“Every second person pointed at me”: Julia Ogun about working as a model in Russia
In late September, the model of African descent Julia Ogun posted on Facebook a screenshot of the ad, which described the requirements for the casting candidates in an offensive form. After the outrage of users of the network and the plot on the channel "Moscow 24", the head of the agency said that the employee who wrote the frankly racist text was fired. At the same time, Ogun's acquaintances claim that the agent is still working at the same place.
Although models of African descent are increasingly taking part in Russian shooting, for example, in the I AM Studio and 12Storeez lookbooks, there are no fewer open situations of racism. We talked to Julia Ogun about how she became a model and what problems she faced in life and in the industry because of her background.
Interview: Anna Eliseeva
About bulling and moving to Moscow
Up to the age of sixteen, I grew up in a small town in the Belgorod region, Stary Oskol, and there I got to the maximum. All my life I have been counting the days until the moment when I can go to Moscow - for this I studied well at school, received a gold medal. At home, every second person pointed a finger at me, a variety of insults were used, sometimes they could even be pushed. Once a few adult guys surrounded me, and only the only girl in their company said: "She's still a child." I was twelve years old.
Everyone knew me, but this did not prevent people from paying special attention to me again and again. I don’t know what it is connected with - perhaps the surrounding people expressed their interest in something unusual. And although mostly not aggressive, but curious people came across, almost everybody laughed at the sight of me. Now I remember it as a nightmare. I did not have close friends, I keep quiet about relationships. Back in primary school, I showed everyone that I could stand up for myself, and I had to defend myself up to high school. Mostly the boys were bullied, and on the street they mostly molested. I was angry all the time.
Then I moved to Moscow, entered the RUDN University, then went to magistracy in MIPT, studied theoretical mathematics. I was constantly asked if I was a model, but I couldn’t even imagine myself in such a role. When I was eighteen, I was photographed by a friend - it turned out great, so I put the picture in some special group "VKontakte", something like "Photographers and models." Over one night, I wrote eight people with job offers, and I realized that something could come out of it. The first place I came to was an escort agency, but I did not despair - I found normal agents, participated in several shootings. In general, I started to work.
"Not type"
At first it was very difficult. Ten years ago, only the most courageous designers were ready to cooperate with a model of African descent, there were very few Asian girls. I attended all the castings, but probably passed one of the twenty - even now I have much less work than white girls, at least twice. The fees are the same, but if you only need models of my type, you can request more. I understand how designers think and how the market works: the model of African origin in advertising may simply not be understood, it does not fit in with the image of the local consumer - in fact, advertising is often not designed for Moscow, but for regions.
Earlier in the castings I was told simply: "Not a type." Many clients didn’t like my short hair either. Five years ago, a classic appearance was required: long hair, thinness, tall stature and “regular” features. But I was not discouraged, I continued to try, and the designers began to take more and more atypical models: with dark skin, Asian, with an “alien” appearance. Even in the West ten years ago there were very few girls of African descent on the catwalk. It is embarrassing now if you do not have a variety on the show.
It seems to me that human beauty is really very diverse - after all, in fact there are not so many people with the notorious "regular" facial features. Anyway, the buyer will not be able to associate himself with the "ideal" model, and looking at some unusual person, he will think that such clothes will look cool on him.
About working in the States
When I happened to work in New York, I noticed how the local market differs from the Russian one. Models in the United States do not think about what they are of origin and what color their skin - take any. The competition, of course, is huge - maybe a hundred people per seat - but at the same time other fees: for shows you can get from five hundred dollars, for advertising in magazines - ten thousand. Here, the minimum you can pay is zero. A normal fee is five to ten thousand rubles.
I do not remember the blatant cases of racism in the modeling industry, except for the time when one agency "interestingly" described the candidates. Basically everyone keeps their opinions to themselves. Sometimes use unpleasant words like "neg **** ska", but do not think about the fact that it is offensive. In the fashion world, mostly creative and tolerant people work, who often do not themselves fit into generally accepted norms, so they are calm about everything. In other areas of life, you regularly encounter tin.
And racism in Russia
My sister started playing for the Russian national basketball team. When the first photo of the team appeared, a real nightmare began in the comments - like: “What does black do in the Russian national team, she’s not a Slav”, and so on. I rarely come across this and try to block unpleasant commentators immediately. Although recently on the page of my hometown in the network "VKontakte" posted a post with a story about the agency: "Ogun Julia tells about the life of the model." There in the comments were the most genuine extremist statements: "N *** s - this is a lower race, they must be slaves to the whites."
In Moscow, this is not so acutely felt, and yet here, too, I constantly catch eyes on myself, sometimes someone lets go of comments or shows a finger. There are people who lack the intelligence to somehow somehow show their curiosity or restrain themselves. In our country it is very bad with tolerance in general, so racism towards people of African descent is only one of the problems. In our country, everything that is considered “strange” or “wrong” causes aggression.
In Russia there is no normal educational program that would explain to everyone at school that people are different, but equal. Tolerance at the state level is considered something bad, the lot of the weak, and the expression of disrespectful opinion, whoever it offends, is the norm. Therefore, first of all, the problem must be dealt with systematically. Of course, it is unpleasant for me, but I do not worry, otherwise I would have gone mad long ago. I am confident in myself and do not pay attention to anyone - I consider myself a cosmopolitan and with many I can find a common language.
