Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Ryan McGinley.
Alana Jessica Martin is a “camera whore.” Finding and gravitating toward a trained lens is the “thickums blonde”’s forte, though often, a camera is already pointed in her direction. “I remember seeing you and feeling like I had a gravitational pull toward you,” admits Ryan McGinley , who was struck by both her looks and a speech she gave at a protest. So struck, in fact, that he devoted an entire exhibition to her. In All About Alana , the “New York It-girl” posed for 30 different photographers, marrying herself to the camera’s lens for a month straight. From weathering a breakup mid-shoot to meeting Daniel Arnold on a street corner to be photographed, the experience captured Martin in ways she’s not always comfortable with: off guard and vulnerable. Each photographer reveals a different fragment of the multi-hyphenate beauty, until something resembling a complete portrait begins to emerge. The resulting images, now on display at the Rectangle Room on the Lower East Side, are as much about the person being photographed as the many ways she can be perceived. Ahead of the opening, the photographer and his muse broke down finding inspiration in Hollywood’s iconic blondes, being perceived as a Pollyanna, and making a living as a “candy dom.” —ISABELLA SOCCI
RYAN MCGINLEY: How was it doing 30 photo shoots?
ALANA JESSICA MARTIN: It was definitely a whirlwind. I don’t think I’ve done 30 photo shoots in my life, let alone in one month. I was telling all my friends, “I feel like I’m in a one-woman season of America’s Next Top Model .”
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Ari Sadok.
MCGINLEY: Ha! Seems like you could teach a master class now.
MARTIN: It was uniquely challenging in those ways. But it was so fun, and I learned so much. Everybody had such a different style, not only in terms of their art, but also in ways of working. Like, some people had shot lists beforehand and everything was so pre-planned, and then other people, like Daniel Arnold, just met up with me on a corner. It was so fun and intense and really special to me.
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Benjamin Fredrickson.
MCGINLEY: Some of the photos are so emotional, one I even see a tear streaming down your face.
MARTIN: I never would have predicted that I’d get dumped in the middle of one of these shoots. And I was so glad to be with Simone Thompson and her team because they really helped me in that moment. And having Danielle Levitt the next day gave me no option to sit around in my feelings about it, which is what I would have loved to do.
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Cade Curran.
MCGINLEY: You really committed to this project, that guy doesn’t understand the starlet he lost!
MARTIN: It was such an important lesson to not let something like that ruin it for me for even a second. Okay, maybe it ruined it for like 20 minutes. We had a cigarette break on the fire escape, I cried in the sun, and a few of the photographers loved that, like Quil [Lemons] used that. Certainly, he had me stare into the sun on purpose to get that effect, and a few other people did too. But of course, we were doing Pam Anderson Baywatch the day I got my heart broken. So I had no other option than to really commit. I learned something that I’ll take with me throughout my whole career because of that.
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Charles Ceasar.
MCGINLEY: When did you start being photographed? I met you in June of 2020. I remember seeing you and feeling like I had a gravitational pull toward you, probably because of a speech you gave at a protest and an acoustic song you played on a guitar, but also because you had a stunning look.
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Chloe Scout Nix.
MARTIN: So the first photographer who ever lensed me was my best friend, who I’m really happy is included in the show, Devon Henry. We were waitresses together. Devon was a student at Parsons at the time, studying photography. I would come into work intentionally with some lingerie underneath my uniform shirt, and we called them “The Cigarette Break Shoots” because I would ask my manager, “Can I step out for a cigarette?” I knew that would give us 15 minutes in the staircase. That’s where I learned my little cigarette trick, where I dangle it out of the side of my mouth. And then, when I dropped out of school and won a beauty pageant I found on Craigslist, that gave me my first modeling contract, and that was how I started getting on TV.
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Clifford Prince King.
MCGINLEY: What kind of roles have you been playing on TV?
MARTIN: Every hooker, prostitute, stripper, porn star, dominatrix. I call it the “oopsie girl.” Like when the cops are busting down a party looking for some guy, and they bust into a room where two people are fucking, and the girl goes, “Huh?” And it’s like, “Oops, not this room.” I remember seeing myself on TV for the first time, being like, “She don’t look half bad. Maybe we found something here.”
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Daniel Arnold.
MCGINLEY: New York, New York, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.
MARTIN: I always took it very seriously that I’m from the greatest city on Earth—our rich history of being able to make a star. I always had this intuition that as long as I kept knocking on doors and showing up in places the way that I wanted to be seen, that it would be answered. And I got pretty lucky with that. There’s just not that many thickums blondes in New York who are playing whores on TV. I cornered the market pretty fast.
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Danielle Levitt.
MCGINLEY: I remember I met you on the steps of Stonewall in the West Village. I was taking your picture at a protest—you were more open to being photographed than most of the crowd.
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Devin Khan.
MARTIN: I’m such a camera whore that once I see a lens reflecting in my direction, I snap to it. I distinctly remember you pointing the camera at me. That picture was in Aperture magazine that summer.
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Emmy Laurie.
MCGINLEY: Feels like there should be updated terminology for the expression “camera whore.” I don’t know if it still has the same weight if put in other words though? What does it mean to you?
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Jae Kim.
MARTIN: Because the camera is inherently a voyeuristic thing, the perception of the self from the outside, the camera whore isn’t opposed to that idea; they want to invite it in. And for me, the only thing that drives me crazier than a great picture is a terrible one. I want to make sure there are as few of those as possible. Even if I see someone taking a group picture next to me and I’m not in the picture at all, I’ll sit up straight and make sure my body is angled in a way that the camera will like what it sees.
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Jonah Hodari.
MCGINLEY: Do you think that after being photographed by so many different photographers, if there’s a photo of you by an artist that’s more “in the moment” and not as beauty-ready, you can appreciate it?
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Lee Foxcliff.
MARTIN: Totally, and that was one of the things about this project that I really started to appreciate: handing off the trust to these people. They’ve all built their own careers off of the ways that they take photographs, so it took the pressure off me a little bit. A lot of my early camera whore days were built off of a kind of control factor and needing to be seen one certain way. I’m very particular about the way I’m perceived, but at the same time, very open.
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Luisa Opalesky.
MCGINLEY: In the press release for this exhibition, we talk about two bookends, one being Marilyn Monroe and the other being Pamela Anderson. Can you speak about those women and why they’re your pillars?
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Marcus Maddox.
MARTIN: Well, Marilyn was always the first one. When my parents were fighting, my neema (grandma) would always pop on a little VHS. She’s the only other blonde in my family, so she really gets me. Marilyn was her number one girl.
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Matthew Sprout.
MCGINLEY: What’s your favorite Marilyn film? Mine is The Seven Year Itch because of that iconic windy subway grate imagery.
MARTIN: My favorite was always Niagara , but she showed me all the greats, like Jayne Mansfield and La Dolce Vita . This Golden Age of Hollywood, blonde bombshell beauty just struck me so much.
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Maxwell Vice.
MCGINLEY: That’s why when you and I made that Central Park photo of you, the end of La Dolce Vita, when they’re in the fountain, was on my mood board.
MARTIN: I’ve always had such a pull toward the film noir, romantic, dramatic heroine. That has shaped a lot of the way that I see myself now, and that carries itself over into Pam Anderson as well. The success of not only her beauty, but the fun and lightheartedness she brought to it led her to a tumultuous relationship that was obvious all over the press. As a trans girl, I’ve always related to that immeasurable beauty and incurable sadness that I think is present in those girls.
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Milan Lazovski.
MCGINLEY: Those qualities are why I naturally gravitate toward you. I love your positivity and lightheartedness. Our creative community is there for all of us when the world’s so heavy. We show up, on the streets at an activation, or a music video, in front of the camera, or on the dance floor. I love watching you at the club in pure joy. Is that natural for you, or do you work hard to keep optimistic?
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Quil Lemons.
MARTIN: I had to work really hard to build the engine that I have now. There’s always been a shred in me that has seen the light. Being miserable, so broke in my early twenties, and feeling so alone in my transition, I realized really quickly that I had two options. I could either look at all the cards stacked against me and be like, “Fuck, I’m screwed,” or I could look and be like, “Everyone has their stack, my cards are just different.” A lot of people think I’m a Pollyanna because of the lighthearted way that I live my life. They confuse it with the idea of toxic positivity.
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Rachel Filler.
MARTIN: It’s my little gift that god gave to me—that I can see not only the forest through the trees, but the rainbow above the forest. I remember the days when being a trans artist was micro-niche. But now, we’re all over the place, and it’s really important for me to centralize my own joy and spread that around as much as possible. I mean, my doctor just told me I have the highest estrogen that’s healthily allowed. I was like, “Nothing I don’t know already, babes.” I pray to god every day, “If I’m lucky enough to be a beacon of your love, then let it shine through me to everyone else because I know that if I act as your beacon, then anything is possible, because all things are possible through him.”
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Ramie Ahmed.
MCGINLEY: Amen. I love that. Spread the love, Alana! Shining a light on you is the message of this exhibition. Back to film, any ‘90s film you’d recommend?
MARTIN: Clueless , every day. A favorite supermodel? I have to go with Anna Nicole Smith, my Guess girl. She was the ultimate crossover from Playboy girl into fashion.
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Richie Shazam.
MCGINLEY: Do you have a favorite Spice Girl?
MARTIN: I would like to think that I’m more Posh, but I’m definitely Baby Spice, as I sit here in my over-the-knee white socks.
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Ross Collab.
MCGINLEY: If you were one of the women on Sex and the City , who would you be?
MARTIN: I think the world perceives me as Samantha, which is true, like, man-eater, all about the business, looks great in red. But Charlotte is, like, the “try it all once” girl. She gets around the most from the group, and no one really realizes because she’s technically the prude, but she goes on more dates than the rest of them, and she wants to get married. There’s a big part of me that wants that too. I see a lot of myself in her. My little matching sets, Park Avenue—I see it.
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Sam Penn.
MARTIN: My diva that I sob over is Gaga, for sure, just because I grew up with her.
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Simone Thompson.
MARTIN: I’m such a Little Monster. She’s always meant the world to me. But, close second, my dueling diva and the one I relate to the most would be Britney.
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Snake Garcia.
MCGINLEY: Do you have a favorite New York It-girl?
MARTIN: I’m going to go with Cookie Mueller. My mom got me her book as a Christmas present a few years ago, and she hit the nail on the head. I was so obsessed with her for a while.
MCGINLEY: She was John Waters’s muse. I love her too. She had an eclectic list of ‘inane jobs,’ as she called them: racehorse walker, playwright, bar mitzvah entertainer. Off the top of your head, can you list all of your jobs in a row?
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Stas Ginzburg.
MARTIN: Starting at the top, I was a receptionist at a hair salon. I also worked as an assistant at an adult daycare center. I was a seasonal jewelry sales girl at Costco while I was in college. I was a waitress for a few years, a burger waitress, then a brunch waitress. But also, I had been stripping in nightclubs and doing that kind of thing. I would just show up at the club when I needed to make some money and take my clothes off. I was having a great season as an actress. I was doing Law & Order and stuff, like, every other week. I was teaching Friday night baking classes, like cupcake baking classes. I was a dom for a summer, and I even got to a point where I was teaching classes. I was the humiliatrix. They called me The Candy Dom because all of my clothes were light pink. I’d come in and be like, “Hi, stupid. You look so cute and dumb today. What’s up?” It would really put the guys through the fucking ringer. Then, I was a bottle girl for a little. I was a dancer for a bit. Now I’m a door girl and a coat-check girl, everything you could do in the club.
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Stuart Perkins.
MCGINLEY: You forgot beauty influencer. Do you have any beauty tips you want to shout out?
MARTIN: If you’re going to wear eyeshadow, there needs to be mascara too. I hate when there’s a lot going on with the eyes, but no mascara.
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Vivienne McFarland.
MARTIN: Blondes have the most fun. And anyone who tries to tell you differently is lying. Just spend one night with me, and you’ll see.
Alana Jessica Martin, photographed by Yuki James.
MCGINLEY: I’ve spent many fun nights with you galavanting through New York City, we’re family.
MARTIN: It’s been such a blessing having you as a friend of mine. I’ve told you a million times, I could be on the altar getting married, and if you needed me that day, I’d say, “Honey, if you really love me, you will let me go right now.”
Source: Fashion
