I’ve been thinking over the past few weeks about a photographers prerogative and why they shoot lingerie and nude models. Some of them have a huge Instagram following and as well as making money from such shoots, they give the model exposure and help them in their journey to make their own money and gain a couple more followers who enjoy their work. Some photographers work hard to be published in magazines and online articles. Some photographers have their own website and publish their work on there.
I was thinking of reasons why a photographer with no Instagram, no Facebook, no website, no interest in magazines or being published and no real fan base would want to take lingerie and nude photos of women especially. Why would you take great interest in photographing provocative images with nowhere to share them?
The more I thought about it the more the negative side of my brain started to kick in.
There are plenty of photographers out there who are likely to have a negative reason for taking such photos when they don’t share them with anyone else or sometimes even the model. Does this give them the opportunity to prey on more shy and reserved models? Or give them the opportunity to ‘fix clothing and poses’ by physically touching the models because they don’t have anywhere for reviews to be left? I currently have a disk of images from a recent shoot that I can’t collect until my second shoot. In the day and age of email and dropbox this rings alarm bells for me. Why are my images being held hostage?! What if I don’t want a second shoot?!
I came to realise that the new photographers, young and old, seem to have an inbuilt permission asking button in their brain which is pressed whenever they’re shooting with a model. They always seem to ask for consent before doing anything, always making sure they’re feeling comfortable and safe. Of course this can’t be said for all new togs but I’m glad that we seem to be moving forward!
I’m saying thank you to all the decent photographers out there - even though I shouldn’t have to because it’s my right to be made to feel safe, I’m saying it anyway so you know that us models really do appreciate you!
That’s just my thought of the day!
