PHIL YOUNG Model PHOTOGRPAHY
CHAPERONES
I have seen so many models and photographers discuss endlessly about chaperones. Whether you need one for your safety, whether you don't. I can see both sides of the argument. I'll give my views here, but to cut to the chase, I don't like to work with them. It's not to say I don't understand the need for some models to have one, I just don't like them being around. I have very good reasons for this, as detailed below in this very long page, but it is an important subject, so that's why I cover it.
In this day and age, we all need to be safe and so it is hard to argue there is not a need for a chaperone. I myself was offered a shoot with someone over 80 miles away. I was to meet them at a shoot location near some local woods. By chance, later that night, I was searching for sites to exchange links with and found a German site with pictures of the model I was due to shoot on it. Not only that, they were the same pictures. I was immediately suspicious of this, and so wrote to the web site owner and forwarded the URL of the model concerned. It turned out it was a fake folio. She was still living in Germany and had since given up modeling. So what would have happened had I turned up to the shoot, God only knows. It does illustrate though that the photographer is no less at risk than the model.
HOWEVER.....
It is always worth remembering that modeling is a job. The model being the potential employee, the photographer the potential employer (on paid shoots, but the principle still holds). It is not commonplace for a potential employee to bring a chaperone to any other job interview. I myself have been to interviews in the middle of nowhere, but I tell my wife where I'm going, so should anything happen, the police would have enough info to go on. Most professional models I have worked with, see no need for chaperones. Those that do, I personally choose to not work with.
When I first began photographic shoots, I had no views one way or the other about chaperones. In fact it had never even occurred to me. This is how I would have preferred to be, innocent to the problems chaperones can cause. And again, I acknowledge, not all chaperones are the same.
BEFORE THE SHOOT
Let me start here by saying, before a model is on a shoot with me, before she has even finally agreed the shoot, she will have my name, address, home and mobile numbers, car reg and if needed, a link showing them a picture of me. I encourage them to ask for references through a site such as net model or purple port. If after obtaining all of that, they do not feel safe, there is not a lot more I can do. I go into great detail about what a shoot involves, all the way from location, to levels, to equipment I use and purpose of the shoot. Even after taking these steps, I have encountered the problems with chaperones.
PROBLEMS I HAVE ENCOUNTERED
1 Chaperones trying to make the model laugh, and generally being distracting.
2. The chaperone getting bored because his girlfriend is not paying him (or her) attention.
3. The chaperone arguing with the model, as she hadn't told him what the shoot was in level terms - So he stormed off leaving her stranded with me. Nice guy that I am, I drove her miles back home and then had an equally long journey driving myself back.
4. The model and chaperone chatting endlessly during outfit changes, making what should be a quick 5 minute change last 30-45 mins.
5. The chaperone going through my camera bag behind my back. In one case dropping and breaking a lense.
6. The chaperone going through my dining room drawers, while I was shooting upstairs. Lucky I walk quietly and needed a drink at that point. Shoot ended right there.
7. The chaperone suddenly becoming the model's manager and requesting a change in the agreed fee.
8. I paid the model on arrival, she gave the cash for the chaperone to "look after." He then disappeared down the pub for a couple of hours and came back drunk and started calling me a pervert for wanting to photograph his 22 year old girlfriend (again even though the levels of shoot - in this case nude level - had been agreed well in advance). I don't like drunks pushing me around and trying to intimidate at the best of times, let alone in what was my working day.
9. The model being very uncomfortable with the chaperone watching her pose. She was more concerned with what they thought than what I thought. Soon as he left for a sleep in the car, the model relaxed and performed perfectly, but by that time, half the shoot was wasted. This also often happens when they bring a friend or relative and those people do not always enjoy seeing the model pose topless or nude, again, even though arranged in advance.
SUMMING UP
Now I would be the first to say, not all chaperones are like this. However, I have never yet had a model say she'd be bringing a chaperone and he WOULD be trouble. So I really am sorry, but when chaperones have done all this and ruined shoots for me, it's just better to be safe than sorry. I had the running of the sites, the shoots themselves, I was working in music and film work, and not to mention family time that became a rare commodity, much like rest. So I really couldn't afford shoots to go wrong, I just didn't have the time.
I will meet a chaperone before a shoot if absolutely vital, but the shoot has to be one on one. It is more likely though that I will move on to a model who doesn't require a chaperone. I am okay with two models both working together (shoot one while other changes). This gives the model the protection they need and doesn't waste my time
Sadly, it is only through the actions of bad chaperones, that I have taken the view I have. And I'm more sorry about that than any one.