A Model through the Lens of a Camera

Thandi Bosman

Photo: Infinity Models

Modelling is a demanding job with awkward hours and busy days on the road. Sometimes you are awake before the sunrise, because you need to be at work early.

This is the busy life of Sigmonne Adams. Some days she works half days, other times she is required to be on set the whole day. “Sometimes they need the sunrise in the background so it would mean I have to be on set by 4am for hair and makeup.”

Being on set early can be tiring but as a model, what you have to do and where you have to be is not up to you. “Shoots can last from 1hour up to 9hours, depending on the job and its requirements, also how long the model takes to get the perfect shot the clients need.”

She is not just a pretty face. Sigmonne, who grew up in Paarl, is now studying Charted Accounting at Stellenbosch University. She is bright and confident and has fun every time she is on set. “I’ve always loved the camera, for me it isn’t anything strange because you are posing in front of a ‘professional’ team, which is so much better than posing in front of people you actually know personally (friends and family). All the photographers I have worked with are very friendly and professional.” She laughs and adds: “I honestly have fun whenever I am on set”.

Sigmonne juggles two lives: student life and modelling. You need to have good time management and you need to know yourself well and make sacrifices to catch up with work. “It does however take a lot of my time, so weekends and evenings I have to put in extra hours I had lost out on.”

With all the modelling Sigmonne has done already, her portfolio is filling up. She has worked for many places like, Edgars, Foshini, Ackermens, Cosmopolitan and YOU magazine. She has also worked for an Irish advertisement, the Maybelline New York calendar campaign and Revlon. She is currently short listed for an Allan Gray commercial.

In every job criticism and competition comes your way. “I have learnt how to face criticism and to turn it into constructive criticism. I have also learnt how to handle denial, because you may be the most beautiful woman yet the clients are looking for some specific look,” Sigmonne explains but adds with a smile that her agent keeps her positive.

Many models in South Africa are not well known and Sigmonne explains, that unless you are working in the industry names can sound foreign. “So to a model it would be like ‘omw there's Charlbi Dean’ where as someone who is not a model would be like, ‘who's that’.”

Right now, Sigmonne feels her “modelling has to take a backseat” and her studies is her “number one priority”. “If anything major comes my way I will be blessed but for now I am concentrating on my degree.”