Guest post by Lucy Saunders



Following my post on art models pay, model Lucy Saunders has contributed the following:


"Pay – in particular low pay – is what gets models engaged.  Everyone is hoping that someone, somewhere will introduce them to the job of their dreams, that pays £25 an hour, cash, regularly and is not too demanding on the body.  Meanwhile, back in reality, every model gets what they are prepared to accept – and sometimes what they ask for. 

I remember when I first started modelling in 2008 and accepted that the RAM recommended rate of £12.50 an hour was gospel and turned down jobs that didn’t pay that much, including some places where it would be possible to get whole days of modelling work not just 2 hours in the evening.  That was foolish.  I should have taken some of those lower paid jobs to get the hours.  Now if asked what I charge, I start at £15 per hour, minimum 2 hours.  Of course, like any model, I work a variety of places and take a variety of pay rates home – including one below £10 per hour because it is so near. 

It is a complex time-value-cost equation, just highlighted because of low pay for a job to which most people have an aversion.  Being seen naked in public is usually the stuff of nightmares.  There is no compensation for being different, for not subscribing to that aversion, for being able to be naked in front of others when they are going to look at yr nakedness. 


There is the double standard, where models are seen as daring ‘ooh I could never do that’ – yet what they actually have to bring to the job is not valued.  ‘you just have to be naked and lie around, how hard can that be?’.  Two excellent models I know, both of whom can hold complex poses for long periods of time, with the classic sleek lines of body that current culture deems best, demonstrate this.  One finds it incredibly difficult to get work that pays her more than £10 per hour – and yes, part of this is her own inability to say ‘no, I won’t work for that’, but part of it is very much that what she has to offer isn’t valued, isn’t appreciated as being as unique as it is.  Models are just bodies, it seems.  The other is getting more and more demoralised by modelling, perhaps seeking something from modelling that works best if you model parttime rather than full time, and because her ego is bashed from lack of positive feedback, she is finding it difficult to move on to another job.  Yes, she is stubborn, she is looking for the experience she had when she first modelled, but at the same time, she is 100% right about the lack of  appreciation of ‘good’ models over ‘bad’ or ‘inexperienced’ ones.   There is no pay differential, so that a model who has worked for 5 years gets the same pay as one that has worked for 5 months. 

Models have constantly got to build up their internal sense of their own value and contribution, because they are not going to receive that kind of approbation from either the world at large, which still regards those who get naked and get paid for it as dubious, living on the borderline of acceptability, or from receiving large amounts of money.  As one said, ‘If I was Kate Moss or Naomi Campbell getting naked or almost naked, I’d command a vast sum.’  Context, as always, is everything.  Moss and Campbell have built personal brands that are seen to have the power to promote goods and services, thjey have teams of assistants and managers dedicated to building this brand and farming it, whereas your average artists models have only themselves to do everything that a big business does – sell, market, promote, advertise, train, develop skills, do the admin, manage the finances.  So modelling does give everyone exposure to running themselves as a business, good lessons that can be applied in all sorts of jobs.


Me, I remember that probably one of the busiest artists models in the UK is the Queen …  admittedly she’s not naked, but she’s doing the same thing as me, remaining still for artists"

(All drawings are of Lucy by various artists)

Comments

  1. I model for the joy of creating art with my body. It is an "avocation" for me. I have become quite popular with artists in the Coachella Valley in the U.S. My average pay for a 3 hour sitting is $50.00.

    I know I have to keep my "real job" to be able to continue with the modeling gig. That is just a fact of life.

    And, I DO receive kudos from those in the classes I model for. And, have modeled privately for one woman. I so enjoy getting to know the artsists - they are my kind of folks.

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  2. Hmm. That would be just over £31. The thing is we cannot really compare conditions as one needs to take into account the fact that travelling in London is hugely expensive. For us the minimum would be £12.50 per hour and we should really try and stick with that. I dont really know what you are trying to say, maybe that you are happy to be paid only $50 because you are doing it for the art, but you see life modelling IS a job and doing it for next to nothing does not help anyone.

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