Francis Opoku

Hello and welcome to the Fresh Face Project! Exciting right? Stick with me through this ongoing project where I meet up with newly signed models and have a sort of informal interview with them, asking questions to find out more about themselves, how they ended up modelling, what their goals are for the future, etc. From my experience with photographing models through agencies, I don't really get to know about their personalities from the package they're placed in (I mean we're not really meant to but it could help, like an introductory video of some sort) so you kinda just have to brave it and hope it all goes well (9/10 it usually does). Anyway, this project is going to help me and hopefully, others find out more about the models you might eventually end up photographing when working with IMM! (Thank you to Sarah for allowing me to make my idea a reality). 

What advice would you give to your pre-lockdown self?

I've realised now that if you want to do something, try something, just do it. I was never crazy mad on caring about what other people thought but now I care even less? It's just that I don't care. We've run some adverts with the band and it's never been more clear to me that everyone will have an opinion about you. We'd release a song and some people would be very nice about it and we get some negative comments but once you realise and accept that you can't please anyone, it's just very liberating.

So how did you get into modelling?

Funny you should ask Francis, So I just sort of fell into it. At the end of the sort of the harrowing end of lockdown, having not had drumming work for a year and ended a long term relationship. It fell like a great reset and the feeling I got at the end of lockdown was that it really felt like you've only got one shot at going for what you really want to do, you're never going to be as young as you are now so if you've ever thought about doing anything then go for it. So I've been scouted a couple of times on the street so it was always in the back of my mind to maybe try modelling. So we got out of lockdown and so I was like "Fuck, yeah let's just go for it and see what happens". So there was a hairdresser who's a mate of ours who I sorta met doing band photoshoots who did quite a load of editorial work. (We suddenly got stopped by some people on the street, the pains of having a camera and a makeshift iPhone mic). Let that be in the interview. And then, so a hairdresser mate of ours who did editorial stuff, just got in contact with him and told him to recommend a few agencies. So a friend of his gave us this massive list of 30 agencies and it was so much effort cause you had to get a load of photos, so I got my dad to it and he's not a photographer. So that was a whole thing in itself. IMM was on the list and I heard from mutual friends that IMM was a really good agency to work for and I really like their ethos. I talk to the people at IMM on WhatsApp more than I talk to my mum at this point. 

Now that you're with IMM, what are your goals for the future?

Goals? I don't really have any sort of goals to be measurable, I just sort of want to give everything a go if that makes sense. I don't have any quantifiable, measurable goals. I sound so cheesy but I just want to take everyday as it comes. 

So you have a band?

Oh yeah so well, the band is called Two Weeks In Nashville, It's nice, especially during lockdown because it sort of meant that we could get our creative juices flowing. Lots of songwriting, lots of practicing. It's good! We've been to Nashville a few times. We went over there to record and write over there. Bit of a culture shock there, it's an English speaking country, I thought it'd have been an exaggerated version of Britain but no!

Care to elaborate on that? 

Different things are celebrated, in Britain you've got a base level of irony but in America everyone is crazy positive! Like here when you sorta see someone doing well you're like "Well done" but in America it's like everyone's crazy positive about it. It's nice, slightly addictive but easy to get swept up in it. We were there for a little while and when we came back we were still lost in it.