Good morning!! I woke up today trying to think of all the topics I had been mulling over the last few days. I kept coming up blank with the exception of this one idea. Perhaps my most underdeveloped so far but we will just go with it.
Creepy photographers are more relevant than I would like to give thought to. Usually its a male photographer and usually there are multiple red flags beforehand. I have always been cautious and tried to follow my gut feeling about shoots. Which has resulted in a handful of photographers getting confronted and even canceled on by me. But it can be hard to draw the line when trying to be professional.
I wanted to lay out as many red flags as I can possibly think of in this post. In addition I wanted to be able to give some advice for how to handle the situation in case you're actually in it.
RED FLAGS:
1) The first one I can think of is if they are brief or vague when explaining what they are looking for in the photoshoot. Some photographers like spontaneous shoots and that is okay if they can still answer questions. But what is not okay is when they won't tell you what they want you to wear or give you a time/ location. Usually they will keep avoiding the questions. This is an indicator of disorganization. The photoshoot may not be the primary thing on their mind about your shoot.
2) They will tell you over and over how comfortable they like their models to feel. Or how comfortable they want you to be. Now there is nothing wrong with being comfortable and wanting everyone to feel the same. It usually produces the best kinds of pictures. However, comfort comes from communication during the shoot. Not from someone saying "you can trust me. I am a professional" over and over in a brainwashing kind of way. I have found that photographers like this often have to over compensate for the fact that they have made many models very uncomfortable in the past.
3) Their communication skills are going to suck. This kind of ties point one and two together. When you're talking with someone you've never met before there is a certain way it should come off. It should be very professional and open in order to create that little bit of trust needed to meet up with someone you do not know. This one is more of a gut feeling. I can always tell when someone do not seem to want to be open. Usually the texts are short and are without any sort of structure.
4) This one is kind of a given. But I still want to put it out there. If you mention bringing someone and they give you ANY sort of reason why that is not okay. Leave. Or if you haven't left your house do not show up. This is probably one of the biggest flags and most everyone already knows. But there should never be any reason you can't bring someone with you for a shoot. Sometimes though if I feel like there is going to be some resistance I will say that the person I am bringing is going to help with styling and minor changes. That way they really will have a harder time saying no. But again, you should not have to sugar coat anything. It should be okay across the board.
5) All of these follow a very similar theme of communication. Another flag is if it is brought up that they have made models uncomfortable and they discredit the model. It is one thing to defend yourself against something that may not be true. But it is equally important to not discredit the feelings of the person that they "allegedly" made uncomfortable. They don't even have to necessarily believe that they did it. They just have to have enough respect for the model not to completely discredit her opinion. UNLESS OF COURSE IT IS RUMOR AND THERE IS PROOF THAT THE MODEL IS LYING. ((which can happen too just usually not as much))
I wish there were more flags. But a lot of these photographers are good at covering up what they do during shoots. Which is another reason why it is so important for models to speak up about what goes on during those uncomfortable shoots. It is equally important to ask other models about their experiences with a photographer before planning the shoot and to take those things into account. There are plenty of men that picked up a camera with the intention of trying to seduce women or see them in a more personal state. Often times these men seem to ruin it for so many amazing male photographers. Which is why it is important to spot them out and make sure that we keep all of our models safe.
Creepy photographers are more relevant than I would like to give thought to. Usually its a male photographer and usually there are multiple red flags beforehand. I have always been cautious and tried to follow my gut feeling about shoots. Which has resulted in a handful of photographers getting confronted and even canceled on by me. But it can be hard to draw the line when trying to be professional.
I wanted to lay out as many red flags as I can possibly think of in this post. In addition I wanted to be able to give some advice for how to handle the situation in case you're actually in it.
RED FLAGS:
1) The first one I can think of is if they are brief or vague when explaining what they are looking for in the photoshoot. Some photographers like spontaneous shoots and that is okay if they can still answer questions. But what is not okay is when they won't tell you what they want you to wear or give you a time/ location. Usually they will keep avoiding the questions. This is an indicator of disorganization. The photoshoot may not be the primary thing on their mind about your shoot.
2) They will tell you over and over how comfortable they like their models to feel. Or how comfortable they want you to be. Now there is nothing wrong with being comfortable and wanting everyone to feel the same. It usually produces the best kinds of pictures. However, comfort comes from communication during the shoot. Not from someone saying "you can trust me. I am a professional" over and over in a brainwashing kind of way. I have found that photographers like this often have to over compensate for the fact that they have made many models very uncomfortable in the past.
3) Their communication skills are going to suck. This kind of ties point one and two together. When you're talking with someone you've never met before there is a certain way it should come off. It should be very professional and open in order to create that little bit of trust needed to meet up with someone you do not know. This one is more of a gut feeling. I can always tell when someone do not seem to want to be open. Usually the texts are short and are without any sort of structure.
4) This one is kind of a given. But I still want to put it out there. If you mention bringing someone and they give you ANY sort of reason why that is not okay. Leave. Or if you haven't left your house do not show up. This is probably one of the biggest flags and most everyone already knows. But there should never be any reason you can't bring someone with you for a shoot. Sometimes though if I feel like there is going to be some resistance I will say that the person I am bringing is going to help with styling and minor changes. That way they really will have a harder time saying no. But again, you should not have to sugar coat anything. It should be okay across the board.
5) All of these follow a very similar theme of communication. Another flag is if it is brought up that they have made models uncomfortable and they discredit the model. It is one thing to defend yourself against something that may not be true. But it is equally important to not discredit the feelings of the person that they "allegedly" made uncomfortable. They don't even have to necessarily believe that they did it. They just have to have enough respect for the model not to completely discredit her opinion. UNLESS OF COURSE IT IS RUMOR AND THERE IS PROOF THAT THE MODEL IS LYING. ((which can happen too just usually not as much))
I wish there were more flags. But a lot of these photographers are good at covering up what they do during shoots. Which is another reason why it is so important for models to speak up about what goes on during those uncomfortable shoots. It is equally important to ask other models about their experiences with a photographer before planning the shoot and to take those things into account. There are plenty of men that picked up a camera with the intention of trying to seduce women or see them in a more personal state. Often times these men seem to ruin it for so many amazing male photographers. Which is why it is important to spot them out and make sure that we keep all of our models safe.
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