We found baby Elisha’s profile on Instagram. The boy seemed to have descended from the pages of fairy tales – a blue-eyed, fair-haired, brooding prince. At the age of three, Pskov is already collaborating with the brands Bjork, Nutrilon, and Detsky Mir; his photographs can be found in the Wildberries online store. When you see the account of a baby model on Instagram, many questions arise. The Pskov information agency asked how the blonde model lives, Margarita Cherenkova – the mother of three children and PR agent Elisey, who conquered brands and thousands of people with his photographs.
How to become a model in a year
– Margarita, tell me, when did Elisha’s career begin?
– It turned out purely by accident. We just wanted to do a family photo shoot, because we had very few shared photos with the children. You know, when a child is small, the phone is packed with photos, but mostly there are only children. Elisha just turned one year old. In September 2017, I found a child photographer on social networks (then I thought it was a St. Petersburg photographer).
It turned out very funny: we chose a date for the November holidays, I booked an apartment next to the studio (Pravdy Street, 24). And literally in three days in a correspondence she mentioned that we were coming to St. Petersburg in a day. There is such a pause, and she writes to me: “Why in Peter? I’m actually in Moscow. Street of Truth, 24. Moscow. “
We actually had a day to make a decision: refuse to shoot or go to Moscow. I decided this way: if there are tickets, we’ll go, if not, we won’t go. Tickets were. We left the eldest at home, and went with the younger.
– But it was an ordinary photo shoot, was there no talk of participation as a model?
– Yes, it turned out by chance that the girl photographer is the head of a children’s modeling agency that works with children from 0 years and older.
She took off Elisha, made him the first portfolio and offered to take it to her agency, that is, to offer photos of Elisha to customers. We decided: “Why not?”
The first year we traveled very actively to Moscow, started Instagram, registered at different sites.
By agreement with the agency, we were supposed to film once a month, but in reality we got 2-3 trips to Moscow. We participated in third-party auditions. We always had a “disturbing suitcase” when they called us in the evening and told us to go.
Later we were tired of traveling to Moscow and went to work in the St. Petersburg branch of this agency.
The first shoot – and immediately in Wildberries
– Tell us about your first photo shoot in a modeling agency.
– The first shooting took place in December 2017. As I remember now, we shot absolutely, in my opinion, some unpresentable things: factory-made romper suits, pajamas of a Russian manufacturer, which were filmed for the catalog. Three or four months later, my girlfriends sent me a link to Wildberries, where Elisha was in these sliders and other things. Although then there was no talk that we are filming for an online store.
Typically, filming customers are manufacturers of toys, clothes, gadgets, they need photos for catalogs, for sites. There are also advertising options: commercials and projects, but in a year for a movie he was, of course, not enough.
– How does Elisha perceive the shooting?
– He is very fond of the camera. In life, he is also cute and mimic, but not the same as on camera. In photographs he is just a picture. When, after the next shoot, I have a desire to quit everything, and then these photos fly in, I say: “Well then, let’s go somewhere else.”
In the year, of course, he did not understand anything, but he was interested. I quickly went to work full time, and Elisha had a nanny. For him, such a trip was a holiday: mom devotes him the whole day. Mom works, works, and then she took a suitcase, a child, got on the train and that’s all: on the train, mother is only with him, in Moscow, mother is only with him. In addition, shooting usually takes a half to two hours maximum. The rest of the time we walked, went to the zoo. Therefore, naturally for him it was a holiday.
Up to three years, children have very little idea what they want from them. And then some kind of awareness comes. Right now we are sitting at home in quarantine, and he is already tormenting me with questions when we go to the “Swallow” (this is any locomotive). I ask: “Where are you going to go to the” Swallow “? He replies: “How where? Take a picture. ” Now he already asks me to take a picture of him somewhere on the street and begins to look into the phone to see how he turned out.
Baby photography – marathon for mom and photographer
– How to explain to a child in a year and a half that now you need to look into one lens, and then into another, smile, stretch out the handle?
– Friends who saw his photo in magazines always asked: “How is he standing and posing like that?” And he is not standing and not posing. This is an endless process of catching these moments. Therefore, the photographers who work with these children are specific people, there are not so many of them, and they are professionals.
The main task, of course, is to amuse the child so that the child smiles, falls on the mother. Mom wears it, puts it on a certain point, location, quickly runs back and quickly somehow amuses him. The photographer has just a few seconds to catch a standing, smiling child in this shot, because at the next moment the child ran away, and it does not matter which way.
And the whole shooting is such a marathon.
– How to entertain a child-model on the set? Are there special tricks or is it enough to say something or wave your hand?
– Waving – it works exactly the first two minutes. There is a whole technology of how to amuse children: different techniques and methods. We always dragged a number of toys: either unfamiliar or well-forgotten. The toy must be new. It can be a whistle for three pennies, but it attracts attention, causes some kind of first reaction and makes it, if not with a smile, then at least bewildered for 15 seconds to stand still, to figure out what to do about it.
Some agencies have an assistant on the site who, in addition to managing the process, is responsible for the wardrobe, in the meantime, also takes part in such work: jumping, making noise, attracting attention, because my mother does not always work.
Both the modeling agency and the photographer advised many different things on how to entertain the baby. But the funny thing is that they work once – a maximum of two. That is, it went to one shooting, already like that, it’s familiar, to the third – it doesn’t work, it’s not interesting anymore, you need to look for something new.
In a down jacket in the month of July
– And maybe the shooting itself will interest him? Outfits, stylist, posing?
– Most of all, he is interested in the shooting process itself, especially when it is a large shooting, where there are many children on the site.
Last year, we starred for a clothing brand. Bjork – overalls, hats, winter shoes. Filming in the month of July. We arrived at the studio, there was a snow cannon – it was very interesting. He watched the uncles throw this snow under the fan that carried the baby. He was not embarrassed at the same time that in the studio +16, and he walks in a down jacket, all wet.
He likes such large shoots, where there are many children, where you can have fun. It is interesting when there is a complete professional shooting, where they shoot not only the catalog, but also the image clips. He often runs up to the laptop: “And what is it there? Yes, it’s me. ” And runs further into the lens. Last year there were three such major shootings: for Bjork, for Detsky Mir and for another brand.
But the outfits do not please him at all. Dressing up in ordinary life is always a very complicated process. Fortunately, he doesn’t resist on the set, he accepts this as an obligatory element, there you can at least put on a dress on him, and he will not mind.
Fees baby–modal
– You called very famous brands and stores. Share what “star” shooting is in the portfolio of Elisha?
– In fact, we do not really strive for this, because there is not much difference: what is stellar, what is not stellar.
Here we are very keen to get into the “Children’s World”. After that, our direct exploded simply with questions: “How did you get into the Children’s World?” But Detsky Mir pays 800 rubles per hour for catalog shooting. We went twice and said that we don’t want to, it’s not at all interesting.
Shooting for Bjork is also quite iconic. But then I already said: “If the shooting is from four hours, then we’ll go.” It turned out that it was both a catalog and a video – that’s all, and it was interesting. We spent the day shooting and received not so much money, but rather pleasure.
– How much does Elisha earn?
– Elisha does not earn (laughs). We rarely have the time to pay off.
– Well, there is a myth that mothers earn on their children models. Here, for example, Yana Rudkovskaya and Gnome Gnomych.
– Maybe Yana Rudkovskaya can earn. But in fact, in children’s modeling in Russia they rarely pay. If you are not Marta Timofeeva or Sasha Plushenko, then children prefer not to pay fees. Small brands pay with certificates or give onions of clothing. Big brands pay, but not much more.
Elisha’s biggest fee is 16 thousand rubles from Nutrilon for 8 hours on the site, despite the fact that he didn’t act in film: he was the second child, a reserve. The main boy then received 32 thousand in his arms, and Elisha – 16 thousand.
The very first fee we received was two thousand rubles. We took off baptismal clothes. First, he visited the collective shooting for the brand of baptismal shirts, they took off two shirts on it, and then two weeks later the hostess wanted to shoot the whole collection on it. In three hours, we shot 12 shirts and got two thousand rubles.
Royal Elisha
– Where does such a name come from – Elisha? Royal Elisha …
– Agree, it suits him? When I was in position, I didn’t have any special plans for the name, but so that my relatives fell behind, I said: Bear. Why? I have an older girl, Katya, a boy – Gosh, this one is Misha. Katya, Gosha, Misha – great.
At the time of the birth of Elisha, many pajamas, toys, bedding with bears were bought. In general, the code name was “Bear.”
But when Elisha was born, we immediately realized that he was not a Bear at all. He is such a royal prince: transparent, white, thin. He remained nameless for three weeks while he was looked for a name. We had a brainstorm, everyone started sending me all sorts of options. And at one point, the name Elisha popped up, and my mother realized that it was Elisha.
Looking at him now, I can not imagine what else he could be called.
– Do you plan to continue modeling further? Promise Elisha a career as a fashion model in the future?
– Elisha actually doesn’t think much about career. This is more of a mom’s hobby than Elisha’s career.
This is more for general development, I do not consider this as a profession in relation to Elisha. He will not go into adult modeling due to his small stature.
We will continue, but now we have become more selective. At first, we undertook any work, we needed to develop a portfolio, experience. Now we are already looking at what creative projects we want to get on, for what fee we are ready to work. I have no stellar ambitions. We don’t plan to quit, but we are not ready to take crazy actions – shooting every day or every week.
– You work mainly in St. Petersburg and Moscow, but what about Pskov?
– There are very few advertising shootings in Pskov, but movies are sometimes shot in Pskov. And we think that Elisha has grown up, has already begun to talk, it has become possible to negotiate with him, so we will try to work in this direction.
