We are all very very familiar with MySpace and Facebook. They’ve been in the news a lot! What we may not be so familiar with are sites dedicated to social networking for Models & Photographers.
Sites like One Model Place, Model Mayhem, Hot Models, and many others have been around for just as long, if not longer, than MySpace & Facebook. They are the way aspiring models & photographers can connect with industry seasoned models & photographers to talk, trade tips, even find or create work together.
These sites create a community where people with similar interests and goals can connect with one another, but for all their benefits, they do not come without their dangers.
One problem, and possibly the least talked about, is the inflation of one’s ego – especially models, but also of “wanna-be” photographers. Models, especially the young women, tend to get what I like to call the rock-star ego, where they think and act as if everything is owed to them. It’s no surprise either, if you ask me. They log in to dozens upon dozens of email messages, comments, and more from hordes of photographers and other models complimenting them on their beauty, their style, and their portfolio. Never do you read a bad comment, and why would you? Flattery gets you everywhere, right?
These models never really stop to consider why they are getting the compliments? What does the photographer want? What is the MUA/Stylist interested in? It’s self serving for these people, really, because they don’t want to pay a model to expand their portfolios when they have the need to, especially when they are just starting out. Why would a model compliment another model and not be more critical? Simple, that model wants to be noticed too, and what better way than to place your mark on as many profiles as possible, in friends lists, comments, and such.
These models get so used to being given free work that they begin to think that this is life and just by calling themselves models they are deserving of it all. Sadly, it is this attitude that then becomes the reason they do nothing. They become more expecting, more demanding, and when the good photographers choose not to work with them for their attitudes, they continue to work with whomever will give them that attention until they fade into oblivion. (See my blogs about Thoughts on TFP/CD work, and Model’s rights for more detailed observations by photographers.)
The other thing the models never seem to think about is, out of all these people – who are actually legitimate? Some are obvious, I know, I’ve heard stories of young women getting messages from so called photographers and producers asking them to have sex with them on camera for as little as $50 promising to make them a star. Yeah… right. There are those who are less obvious and probably more dangerous, however. These are the “photographers” that have given photographers a bad rap for some time passing out business cards saying they’re professionals just to lure some unsuspecting young girl in. Some of them even believe they really are, just because they own a camera.
Often time their work is shoddy, they’re promises are big, and they try to do everything. They talk like a stereotypical used car salesman and make promises as if they’ll happen tomorrow. They also tend to berate every photographer they come in contact with behind their backs, and play to their faces. Perhaps they even make comments about photographers who’ve been in the business for years, saying something like “After you’ve turned 40, if you’re still photographing models you’re nothing but a pervert.” (Yes, that was said to me once by a fellow “photographer”)
Great photographers are born with a natural talent for composition and understanding of what it is they are photographing, but they take years of study and practice to hone their skills to an art form. The problem is with these social networking sites, the ones who tend to get the most attention are the ones who can sell themselves even if they have no talent or skill, and when models get burned by these guys they make it much harder for the legitimate photographer to make their start.
These online technologies do try to provide some security to protect people from these situations, but more often than not they are misused, inflated, or not used at all.
These sites can be useful when it comes to networking, but a bit of caution and common sense should always be exercised. Many photographers do what they do for a living, and deserve compensation, you wouldn’t go to work if they didn’t pay you, would you? So how do the models get paid? There’s an order, it can be found in my blog titled: Thoughts on TFP/CD work – and will be outlined further in my blog Modeling: The Real Life – as that’s a more appropriate subject for that blog.
Also See:
Internet Networking Ethics – The Artist’s Unwritten Code
The Truth About Social Networking – Modeling: The Real Life
Subscribe - ArTech
