Sean Bennett

by Ron Sklar

“I’m from the country,” says Maryland-born model scout and manager Sean Bennett. He is the founder of DC-based Specimen Models. Currently getting big buzz, Specimen is offering up many high-quality kids who have been plucked from the lazy countryside and sent to the glimmering catwalks and sophisticated photo studios of the fabulous Big Time, with amazing results.

“When agents hear my country accent,” he says, “they tend to be a lot warmer, especially the New York agents. When I use words like ‘darlin',’ it makes them warm up a little bit more and makes them more willing to take a chance.”

However, don’t let the country-boy persona fool you. Sean is as down-to-earth as they come, but he is also as savvy and as tuned in as any seasoned Manhattan agent.

His boys are hungrily scooped up by every agency in every market in the world. Though he was raised on country sunshine, he has the keen eye of city mouse.

“My guys work in Paris, Milan, London, New York, Asia, Denmark, Australia,” he says, counting off only a partial list. “I try to find boys who are really universal, not just those who are only good for one market. I try to find boys who are great for every market. It’s totally possible. You can look at my board now and see that I have crossover boys. They can do the really high-end commercial stuff and then they can turn around and shoot V magazine the next day. That’s the future. That’s how models will be making their money anyway. Especially with the economy the way it is. Editorial boys are amazing, but you have to make sure they can be on both sides of the fence. There are models who are editorial darlings who do nothing but editorials and then they work at Wal Mart.”

Originally an art major in college, young Sean had been attracted to modeling since his recent graduation.

“I’ve always been interested in fashion,” he says. “I really wanted to be a designer. But what I find interesting in modeling is the whole process of finding a kid off the street, developing them, placing them and seeing them blossom.”

Blossom they have, like many fields of country flowers. Remarkably, at Sean’s tender age (22), he’s discovered and placed many. Most notable (so far) is Andre Douglas, who is now with Wilhelmina and booked ads and campaigns for Levi's, Macy's and Abercrombie and Fitch.

“The girls get paid more, of course, yeah,” he admits to the challenge of dealing only in boys. “But there are not that many high-fashion men designers out there, compared to women designers. It’s not really the models’ fault. It the agencies’ fault, who are all about finding new, young hotness. However, there are good exceptions. DNA tries to make them last longer. That’s why you can say that Ford has been around so long, and Wilhelmina. They know the formula. They know how to make a new face last for ten to twelve years. The models can retire maybe not a millionaire, but close to it.”

When asked if taking a chance on a new face is a crap shoot, Sean doesn’t subscribe.

“It’s not a gamble at all. It’s not even intuition,” he says of his dicey chosen profession, in which he has to approach complete but beautiful strangers on the street. “For me, my background is primarily based upon art, so what I try to do is look at the model not in 3D but in 2D. Because that’s basically what sells anyway.”

The art also lies in the approach of a potential model, who may or may not be receptive to what many guys may consider an odd offer from a strange character (not Sean, of course, but scouting is never an ordinary exchange between two people).

“It depends on my mood,” he says of his street-scouting approach. “I find that if I’m more blunt about it, other than simply ‘are you interested in modeling?’ they don’t look at me like some old geezer trying to get them to do something that they don’t want to do. So I say something like, ‘you have a cool look. Give me a call.’”

He’s modest about it, but he’s changed many young men’s lives, as they leave the local area for bigger, more exciting adventures, all the while being in vogue.

“It’s amazing,” Sean says of the results. “They’re like your children. You groom them and put them on the right path. And you see them blossom with top photographers and major magazines.”

He builds solid relationships with powerful booking agents, but occasionally he has to make sure he has eyes in the back of his head. The temptation is not uncommon for agents to “steal” away promising models from their mother agent. In most reputable agencies, this is not practiced, but there are exceptions from time to time.

“I do think some agents get jealous,” he admits. “Bookers are people. They’re human. A few here and there have a tendency to get shady and shysty. It’s inevitable in this industry. I’m based in DC so I can’t be in New York all the time, so I try to place my boys with agencies that I do trust.

“Kids at that age – seventeen, eighteen -- will occasionally go to a big market and get taken out, wined and dined, and told that they don’t need a mother agent. It’s not cool when an agency has the nerve to steal one of my kids, when I am pumping out constantly amazing kids, back to back, all the time. Why would you want to mess up a relationship like that? But that’s what some agencies end up doing. I mean, you don’t place some mother agent’s boy in other markets without permission. You don’t do that. It makes me put up a red flag. And I’m one of the nicer ones. I’ll give people a second chance. It’s just how I am. But when you try to mess with my money, I’m done.”

The money, too, is there, in a big way. In modeling, if you have the eye for The Look, then all eyes in the business turn toward you.

“I work thirteen, fourteen-hour days sometimes,” he says, “and then I’m like, ‘why am I doing this?’ And then I get those checks, with all those zeroes, and I’m like, ‘oh, okay, yeah. It’s a good living.’ I’m not saying down the line I wouldn’t mind putting up a full-blown agency. But right now, I’m content.”

Still, in the end, it’s more about the relationships and the nurturing than the money. Sean is still there to deal with hurt egos and other little dramas, even if they are long-distance.

“Some bookers can be mean,” he says, “but take it as constructive. And one agent’s trash is another’s treasure.”

His advice to young models is simple.

“Work hard,” he says.

Yet hard work, unfortunately, is sometimes only part of the equation.

He says, “Some kids may luck up and find a person like me who is able to bless them and put them in the right place.”

To check out more of Sean's amazing eye for models, go to http://specimenmodelmgmt.com and http://specimenmodels.blogspot.com