Monika

Words by Cisco Corea Photos by Peter Collie

ASM: Must have been a really good photo?
Monika: It was the best photo I ever had from a school year book [laughs].

ASM: Well that’s a new one; at least it turned out to be a legit phone call though.
Monika: Yeah I know, it was actually an agent from Ford Model Management who called me.

ASM: Well you can’t go wrong with them; they’re massive!
Monika: True, but that can be bad in some ways. Still, I got into the modelling industry after wanting to do it for such a long time and it was the break I needed. I can’t complain as the money’s really good, and the only drawback is that it’s unreliable work.  

ASM: So how far have you gone with it all?
Monika: I’ve done a lot of work in Asia, mainly in Taiwan, Japan and China. It was an experience that’s for sure, and with all the campaigns there it allowed me to travel on my own. I was away for up to two months at a time, which was a great experience. Not many models like doing the Asian circuit; it’s too tough, but it’s good money and most models do it when they really need the money.

ASM: What makes it so hard? The constant travelling to Asia?
Monika: It’s not just that, I mean places like Tokyo are not too bad, but other countries can be very difficult and draining on the models. See, what happens is the client agrees with the agency a day rate for a particular model. When the model gets to the job they [the client] try and cram in as many outfits and changes as they possibly can master so as to get their money’s worth, I mean literally they try and do ten and twelve hour shoots with no break, no food, absolutely nothing. They just want you to work non-stop for the day and they will try and shoot a hundred if not more outfits into that one day! Its crazy and so hard, at one stage they were asking me to hover mid air as I had one girl changing my top, another changing my left shoe off the ground, at the same time I had another girl changing accessories and another asking me to also lift my other leg which is the only one I’m standing on! And she was getting annoyed I’m not able to! They want me to hover in mid-air? On top of that, it’s about 40 degrees heat, plus the lighting and they’re asking me to ‘stop sweating’. It’s very hard [laughs].

ASM: Wow, they sure know how to get their money’s worth. Hopefully, Australia isn’t as bad.
Monika: Nah, some of the best jobs I’ve done so far have been here in Sydney.

ASM: Like?
Monika: Well, in Asia most of the work was with cheesy catalogues, but here there’s been plenty of fashion shoots and I’ve worked with the likes of DJ’s [David Jones], Ben Sherman, Bonds and Industrie Clothing, so yeah, it’s been awesome. Not to mention having worked with great artist and photographers, stylists and fashion designers like Peter [Peter Collie], Ray Morris, Scott Lowe and Richard Bailey – his pictures are always amazing!

ASM: So anything left to achieve in your modelling career?
Monika: [Thinks] Umm, I was thinking about this the other day actually… Nah, I’ve done quite a bit I think, I mean I’ve even been in a car mag now so that’s cool. I guess the only thing left is to do a massive television commercial, but I’m not the best of actresses [laughs]. I’m pretty bad actually.

ASM: So having been through all that, what would you change or at least advise other models about?
Monika: Watch a lot of FTV [laughs]! Nah kidding; honestly I wish I had taken things a little more seriously. I wish I had known more about the industry when I first started, I practically knew nothing, I think it was a miracle I got anywhere with it, but for anyone starting up I’d say to study and learn about the industry as much as you can – it’ll help you unbelievably.

ASM: So what’s next – what’s the future hold for Monika?
Monika: Well I have always loved biology and ecology and I would have loved to have gone down that path, definitely would have loved to have been a National Geographic photographer. But, realistically, I know the fashion industry quite well and I’ll probably go back to uni and study something along those lines further. I’d like to write for mags, I’m pretty creative [smiles], so I’ll probably do some sort of media and communications course – so yeah, that’s probably it.

ASM: Nice! I guess you can always watch animal documentaries on Foxtel.
Monika: [laughs] Yeah for sure, just watch Animal Planet or live in a farm later on.

ASM: Well, Monika thanks for chatting hope you enjoyed the shoot and we’ll catch up next time.
Monika: Yeah it was great, thanks for having me [smiles]. Photos came out awesomely well.

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