11/14/2020
Models - food for thought
As an intro, I'm the former President and Vice President of IMP. I'm a professional photographer in Huntsville, Alabama with over 15 years experience and started professionally in Los Angeles. I've noticed a disturbing trend in several communities and groups. Y'all keep volunteering for shoots which is great, but many of you are doing it 'in the blind.' "In the blind" means you aren't doing the basic research on the photographers / promoters offering gigs on this forum. Do your research or you're putting yourself at risk. There's some very basic steps to take before you develop helium hand and offer yourself as tribute.
1. Check their gallery / portfolio. If the photographer / promoter has little or no photos in their gallery or the photos are of radically different qualities, they probably aren't legit. S*x traffickers will create profiles and fill them with stolen pictures. Predators will often have few (if any) photos in their galleries. When they do they are often low quality at best.
2. Check their timeline. Like the gallery, if the timeline in mostly empty or shared posts from others, they probably aren't legit. Most predators and s*x traffickers won't go to the effort of making posts (personal or professional) if they create a profile they may need to abandon on short notice.
3. Check for references or professional links.
4. Check the s*x offender registry in their area and yours.
5. If they're offering a stupid amount of money for a shoot in a smaller community it's probably not legit.
6. If basic spelling and punctuation is off, be suspicious.
I joined another modeling group 2 months ago at the invite of a friend. Since joining it, I've seen several very sketchy requests for models. Two of the OPs are on the S*x Offender Registries in their states. This is a very scary industry to begin with but with basic care and a little research, you can do this. Beware and be careful!
