Viva Las Vegas - NEWS
Backgrounder:
What is the GMS?
Today, in 2021, there are women who would begin modeling in their 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, or even older. At a time in life when most models packed their portfolios away years, or even decades earlier, today, there are women who seek to begin a career before the camera, or on the runway, without regard to their age. Who are these women, you ask, and what are they thinking? To attempt such a bold maneuver, or take such an unlikely path might seem ill-advised. But the fact is, this just might be their time.
Freelance photographer, Gary Keith knows exactly who they are, and precisely what they’re thinking. In 2003, Keith, then living in Orange County, CA began a long term photo project, a labor of his love he called “The Great Model Search project”. The thesis of the GMS project was simple enough: Women should not sacrifice their femininity, sensuality, or sexuality simply because the reach as certain age.
Keith’s philosophy is that maturity is beautiful, and sexy. For his project, he sought out women, generally 40+ in age, and offered them a one time shot at a real fashion/glamour photo shoot. Not a cheesy “Glamour Shots” mall studio fling, with satin sheets or feathered boas, or “boudoir” photos, but a true studio or location experience aimed at producing magazine quality photos.
“My outreach was principally on social media. subjects I approached would send me a few grainy, often out of focus profile photos or selfies”, says Keith. My batting average was pretty poor, but occasionally I would find a woman brave enough, confident enough to put herself before a professional camera for the first time, other than, perhaps for a family portrait or professional headshot. My advice was always the same, ‘Be bold, this is an opportunity you’ll likely have only once in your life, so make it count!”
“My job was, and is to produce photos they wouldn’t get any other way, and in virtually every case, that’s exactly what happened. I found that many of the women, perhaps most of the women I encountered recruiting and shooting for the GMS have what I call the “model gene”. For most that gene is recessive, and remains unexplored. But all it takes to throttle that gene up is about three hours with a skilled photographer to produced photographic evidence these women are more beautiful, and sexier than they ever imagined.”
Many of the transformations from the snapshots and selfies they submitted with their application, to the photos produced in just three hours were stunning. Many of these women, after just three hours, found themselves self identifying as models. The experience was eye opening, validating, affirming, and for some, nothing less than life altering.
In some cases, that one time opportunity became several times, which made it possible for Keith to teach advanced on camera techniques that made them credible modeling in several genres.
By 2010, some of those Keith shot with for the GMS project began asking if there was any opportunity for them to continue modeling, perhaps even to pursue it as an avocation. Normally, there wasn’t much encouragement, other than to pursue modeling as a hobby.
In 2011, the model search project produced four amazing search project participants, who all asked that same, inevitable question. Keith was seeing a sea change taking place in the modeling and fashion industries, and in the very mood and culture of the country. For the first time, he thought, there were signs opportunity for mature women might be emerging.
So what changed? First and foremost, the most profound financial collapse since the Great Depression had wrought fiscal devastation. Suddenly, the youngsters who, just months earlier were commanding six figure salaries fresh out of college, or who were landing multimillion dollar stock options just to go to work in the tech and media sectors, found themselves dumped like day old bread. Their fancy condos and chic high rise apartments were gone. For many, their new address was Mom and Dad’s basement.
For decades, people over 50 were ignored by advertisers, as they were considered beyond the “prime demographic”. Then, with alarming suddenness, the Earth shifted. It was the seniors who had enough time on the job, or had risen to management or leadership positions, and thus escaped the crush of layoffs. They were the ones with sufficient equity in their homes, or paid off mortgages, so they survived the wave of foreclosures that swept the nation. It was those who, just a few months earlier were dismissed as irrelevant, who emerged from the great recession with enough accumulated wealth to become the new prime demographic. The advertising world had been upended. Ad campaigns that were conceived to attract Millennials had to be retooled, and aimed instead, at their parents.
And the result was that models and actors who could credibly represent the emerging prime demographic in ads and commercials were going to be needed. Seniors selling to seniors. The models of the GMS were perfectly positioned. And so a new GMS The “Great Model Showcase”, comprised of mature models, graduates of the Great Model Search project, was born.
Each of the models of the new GMS were primed to pursue modeling on their own terms, by their own compass. The GMS would become their lifeline, providing encouragement, and support. Their path would be rocky, and uphill to be sure, but they weren't traversing it alone.
The GMS also provided then, as it still does today, assistance that gave these fledgling models a boost, such as professionally authored model directory profiles and curated portfolios, rate cards, comp cards, authored model websites, contracts, releases, and vital information and protocols on how to be safe, build their modeling business, and essential advice and guidance in pursuing and negotiating artistic and commercial opportunities.
Each model in the GMS has her own agenda. Some are dedicated to climb the ladder, be published, develop a popular following, and penetrate the industry in any of a dozen different disciplines, from fashion, glamour, and advertising, to swimsuit, catalogue, even artistic genres. And there were those who model not necessarily for financial gain, but for artistic expression, validation, or as a hobby, or to keep them active, and young, and motivated.
Whatever the models do individually, the GMS also periodically conducts group activities in which as many as a dozen may participate. These have included group shoots, similar to the Viva Las Vegas project, fashion shows and exhibitions, and red carpet events, to name a few. The photo events are generally conducted in unique or dramatic locales. While some of these shoots have been hosted by state of the art studios, or quirky outdoor studios, others have been multi day affairs such as the “Desert Foxes” shoot where the entire group shot at locations in, and around Death Valley. The group activities produce unique content for the models’ social media and online portfolios. And some of these events have produced career advancing opportunities.
But whatever the results of the models individual activities, their quest, dedication to their art or career aims have been nothing short of inspirational to many who follow them on social media, and have become their fans. These include men, and women. The GMS models have certainly demonstrated to thousands of women that age needn’t limit one’s life choices, or dreams.
The message is the same as it was in 2003 when Keith began his original photo project. Women need not sacrifice anything simply because they reach a certain age. Ask a GMS model and she’ll not only tell you, she’ll show what’s possible, and how rewarding the pursuit of a dream can be.
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Contact: Gary Keith 714 815 4737 gwkimagesaz@gmail.com
