HI,

I have just returned back from a shoot where seven out of eight models made an accusation of inappropriate sexual misconduct to the police of the country visited.  I wanted to find out before I start a website myself.....are there any forums, sites or places where models are able to voice In detail their bad experiences.

To date I am unsure of exactly what the next steps shall be with this photographer.  I do know that the parents of some of the models involved have every Intention to prosecute as he Is a very well known photographer.  Me personally, I am hoping to contact a tonne of magazines whom he does, has and may have wished to work for to ensure that he never works again in this Industry.

It Is something when all models are aware that this business is renound for sleezy photographers. Personally I believe that unless a photographer has a slight perversion toward women and the female form that their photography that they produce shall be nothing special.  However, this does not by any means whatsoever give a photographer the right to infringe upon a models basic human rights by leading them to believe that unless they go along with whatever is asked or advised of them that they will not succeed as a model!!!

Ladies, please if you ever find yourself In this kind of a situation.....you must keep the faith you have real, strong and true to yourself!!!  You will succeed at no cost to your personal safety or respect...please do not believe that certain demeaning roads have to be gone down to ensure your success in this business!!!

So do such sites exist to log these bastards who give the business a bad name or do I need to get me a web designer to ensure that we all have our voices heard for the good and the bad experiences we endeavour!!!

All The Best and I truly appreciate All Who Take The Time To Give Me Their Feedback on This Issue.....

Love Taylor

Yes.  Better Business Bureau (http://www.bbb.org/) (for US Only).

My advice, at least for the moment, is to hang onto your feelings but let the system do its job.  If you (or others) have reported him to the police, they are properly trained in the way to handle this.  If they prosecute him, the courts will ensure that there are no further problems since the safety of the public is one of the most important things in sentencing.

Becoming a vigilante exposes you to risk since, in most western countries, he is entitled to a trial.  Depending on where this all happened, you might find yourself with legal problems because of your actions.  If he is really being prosecuted, that alone will probably keep him from continuing his behavior while this makes its way through the courts.  If they arrested him, they no doubt put conditions on his release if he got bail.

I know this is not the answer to what you want to hear.  But you have already done the right thing, you involved the police.  Now let the system work.

Good luck to you and I wish you the best.

No, there are none of which I'm aware. There are far too many problems with civil liability in such sites. The best bet is with local police. Police most everyplace in the country are sensitive to and interested in sexual assaults by photographers. Making a formal complaint and then following through with criminal prosecution is your best bet.

Katie Jordan has such a site, and it seems she's trying to do it responsibly.  But it seems not to be used much, and certainly isn't very comprehensive.

This is an idea that gets floated from time to time.  Usually it gets shot down (for good reason) before it ever gets started.  There is history to back that up, and you can even observe some of it here on the forums now.

Inevitably such a site becomes one-sided.  Certainly there are instances of photographers who are predators or bad people in one form or another.  I have no doubt that the case you refer to is one such.  But just as certainly there are some models who are disposed to see things through their own peculiar viewpoint on the world, or their boyfriend's, and who report all manner of misbehavior which, when the facts are all known, turns out to be very different in nature from what they reported.  There was even one very infamous case of a model who made up an "enemies list" of people she didn't like, sometimes even for entirely spurious reasons, created the kind of site you are referring to, and used it to defame and persecute some very good people.  That got way out of hand.  Mercifully, she doesn't run that site or have her organization anymore, and she doesn't make forum posts all that often.

And that's the problem with what you propose.  It will always contain unverified information, and all too often the information isn't accurate, or even come from a very nasty personal agenda of a model.

It's worse.  While there are real problems with photographers on and off the net, there is an urban mythology about them that causes all manner of over-reaction, paranoia and unreasoning "safety" concerns that cause rifts between well-meaning models and photographers when none is necessary.  Sites like you propose whip up that paranoia by making such incidents seem much more prevalent than they really are.  Could it help someone?  Yes.  But the cost of that help, to both defamed photographers and to the larger community, is far from trivial.

We have a legal system for a reason. 

Those other models did the right thing by going to the police.  The internet makes it easy to sidestep that and post well-intentioned warnings about people.  As mentioned the ways of preventing malicious lies are few.

That's why lawyers get paid good money.  That's why the police are there.  They are professionals.  Allow them to do their jobs.  If there are 7 or 8 witnesses what this guy has done, blacklisting him might be unnecessary...

I'd do 2 things.

First list his name, info and what he did at www.theibl.com then kick his ass

Eye yai-yai ..... there are psychos everywhere around us

There is also www.Photoblacklist.com which is a venue for photo assistants in particular (but I cant see why models couldn’t post..) to anonymously post bad interactions, non-payment, etc about specific photographers.  One should view it with skepticism though as to my knowledge entries are not fact checked.

Hi Taylor,

A friend of mine and I were going to start a site like this at one time. There are legalities involved though. You don't want to get sued for slander and that can definitely happen if you aren't careful. Especially if the photographer has never been convicted of a crime. So, be careful and research how you will build your site to keep yourself clean from any type of law suit by the photographer that you post on your site. It's a tricky road.

Zoe

Thank you all so much for just the wealth of feedback that you have posted.  I appreciate that unfortunately much as there are unsavory photographers out there that an unhappy premadonna with a bee in her bonnet, is as beneficial to a good photographer as a chocolate teapot!!

I am researching the legal side, as to be honest with you I have no inclination to waste my time for a tonne of spoilt brats to exercise their pathetic school playground routines on my time and money of a site.

I had no intention of allowing people to post anything either annonymously or unless the incident were a reported incident by law. Therefore, ensuring that anyone posting a post, would merely be doing so to inform others of a formal complaint or accusation that had actually been filed against a photographer.  Their name would be attached to It and they would at all times be made aware that they were accepting full liability for every letter of every post they share with the public.

Hopefully this will deter any childish timewaster and If It doesn't then I'd sue them myself for violating the terms of the forum and slander.

It Is In cases like this that If you get to understand the occurance, then In all honesty I would like to believe that nobody would really have the balls to falsely  accuse a photographer publically, when their name Is accessible for all to view.  If someone did then they have just written off any prospects that they may oncehave had of a career.