Alicia Cho
About
I am petite curvy Asian touring model with experience across a range of genres including fine art nude, boudoir, kink/fetish, erotica, creative portraiture, and fashion. Based in Sydney, Australia, you can book me for modelling work here in my home city or during my next tour of your city. I also pose a various life drawing events and art classes all over Sydney and in other cities.
One of my core advocacies is diversity, and I strongly encourage photographers and other artists to work with diverse models by helping photographers demonstrate and/or hone their skills in working with non-traditional looking models.
Here's my story
Becoming a model was never something I ever dreamt of as a kid. Being a POC with physical attributes not exactly meeting the criteria of a conventionally-attractive model, I had absolutely no interest in fashion or art or modelling for most part of my life and decided to go down a more academic path. But I did own the family camera and was always the one taking photos of events, holidays, and anything that I felt like documenting in my life. Because of this I never actually liked being in front of the camera because I felt I wasn't photogenic at all. This got worse as I got older. (Interestingly, I realised that a lot of us have this problem!)
This all changed during Covid lockdown where I determined that I would work on getting myself comfortable in front of the camera, learning how my body moves, my best angles and poses. As we came out of lockdown I booked my first professional photo shoot - it was a creative boudoir photoshoot. As I was preparing for the shoot, I tried looking for inspiration online but quickly became somewhat disappointed when I realised that I couldn't really find anything that inspired me, any images that resonated with me, or any photography subjects that looked a lot more like me.
It was clear that there still was quite a huge lack of diversity amongst the models that local photographers would feature on their online portfolios. At the time I spoke with several photographers to figure out why this was the case and the top reason I was - and still am - often given is that it's difficult to find models who don't necessarily look like your typical western supermodel who would agree to shoot and have their photos shared, particularly in the boudoir and art nude category.
This really bothered me. Should I still do this shoot? What if I look silly? I just wanted to have some idea of how someone who looked like me could have some really good photos taken. I quickly realised that this is really a chicken-egg situation where I wanted to see more diverse models working with local photographers but because of the lack of diversity no one is getting encouraged to step up.
Eventually, I thought: maybe I can be the solution that I was seeking.
I have since then enjoyed doing a lot of modelling and have worked with some incredibly talented photographers and artists. I've met some really awesome creative people along the way and have been learning a lot about myself through this journey.
Maybe someday, someone who is like I was once was might come across my work and think, "oh hey if she can do it, I can, too!"
Working together
Ever since I've started modelling, I have been strongly advocating for local photographers and artists to work with more diverse models.
Why should you work with me? I have the lived experience of someone who hasn't been doing modelling all her life but simply wants great photographs. And I think that photographers and artists working with a diverse model like me could be beneficial. You are able to hone your skills and show that you are able to work with someone who does not look like "the usual model". For photographers who are in business, diversifying your portfolio could lead to more bookings when clients see that you can create amazing images with different types of models. And for the hobbyist, this could encourage more models to work with you if they can see that you can and will work with diverse models.
I do not have a particular style, genre or medium that I would categorise my work under. I believe variety is the spice of life! And having many kinds of work means being able to reach and connect with as many people and having something for everyone.
