. I cannot wait to share it with the world.


Andy is in the process of post production and organzing the images in conjunction with the story. Above is the cover of the project(the one in color), and the black and white is what some of the images will look like in the show, with the text from the poem on the side.

Fine Art Project complete

Just finished Andy's Fine Art Project a couple hours ago. We shot 4 days and took so many pictures. I'm so freaking excited!

The project is a story about Aeneas, a Trojan leaving plundered Troy after the Trojan war (a lot of "troy' in that sentence lol) and it illustrates Aeneas' climatic moments in his life with all he has to experience in his journey to do the will of the gods and find the not yet founded city of Rome where his son will have the throne. The project itself mixes body and male beauty, photography with story, emotion and motion. Andy did one with Achilles and had a show in Miami and it got great feedback. http://andyarmano.com/fine_art/fineart.html He plans on doing the same with Aeneas.

Doing the project with Andy was so much fun. On top of all the fun I also learned so much more on expressions and "moving" as a model. There were many segments in the project that required a lot of different expressions and some were mixed expressions. To come up with them and make sure they were showing in my face and body was the concept. I did well and learned that much of it was actually feeling what I was trying to portray in the picture. I did this so much for the past 3 days that I know what expressions look good in an image and how far to go with the expression to make it look real but not too much.

Ahh I learned so much! Up until now I have done more than 20 photo shoots and I have gotten so much out of all of them. But this project alone I feel has doubled my skill as a model and my "moving" that I mentioned earlier. Moving is how the model moves through motions without having the photographer or anyone else direct them. To come up with different postitions, angles, expressions all at once to add to the picture. In many images you see in magazines and other places it is the picture that the model is moving that was chosen. When the model and photograper are, as I call it, "in sync" they have the same energy for the shoot and same focus on what they are trying to capture. When this happens it is easier to get that shot that is needed but also to push creativity to come up with something even potentially better and completely different. Me and Andy were in sync the whole time and we got some incredible material. It is awesome that both of us work great together and can be in sync so easisly. It was an experience that challenged ourselves to push our boundries of creativity, and it pushed me as a model and Andy as a photographer to produce the images that will be in his show. I cant wait :)

I will post once I know the date and place of the show. I also added some more behind the scene pics :P

Fine Art Project

How Andy and I met is pretty crazy. I just got back to Orlando from interviews with angencies in Miami. I was at the computer and decided to check my Models.com profile to see if I had any recent contacts. It had been a while since the last time I checked. When I logged on I saw that a photographer had contacted me and was interested in shooting. I looked at his site and he had amazing images. I was stoked! But then I checked the date of the message and realized he contacted me a month ago. I got bummed out right away because I thought I missed out on the opportunity. I thought about it for a second and decided what the hell, I'll call him and explain to him that I havent checked my profile in a month and that I am very interested in shooting. So I made the call and Andy answered, and was impressed that I took initiative in calling right away. We chatted for a bit and decided to meet for coffee and discuss our shoot. After that, we had the shoot and it was those pictures that got me with NEXT Miami :) Since then Andy and I have been updating eachother on whats new, discussing fashion, and just good talks about life.

For the past 2 days now I have been shoting with Andy Armano for his Fine Art Project. It has been a blast so far! We've shot at Cape Canaveral Beach, some hiking trails, and a couple other locations. We review the images at the end of the day and Oh My Gosh they are Awesome! It is going to be torture waiting until he has his show for others to see the pictures. But it will be worth it :)

We took some behind the scene shots at the beach just for fun :P

I added Andy's link to his website. Check it out!

http://andyarmano.com/

Mark Drew

I received some more pics from my previous shoot with Mark Drew today and I wanted to share them. Check out more of his work at MarkDrewStudio.com and his blog at MarkDrewStudio.blogspot.com

its set!

I booked my plane ticket to Italy a couple days ago. I leave Septmeber 1st and arrive September 2nd in the morning. I am so stoked! I am going to focus the rest of this month on making money. I've spoken to a friend that is a clothing designer for RW Apparel, Roger Williams, who's been to Milan many times and he said that I am going to have the time of my life, and that I am going to come back to the states with incredible stuff. I also spoke to one of my friends Rob Thwaites who is a model who just got back from Milan and he said it was amazing and that he got a lot of good contacts.

Started today on losing 5 more pounds. I'll be about 150lbs after its said and done. I am 6'1" as well so I will definitely be more of the thinner side and have less muscle. Its a good thing muscle has memory! Because I plan on getting some of it back once Im back in the states.

Milan!

So my agent, Ron Gerard, from NEXT pulled it off. He wanted to get me into FASHION Milan for a few weeks now and just yesterday they emailed him saying they want me over there. Yet another reason why people call Ron the best in Miami, and some even say in the country. So September 6 I will be flying to Milan Italy for at least 3 months. I should be back in December but then there is always a chance they may want me to return to Milan or somewhere else later. FASHION wants me to lose about 5lbs to be a little more slim. They like leaner and less muscular. I have a month to do that and that'll be cake.

Ive been staying at a hostel in South Beach now for a time span of about 4 weeks or maybe its been 5...lol i dont remember. Ive been back to Orlando/Oviedo prob 4 days total within that time. Ron told me that August is dead here in Miami and that I can go home until he needs me for a casting or a test shoot. So I am taking a break from the gypsy life and I am going back to Oviedo as long as I can until I am needed again in Miami.

It has been a rollercoaster since I've been down here. Not knowing where I will be living in a month whether it is in Miami or NY, or Europe or Asia. Also running around going to test shoots, castings, building up my portfolio with new images, meeting people in the industry, making friends at the hostel, and eating like a homeless person haha. It's been great and I've enjoyed it!

Till next time

what its looking like as of now

So I 've been waiting to here back from agencies globally. We have a few from Asia that are willing to fly me there and pay for room and board as I work. However my agent wants me to go to Europe so hes been waiting to here back from a few there. I just got an email today from one in Milan saying they want me to work there starting mid September. My agent says I should go for it. It's not FASHION agency, its FLASH agency. So its looking like I am moving to Milan, Italy mid September, unless something changes....and in this industry it is always likely.
Also in the mean time I am looking to rent an apartment in Miami Beach until the move.
I'll post once I know for sure :)

shoot with Luis Pina

This was the shoot I had with Luis Pina Sunday night. Luis was great. A young guy like me and very talented and driven. He's definitely someone to look out for. The other model is Daniel Mateus Lages. A new model who is def going to be a hot shot very soon. Its great knowing people who you know will eventually do big things. Check out Luis' website at lepina.com !

hurry up and wait

Had a last minute test shoot last night and it was great! A more edgy and dark shoot. Ill get the pics soon. The photographer was Luis E. Pina-Ortiz. Hes moving to NY in September to further his carreer. He'll do great, check out his website at lepina.com. And the sylist from last night was Ninosko Osorio. Oh and the stylist on Friday from the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week were Dee&Co South Beach. So after 9 castings, 3 test shoots, and a show in a span of 6 days, I feel I have experienced the crazy, busy, spontaneous, model lifestyle...and I love it! A bit stressful at times but thats life.

So the reason why I titled this post "hurry up and wait" is because now that I have 3 more shoots from this weekend to add to my portfolio, I have to wait for my agency to edit them and add them in my port. Once thats done they are going to send my portfolio to FASHION agency in Italy. If FASHION likes me then I will be moving to Milan, Italy in Septmber until early December. If I am not what they are looking for then I will most likely be bouncing up from New York to Miami until December. Then we go from there. So as of now I just have to wait for these photos to get edited and sent to FASHION. My agent says I should know by July 31.

I added a couple more pics from fridays shoot with AD013.

keeping busy

So last night was the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week SWIM: Swell Suits Maimi 2011, at the Oasis in the Raleigh Hotel. I was one of the runway models for designers: Nalia, Olasul, and Parke and Ronen. It was my first runway show, actaully my first show in anything and it was a blast! It was so much fun and I got to meet a lot of great people. All the staff was great. The hair sylists and makeup artists were terrific. Ill get the names of the hair stylists and make up artists on the next post. I had a test shoot with David Benolio( ADo13 Studio) a couple of hours before the MBFW show. And today I had a test shoot with Mark Drew. Ron Gerard is hooking me up! Going to relax tomorrow after an insane but fun week/weekend.

These photos were from AD013 STUDIO

I also added a couple of links to the show from last night

http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/fXMd57d2p9L/Swell+Suits+Miami+Runway+Swim+2011+MBFW/9XVOXLG9OMz

http://www.naplesnews.com/photos/galleries/2010/jul/17/fashion-swim-week-2011-models-swimsuits/123217/#section_header

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28leNWEK3Ds&feature=youtube_gdata