11.13.2008

GWCs.

Guys with Cameras.

Alright, saying Guys with Cameras will probably get SOMEONE up in arms because I am sure there are girls doing it too, but really I am talking about the wank masters who have a camera and take advantage of girls who want to be models by taking pictures for their personal spank files.

Say it with me now...EW.

With the invention of digital cameras it is now possible for everyone to be a "photographer". I am not going to bitch, I do everything in digital. That being said, not everyone with a digital camera IS a photographer that you (as a model) should be posing your pretty little bits for.

The guys I am talking about tend to be on things like Craigslist or Model Mayhem.com. They don't really care so much about taking a good picture as they do about being able to get a girl naked.

There are SO many of these guys out there I don't know if there would be any way to track them. Maybe we could start a photojerk.com site or something, where when a model or a photographer has had an issue with a GWC they could register them there (with moderation of course). Having modeled for a while before taking up a camera on my own I had been solicited by a lot of these guys.

I have heard a lot of stories from other models about getting to a shoot to have the photographer have a "point and shoot" camera (or sometimes a little better) who started asking them to do more than they originally agreed to. Or, even if they had agreed to doing nude, to start doing some poses that the model saw as lewd or gross (like that whole spread eagle show me all the way to your uterus pose. Come on now...WHO DOES THAT!?)

Note: I am not saying the quality of the camera indicates a GWC or not, but it is often a good starting indicator.

There are so many horror stories about these guys. I once set up a shoot that was to be outdoors vintage dresses with a vintage car. After agreeing to the shoot and arranging with a friend to have someone go with me, the guy started to send me emails trying to "talk" me into posing nude. Eventually I told him thanks but no thanks.

Listen, a model should never be asked to do something she isn't comfortable with. And if the model gets there having agreed to do nudes? Always have a second party there, tell them to bring someone they are comfortable with or have an assistant there with you...and damn if the model has changed her mind? WORK with it. GWCs tend to get pissy and mad at a model for not "going all the way" they said they would (I will post about what I think you should do as a model, and what I ask models to do with me before they do a shoot with me...not that I do much with models right now)

The line between a fine art photographer and a GWC to some is vague supposedly. Alright, come on now, you can't tell the difference between someone like Scott Church who does beautiful glamour nudes...at the REQUEST of his models...and some wanker who posts on craigslist looking to do TFP nudes?? What is WRONG with you? I know that the glamour nude photographers I know (doing a shoot for a bride to give to her husband for example) are sometimes seriously hindered by these creeps.

So GWCs? Put down the point and shoot and go surf porn on the net like the rest of the internet population. Or, if you are into that sort of thing and like the role playing of it? Advertise yourself as such. Or if you really want to be a photographer, why not start a portfolio and take classes and work your way up to getting women naked?

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