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In Germany, Mat McCabe is known as the nice photographer on supermodel Heidi Klum’s top-rated television show, “Germany’s Next Top Model.”
That’s what he learned from a fellow Erdenheim Elementary School parent, who heard it from a German friend, he said.
McCabe attributes his amicable reputation abroad to the way he works with his subjects. He tries to be a bit of a teacher, whether he’s featured as a celebrity guest photographer working with aspiring models on a foreign reality show or taking portraits of local families at his studio in Bridgeport.
“I always try to help and encourage,” said the photographer, who lives in Erdenheim with his wife, Kim, and children Lucas, 6, and Jake, 8.
The fashion and beauty editorial photographer was just selected to make his fifth appearance on “Germany’s Next Top Model.” He will participate in a day-long shoot on the West Coast in March.
He could not divulge the subject of his shoot, but a look at his portfolio might give some clues. His past shoots include models sitting on ice cubes in a sub-zero frozen food storage unit and models reacting to a car suddenly exploding in the background.
He remembers the ice cube shoot very well. The models came into the cold from the warmth outside, so they stuck to the ice cubes and the crew had to pull them off.
“Germany’s Next Top Model” is a reality show that follows young women as they compete in a series of challenges for the grand prize: a modeling career.
McCabe had been on the show for four years, but has been working with Klum the past 10.
“It started out just doing shoots, and it morphed into her asking me if I wanted to be on the show,” McCabe said. “She’s great, she’s funny, she’s smart. She’s just a really good person.”
His portfolio includes magazines like Cosmopolitan, for which he did a cover shoot with Klum.
As a guest photographer on a reality show, McCabe plays with lighting and directs the shots while a camera crew films him.
This means McCabe has to stay focused as about 100 people work behind him, plus any interesting events happening on set.
Sometimes, if the models aren’t “projecting” enough, Klum will make them scream with her to loosen up, which can be odd with the whole crew standing there, McCabe said.
“Often I’m so focused on what I’m doing that I don’t watch,” he said.
He will be taking photos of 13 models, 12 whittled down from 1,500 original hopefuls who came to a casting call, and the winner of a similar contest in Austria who was chosen for the show because Germany is a larger market.
McCabe isn’t German and doesn’t speak German, and the judges use this as an added element of competition, he said.
A German model needs to be able to speak English, so a contestant’s ability to follow McCabe’s directions is a strong indicator of her success in the challenge, he said.
The shoots normally last as long as McCabe feels it’s right.
“I got it, I saw something you did that was fantastic,” he said, describing the feeling.
By becoming a photographer, McCabe was carrying on the family tradition, as both of his parents have been professional photographers.
A photo his father, David McCabe, took in 1965 of a young Mick Jagger in Andy Warhol’s studio hangs in McCabe’s dining room. Another photo his father took of surrealist artist Salvador Dali in New York City’s Ritz Plaza hangs in a hallway.
McCabe, who grew up in New York City, loves photography partially because of the lifestyle he experienced in his youth — traveling and meeting interesting people.
But it’s also the process of creating a photograph that attracts him.
“I really enjoy thinking it through: How am I going to do it? What do I need to do it? How am I going to connect with the subject?” he said.
For now, McCabe looks forward to continuing photography, both fashion and at his new portrait studio, where he hopes to work with local families.
