"What makes a model?"

Polly was working at one of those mobile stalls in the Trinity Kitchen when I passed. It was a crêpe stall, and I'm quite partial to a crêpe so I stopped to ask her what they had. After being told a variety of options and deciding my filling I got chatting to Polly about her job and crêpes, of course.

“I’ve just moved back from living in France, where I didn’t really eat them that much at all"

Polly wasn’t much of a crêpe lover, just as well then that the stall belongs to her cousin, who she was working for part-time after having moved back to England after a long time living abroad.

Polly was very energetic, friendly and talkative. She told me a load of things, some of which I can’t recall perfectly, but she did mention she did some modelling when she was younger. It explained the poses she was making for me when I was taking her picture, and then quite randomly she asked a rather deep question, “What makes a model?”

I said something quite obvious and shallow, mentioning faces and bone structure, but I think Polly was looking for something a little more philosophical. When I showed her my previous portraits from ‘Humans of Leeds’ she said she thought they were all beautiful in there own way, which I agreed with, but I suggested that being in front of the camera did not a model make.


Humans of Leeds