What do you do when a model asks you to remove her nude photos?
You can’t look back and change the past.
What you are about to read is partly born out of recent frustrations, but I hope it also helps someone who comes upon a similar situation.
Q: What do you do when a model asks you (for whatever reason) to remove her nude images from your portfolio?
A: If you have a signed model release, you are not obliged to do anything.
On more than one occasion, maybe 3-4 times now, models have informed me that they were no longer doing nudes or had quit modeling entirely and that they would prefer that I remove any nude images of them from my portfolios. These requests are based on career changes, new relationships, family issues, or sometimes the model simply has a change of heart and realizes that she made a mistake posing nude in the first place.
I am not insensitive to models who want to make changes in their lives. Usually, and especially with amateur or first-time nude models, I am more than happy to come to an agreement on such issues. If I am given a valid reason, one that is convincing and ernest in my view, then I will consider removing the images from public display on my various websites. At the very least, I am happy to remove their credit line, or sometimes I will give them an alias so they cannot be easily identified or come up in search results. Only on the very rare occasion will I remove the images, and I will only do so for models who worked for free and are personal friends, but only when they are not working models. In these cases, they are simply friends who posed for me.
What I will not do is remove images for semi-pro or full-time working models who were paid for their time. In these cases, I have their signed model releases on file. This is exactly why I have those releases. A signed model release is an insurance policy. You are paying the model not only for her time, but also for her guarantee that she is not going to turn around and suddenly decide that her entire nude portfolio should be discarded.
I respect anyone’s right to change their mind, to take a new direction in their life. However, if I pay for a shooting, I want to be sure that the time, money and efforts I invest do not go to waste. This can include prep work, makeup artists, location/studio fees, shooting time, post-processing, meals, transportation costs, etc. These things represent my investment in those images and I expect to be able to use them forever. If a model does not want her name on the images, that is one thing, but to ask me to remove them from my portfolio is quite another, it’s a slap in the face.
For photographer’s, I offer a simple solution. If you are working with a new or amateur model, make the simple suggestion that she use an alias for her nude work. It’s quite a simple way to resolve future problems, provided the model keeps her real identity separate from her nude model identity. Yes, it’s more work for the model to have a nude and non-nude identity, but in the long run, she will thank you for the suggestion. I wish more models would use aliases, but it seems that the trend, at least in my small world, is that more and more often, they tend to use their legal names. Of course, they have to use their legal names on their contracts, but online they can have a separate identity, which also affords them some personal security as well.
However, my best advice to young models, if you are going to do nude modeling, do not do it on a whim, or on a dare or because you need the money to buy some new shoes or makeup. Do it because you want to create great images that you can be proud of when you are older and looking back on your life. Find the best photographers, build a body of work, and have pride in what you do. But if you do nude modeling, you must be aware that you can’t suddenly decide to erase the past. You cannot expect the photographers, makeup artists, etc. — those collaborators who helped you to build your career up — to willingly discard their hard work.
And, quite frankly, in this day of blogs and social media, I could never remove images permanently from the internet. My images are blogged all over the place, in many cases without my knowledge. Once my images are online, they are online forever in one form or another and there is nothing I can do to change that.
One final word, what I have written here is simply my personal opinion. It’s not right or wrong, it is simply my personal perspective. If you have a different opinion, a suggestion, a comment or another question, please use the comments area below to express yourself. I would love to have other inputs, feedback and ideas.
I am planning to write more articles on the topic of working with models, and especially how things work for me as a fine art nude photographer. Please let me know if you have specific questions that you would like me to address.
- Bryon Paul McCartney
Bryon Paul McCartney
Reader Comments (4)
Been there before and like you if they are a friend who model for me for whatever reason if they ask to have the image pulled then fine. Now here is a twist a friend modelled for me , borrow some money ( more than I would have paid for a models service) and has not paid it back after repeated requests. Do I continue to keep her image up until payment is made?
Ok back on the original subject... I have been asked only once to remove an image from my website, not my portfolio. Since it was a TF/CD I told the model I would. Her reason was because her now boyfriend was having a problem knowing her images were up for public viewing all over the place. I tend to laugh at this because is her b/f a photographer? also what are the chances that his friends will be viewing my website or any of the other photographers website. In my case I rarely use the models name.
I told I would and I did, we are still good friends, however she told me that some of the others will not comply and I asked her was she paid for the jobs and she stated "yes" and there was a model release signed. i told her she didn't have much of a case then.
She understood and wish she had not signed, but it was the attraction of making money for something she enjoyed that got her into it. Now her b/f wants to go and bash the photographers that are not complying and I told her plain and simple to tell him that there is an agreement. If he wants them off he needs to offer to pay the photographer his expenses incurred and even possible lost income from removing the image. So you see it's a little more involved than the surface shows.
Example look at what the photographer made from Vanessa Williams scandal in Penthouse Magazine he was able to because he had an agreement which allowed him to sell them to the magazine and of course he "hurt" her career a little but she came out of it on top in the end.
That would have been a tough pill for any photographer to swallow if asked to remove images of a person getting ready to "make it".
I say as long as the model is willing to pay for all expenses, and it is paid in full then they can come down.
Nice pic...!
I arranged a shoot to capture some un-posed natural nude photographs of a pole dancer new to modelling. After seeing them, she decided that they were "far too personal" and asked for them all to be deleted which I very reluctantly did. (They were all in good taste but the un-posed and naturual nature revealed an intimate side of her that she was not willing to have others see).
She never compensated me for the considerable costs of the shoot. I don't believe that I had to delete them but I knew she would be very unhappy knowing that they were around. I believe she was genuine, just naive and I would hate to think that my work made someone so unhappy. As far as I know she now does not offer nudes.
I have so many other photographs that I believe I can afford to not have some displayed.
I was more irritated by an experienced model (who was paid) when she told me that she wanted me to take some photos down because she did not like way she looked in them and that they did not even look like her. My attitude is that I paid her to pose for me to create images that I wanted and I did not need them to look like her as she had not commissioned them. (They were well within the agreed levels, she just did not like them.) However, to keep the peace I was quite happy to take them down as I had so many other good ones, but before I could tell her that, she told me that there was an unwritten law that photographers will take down photos that models don't like. I do not like being bullied by rubbish like that but I still took them down because that was how I prefer to conduct my business. Ironically, she already had a written commitment from me to remove any photographs that she really did not like.
So far I doubt I have lost income by taking photos down but one day it will be interesting to see if I have the same attitude when a model objects to an image I am able to sell. In such a situation I think I will then take them down in return for compensation.
In this country, I doubt that having a model release form is necessary as the copyright belongs to the photographer. Combined with the written evidence of emails showing what was agreed, I doubt a model could force a photographer to take any photo down in this country. I know it is not the same elsewhere.
I don't think you should remove the images because there is nothing wrong with the display of nudity. The person who is in the wrong is whoever is trying to convince the model that there is something wrong with posing nude.