"House models": The harsh truth of life of beautiful people

EVERY DAY PHOTOGRAPHERS AROUND THE WORLD looking for new ways to tell stories or to capture what we previously did not notice. We choose interesting photo projects and ask their authors what they wanted to say. This week is the "Models At Home" series by American photographer Hadley Hudson, a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles and Parsons New Design School. Hudson made her first photo series at the age of 15, having removed the scars on her body, but for the first time she felt like a real photographer in 2003, photographing musicians and the electronic club scene of Berlin.

In these photos - the actual habitat of the models: in the house of the parents, in the rooms of hotels and in the apartments. The latter were the most neglected and messy. Most of all I was struck by the contrast between the way models look on the outside and the realities of their life. Most of them I met on the set at the very beginning of my career, and then took a picture at home.

In fact, the title of the series “Models of the House” was working, and now it is called “Persona” and is part of a documentary project that I started back in 2009. The fact is that I started taking photos with portrait photography, and even my glossy photos for the fashion industry look like portraits. It was much more interesting for me to take a person and hear his story, and not to describe the perspective familiar to designers - to see models only as a canvas for my own creations or fantasies. Therefore, the name of the series has changed. Home environment tells so much about the personality of a person and his inner world! I was confronted with stories about the homeless, about violence, about drug addiction, and, above all, with the search for an identity beyond my “external perfection”.

For the modeling business you need to have a very strong character and self-esteem, so that you do not chew and spit out. During filming, many models were in their usual challenging and provocative poses - purely from the reflex. After all, they simply do not know how to be themselves, and because of this, some pictures feel tense - I really like it. For many models, it was incredible that someone found their personal stories unique and interesting. Therefore, the whole working experience was incredibly touching and human for me.