Stephanie MacDonald isn’t afraid to get naked.
When not in class, the undeclared junior runs her own business as a freelance model booking her own shoots, which sometimes involve nude modeling.
In MacDonald’s opinion, freelance modeling is completely different from what you see on shows like Americas Next Top Model. You have to book your own shoots and learn how to distinguish the reputable photographers from the creeps.
MacDonald knows that some people have issues with what she does. “They are very, very vocal at times and say some ridiculous things – but the positive feedback and support I get outshines the negative comments to an incredible degree.”
Regardless of what others might think, at 20 years-old, MacDonald is doing something she enjoys. “I pay bills, I do homework, miss my family, go the movies, eat pizza, get pimples – the list goes on. For being a full time model my life is incredibly non-glamorous,” she said.
MacDonald uses the www.modelmayhem.com, a networking site for models to check references on photographers before replying to a job listing. “If you are sending out messages to models, and you aren’t getting responses, what is the common factor? You, and the message you send,” she wrote in her blog.
She said she wont reply to just any message that she gets online; it has to be relevant to how she wants to be portrayed as a model. MacDonald said she’ll turn down a shoot if she doesn’t feel comfortable with the person or the types of pictures that they expect her to do.
MacDonald was introduced to nude modeling when she worked for the Maine Media Workshops. “They were holding a week-long workshop in August 2008 called ‘Reflections: A Different Way of Seeing’ taught by Connie Imboden and asked me if I’d pose for it,” said MacDonald. Her first nude shoot taught her a lot about herself. “It’s affected my life in a positive way. I’m more at peace with the way I look than I ever was before I posed nude. I also feel like I’m much more open-minded in the way I view other people and in the judgments I make because I know people are looking at what I do and judging away.”
There’s a thin line between art and pornography when it comes to nudity.
While MacDonald may pose nude, she doesn’t find it to be pornographic. Whether the models are posing nude or fully clothed depends on what the photographer is trying to do in the picture. “The boundaries between innocent, sexy, erotica and pornography are blurry, gray and differ wildly from person to person; some of the work I do might already be considered porn to some viewers. To others it’s nothing but playful fun.” Photographs that are taken of her do not include positions that would be seen on a pornographic Web site.
If a photographer books MacDonald for a nude shoot and goes too far by asking her to move her leg to show a bit more skin, more than likely she will say no. MacDonald isn’t interested in being a porn star. She knows what she is comfortable with and will not go beyond that. She has no issue leaving a place that is making her feel uncomfortable and losing out on that money. “I draw the line at ‘spread shots’ – in other words, photos where I’m spreading my legs to show all the girl plumbing. I could be rolling in cash if I did them, but I don’t like them on a comfort and an aesthetic level, so I don’t.”
MacDonald’s blog may not be suitable for work, but it shows who she is as a person. She tries to help out new models by telling stories from her experience – including one where a camera phone went off during one of her shoots. “I was working with one photographer and posing [nude] outside on a huge tractor tire. I was arching my back with the curve of the tire and had my eyes shut and I could feel someone come into my ‘bubble’ of space and then I heard the sound of a camera phone go off. A person who worked in the area had stumbled over drunk, empty beer bottle in hand, and tried to take my picture. Thankfully he was just drunk enough so it only took some firm words from me for him to delete the photos and leave, no harm done.”
MacDonald said she gets a lot of responses to what she posts on her blog and it goes to show that with a good head on your shoulders you can do anything. “I love my job and I love teaching people about what I do, because I think it helps them get beyond the shock of nudity and realize that I am just another person, like them.”
For more information about MacDonald, go to her blog at: http://stephanieem.wordpress.com/. Just remember, it may not be suitable for work.