Giuseppe Riserbato And Sami Sabbarini, Polaroid Team: Inside Elite Model Look
Giuseppe Riserbato, Photographer at Elite Milan
As the photographer in charge of the polaroids for the Elite Model Look World Final, I’ll shoot 63 contestants coming from all over the world. All of the photos will be used to create the Agent Book for the jury in order to decide the winners. I’ll shoot 3 pictures of each contestant: a full body composition, a profile and a close-up portrait to underline the eyes and the expression. The most important thing I’m expecting is the spontaneity, I will also work with the talents to help them became confident in front of the camera, we don’t have to forget that for them is the first shoot, so they need to be put in a position to give me their best expression and feeling.
Outside the World Final, I am photographer at Elite Milan. I always try to create a connection between myself and the soul of each model. Only in this way you can reach what is real, both for the model and for the photographer. The technique on his own is not enough! I’ve always been attracted by beautiful things, a flower, an expression, a sunset, an emotion, and I always liked to transfer them into images. Photography has allowed me to express myself, I see this as the only way for me to express my emotions. Creativity is the way how I share my soul with the world. I love the feeling when the model is giving me the emotion that I want to see in a picture, and I always push myself further, to improve, learn. Working as a photographer, especially for a model agency, you have to be in harmony with people because you need to know a lot about the person; only this way you’ll be able to find the truth in photos. I shoot every day, whether it’s a tree, a chair, a table, a friend, or people, or models. This helped me a lot to develop my style and my sense of aesthetics.
Sami Sabbarini, Agent at Elite Paris
I am a male model agent at Elite Paris. At the Elite Model Look World Final, part of my job will be taking the male Finalists’ measurements. That means: height, shoulders (for suit size), chest, waist and hips. We also check the hair length, hair colour and eye colour. Everyone is different, and stylists need full details to find the right clothes for photoshoots and fashion shows.
I will also be coordinating all the activity at the bootcamp. The Finalists have to have their hair and makeup done, go to styling, do catwalk training, photoshoot, video shoot, as well as Polaroids. I will be making sure that everything runs smoothly so that all 64 Finalists visit all of the stages of the process. Five days might sound like a long time, but they have a lot of things to do!
My job as agent at Elite Paris goes from finding models (scouting), developing and managing their career. We work daily with International models and leading fashion houses around the globe. Being an agent is more than a job for me, it’s a passion! It is amazing to see how a young boy we find on a casting or just skating in a park turn into an international model and hit stardom! I started in this industry through a fortunate coincidence. I believe there is no specific way that leads to be a model agent, just being passionate about human relations, the taste for challenge and beauty.
The best thing for me is to work with all these different characters and personalities. Every day is a new challenge, a new story to be written and told. Building a career can only be done through team work, and this is the best thing about this high pace life we live in! The biggest challenge is making a young man’s dream come true! For me, my heroes in this industry are the models who believe in themselves.
