Feminism Without Clothes

I’m always surprised to learn that other nude models are married and/or have children.  I’m not sure why this is; a lot of people are married, and a lot of people have kids.  Why not nude models?

I think that there are two reasons for my surprise.  The first is that those things are very much not a part of my life, and when I meet someone, either online or off, who does what I do, I unknowingly assume that their lives mirror mine in other ways, too.

The second reason is that, on some level, I’m like a good deal of the rest of the population- I associate nudity with sex.  How could someone so sexual as to take off their clothes on a regular basis for the camera be tied down by marriage and offspring?

Of course, this line of thinking is pure idiocy on my part- for goodness’ sake, I’m a nude model myself.  I know it’s not about uninhibited sexuality that could never be reigned down by a wedding ring; it’s sometimes about having fun, it’s sometimes about making money, and it’s sometimes about both.

It’s amazing to discover that sometimes incorrect stereotypes and assumptions are so deeply rooted in society that even the people they are about believe them.

 

 

Melvin Moten, February 2007.   

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I’m moving to Seattle in several days; I’ll be storing some of my stuff in my childhood bedroom to be shipped at a later date.

One day, when I retire from nude modeling, I’ll write about the ins-and-outs of my relationship with my parents in detail.  Until then, I leave you with this picture.

 

 

  

 

 

Martini, October 2006.   

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The most graphic photos ever taken of me would have to be those taken by D. Brian Nelson.  When Don emailed me the first of the photos he had taken, I immediately gave him permission to use all of them however he liked.

I also emailed them to my boyfriend so I could share the wonderful pictures that had just been taken of me, as is my usual habit.

When I did so, I felt a twinge of panic; of course, he knew what was going to be in the photos, but they’d always been purely hypothetical.  Now that they were reality, would he be uncomfortable or angry about them?

When we talked later online, I asked him flat out about the photos- was he angry or upset with me about these photos?

He replied, “How could I ever be mad about pictures of the woman I love?”

Good answer.

 

D. Brian Nelson, January 2007. 

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So, I’m moving to Seattle in less than two weeks.  I’ve been faced with the following dilema: what and how much does one tell one’s potential roommate regarding what they do for a living?

After not much luck with the apartment/roommate search, I went on craig’s list a couple of weeks ago and posted the following, mostly as a joke:

Okay, I tried the normal ad. Now’s the honest one.I’m moving to Seattle. I need a place to stay April 2nd til the 1st of May. Why pick me?

Because you will never, ever have the chance to live with a professional nude/fetish model ever again. I have lots of great stories about the people who photograph me when I’m naked and/or tied up. You can tell all your friends that a nude model is renting out one of your rooms.

I don’t walk around naked. I’m not going to sleep with you. I’m easy-going, a night owl, and a bit of a homebody. Basically, a normal, average person who happens to be a nude model.

And that’s why, out of all the other normal, average people who are looking for a place to stay for a month, you should rent a room out to me.

The resulting emails: priceless.

I didn’t find a place to live, though.

Melvin Moten, Febuary 2007.      

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There is a scam in the Richmond, Virginia area involving a photographer who currently goes by “Fokus-Foto;” his real name is Jim.  He either books a gig with you and no-shows, or shoots you and then scrams without paying you.  The Richmond police are well aware of his actions- and who he is- but haven’t done anything about it.  He still does this to models.

He’s done this to a lot- and I mean a lot- of models.  So, how does he keep getting away with it?

There’s an amount of shame involved in admitting to someone that you’re a nude model who gets most of her work online to authorities; you think that people will judge you.  You worry that they’ll think you’re both stupid and a whore for being willing to do things like that on camera.

And, these fears are not entirely unfounded.  If the context was different, I’m guessing that the response would have been different from the police.  But, since it is nude/erotic models that are getting scammed, it puts things in a different and less than flattering light in some people’s eyes.

After all, you’re just a girl who took her clothes off for a stranger for money, right?

 

 

 

Mickle Design Werks, February 2007.    

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Last summer, when I first went full-time art modeling, I had a photographer in the Richmond, Virginia area- “Fokus-Foto”- stand me up without a word; it caused me to lose what on my budget is a good deal of money.

When he no-showed on me, I wrote an entry here about it. A couple of months later, I got an email from a girl who had shot with him- he left without giving her any money. When she went down to the police station to report it, they knew of him. Basically, he’s a scam- he either stands you up or takes photos of you and then doesn’t pay you.

He goes through different venues to find models and do this to them; when I noticed that a model on myspace was scheduled to shoot with him, I wrote her to warn her.  She never wrote me back.

That was, until yesterday, when he did the same thing to her.  She also lost money- twice the amount that I did, and it appears that she’s on a budget similar to my own.

When it happened to me, I was pissed.  I posted his phone number and email in this blog.  Later, I felt bad- like I had sunk down to his level, and that I should just get on with things and be the better person.  I removed the personal information about him I had revealed.  At the time, however, I did not know the extent of this scam.

This blog is fairly popular; it’s big enough to be found if you google certain phrases or words.  Now it can be found by the phrase Fokus-Foto.

The photographer’s name is Jim, and he goes by “Fokus-Foto,” among other names.  Models, if you are contacted by him, do not shoot with him.  He’s located near Richmond, Virginia.

He’s good.  He knows the names of the local models and is familiar with various photographers.  He might mention a place where is work is shown, or something else that makes him seem legitimate.  He will be in contact with you by phone and email right up until the very second he no-shows on you; if he shows and takes your photos, he will appear to be the real deal.  But he’ll scram without giving you any money.

If you are contacted by someone who might be this guy, ask for him to put down a deposit or pay for your train ticket and/or hotel room ahead of time.  Ask for the phone numbers, not just emails, of references.

There’s nothing I can really do about it; the money I spent last summer is gone.  I just don’t want it to happen to another person.

 

 

 

David Le Beck, January 2007.    

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Welcome to the fourth in a series of posts highlighting the wonderful photographers I’ve had the pleasure of working with in my career thus far.

Spotlight: D. Brian Nelson

One of the first things Don did when he finally got me alone in a motel room in Los Angeles was point to a bed and gruffly say, “Start playing with yourself.”  I did, and he took pictures.  He was kind enough to buy me dinner, too.

Don is famous for, among other things, taking photos of women masturbating in hotel rooms. He later posts them in his aptly named “Hotel Room Nudes” blog.

He was supposed to be the second photographer I shot with, but fate (and a canceled trip to DC) prevented it from being so.  We kept track of each other through our blogs; when I made the decision to go to LA for a week in January, I emailed the San Diego-based photographer with the subject line “LA is almost San Diego…”

So, a year later than previously planned, we met and shot together.  I felt a little intimidated- here was a big photographer who’s read every entry in my blog, and he’s going to take the most explicit pictures of me ever taken before.  Several people told me, “I can’t wait to see what the two of you come up with!”

I’ll let you be the judge. 

Thanks, Don.

 

 

 

 

January 2007, D. Brian Nelson.     

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Welcome to the third in a series of posts highlighting the wonderful photographers I’ve had the pleasure of working with in my career thus far.

Spotlight: Allen Martin, aka Martini.

I’ve worked with New York-based photographer Allen Martin twice, and both times the results have been extraordinary.

We first shot together on my very first overnight trip to NYC; I did not plan to work with him.  The Saturday of my trip that I was shooting with another photographer- and another model named Isobel Wren.  Isobel and I had never met before, but hit it off.  She was running behind that day- she had a TFP/CD shoot later that evening that she was already late for.  She asked if I’d like to come along. 

Get naked for free for a photographer who’s name I didn’t recall or whose work I couldn’t picture at the time?  Although it doesn’t sound so great now, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

So, not one but two models eventually found there way to the doorstep of Marty’s apartment.

“Isobel felt so bad about being late that she brought me along to make up for it,” I explained.

Eventually, Isobel had to leave to catch a bus; Marty and I continued to shoot.  We would eventually shoot for a second time on my next visit.

Much of his shooting is done in a bathroom-less water damaged room in the basement of his building.  It doesn’t look like much when you get there, but it photographs spectacularly.  He’d explain to me that he liked shooting ball gowns and such against it because of the dramatic contrast.

Marty was kind enough to send me some “G”-rated shots of myself (I had been complaining about how I needed some for my portfolio).  I sent one of them to my mom- when I asked her about it, she remarked that she loved it; in fact, she googled the photographer’s name, and his work was amazing!

I’d later tell him, “my mom likes your work.”

 

 

 

Martini, December 2006.    

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