We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sheri Angeles a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Sheri, appreciate you joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?
I have a few businesses and my last interview we chatted a lot about my wedding photography and this time I am happy to share more about my fashion photography and my modeling agency Standard Models. With my fashion photography, I don’t have a business name-my brand is myself and everything is under my name. That is how my name has become known in a way throughout the industry.
As for Standard Models, that came about one day as my husband and I were driving to get groceries and we were talking about what to name this modeling agency and I was explaining to him my thoughts and how I have high standards for myself in every area of my life, with work, family, friends etc. and he was like, “What about Standard Models?” And that was it, Standard just hit, it was immediate, and it felt right.
So why Standard? If anyone is in the fashion/entertainment industry or knows anything about it, it’s crazy. People say and do anything to get ahead, people lower their standards for themselves to get jobs or make things happen for themselves (I mean we see this time and time again). Where for me, I fuel my life and businesses on honesty, good morals and ethics, doing right by people etc. I know I can’t change the whole industry, but if I can impact it by 1% by how I do business and with the models I represent who also have the same standards for themselves, I am happy with that :)
Sheri, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
This is a great question and so much that I could unpack here as there is so many avenues that have gotten me to this place in my career. But I will give you an outline in the most concise way that I possibly can so your readers aren’t here all day reading a chapter book.
A brief backstory, I am originally from Detroit Michigan where I learned my craft and love for photography as my grandma was the photographer of the family and my grandpa was the videographer. I remember vividly ever since I was about 5 years old for Christmas my grandma would get me a new camera, most of the time they were disposable cameras, but each time they got better and better and I learned everything I knew on her film camera. I remember always taking her camera and taking photos at family gatherings and the same with my grandpas’ video camera, but who knew back then that I would make this a career.
Fast forward, I am now in High School taking photos of my friends all the time with my first digital camera which was Kodaks first digital camera where the screen was the size of a quarter haha. My friend Jessica who was modeling at the time asked me to take photos of her and from there she helped launch a business for me, she got me families to shoot, sr. photos etc. But most importantly at 16 she helped me book my first wedding which was one of her best friends, older sisters. Their original photographer had a death in the family, but he allowed me to use his camera to shoot this wedding and y’all at the time I had no idea what shutter, aperture, iso was or even how to shoot in manual, I was use to my little automatic camera haha, but thankfully, I went into that wedding acting like I knew what I was doing, made $250 (I thought I was RICH haha) and that was the start of something I didn’t even intend to do, but it changed my life.
Between HS, College and a little after that I was juggling photography on the weekends and teaching Pre-K during the week, but in 2008 I moved to LA where I got my start on Red Carpet work, I started shooting Grammy and Oscar in-house parties where I met people I never thought I would meet in my life, especially coming from Michigan. Moved home for a bit and then moved back to LA because I was getting married at the end of 2011 and that is when I quit teaching and went full force with pursuing my photography career.
All this to be said, I have shot weddings for about 21 years now, been in the fashion industry for 13+ working with brands, models, modeling agencies, magazines and celebrities. Not many people can say, when they move to LA to pursue a dream it happens. My goal when moving to LA was to work one on one with celebrities and shoot fashion editorials with them and I made that dream happen. God is so good and he paved the way for my dreams to become reality and when I tell you that I spent 19 years being faithful in prayer and believing his promises to me, I spent 19 years. It wasn’t always easy, there were moments of comparison, frustration and all the things, but I had to stand firm on what I knew to be true for me and a couple years ago my dreams came to pass. I was able to shoot magazine covers and work with Hilary Swank, Leslie Jordan (RIP), Morris Chestnut, Madison Bailey from Outerbanks, Gavin Casalegno from The Summer I Turned Pretty, Omarion, Neyo and the list goes on.
Standard came into play as a thought years ago, but the timing was never right until we moved to Nashville FT and I now split my time between Nashville and LA, it honestly feels like I never left since I am back almost once a month if not every other. I am very passionate about helping others break into this industry, helping and developing new models, working with veteran models and just pouring into them the knowledge that I have. Plus, being a fashion photographer doesn’t hurt either as I have beautiful relationships with many agencies, agents and brands. So I know and understand what bigger agencies are looking for to build a models portfolio to get them started off on the right foot.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
For me, I truly built my reputation in the fashion world in LA and if anyone knows LA, this city will eat you up, drown you in the ocean, bring you up for air and do it all over again. So I always tell people, if you want to live in LA, pursue your passion in this city, it is KEY that you know who you are before you get here. This city is not for the weak at heart because it is so easy to give into the temptations of this world especially in this city. You must stand firm on who you are, your beliefs, your morals and ethics and not waver from your standards. For me, that was exactly it, I always put myself out there and treat people with kindness, I am genuine with my questions to people I am shooting or the teams I am working with, I share in the excitement of others wins even if I just met them and I am always willing to help and connect people out of the goodness of my heart because it makes me happy. So, to answer this question, outside of my talent that God has blessed me with, it goes down to my heart and how I have treated people. Being in the industry, you can immediately tell who’s in it to “use” you, who is fake, and who the real deal is.
Always remember to just be kind and genuine.
How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?
If you don’t already do this, build your email list! This has been key in my growth, I send out newsletters every few months just to keep all my clients past and present on what’s going on. They know I won’t ever spam them, but they are great to name a few to engage with your audience, build relationships, promote anything you have going on, and educate your audience.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sheriangeles.com and www.stndrdmodels.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/sheriangeles and www.instagram.com/stndrdmodels
Image Credits
@sheriangeles