A Photo Finish

Something happened to me last Friday that I wanted to comment on. It never really came up before, but it’s not exactly unheard of either. And if you model, chances are one day it may happen to you. So I want to take the opportunity in this post to discuss it and tell you what your options are.

What happened is that someone took a photo of me while up on the podium. While nude. That’s never happened to me before, and I was a bit unsure of what to do.

You see, sometimes (especially during a multi-session engagement) an artist isn’t able to finish their drawing of you, so they’ll ask if they can take a photo of you to use as a guide while they finish it on their own.

The first place I interviewed for way back when told me that an artist or student asking to take a photo of you isn’t unheard of, so I’m lucky in the sense that I knew about this sort of thing going into my modeling. I was also advised to charge $20 per photo and get the cash up front (which in retrospect sounds kind of like someone wanted me to pose for a sleazy magazine, heh heh!). But it’s entirely possible someone new to modeling might not know if this sort of thing is kosher or not, and I’d like to be able to provide some advice.

The case I’m blogging about is different than what I described above. For starters, this particular person didn’t ask me for permission. I wasn’t even facing in his direction, but I noticed in the corner of my eye that he seemed to be aiming something in my direction. Sure enough, a few seconds later, I saw the tell-tale camera light. He wasn’t being sneaky like he was trying to take a quick nudie shot using a cell phone cam. But he didn’t ask me if it was all right, either.

Here I was, stuck in the middle of a pose, and someone took a photo of me! Nude. Several thoughts crossed my mind.

1. I could have stopped the session and confronted him immediately. I opted not to do this since it wasn’t as if he was going anywhere anytime soon. The dude was also in two previous sessions and never gave off any weird vibes before, so perhaps discretion would be the better part of valor.

2. Do nothing. After all, people have already seen me nude and like I said, he wasn’t giving off any sort of weird or creepy vibes. I opted not to do this for the simple reason that he didn’t ask my permission. To me, it’s a matter of respect, especially if the subject of your photo is nude. I’m in a vulnerable state as it is, and you’re already drawing me, and now you want to take a photo of me? Without asking me?

3. Say something during the first break. This is what I opted to do. I was still willing to give this guy the benefit of the doubt.

So fifteen minutes later, I get into my robe, take a few sips of my soda, and quietly walk over to him. In a low voice, I cheerfully say,

“Hey, I couldn’t help but notice while I was up on the podium that it looked like you took a picture of me. Did you?”

I said it gently and softly. I made sure my face was neutral and free of anything that might be construed as anger. But I also looked him directly in the eye and was a whopping two feet in front of him when I said it.

He immediately apologized, and it seemed sincere. He told me he thought it was okay and that he didn’t need to ask. Just to be sure, I decided to do the following:

I called out to the woman coordinating this session and asked her in a voice loud enough for the others to hear what this particular school’s policy was on taking photographs of the model. And I made sure my tone of voice conveyed a sense of general curiosity. Now, a woman asked in front of the class during the first session if she could take a photo of me, and the coordinator immediately detailed the school’s policy ($10 to take a picture, in cash). But I figured asking the coordinator again would serve two purposes:

1. He’d be getting the official policy, something he didn’t get (or chose to ignore) the first time

2. It served as a reminder to the other students as well.

So she reiterated the policy and also added something I didn’t pick up on the first time—that the fee entitled the person to multiple photos. Sure enough, he declined, and even let me watch as he deleted the photograph. And I made sure that I wasn’t acting rude to him. While I think it was honestly a bit generous on his part (to say the least!) to think that asking my permission wasn’t needed, maybe he’s done this during other sessions for other schools and it was included in the price of the class (disclaimer: I do NOT think this line of reasoning is kosher by any means… I’m just trying to come up with some sort of excuse as to why he might have thought what he did was okay).

Would I have done it if he (or anyone) asked and offered me the money? The truth is, I don’t know. I’m fairly certain I’d say no, especially if multiple shots from different angles were permitted. There are a handful of exceptions I’d be willing to make—mostly people I’ve worked with multiple times over the years and trust.

The decision to let yourself be photographed is yours, and yours alone. What I’d like to do, though, is offer you some advice to prepare yourself if the situation ever comes up.

• Ask yourself how badly you need that extra $10 or $20.

• Consider that, with digital photography and the Internet, once that photo is taken, it has the potential to be sent anywhere. And posted anywhere. And there’s a 99.9999999yaddayaddayadda percent certainty that you’ll never know about where that picture goes once it’s taken.

• You’re not getting royalties or additional pay if that person chooses to use the photo(s) he or she has taken multiple times for multiple projects. A lot of artists will have you sign a disclaimer form saying that whatever art they create from your modeling belongs to them and them alone. You have the freedom to agree and to sign that form, or to not sign it and walk away. By letting someone take a photo of you, you’ve carte blanche signed one of those forms whether you actually did, or not.

• You have the right to refuse that a photo be taken of you. And if you catch someone trying to take a photo of you, surreptitiously or not, and without your permission, you have the right to confront them over it. The vast majority of artists are very, very appreciative of their models (face it—without their models, they don’t have a whole lot to draw or paint). And my guess is that someone caught red-handed trying to sneak a nude photo of you would probably find themselves blacklisted and disgraced in the local art community.

To sum up, it’s your body. And you, and only you, have the right to determine under what circumstances your body will be captured outside of a session. You have the right to decline, and you shouldn’t let yourself feel guilty about it. And if someone does try to make you feel guilty, I personally think you have the right to walk out right then and there.