(First in a new series of articles about fashion and modeling relative to the Nashville fashion community.)

While small compared to Milan, Paris, New York, and other the fashion capitals around the world, Music City’s fashionisti are breathing life into the growing community – boasting internationally-trained stylists, models appearing on national television shows including Make Me A Super Model, True Beauty, and The Bachelor, cosmetic companies with country-star spokespersons including Carrie Underwood, runway shows by world-renown designers including Oscar de la Renta, home to supermodel Niki Taylor and Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman, a bevy of local and international modeling agencies with offices in our fair city, fashion-forward boutiques catering to the unique styles of image-conscious customers, creative fashion designers defining style in their own way, and the list goes on.

Furthermore, with the local entertainment and publishing communities casting talent for music videos, magazine editorials, and book covers, Nashville has been considered a "third coast" city for years. Since music has become more of a visual medium in recent years, demand has increased for a pool of talented models/actors in here Music City.

As a full-time photographer, would-be models contact me regularly asking how they can get started in modeling, and my regular response is "Why?"

Interestingly, the most frequent response to the "Why?" question is silence, which, I presume, is because that most people have no distinct answer to that question. Or perhaps they have never asked themselves Why. So let’s look at this and other important questions.

"Who?" is an easy question to answer: you, the model or would-be model.

"What?" digs a bit deeper: What kind of modeling do you want to do? High fashion, commercial, editorial, event, catalog, other? This too is an important question that we’ll explore in a future column.

"When?" and "Where" depend on the specific assignment, which assumes you already have that modeling job.

Now it’s time for the most important question of them all: Why? Why are you a model? Or, for the up-and-comers, why do you want to be a model?

Properly answering this question requires honest, self-inspection and to properly define your goals and intentions. Doing so will set you apart from your competition. Take a moment now to ask yourself this valuable question.

In an upcoming article, we will further examine this topic because it’s all about the Why. Until then, I encourage you to give this question some serious thought, and post a comment here so the conversation continues. Or, shoot me an email to getshot@gregorybyerline.com if you’d like to share your thoughts outside the public forum.

Cheers.   ~ gregory byerline photography