Student Photographer hoping to study camming

[Maxi]

The art world has been celebrating/exploring/championing sex for thousands and thousands of years.

 

[Lilly_____]

im going ignore the irony of us cammodels putting ourselves out there while you get to hold onto anonymity for now.

i have some good solid advice. if you want to come to cammodel locations, for their safety and yours, i suggest you start being publicly open with who you are when you are ready to do your thesis. i think its pretty ignorant to assume we'd allow some random tankie college student into our homes. background checks are $10. you will have to get model release forms with our private info to prove consent. so you gotta build trust my dude. sex workers targets of violence and it's important that people coming into our spaces are open with who they are.

i also maybe recommend hiring third-party security so everyone is safe.


(ps: the tankie bit was meant to be a light-hearted joke, not a jab. you sound like you read theory for fun. serious good luck. its nice to see a photography student want to take actual photos of us and not screenshots of our streams passing off as their own work. i prefer to shoot with 100 b/w film. good luck with your thesis op)

So much this. If you take your work seriously and want to be taken seriously, it's gonna be hard if you don't build that.

Everything is very interesting in the realm of thoughts. I was once an art student myself. Ideas are everywhere. But to put them in practice, that's your challenge, and your challenge comprises you coming out of the shadows yourself.

Most artists who photographed/ painted sex workers were part of the "night life" and were marginalized themselves. They were portraying a part of themselves as well. Not a third, study-worthy piece. That's what kept it real and visceral. They were out there.

 

[AudriTwo]

Most artists who photographed/ painted sex workers were part of the "night life" and were marginalized themselves. They were portraying a part of themselves as well. Not a third, study-worthy piece. That's what kept it real and visceral. They were out there.

OT but historically relevant: E.J. Bellocq was the 19th-century guy with a camera. He made his living as a landscape photographer for local industries in New Orleans but would photograph of the Storyville prostitutes and opium dens in his free time. No one really knew of his private collection and sadly most was destroyed on discovery after his death. Don't know if it was his request or another party. They are also significant because they historically capture what the women's living/working areas looked like, something that we don't have much documentation of.

EJ was a known dandy bohemian in his early days. (if you have no idea what that is, Christian and the troupe of performers from Moulin Rouge! are most definitely dandy bohemians.) EJ wouldn't be able to take photos of these women if he wasn't involved in the scene. It's speculated that EJ scratched the faces of some women in portraits while the film was wet/developing. Some women wear masks, while some choose to show their face. The dude respected sexworkers privacy/safety and was definitely trusted in the community. He probably had thousands of photos of hundreds of different women.

 

[ph0tographer]

Bellocq's work is super interesting, especially how he would hand anonymize some of the portraits, dodging and scratching on the negative etc. Also, the tankie comment was funny. I really am committed to building trust, I also don't want to go to a random house off of a forum post... I was mainly hoping to start discussing and the posts so far have been really helpful so thank you! There was a project done by a Ukrainian photographer of the cam industry there which I find as an interesting reference for my project. I'm pretty committed to photographing or exploring the surrounding technical aspects of camming, the room decoration, the presentation, the stream set up, lighting, I think, especially after discussing on here, I don't want to take portraits of people, I want to capture the space around them.

As for the note on being on the periphery or involved in sex work as a pre-requisite for making art on the subject is one I don't know how to think about. On one hand I completely agree, I hate exploitative photography, most street photography, and those awful travel photographs of impoverished communities. I don't want to repeat that. I was hoping to find a way to have the work remove myself, and rather be about the operation of the camera, but at the same time, especially in contemporary 'post-doc' photos are very much about the performance behind and in front of the camera.

Lastly about privacy and personal information. In a couple of pms on the subject I have readily shared my personal website. I'm just drawing a line at posting it publicly on the forum. Earlier this decision seemed to be the right thing and did not get the same response.

 

[ph0tographer]

But seriously thank you to everyone for their thoughtful replies and for entertaining me for so long, I really don't want this to feel like I am taking advantage of anyone, I have learned so much already.

 

[MarieElise]

There are some total weirdos who troll this site, who aren’t models. But in fact male “viewers”. I wouldn’t give out my info publically here either. I would also make sure the models you PM with are “verified models” here. A lot of men come here pretending to be models and catfish. Verified models have a purple stripe on their profile and have already been verified.

Anyone else could technically be anyone.

 

[ph0tographer]

There are some total weirdos who troll this site, who aren’t models. But in fact male “viewers”. I wouldn’t give out my info publically here either. I would also make sure the models you PM with are “verified models” here. A lot of men come here pretending to be models and catfish. Verified models have a purple stripe on their profile and have already been verified.

Anyone else could technically be anyone.

Yeah, have been paying attention to profiles and activity as well. I try to be as transparent as possible on here about the project. It is not meant to be something where I am anonymous but rather exploring anonymity as it functions online.

 

[ph0tographer]

I feel there is a lot of information about the project now on this thread. So if anyone is interested–which is seems like no one is–in talking to me further, please send me a pm. I will provide much more information about me and my work as an artist thus far. I'm still super happy with discussing more publicly here as well, just am drawing a hard line on the personal information in the public forum.

 

[Miss_Lollipop]

Just a bit more context. My hope was that by going to the performer, I hoped to get the point of view of the person putting themselves in front of the camera. I think there is a similar performative aspect to much of contemporary photography. I see this as a metaphor for existence in a commercialized and capital-driven world. I see camming as a way of claiming agency over oneself in a way. These are the things I hoped to explore in the project, both photographically, but also through abstracting the images with sculpture.

I feel there is a lot of information about the project now on this thread. So if anyone is interested–which is seems like no one is–in talking to me further, please send me a pm. I will provide much more information about me and my work as an artist thus far. I'm still super happy with discussing more publicly here as well, just am drawing a hard line on the personal information in the public forum.

I think the problem is you’re fairly specific about location.

NYC area and ct have a weird lack of community for adult work.

I’d look for ct and nyc based fetish models - then see which ones cam. Traveling models often also cam but will be more transparent about their locations

 

[Deleted member 72761]

Just a bit more context. My hope was that by going to the performer, I hoped to get the point of view of the person putting themselves in front of the camera. I think there is a similar performative aspect to much of contemporary photography. I see this as a metaphor for existence in a commercialized and capital-driven world. I see camming as a way of claiming agency over oneself in a way. These are the things I hoped to explore in the project, both photographically, but also through abstracting the images with sculpture. I hope that helps.

This isn't your goal, but I think a well-written and well-produced documentary on camming would be a fascinating watch. Proper interviews with models, as the human behind the screen and keyboard, with their interactions and experiences on a daily basis, plus all of the things they do off-screen that the rest of us don't know about. If done professionally and respectfully it should give people a bit more respect for the ups and downs of the cam world.