{"id":41875,"date":"2012-04-11T15:32:39","date_gmt":"2012-04-11T19:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/?p=41875"},"modified":"2012-04-11T23:46:59","modified_gmt":"2012-04-12T03:46:59","slug":"faces-of-the-moment-benjamin-eidem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/?p=41875","title":{"rendered":"Faces of the Moment: Benjamin Eidem"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBenjamin Eidem<\/a>, photo by Betty Sze, interview by Jonathan Shia<\/p>\n

Call him the Reluctant Supermodel. In the short year since he decided to give modeling a try, Gothenburg native Benjamin Eidem has seen his career skyrocket, starting as a Top Newcomer for Spring\/Summer 2012 and currently ranking fifteenth on our Top 50. With countless campaigns, editorials, and shows now under his belt\u2014including a debut opening and closing Prada exclusive last June\u2014it’s hard to imagine it took Eidem years after first being scouted to come around to the idea of working as a model. But the industry is certainly glad he did. He spoke with us recently about the highs and lows of the past twelve months, January’s star-studded Prada show, and the well-deserved break he just got back from.<\/p>\n

MDC: How did you first get scouted?
\nBenjamin<\/strong>: It was in Miami when I was eighteen. I was standing outside a restaurant and some people from an agency came up and asked me if I wanted to start modeling. I was on my way to the agency to do it and I even had the contract in front of me but then I changed my mind, I didn’t want to do it. Then I went back to Sweden because I was only on vacation in Miami and in Sweden there was a photographer who wanted to take pictures of me, but I didn’t want to then either. And then I actually went in to Modellink and decided to go with them.<\/p>\n

MDC: But you didn’t decide to really pursue modeling until about a year ago. What made you change your mind?
\nBenjamin<\/strong>: So many different people told me to try it out so many times, I just decided to go for it.<\/p>\n

MDC: How do you feel that waiting a little bit before starting to model full-time has helped you to prepare for the rigors of the industry?
\nBenjamin<\/strong>: I didn’t really prepare, exactly, since I didn’t know anything about the industry before I started. But I think that taking some time off and maturing a little before starting has really helped me keep a clear mind about everything that’s happened. I think that some of my work experience in some of the other jobs I had before has carried over as well. But in a way I think it would have been easier to start earlier, since when I did get into modeling, my life was kind of settled\u2014with a girlfriend, a new boat, a new apartment, and a lot of other things to take care of\u2014and since I don’t want to give anything up, all the traveling makes it difficult sometimes.<\/p>\n

MDC: What were you doing before you started modeling?
\nBenjamin<\/strong>: I had a lot of different jobs, but right before I started modeling I was working in an electronics store and I was also shooting pictures at nightclubs for different websites.<\/p>\n

MDC: What has been your favorite experience in modeling so far?
\nBenjamin<\/strong>: Probably opening and closing Prada last year. It was pretty much my first show. I understood after a while what a big deal it was. I found out I was going to open it a couple of hours before the show. I was extremely, extremely nervous. At the same time I guess I was happy. I was extremely nervous, but afterwards it felt really good. I got a big kick from it after I finished.<\/p>\n

MDC: You walked the Prada show in January alongside a lot of famous actors like Gary Oldman and Adrien Brody. What was that like?
\nBenjamin<\/strong>: We didn’t find out until a little before that it was going to happen, and they were all in a separate room getting ready, but it was really cool to be standing in line with them waiting to walk out.<\/p>\n

MDC: What do you like most about modeling?
\nBenjamin<\/strong>: My favorite is anytime I get to shoot outdoors in a city, just going around and seeing things while I’m working. That’s not so common, though, but when it happens it’s been a nice experience.<\/p>\n

MDC: What do you hate most about modeling?
\nBenjamin<\/strong>: Being away from my girlfriend and my friends so much.<\/p>\n

MDC: Are there any other things you’ve done that have really stuck out as great memories for you?
\nBenjamin<\/strong>: I did a campaign for this Swedish shoe company Vagabond. We shot a pretty long video for it. We were just walking around in Madrid starting in the afternoon through the middle of the night to almost early morning, doing different things in a cafe, in the park, on street corners. It was fun.<\/p>\n

MDC: Who are some of the favorite photographers and stylists that you’ve worked with?
\nBenjamin<\/strong>: I’ve worked with so many amazing photographers and stylists but I definitely always love working with Willy Vanderperre. I’ve shot so many things with him,\u00a0Fantastic Man,\u00a0my\u00a0i-D\u00a0cover, and campaigns for Aquascutum, Adidas SLVR, and COS. He is a really nice guy and I like his photographs. I really like working with Olivier Rizzo too.<\/p>\n

MDC: What do your friends and your girlfriend think about your sudden success?
\nBenjamin<\/strong>: My girlfriend and I have been together for a long time, so she thinks it’s a little weird. But it’s weird for me too.<\/p>\n

MDC: How was your vacation you just went on?
\nBenjamin<\/strong>: I was in Thailand with my girlfriend for most of March. We were traveling around, visiting a lot of different places, relaxing. We were backpacking and we didn’t have an itinerary, but I always like the idea of surprise.
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Faces of the moment: Benjamin Eidem<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":446,"featured_media":41900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,16,2],"tags":[8398,8332],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41875"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/446"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41875"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41951,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41875\/revisions\/41951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}