A Thought on Finding Models

Finding models is one of the most challenging parts of my work. At least every few months Hannah and I seem complain about this with one another. We usually blame where we live, since most Cincinnatians seem to subscribe to traditional life structures. Even "progressive" seeming people aren't really all that different from their conservative counterparts here, but I hold that this is true everywhere in the U.S (and many other places I'm sure). Any grounds of separation are largely non-substantive. This is neither good or bad, but an observation.  

Hannah told me that she saw something about how Corwin Prescott (a far more popular nude photographer than me) mentioned a similar point recently. Despite living in Portland, finding models was a hurdle to contend with. If this is the case with such a well known progressive city then the stereotypes regarding progressives and conservatives isn't all that applicable when trying to find people to work with. One's political liberalism is not a good indicator. 

When I ask people I know if they have any friends they think would be interested in modeling, most suggest those that have sexually charged images on their IG feed. The reasoning, it seems, is that these people are obviously confident about displaying themselves. And if that is the case, then surely they would be open to doing it for art, right? 

Though I understand this reasoning, I've found that these individuals can be some of the most offended when I ask. It's possible it's me, but it’s more likely IG is a way for many to maintain security and discretion while looking to break the rules. Something that's advantageous in many ways, but it isn't necessarily insightful regarding perspectives about nudity. (This concept relates a bit to this post where I mention mimicry.) Again, this is neither good or bad, but even supposed obvious signaling within the public aren't necessarily good indicators either. 

Through all these years of creating with nudity I've only been able to see a couple factors that surround someone's willingness to model: one is how the person handles the paradox between security and risk and the other stems from beliefs about nudity. And since these things are multifaceted and complex it makes potential participants hard to spot without the self label of nude model.