Professionalism, other Redundancies, and the New Meaning of Life…

We are told by those who study such things, that the meanings of words, and interpretations of concepts drift and change over time, and our language becomes richer for it.

The realm of photography is no exception becoming richer as it evolves and adapts.

Calm down dirty old men! According to the New world order this IS NOT a photograph containing Implied Nudity! Why?

• The model was in fact fully clothed
• It is not a full figure nude picture digitally manipulated to eliminate the clothing, or even to create and enhance the girl’s  “naughty bits” by retouching.

Remember for example when that otherwise indefinable term coined and used almost exclusively by the amateur fraternity  “implied nudity” meant an ambiguously clever camera technique where a photograph of a fully and discretely clothed woman left the viewer wondering wether she was nude or not?

( Camera technique? Wow..ya can do that in the camera? Lot easier after in Photoshop!)

Now though, as I was emphatically told recently by a “widely respected professional” – well he did have a small but efficiently tamed gang of facebook likers to back him up – that he worked to the “accurate and only definition” (?) that implied nude means full figure nudity achieved by removing nipple covers and  g string from a model by digital retouching…

It seems therefore that the model does not need to be payed at the nude rate, because she is not nude in the original photo…just g string and falsies (???)

Woops forgot: Pay a model !!! Who is stupid enough to pay a model??? tfp rules right!

Well obviously “accurate definition” wins out over subtlety and art every time in the vast, murky depths that is creative internet photography!

…

But there are three words used on a daily basis which have drifted in meaning so far from their original concept to warrant a review of the “accurate” (?) dictionary definition

NB: If the New World Meaning of Life has not reached your particular neck of the woods, it soon will…it is certainly firmly established in my region.

and more importantly New Meaning of Life definitions do not in any way apply to legitimate, or real world photography.

Definition:

Professionalism:- this is the divine right of those with a modicum of ability, a lack of talent, a tenuous control of their gang of disciples, but a thorough mastery of schoolboy bullying techniques to denigrate, discredit and vilify anyone outside of his immediate gang, who disagrees with his beliefs, or threatens in even the smallest way  to expose the fraudulence of his self proclaimed importance , or the pathetic and derivative quality of his “work”

Those with “opinions”( see below) are the obvious natural targets of the “professional”

Definition:

Opinion:- A belief or knowledge of traditional techniques, concepts, ideas and ideals, well proven theories; real knowledge especially when gained from  long experience, education, and the ability and willingness to advance learning and skills through reading and research ( as opposed to knowledge gleaned from your mates, and  religious worship of “internet experts” on forums and YouTube.); reliance on actual proven facts and the immutable science of light and photography

Definition:

Hater:- anyone who adheres to, holds, believes in or makes the mistake of publically expressing opinion (see above)

anyone who has deliberately opened a camera instruction manual, and …god forbid!…gone to the extreme of actually reading a photography book, irredeemably brands you as a latent hater.

 

Additional Notes:

Legitimate or “real world” Photography: a phenomenon which it seems is merely an out-dated figment of the imagination and, if it ever really existed, is an historical insignificance when compared with “where true art and creativity is really happening” Nevertheless it’s influence was long ago and long forgotten, having occurred in the real “old days”, of …well…wow…five years or more ago.

Professionalism: has absolutely nothing to do with earning a living from your creativity ,or that “dirty” word used by those who have sold out;  money. True professionals not only exude a fuzzy good guy feeling about their “ethical treatment of others and their approach to life in general”, but also far too much “artistic integrity” to have ever earned a cent, or the likelihood of ever doing so: that would not only sully their ”work” drastically reducing their  natural to bully, intimidate, exploit and be fully exploited by their “collaborators”

 

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Interesting Links:
My Photography Webpage
Facebook page for Professional Photographers and Models
The Definite Article Photography and Video on Facebook
My Pond 5 Page
The Definite Article at Publicise Me

MODELS BEWARE!

If you can stop laughing that is...

  An experienced model can work confidently with any photographer, secure in her knowledge of the model release

Remember, that all photographs accompanying this blog are Copyright (All Rights Reserved) and may not be used for any purpose whatsoever without written permission from the photographer. 

Was shown a  ¨Model  Release¨ yesterday presented to a model acquaintance for signing by a ¨photographer¨ I didn´t know very much about.

Being experienced the model took one look, laughed and walked away from the shoot, but the document is indicative of much of the nonsensical paperwork floating around shoots in recent years.

Obviously cobbled together from ¨stuff¨¨garnered from interent forums and their resident experts, knowledgeable mates , and a bit of home spun ¨fairness¨  thrown in for good measure, the release consisted of  4 to 5 pages ( yes! really!) of psuedo legalistic terms and phrases , paragraphs compeletely contradicting the one before it, and  a liberal sprinkling of demands, obligations and ¨rights¨ for everyone involved.

I stopped reading when I reached a large section ( almost a full page) devoted entirely to the make up artist (?)...therefore I don´t know whether the studio cleaner, or the tea lady featured in the remaining two and half pages.

Part release, part contract, part ¨agreement to shoot¨ ( who uses those anymore? ), part control-freak egotism, and part utter nonsense, the whole document became all of them and none of them simultaneously, couched in meaningless gobbledegook.

However after interpreting the confusing and almost illiterate language of the very first statement, the penny dropped:

Basically it translated as  ¨This Release covers photographs taken for NON COMMERCIAL purposes ONLY¨

Are releases like these the result of complete ignorance, plain stupidity, or the overwhelming desire of people masquerading as photographers to appear as if they know what they are doing?

As the sole reason behind needing a ¨Model release¨ is to permit images to be used for Commercial purposes, why even attempt to bamboozle models, especially those with little or no experience, with such time wasting, energy sapping and delusional rubbish?

But then again it could be just an aversion to proper research by the photogapher into the accepted workings of his chosen profession.

In that case just how much does this aversion to knowledge about the necessary paperwork vital to their profession correlate with their knowledge and skill, in relation to techniques, creativity and marketting of their actual photography?

So Models, please dont encourage them.

Instead, check out what a  standard, and acceptable model release looks like, and what it needs to contain, and when and why it is necessry to sign one.

And if the one you are presented by certain photographers, varies too much from the norm, have an experienced  professional photographer check it out for you.

There is probably no need to go to the expense of a solicitor looking it over, because the concept of a model release is so simple that legal advice should not be necessary.


Then you too can confidently enjoy the thrill of laughing and walking away, when you need to.




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