The Importance of an MUA
The Importance of an MUABy Susan Ward-Brooks
aka., The Makeup Junkie
It is our work that is often responsible for the creative dynamic in a fashion photograph...or completes a certain "look" on the runways in New York or Paris. Sometimes, our work can define an entire ad campaign. We are commercial/editorial makeup artists, and we are a KEY part of all that is fashion......
A makeup artist (MUA for short) can actually take a model from being just another girl, and turn her into a siren like no other, all with the stroke of a brush. We're a very important part of a fashion photo shoot...our work probably should be considered a necessity, but so often we're viewed as more of a luxury.
What models and photographers quite often don't realize is that a highly skilled MUA knows some pretty amazing techniques...the kind that the model doing her own makeup for a shoot probably doesn't. There are actually so many things we do, that make huge a difference in a models' appearance, and after all...isn't her appearance what it's all about??? We create perfection. Not the kind of perfection that Photoshop creates...but intricate details that a computer program CAN'T!
In a nutshell.....
I was working a shoot a while back, and I overheard the photographer explaining the importance of my work to the model we were working with, that day. I had never looked at it quite the way he explained it...and I really have no clue as to WHY I never had! He told her (all you models reading this...take note!)...the MUA looks at a models face, and sees it completely different than the model would. The model looks at her face every day, and whether she THINKS she changes it up with her makeup or not, she puts her makeup on the same way, all of the time. When we bring the MUA in, there is a fresh pair of eyes and a brilliant imagination looking at that model. She will do things with eyeshadow and use colors that the model would NEVER have thought of. She'll add highlights and bring out stunning features that a model didn't even know she had. She can transform that model into an unearthly creature, or make a little girl look like a woman in her 20's..or even turn her into a piece of art....WELL SAID!!
We can take a model OR photographers' portfolio from nice to dazzling. If a photographer has a "model transforming" kind of artistic concept he wants to try, the MUA is the person to call for sure! It seems to me that having THAT perfection, should be the case for EVERY photo shoot.
A makeup artist (MUA for short) can actually take a model from being just another girl, and turn her into a siren like no other, all with the stroke of a brush. We're a very important part of a fashion photo shoot...our work probably should be considered a necessity, but so often we're viewed as more of a luxury.
What models and photographers quite often don't realize is that a highly skilled MUA knows some pretty amazing techniques...the kind that the model doing her own makeup for a shoot probably doesn't. There are actually so many things we do, that make huge a difference in a models' appearance, and after all...isn't her appearance what it's all about??? We create perfection. Not the kind of perfection that Photoshop creates...but intricate details that a computer program CAN'T!
In a nutshell.....
I was working a shoot a while back, and I overheard the photographer explaining the importance of my work to the model we were working with, that day. I had never looked at it quite the way he explained it...and I really have no clue as to WHY I never had! He told her (all you models reading this...take note!)...the MUA looks at a models face, and sees it completely different than the model would. The model looks at her face every day, and whether she THINKS she changes it up with her makeup or not, she puts her makeup on the same way, all of the time. When we bring the MUA in, there is a fresh pair of eyes and a brilliant imagination looking at that model. She will do things with eyeshadow and use colors that the model would NEVER have thought of. She'll add highlights and bring out stunning features that a model didn't even know she had. She can transform that model into an unearthly creature, or make a little girl look like a woman in her 20's..or even turn her into a piece of art....WELL SAID!!
We can take a model OR photographers' portfolio from nice to dazzling. If a photographer has a "model transforming" kind of artistic concept he wants to try, the MUA is the person to call for sure! It seems to me that having THAT perfection, should be the case for EVERY photo shoot.
