On Why I Make A Terrible Model
My humblest apologies if I upset anyone with this post, but this has been eating at me for months now and it just had to come out. Think of it as me taking a large sink plunger to my seriously blocked pipes. Cleans out the crap so they flow properly again.
As an art model, when I pose for a shot, I am often required to act. I put on a mask, I put aside my own reality and slip into role. I am trying, to the best of my ability, to interpret the photographer’s instructions, to bring alive his creative vision at that particular moment in time. I think most art models would agree with me that it is this collaboration between artist and muse which produces a great picture.
However, more often than not, when such acting is required, the emotions depicted in the story are not real, they are contrived. The model has to put her own personality aside to wear a mask, and temporarily trade her own reality for a role. It is not who she actually is in real life. It is a fantasy.
Now please don’t get me wrong, I think that this process can produce some absolutely fabulous images, and it can sure be immense fun to create, but this topic has been slowly fermenting in my mind for the last couple of months, and the trouble is that I just don’t enjoy it any more. The question for me personally, is why?
The short answer is that I’m almost certainly not very good at this modeling/acting combination (I’m not fishing for compliments, I’m just being honest here.) That’s not a result of lack of practice because anyone can become excellent at something if they love doing it and they try hard enough, even me. I wondered if it’s because I just can’t be bothered, but no, that’s not me either. I’m actually quite dedicated to trying my hardest for a shoot when required. But after much rumination, I’ve realised that this is my (hopefully temporary) reaction against producing fantasies. I just don’t like acting for a photograph. It’s that simple. I don’t like wearing a mask, no not even for the higher purpose of realising a photographer’s vision.
If I’m trading in my own reality in order to play a role, then to paraphrase Jim Morrison, I’m trading in my own senses for an act. I’m putting aside myself to be what someone else (the photographer) wants me to be. And although subjugating my own freedom for another person’s reality for a few hours is no big deal for most models (after all, what’s a few hours of your life to create art?), I personally just don’t like doing it any more. Why? Maybe it’s the latent feminist in me, or maybe I’m just a conceited and cantankerous old cow who doesn’t like being bossed around. But I think that the real reason is that because I’ve been exposed over the last few years to many different photographic styles, this process of study has actually produced some sort of personal psychological evolution about of how art should be created.
I’ve realised that I’m happy to be photographed as I am, for a photographer to capture my character, bring out my beauty or my flaws - either will do as long as the emotions reflected are real. I don’t even mind shooting erotica (it’s rather fun, as you can imagine!) just as long as the feelings generated in me are genuine. I just don’t want to pretend any more. I’m tired of putting on a mask, of doing as I’m told and faking emotion for the sake of supposed “art.” Yes it really matters to me if the photograph is produced from real emotion rather than faked. You, the viewer, might not know or care, but I helped create the image, and I really DO care.
The reason I choose to model for a particular photographer is because I believe that he can teach me something new about my psyche which I had not previously realised. I do this because I want to learn more. I’m not a posable Barbie doll. I’m a real woman with a mind of my own and if a photographer is only interested in what is in his own head, and just needs a slab of meat or someone to stroke his ego, then for me that is unacceptable and I’m not interested in shooting with him.
I guess I am making some sort of personal judgment here, because IMO some of the photographs which are quite obviously derived from contrived emotions are (to me) just fake drama. They might well be telling a story, and very successfully too, but such “art” has no more truth than the faked orgasm of a porn star.
And that, to me, is not what photography is about.
Mushy images are of Syd and A.J. Real emotion guaranteed.
(It's also worth pointing out that Rich disagrees with most of this waffle. He reckons it's a phase and that I'll get over it soon!)
As an art model, when I pose for a shot, I am often required to act. I put on a mask, I put aside my own reality and slip into role. I am trying, to the best of my ability, to interpret the photographer’s instructions, to bring alive his creative vision at that particular moment in time. I think most art models would agree with me that it is this collaboration between artist and muse which produces a great picture.
However, more often than not, when such acting is required, the emotions depicted in the story are not real, they are contrived. The model has to put her own personality aside to wear a mask, and temporarily trade her own reality for a role. It is not who she actually is in real life. It is a fantasy.
Now please don’t get me wrong, I think that this process can produce some absolutely fabulous images, and it can sure be immense fun to create, but this topic has been slowly fermenting in my mind for the last couple of months, and the trouble is that I just don’t enjoy it any more. The question for me personally, is why?
The short answer is that I’m almost certainly not very good at this modeling/acting combination (I’m not fishing for compliments, I’m just being honest here.) That’s not a result of lack of practice because anyone can become excellent at something if they love doing it and they try hard enough, even me. I wondered if it’s because I just can’t be bothered, but no, that’s not me either. I’m actually quite dedicated to trying my hardest for a shoot when required. But after much rumination, I’ve realised that this is my (hopefully temporary) reaction against producing fantasies. I just don’t like acting for a photograph. It’s that simple. I don’t like wearing a mask, no not even for the higher purpose of realising a photographer’s vision.
If I’m trading in my own reality in order to play a role, then to paraphrase Jim Morrison, I’m trading in my own senses for an act. I’m putting aside myself to be what someone else (the photographer) wants me to be. And although subjugating my own freedom for another person’s reality for a few hours is no big deal for most models (after all, what’s a few hours of your life to create art?), I personally just don’t like doing it any more. Why? Maybe it’s the latent feminist in me, or maybe I’m just a conceited and cantankerous old cow who doesn’t like being bossed around. But I think that the real reason is that because I’ve been exposed over the last few years to many different photographic styles, this process of study has actually produced some sort of personal psychological evolution about of how art should be created.
I’ve realised that I’m happy to be photographed as I am, for a photographer to capture my character, bring out my beauty or my flaws - either will do as long as the emotions reflected are real. I don’t even mind shooting erotica (it’s rather fun, as you can imagine!) just as long as the feelings generated in me are genuine. I just don’t want to pretend any more. I’m tired of putting on a mask, of doing as I’m told and faking emotion for the sake of supposed “art.” Yes it really matters to me if the photograph is produced from real emotion rather than faked. You, the viewer, might not know or care, but I helped create the image, and I really DO care.
The reason I choose to model for a particular photographer is because I believe that he can teach me something new about my psyche which I had not previously realised. I do this because I want to learn more. I’m not a posable Barbie doll. I’m a real woman with a mind of my own and if a photographer is only interested in what is in his own head, and just needs a slab of meat or someone to stroke his ego, then for me that is unacceptable and I’m not interested in shooting with him.
I guess I am making some sort of personal judgment here, because IMO some of the photographs which are quite obviously derived from contrived emotions are (to me) just fake drama. They might well be telling a story, and very successfully too, but such “art” has no more truth than the faked orgasm of a porn star.
And that, to me, is not what photography is about.
Mushy images are of Syd and A.J. Real emotion guaranteed.
(It's also worth pointing out that Rich disagrees with most of this waffle. He reckons it's a phase and that I'll get over it soon!)
posted by Lin at 8:52 AM
1 Comments:
"The development of science and of the creative activities of the spirit in general requires still another kind of freedom, which may be characterized as inward freedom. It is this freedom of spirit which consists in the independence of thought from the restrictions of authoritarian and social prejudices as well as from unphilosophical routinizing and habit in general. This inward freedom is an infrequent gift of nature and a worthy objective for the individual."
Albert Einstein
Take your gift and be free.
D.L. Wood
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