From Athlete to Canada’s Top Model Search
Throughout my coaching career, I’ve had the privilege to work with hard driving, passionate and dedicated athletes. Ironically, it was one of the first swimmers I coached who embodied all these traits better than anyone I’ve ever seen. At the time Maria was only beginning to find her element in the sport of competitive swimming, but I was able to tell right away she was extremely focussed and willing to push herself to the limit in order to succeed. With out a doubt the reason she won gold in the 50-meter freestyle and progressed to a more competetive association.For the next 5 years I hadn’t seen Maria until my final summer managing the pool. Maria is one of the few athletes I’ve had the opportunity to reconnect with after such an extended period of time and we instantly reminisced about our achievements together followed by learning she took her love for swimming to the next level medalling in national competitions. Seeing her determination from an early age, her performance didn’t surprise me but what she told me next surely did. Maria decided to move on from swimming to pursue her newfound passion for modelling. I will admit, I was a bit shocked at first but I knew she had a great work ethic and was extremely determined by whatever interested her. She ended up going to Toronto for Top Model Search Canada and learnt a lot throughout the trip. The following week, she came to the pool full of knowledge on the industry and I always caught her practicing her poses and walking the walk as if the pool deck was a runway. It seemed like what once may have appeared to be a far-fetched dream turned into a reality, and what led her to signing to a modeling agency while receiving daily inquiries for photo shoots.
Over the past two years, I’ve had the opportunity to photograph Maria a few times outside using natural light but never in a studio setting. When talking to Milton about upcoming shoots, the second we realized “We need models,” I knew exactly who to call. On this shoot, I wanted to capture Maria’s strong and driven personality. Traits that I’ve always seen and have continuously evolved over the years to the level I would have never imagined presently. I decided to shoot the photo from a low angle to highlight her dominance in the craft as well as her never-ending work ethnic. Milton took my shot and transformed it in post to make it look like the cover of a Vogue magazine. One thing that resonates and is captured perfectly in this picture is her glare. The glare to succeed regardless of the situation; that same look that she’s had on her face since the first day we met when she was just 10 years old.@dumitrescu.maria