3. Communication

You will have to use your real name when signing modeling contracts. Always use your own contracts and have the photographers sign them! Don’t leave without an original copy with the photographer’s signature on the document. Using your legal name here is a must, so include a clause in your contract that states that the photographer will only use stage names and not your real name in association with your photos. More on contracts later.

Once a photographer has contacted you, make sure to run a background check on them. Namely, look at their OMP profile. Is their work something you want to associate with? How many different models do they have photos of? Look at their “Acknowledgements” section of their OMP to see if their models coincide with the acknowledgements. If so, that’s a good sign. If the photographer isn’t someone whose reputation you are familiar with through friends, scene, or whatever, then make sure to get three references from them. Your best bet is to choose three models off their acknowledgements. Use OMP to e-mail the models, saying you’re interested in working with so-and-so, who the model has linked to, and you would like to know what the model’s experience with the photographer was. A lot of models have started marking their acknowledgements as “Worked With” as anyone can leave an acknowledgement complimenting the photographer’s work. Note: there is no way to leave a public negative comment, so while some models mark “Worked With” in terms of “I worked them, they suck, and I won’t compliment them,” some only mark it to differentiate from random commentary – that’s why actually contacting the models is important! Some models have also started including an actual list of the photographers they have worked with in their profiles, and then putting next to the photographer’s name **** to indicate a bad experience (it says to e-mail the model for details) or *** to indicate that after however many months that photographer still has not fulfilled their part of the TFP agreement by delivering the photos. I try not to rely on references that come by the way of “contact this model, she’ll tell you about me” if I don’t know the model(s) because it’s so easy for photographers to only recommend the models they had good experiences with. Since I can’t bring someone with me, I always tell Will the arrangements in advance and leave a note with the photographer’s real name, the address of where the shoot will be, how long the shoot is meant to last for, and the photographer’s e-mail address/OMP number and web site. I also call him or the home answering machine IN FRONT OF THE PHOTOGRAPHER (and if it’s the answering machine, I act like it is him) to check in when I arrive and right as I am leaving. Maybe a bit overcautious, but it’s an old sex worker’s safety trick, and it’s kept me safe during work and one-night stands alike (um, not with Will as my check-in, obviously), so I swear by it.

I have a little form that I send to photographers to try and make the intro process run faster so that I don’t waste an hour responding to e-mails only to realize they want something I cannot or will not give. Most photographers rarely actually fill it out – I wish they would, but what can you do? I get frustrated with the many one sentence replies to eight questions, and in all honesty, I tend to brush those people off as their lack of detail not only bugs me but makes me feel as though they are not approaching me seriously and professionally – it may be porn, but it’s still meant to be professional, whether it is amateur or not!). This is the form:

When contacting me, please include the following to ensure a faster response: Your full name and name of production company if applicable; Date, time, length, and location of proposed project; Description of assignment, including whether a stylist and make up artist will be provided; Your desired purpose for the photos; Web site with samples of your work in the style in which you desire to work with me; References from other OMP or genre established models; Your desired compensation for the project.

Comments are closed.

"The Drag of Gimp"

Since 1996, my life has been a long journey of visiting one doctor after another. I look more or less fine, but I'm not. My daily pill count is like playing the dozens with a hospice patient. One doctor will say I'm doomed, and send me to another for treatment, but the treating doctor will find nothing within his or her area of practice that can be treated.

My life is better than a comedy, better than a drama. Anyone who has done this knows what I mean when I say that you have to not only know the rules, but also play the part in order to be allowed in the game. Most people find what we go through in the medical merry-go-round to be unbelievable, which is why I call it "The Drag of Gimp."


About the author

Cassandra Disque

Extemporaneous flibbertigibbet with bone lumps growing out of my coccyx. I was born in 1981. I was another case of "too much, too young," or at least I wanted to be. Now I'm leaning toward "too little, too late," as my body conks out on me, and I find I haven't done hardly any of the things I wanted. This is supposed to happen to people twice my age, so you might find my perspective on life to be a little unusual -- as in, I find just about everything to be hysterically funny, because there's little use in worrying when it's all going to go kaput.