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Interview with Freya Gallows

Freya Gallows is a 24-year old model residing in San Jose, California.

How would you introduce yourself to our readers?

I grew up in the Silicon Valley and originally went to school for engineering before opting to spend my youth stumbling around the world without a plan instead. I don’t really live anywhere; I spent the beginning of this year living out of a backpack around Southeast Asia and Australia, went to Reno to spend six months building Embrace, which is a large art Burning Man art project, will spend the fall roaming and camping around California and the winter home-basing in New Mexico in order to hunker down for a few projects that I haven’t been able to work on from the road.

Modeling has been my primary source of income for the last five years, though I’m just as much a dabbler as I am a wanderer, and I’ve also gotten work teaching skiing, practicing Thai massage, harvesting beets, freelance writing, building trails, I did a lot of rock work on the PCT, operating heavy machinery, taking care of horses, and I’ve spent much of the last few years volunteering for Burning Man, for which this year I spent six exhausting months on the build crew for Embrace. It’s both my greatest fortune and somewhat limiting that I do not have a singular passion to devote my focus to, and that my interests diverge into a squillion facets.

When, how and why did you first get involved in the modeling industry?

The “how” came before I knew the “why”: Initially I didn’t pursue modeling so much give in to it. At twelve, I was a really tall, gawky little string bean and my parents were approached about my potential as a future model, though they thought it’d be damaging for me to enter that world as a kid, and I vehemently agree. Once puberty did its job, I was still tall and thin, but not “agency-standard” tall and thin, so I never looked into modeling as an option until I was approached by a photographer who told me about freelance modeling. After that, it wasn’t until two years after I’d signed up for a Model Mayhem account that I went to a shoot. I was curious and nervous but a bit reluctant.

At that first shoot, I unexpectedly found myself completely transformed, free to explore a character. Modeling has gotten me more acquainted with my own body, and with sides of myself I don’t often see: I’m not someone people would describe as glamorous, girly, flirtatious, or fashionable. It’s play and experimentation, and it’s freeing.

What are your personal and professional goals? Where do you see yourself in five to ten years?

Well, I’m planning to spend next spring doing a modeling tour up the Atlantic Coast, Florida through Maine, on a bicycle. The prospect’s terrifying to me, which is why I’m making myself do it.

Otherwise, modeling-wise, I’d like to get my butt over to Europe for a tour; I’m thinking next summer I’ll skip Burning Man and do just that. And I’ve always got my mental fangirl-list of models and photographers I want to work with or meet or get to know better.

As for five- or ten-year plans, I don’t believe in planning that far into the future; I’m a creature of change, which I think we all are, if we’re experiencing healthy growth, and have no idea who I’ll be or what I’ll want in five years, it’ll depend on what I experience and learn in the meantime. If I try to limit my five-years-into-the-future self to pursuing what I think I’ll want, right now, then I wouldn’t have as much room to explore or change.

Please tell us about the most memorable experiences you’ve had so far in modeling.

There was one time I got to crush a car with a track loader. Another time where we were interrupted by a herd of very curious cows; one came up and started licking my elbow. Another time when a hair stylist turned my hair into a three-foot-wide cloud, which I had on the one-hour train ride home. Once I posed in a zentai suit and ankle cuffs in an old elementary school that the photographer had turned into a studio, darkroom, and bondage dungeon, there was still a lot of memorabilia left over from its days as an elementary school, which added a fantastic dimension of creepiness to the place. One shoot had me wielding an oxyacetylene torch. I’ve done multiple-day shoots in national parks, I’ve done shoots where I’ve spent hours in a make-up chair, I’ve been suspended from the ceiling, and I’ve posed for daguerreotypes and ambryotypes.

Is there anything you would change about the modeling industry if you could?

Absolutely. I’ve been trying to change it in my own small ways.

When I modeled in Australia for the first time, I was shocked by how well I was treated; it made me realize fully, for the first time, how much I and other freelance models in America put up with being disrespected, emotionally abused, physically violated, and financially shortchanged, without even realizing it. Of course, many American photographers are great people. But there are also photographers who get away with a lot, especially if they’ve got a big name. I’m sure anyone reading this can think of at least one or two famous photographers whose track records of physical or sexual assault haven’t slowed down their careers.

I’ve tried to combat this by putting my foot down firmly about my own limits; I don’t allow myself to get bullied into anything, from posing outside my comfort zone to lowering my rate for no good reason. It’s taken a lot of trial and error and practice to get to that point, though; at a shoot, it’s hard not to want to be a people-pleaser and just get along, or swallow back frustrations in order to be non-confrontational. Some level of being flexible and easygoing is really important, but it can be hard to find the line between “easy to work with” and “easy to take advantage of”.

Do you practice any sports and what do you typically eat? Please elaborate on the importance of nutrition and exercise in your life.

I don’t have an exercise routine, but I try to make activity a lifestyle; I don’t “work out” and what I do doesn’t feel like “exercise”. It’s just play. I climb rocks and trees, swim in rivers and lakes, snowboard and ski, scuba dive, do yoga, go backpacking, and have jumped on random opportunities to do everything from whitewater rafting to trapeze. I walk around small towns and big cities. I run around the beach with a few drinks in my belly. I play with dogs. I lose at push-up contests.

Nutrition’s important to me and I try to eat well overall, but I’m a bit of a gourmand. I don’t spend money on clothes or makeup, but I’ll blow money on really good beer, wine, cheese, or chocolate.

Sometimes people try to completely cut out “bad” foods that they love, like junk food junkies perpetually afraid of relapse. I personally think it’s a lot more effective and healthy to learn to practice moderation, and to find ways of preparing healthy foods so that they taste amazing without overloading them with sugars and fats and starches. I am very much anti starvation diets and cleanses, but I am pro juice fasting: I could talk about juicing all day, but for anyone curious I’d suggest the documentary Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.

Please share something people don’t know about you.

Well, I can pee standing up. And my first language was Mandarin, before English.

Would you change anything about yourself if you could?

Buddhism discusses cultivating “beginner’s mind”; you can’t fill a full cup. I want to learn and do everything, to go everywhere, to never get too comfortable for too long and to never submit for too long to holding patterns, neuroses, or rationalizations. To always be getting faster and stronger, physically and mentally. To learn to be more compassionate, easygoing, open, and humble, to internalize that no one can “make” me feel or do anything except myself. To get better at living presently and paying attention. Lather, rinse, repeat, until my heart stops.