i got dropped by my modeling agency lol (im cooked)
I did not go thru allat for nothing so Enter promo code V1RYSE for 3 months free at https://surfshark.deals/V1RYSE
From Aidan:
Hi Iyan,
I came across your youtube video by chance today and I absolutely loved and related to it a lot.
I flew into NYC from Malaysia and had no family, friends, connections nor the knowledge or background on how professional fashion, fashion photography & modeling worked.
Just with enough money for one months of rent, and the desperation of knowing that none of what exists here exists in Malaysia and I will never have the chance to ever do this again in life.
I started out by working odd jobs in Chinatown at first and sent out countless amounts of cold emails to photographers in hopes of landing a role on set, but everything fell short and after two months of painting walls and cleaning storages in Chinatown, I became severely depressed and gave up. It felt as if I was going out of my way to make myself more miserable in a foreign land and having the misery be multiplied than 4.3 times my currency from back home.
After dealing with severe bouts of insomnia, I woke up to an email from a UK-based photographer flying into New York and he asked “My lighting guy went to LA, can you do lighting?”. I had no clue how to do that professionally and how to use the equipment at that level but out of hopelessness and desperation, I said yes and my life changed forever from there. I panicked, cried, broke down, freaked the Fuck out for days leading up to the shoot, I was sent lighting references that I had no clue how to break down, equipment lists I was supposed to build and I found out that the shoot was going to be happening at the building that used to be where the World Trade Center was at and I was excited but overwhelmingly terrified that I might mess up this one and only change I got to enter this field, learn and make things work out for once in my life. Miraculously, it worked out and when the photographer mentioned that “the light is gorgeous”, I started tearing up on set and ran to the bathroom to drain my tears out haha.
I’ve since been fortunate enough to discover a passion and talent (would I dare say?) for lighting and 3 months after my first lighting gig (& learning on the job), Vogue Japan emailed me and asked if I would be available to light for the April issue and it fortunately worked out even though I fumbled out of nervousness at the start of the shoot and recently, I got to light this month’s Rolling Stone cover and the biggest lesson that i've gotten in life here, is how much a simple “yes” can permanently change someone’s life for the better, forever. The magic of New York is that, people are willing to give you the opportunity of a lifetime if you work towards improving your skills in your chosen field, show that respect and appreciation towards them and genuinely stay curious and open to new things. Most places are never like this and its hard to fathom that these things can be possible. Malaysia was never like this, they hated me and what I did.
I currently work as a lighting tech in fashion photography and recently kickstarted my professional fashion photography career working with a number of agencies based in NYC.
I’ll be in New York till August 26th of this year and will have to leave due to Visa issues, so my time and dreams have an expiration date for now.
I’d love to do a new set of digitals for you and to do a shoot with you if you do happen to come by the city before then!
Sending love,
Aidan Tan
Photo | Lighting
www.aidan.at
@aidan.at
NEVER BACK DOWN NEVER WHAT?????????
also i reached word count here so my response to the email is in the pinned comment