Model Students
Two Columbia students take on the runway
Scantily clad in white briefs and covered in white powder, two male models prance about the exhibition space of the Whitney Museum, greeting guests under the cover of a fog machine. Cast for Terence Koh’s first solo gallery presentation in the United States, Ryan Reineck, CC ’09, and Buck Ellison, CC ’10, witnessed the debauchery firsthand.
“Two people grabbed my ass,” Ellison says. “One was a girl—the other, of unidentifiable gender.”
“The funny thing was, we weren’t allowed to talk to people,” Reineck adds, laughing, “which was especially hard when this one guy started approaching me with questions. He was very confused when I walked right past him and didn’t answer.”
All nudity aside, the experience provided a valid reason for missing class. “I told [my Art Hum teacher] that I was going to be walking around in underwear covered in white powder at the Whitney,” Reineck says. “She loved it—in fact she urged me to go. She said it was one of the best excuses she’s ever heard. She made me tell the whole class about it afterwards.”
Ellison is tall and lithe, with dark, slept-in hair. Reineck, too, is thin, with baby blond hair slicked across his forehead and a button nose. For the record, they profess a passion for meatball sandwiches and cookies, respectively.
Neither came to Columbia with the intention of modeling. Ellison is studying to be a photographer and is represented by the Geras Tousignant Gallery in San Francisco, where he grew up. Reineck, from Boise, Idaho, is majoring in art history. He interns at October, a journal of art theory and criticism, and is the assistant to seminal art historian Rosalind Krauss.
This past December, the two were independently introduced to Douglas Perrett, a casting agent who runs Development NYC. “Ryan had gone in a few days before I went,” Ellison recalls. “I got there and had to sit against a white wall. Douglas took a couple of Polaroids, and then he said ‘OK, I think this will work out.’”
Perrett gave them crucial advice: “Drink a lot of water and take care of yourself. Don’t get in any fights.”
Reineck began modeling this past November and was recently featured in two pages of fashion editorial from Italian Flair. He will also be featured prominently in the advertising campaign for Teen Vogue’s new Web site, http://www.flip.com. The site launches in the spring, but Reineck’s face will hit the presses of every Condé Nast publication in the next month.
Reineck and Ellison met this semester and quickly became friends. Incidentally, most of their modeling jobs have come together. “We come as a package,” Reineck said, smiling at Ellison.
Returning early from winter vacation, they posed together in a dating spread for the spring issue of fashion glossy V. The shoot saw them wearing Balenciaga hoods and role-playing as boyfriends.
With fashion week gearing up, both Reineck and Ellison were recently checked out by Patrik Ervell, former fashion contributor for V and now an up-and-coming menswear designer.
Only last week, both attended a casting at KCD, a public relations firm that coordinates all the big names in the industry, including Marc Jacobs’ London runway show.
“I thought they would be abusive, that people wouldn’t treat us very well. And I was excited for that,” says Ellison, a glutton for punishment. “But it turned out that all the people were actually really nice to us. They were really busy. Too busy to be mean, I guess.”
“I don’t mind feeling like an object,” Ellison concludes. “That’s what models are there for.” g