The Love-Fest
O.K. I'm posting it anyways, and to hell with the consequences, namely either flaming, or total silence...
For the last year I have spent an inordinate amount of time on Model Mayhem, web-models forums, photosig and the like, chatting and networking with like-minded souls and exploring the vast world of internet modelling and photography.
And this world really IS vast. Model Mayhem for example, has approximately 436,000 members at last count. That’s nearly half a million models, photographers, MUA’s, stylists and wannabe versions of the categories. You don’t need any qualifications to be one of these – enthusiasm and desire are enough. Anyone, even myself, can realise their dream, or delude themselves that they can. Whereas maybe a few hundred of these folks possess the actual capacity for talent and the potential ability to produce fantastic art, the majority are just wannabes like myself, and there’s no way in hell they will ever achieve their dream of ultimate fortune and glory. And yet they kid themselves that they can. They don’t want to hear the truth, they don’t want to hear honesty, they just want to be told that they are fantastic, beautiful, talented, gifted artists. They just wanna be loved.
Although I'm as guilty of this as the next model, I've been re-evaluating my thoughts on the matter.
I am tired of it all. Really, completely bone-tired of this fantasy world, the hypocrisy, the “being in with the in-crowd”, the having to be so bloody NICE, no matter what I really think and feel. If I see a crappy snapshot of a young model, taken on her home instant camera, where she’s just got up in the morning, looks like shit, malnourished, and so ill and starved that frankly she should be in hospital, even though I feel genuine concern for her wellbeing, then nevertheless I still have to say instead, “Darling, you look gorgeous. You’re a babe! How beautiful you are!
These are the unspoken rules of internet modelling. You have to be nice, kind and supportive, no matter what. Sod honesty. It’s not important. You have to be polite at all costs, you have to network in order to be part of the “in-crowd”. Say what they say, dress (or undress) like they do, shoot in the style that they shoot, do lighting as they do lighting. You have to fit in and BELONG. You have to LIE.
But hang on a minute, acting like this makes me what I most despise. It’s no different than me trying to join the alpha-mother/yummy mummy set, no different from Richard trying to fit in at the local camera club and having to praise as “high art”, those awful snapshots by members of the committee which frankly should never have seen the light of day, all in the name of being polite, kind and sucking up to the right people.
Now there’s nothing wrong with being encouraging, or with kindness. Everyone’s art is different after all, and is a matter of subjective opinion. I get this. But there’s a fine line between kindness and sycophancy. And this line is crossed every single day in the online modelling world.
Kind is good. Everyone has been unbelievably kind to me over the last year. They’ve praised my images even when they plainly suck, told me to keep on going with a particular style, when God knows I should never have shot like that in the first place. I’m grateful for their kindness and encouragement, and they are lovely people who are generous by nature and who mean well, but it’s all an illusion, a fantasy. And we are all perpetuating that fantasy. I know some of my images are terrible (I’m learning) but I even get praised for those too.
By all means praise me for my courage to attempt internet modelling when I’m disabled, because that is genuine feeling, but I would far rather people were honest with me, rather than this continual “Love, love, kiss, kiss, you look fabulous” when even I can tell I don’t. Unless you criticise my images openly and constructively, how else am I supposed to learn? Unless you’re honest, how can I become better?
Mercifully the photographers and models who comment on this blog, and are linked from here, are real and honest folks. I learn as much from their silence as I do from their comments. That’s why I respect them as artists and genuine people. When they talk, I listen, because I know they say what they think, rather than what they think I want to hear. I believe this makes them better artists.
If I’m completely honest with myself, I don’t fit-in to this online photographic love-fest. Neither does Rich. We are both rebels, and we always will be. If that means we are perpetual loners, then so be it, but at least we are true to our convictions. At least we are honest.
Just because the camera often lies, doesn't mean you have to...
Feline Infektious.
For the last year I have spent an inordinate amount of time on Model Mayhem, web-models forums, photosig and the like, chatting and networking with like-minded souls and exploring the vast world of internet modelling and photography.
And this world really IS vast. Model Mayhem for example, has approximately 436,000 members at last count. That’s nearly half a million models, photographers, MUA’s, stylists and wannabe versions of the categories. You don’t need any qualifications to be one of these – enthusiasm and desire are enough. Anyone, even myself, can realise their dream, or delude themselves that they can. Whereas maybe a few hundred of these folks possess the actual capacity for talent and the potential ability to produce fantastic art, the majority are just wannabes like myself, and there’s no way in hell they will ever achieve their dream of ultimate fortune and glory. And yet they kid themselves that they can. They don’t want to hear the truth, they don’t want to hear honesty, they just want to be told that they are fantastic, beautiful, talented, gifted artists. They just wanna be loved.
Although I'm as guilty of this as the next model, I've been re-evaluating my thoughts on the matter.
I am tired of it all. Really, completely bone-tired of this fantasy world, the hypocrisy, the “being in with the in-crowd”, the having to be so bloody NICE, no matter what I really think and feel. If I see a crappy snapshot of a young model, taken on her home instant camera, where she’s just got up in the morning, looks like shit, malnourished, and so ill and starved that frankly she should be in hospital, even though I feel genuine concern for her wellbeing, then nevertheless I still have to say instead, “Darling, you look gorgeous. You’re a babe! How beautiful you are!
These are the unspoken rules of internet modelling. You have to be nice, kind and supportive, no matter what. Sod honesty. It’s not important. You have to be polite at all costs, you have to network in order to be part of the “in-crowd”. Say what they say, dress (or undress) like they do, shoot in the style that they shoot, do lighting as they do lighting. You have to fit in and BELONG. You have to LIE.
But hang on a minute, acting like this makes me what I most despise. It’s no different than me trying to join the alpha-mother/yummy mummy set, no different from Richard trying to fit in at the local camera club and having to praise as “high art”, those awful snapshots by members of the committee which frankly should never have seen the light of day, all in the name of being polite, kind and sucking up to the right people.
Now there’s nothing wrong with being encouraging, or with kindness. Everyone’s art is different after all, and is a matter of subjective opinion. I get this. But there’s a fine line between kindness and sycophancy. And this line is crossed every single day in the online modelling world.
Kind is good. Everyone has been unbelievably kind to me over the last year. They’ve praised my images even when they plainly suck, told me to keep on going with a particular style, when God knows I should never have shot like that in the first place. I’m grateful for their kindness and encouragement, and they are lovely people who are generous by nature and who mean well, but it’s all an illusion, a fantasy. And we are all perpetuating that fantasy. I know some of my images are terrible (I’m learning) but I even get praised for those too.
By all means praise me for my courage to attempt internet modelling when I’m disabled, because that is genuine feeling, but I would far rather people were honest with me, rather than this continual “Love, love, kiss, kiss, you look fabulous” when even I can tell I don’t. Unless you criticise my images openly and constructively, how else am I supposed to learn? Unless you’re honest, how can I become better?
Mercifully the photographers and models who comment on this blog, and are linked from here, are real and honest folks. I learn as much from their silence as I do from their comments. That’s why I respect them as artists and genuine people. When they talk, I listen, because I know they say what they think, rather than what they think I want to hear. I believe this makes them better artists.
If I’m completely honest with myself, I don’t fit-in to this online photographic love-fest. Neither does Rich. We are both rebels, and we always will be. If that means we are perpetual loners, then so be it, but at least we are true to our convictions. At least we are honest.
Just because the camera often lies, doesn't mean you have to...
Feline Infektious.
Labels: Feline Infektious, modelling
posted by Lin at 6:30 PM
4 Comments:
Hip hip horay! Now you're talking my language. Tell it like it is, with your own voice. Good, bad whatever, say what you feel and think. THAT is the mark of the artist that may actually get somewhere. Independence of thought doesn't mean not learning from others, but doing so in a way that honours your own path and vision.
Stick to it my lovely friends and you can't go wrong. You may or may not fit in with others, but you'll create things that make YOU happier. And in striving for what you believe in, be it in general, or specifically in art, you'll find a truth will come out in your photos that'll be that independent style that is genuinely your own.
You cannot be nice to everyone and produce excellence. To step beyond your own limitations, you either have to work in a team where you lead others to grow beyond their own limits, or change who you work with, leaving people behind. Or work alone. If you work with others, the hardest thing of all is to say to someone, "that's crap, let's do it again better". I encounter this every week with my singing group. It is impossible to lead people to do better without constructuive criticism, and incredibly difficult to criticise without upsetting people. Especially if nobody is getting paid.
I think you're doing absolutely the right thing in saying it how it is.
Thank you Grommit! That means a lot!
I couldn't have said it better myself! I am so tiring of the internet modeling game..I would love to find one or two photographers in my area that I can create with on a regular basis, that's all I am in this for anymore I just want to create art as I see it or as a collaboration effort, and share those creations on fine art sites or in galleries or publications, that is my focus now...I have always had a passion for erotic art, here in US that's just seems to be taboo and all of it porn regardless of how artistically done I may think it is..sad really..everything has just seemed to become so commercialized and everything seems to be done for marketing purposes only anymore. Is it all about money and fame? I long for the time when I can look at the image and know I was part of something special, something that is meaningful and I will know that when I see it, this is my motivation....
"It ain't easy being green." -Kermit the Frog.
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