Manager or Agent?

I've been a model manager since 2004 and want to clarify the difference between the two.

If you are serious about becoming a model, get into an agency.  You should not have to pay anything to join, if they want you.  You may have to pay for professional photo shoots, comp cards, hard copy portfolio etc. "Monthly web maintenance fees" charged by an agency is not illegal and they are looking to recover some expense.  However, there is one agency that I know of that charges approx. $25 per month to represent you.  I called them and asked what they charge as commission when they find a model a job, their response was they don't take a commission... 100% goes to the model.  Well, I did the math - adding up all of their locations across the county and guestimating how many models/actors they had, the total income came up to an unbelievable number.  I doubt that they have much drive to really get the talent jobs when there is no incentive to do so.  Another situation with this particular agency was they sent up pretend companies and job fairs to have the agents send talent to so the talent felt they were getting go-sees to attend.  I know this because I worked with a model that actually had worked with them, and she was the one that set up these "companies".


Find an agency, but do your homework.  Go to the "Open Calls". Go to the open calls repeatedly - they will start to recognize your drive and persistence.

A true manager will be the one that works behind the scenes. Advising you on which opportunities to pursue and reviewing the information and jobs that your agency offers.  In the beginning, your manager will do a lot of advising to get you going on the right path, and you need to have some "blind faith" in what he/she tells you about the industry.  A model should have a manager especially if they are new to the business, but then after a period of time, the manager won't be as active if the model has nothing going on for them to manage.  A manager IS NOT responsible to find work for a model, however, a manager probably knows a lot of people in the industry, and may be called by clients to recommend talent, so a manager possible can offer employment, but don't expect it.

Why some photographers do not like managers:  Sad but true, there are a lot of unscrupulous photographers out there. They don't like managers because a manager will un-do some of the false information they tell talent.  Some photographers will really stretch the truth to the model to get what ever it is they trying to have the model do. Unfortunately, the reputation of some photographers is that they are very unprofessional with lewd comments and are after more than just good images.  A lot of these "photographers" (and I use the term loosely) don't allow chaperons at a shoot because of the same reason.  Always have other people around with you at a shoot.

Use your head and normally your gut feeling and first reaction is probably true.