Super Dimension Foto wrote:
It's very common.
My biggest complaint is that many of them can get away with just posting low quality selfies.

Their "work"  looks like fit in some niches where obviously people are willing to pay for.

Nat has a username wrote:
Why do you think "girl next door" is such a popular concept.

It's been always the best concept after the sliced bread.

Nat has a username wrote:

I think you have me confused with Iona Lynn

I'm an art model so I don't need an updated portfolio, just recent snapshots and references from the right people. The most recent pictures in my portfolio demonstrate exactly what I need to book work.

If I were a commercial model and needed to have my portfolio updates regularly? It would make sense to hire the right photographer who delivered exactly what I needed in order to book more jobs if I couldn't find a photographer who could provide what I need for trade.

I think if a model is able to sell photos provided by photographers she should pay the photographers.   If I plan to sell stock images of a model, display in a gallery or have clients then I should pay my models.   Trade or TF should in my view stricky be for portfolio use.   One model in the linked article said she makes $500.00 per month and is a former Sucide Girl.   My guess is she receives photos from photographers for trade or is paid by them.   That's okay but to benefit further is crap.   However photographers here see nothing worng with giving their work away since it has no value yet it really does.   

Thanks for mentioning me though.

Yani S wrote:

It does have to make sense to me. Because if I want to help friends make commerce or myself. Its good to know all the ins&outs. Just to go in blindly could be a waste of money and time!
If this works on a consent bases or above average. It be worth knowing about and doing oneself too!
So if they are not paying for nude photos. Can models not post nudes of themselves and generate the same kind of income. If they are will to make the connection?

It's not about art and it's not really that much about nudes either.  Obviously, if someone want to look at art or just nude selfies, the internet has an ocean full for free. 

The whole Patreon thing is about the freaky sugar daddy fetish that some guys have and of course the women who are lining up to cash in while it lasts.  The guys probably think that they are having some kind of personal relationship with the Patreon user (or whatever).  The women probably send these guys personal messages calling them "hun' or "sweety" punctuated with smoochy emojis and a lot of the guys might start thinking of them as their online girlfriend.  The selfies and especially the nude selfies, feel much more personal than posed photos.  Like they were taken just for them. 

This might be a trend on MM.  Like MM is a sugar daddy site or something.  I'm seeing more Patreon links in profiles.  The last two emails I got from traveling models had prominent Patreon links.  It will saturate soon.  Have fun while it lasts.

MoRina wrote:
Men have been selling images of nude women for centuries.  They are called artists and photographers, both amateur and professional.

Women who market their own images are characterized as thieves, attention seekers, gold diggers and whores.

Think about that. Something doesn't add up.

Exactly...

Besides, photographers wondering if models will compensate them for using images on patreon, as Liv already pointed out all things considered it isn't that much money. Photographers can always start their own, or decline to give permission for use on patreon, or negotiate terms for each individual shoot.

Maintaining a patreon takes a lot of work.

Koryn wrote:
I am starting a Patreon in the fall, under a different name, for self-portraiture work. Since I have been photographing myself and posting that around social media, I have begun booking good paying gigs again as a model. That is coming after a gradual, four year decline in the number of shoots I got offered - even steep drop offs in inquiries. Sites that do not require listing age make a big difference for us older models, or that allow us to have TOTAL control over images and how they're shown (example: needing to censor an image for use. When you shoot it yourself, you can censor it for whatever media you need to, rather than spending weeks chasing down the photographer who shot it, then trying to get permission to put censor bars over nipples).

I am the same weight I was when I was 17 years old, except now I have a six pack stomach in my 30s, and the income that allows me to now get professional skincare treatment, manicures and self-maintenance I was not able to afford even just a few years ago. I am still a valuable and useful model, but being able to now create self-promotional images myself - rather than relying on (highly unreliable)TFP agreements with amateurs from MM, or paying photographers who provide inconsistent and often disappointing results after the fact - is likely to be a game changer for me, after a couple years of feeling directionless and disconnected. Modeling life seemed almost like another lifetime ago for me, even though my last tour was less than two years ago and I have since felt a bit lost creatively, without that focus in my life.

I'll never be a full-time model again, as I now have a busy, demanding career outside modeling (as a personal trainer) - but the desire to create and share creatively with others is something that will probably be with me for the rest of my life. Sites like Patreon seem to allow models to do that, and do it on their own terms where, in the past, we had little control and were heavily reliant upon photographers from the internet. Some of those people were wonderful, dependable colleagues, with rapid turnover in workflow, etc. Many, many were not.

I have always been a business-minded person. I have always been able to turn what I loved into a business. I have been able to earn income as a model, as a writer, as a trainer... Models get a lot of crap from people over stuff like this, but the fact is, many of us are simply businesswomen at heart. We are good at seeing opportunities, loving the work and bringing it fully to life with our own passion and dedication. Some people are threatened by this, especially when it's done by women - others are not.