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            How did modeling get started? No, scratch that. Perhaps the question we should all be asking is: Why did modeling get started?             That’s always the question I’m asking myself whenever I’m preparing for a special shoot… preferably one that calls for cargo denims or jeans, a brightly-colored T-shirt or short-sleeve performance polo, sneakers or boots, striped bandanas of varying patterns, swim trunks and, on very special occasions, props such as a book, quill pen, swords or a staff. (I’ll try to avoid formal business wear if I can help it, but have no objection towards it.)             And even though I do have my own views on the subject, for some odd reason it wasn’t until now that I decided to sit down and start typing away, which is even odder considering that I could be taking the time to write about other things of far greater interest – cinema, for one.             I’m not the only one asking the question, but my answer isn’t the same when compared to others’ views on the subject. There are of course many who believe that modeling exists because all people want to do are expose themselves and get continuous fame in return. And there are others who would view modeling as a rather dishonest, perhaps to a certain extent childish or unhealthy (even deadly), profession or interest when compared to other professions or interests, and say that most people do it because they are lazy and want to live a very easy lifestyle consisting of mere poses and pictures.             But I’m not one of those people – my beliefs on the topic of modeling go deeper, and it is for this reason that I believe now is the time to share my thoughts, as I have entered the field of modeling and need to contribute at all costs.             Truth be told, there are many answers to the question of why modeling started in the first place, or even why we need it, but it’s hard to decide which answer is the answer.              Maybe it’s because, in a sense, modeling happens to be as old as other civilized traditions such as philosophy, science, history, politics, the arts… the list to which it’s included can go on and on. And when each individual tradition is executed and preserved over a long period of time by certain groups, no matter how big or small, it eventually becomes difficult to remember exactly how, when, where, or why it began, or who even thought of starting that tradition in the first place. All those questions seem trivial compared to the continuing existence of the tradition itself. We don’t know how it began or why we have it – modeling is just simply there, and regardless of our curiosity, there doesn’t seem to be a point trying to find a reason or provide a guess of our own, let alone decide whether or not we really need it.             Perhaps the best answer, or, at the very least, my best explanation for the very reason that modeling exists and why we need it is that it all began with the necessity to communicate. Ever since early humans started using tools to build fires and hunt, so they also used tools to draw or paint pictures of events such as hunts, dances and sacred rituals.             It was here that the real purpose of modeling – to tell a story – emerged, and even though pictures of humans were composed of uniform stick figures, like each and every model in magazines, online or on television, they had individuality. For the first time, we had proven ourselves capable of capturing life – even when we didn’t have the exact details, it was our way of proving our existence and what we did during the time that we existed. Through this crude modeling, history was for once preserved.             As we evolved from scattered tribes to the very first civilizations, so did our skills of capturing the human image improve. The outlines, facial features, muscle curvatures, skin tones… all of this would come into being along with another tradition, the ability to create stories that were not only based on events in the real world, but were also made up to try and explain what was going on in the world, even when there was no direct evidence provided.             So mythology, with all its gods, goddesses and demigods, was born, and with that came the ability to preserve the heroic deeds of real men and women as well. Through the murals, mosaics, hieroglyphs and petroglyphs of great civilizations and empires such as Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Persia, Rome and China, people not only learned of the stories of gods ranging from Amon-Ra to Athena, or legendary heroes as real as Alexander the Great or Genghis Kahn, or mythic as Atalanta and Hercules – they started accepting them as role models and tried, with or without success, to emulate both their actions and physical qualities. Even when the lessons behind the stories on the walls were overlooked, there was always something to look at, memorize and treasure.             With the advent of the Renaissance, modeling took another giant leap. Real models, such as those used by Leonardo da Vinci for the Mona Lisa or Sandro Botticelli for The Birth of Venus, would give the element of verisimilitude to the human image in paintings, sculptures, bas reliefs, tapestries and other visual art works. The printing press was another wonderful addition to modeling as well, for not only could modeling images be preserved through printed copies – they could also be captured as part of inscribed alphabets and numerical systems in various cultures. Thus, modeling also became part of the written word.             This is all hardly surprising, especially since that happened to be the point of modeling images all along. Along with telling stories of previous events, real or mythical, it was also a method of showcasing various expressions that portrayed, frozen in time and space, the philosophical and emotional states of the human condition. Nowadays, when we think of modeling, our definition is narrow in superficial terms of physical beauty, but back then, it meant something more, and if we were to look much more closely at modeling today, we would see that it still means much, much more.             That would especially prove true in the propaganda media used in wartime periods. Posters and newsreels were not only advertisements – they were a testament to the true concepts that lay behind modeling. Whether it was trying to fulfill the standards of Hitler’s Nazi regime or the level of American patriotism, the frozen portrayal of models in those images set a standard that many were willing to follow, out of the commonly-held belief that it was all for the greater good – a continuation of the ideals supported by ancient civilizations’ hieroglyphs.              Even when certain aspects of modeling were abused publicly, one example being the advertisement of young men and women doing drugs and smoking as an encouraged daily social habit, therefore endangering innocent youths, there was always some aspect of modeling that remained pure because, regardless of the message it spread, modeling was doing its job of telling a story and sticking to its own perspectives, outside other views that would have reduced its level of effectiveness.             So the next time you model, or capture shots of a model, or simply look at models on television, online and in print, remember that you are practicing and preserving an ancient tradition that has been followed for thousands of years since its first emergence on the walls of the caves. It’s something worth doing and remembering.   - Jeffrey Douglas DeCristofaro