TFP is Dead.

For many years, TFP was the main method that photographers connected with models for shoots where neither party was paid. The initials stood for Time For Prints because the assumption was that the models being photographed needed actual prints for their printed portfolios. As photography became a digital medium, there as no demand from models for physical prints, so TFP evolved into being something like Time For Compact Disc or Time For Digital Download but the concept remained a simple exchange of the photographer’s photographic skill in exchange for the model’s time.

Truth be told, the exchange wasn’t exactly equal from the photographer’s perspective. A photographer like myself brought years of experience and thousands of dollars in gear to the shoot. The model -usually inexperieced or at the very least, not in super-high demand only brought herself. When I wanted to shoot TFP I would sometimes reach out to an agency and ask if they had any in-development models interested in TFP. Other times, I would become aware of a model agency through a lookbook shoot that I had been paid to do and I would reach to them to see if they had any models available for unpaid shoots. Female beauty has been the subject of artists since the creation of art itself and it is not surprising that a lot of males like myself used TFP shoots to photograph female models.

I often used Model Mayhem, a free site that hosted the portfolios and availablity of both models and photographers, to book these shoots. Around 2015, and possibly earlier, I noticed a change in the model postings. Instead of seeing dozens/hundreds of models offering their time in exchange for photographs, I started seeing more models post their rates for shooting. These rates were outrageous in my eyes -several hundred dollars for an hour or two of their time. Many models monetized their sexuality and had different rates for differing degrees of body exposure. Digital photography had made what I was offering -free photographs in exchange for a model’s time, something that was common. Every model knew some dude with a camera offering to take her picture for free. The fact that someone like myself had decades of experience and was regularly being paid thousands of dollars for his photographic skill, meant nothing to the models. In their eyes, it seemed pretty much all photographers were equal.

So whenever I would visit a site like Model Mayhem in the hopes of finding a model for a simple test shoot, it became a frustrating expereince. Models would ignore my solicitations or, worse yet, agree to do a shoot and then cancel at the last minute. In time I simply stopped doing model testing because it was too much work. It took as much work to get a model to stand in front of my camera for a free shoot that it took for me to find a client who would pay me for my ability. So I stopped doing TFP shoots. Last year, my wife and daughter and I took a trip to Paris and I decided to photograph a model. Instead of using Model Mayhem I took to Instagram and began reaching out to models that had used the hashtag #ParisModel. I booked a free shoot with Mari, and wrote about the experience for Fstoppers in an article titled, How I Photographed a Model in Paris On My Family Vacation.

This year, my wife and I booked a Paris trip to visit my daughter who is completing an internship there. I decided to photograph a model as I had done on the previous trip. The shoot was mostly for the purpose of giving me something to do while I was there. I wasn’t too concerned with how the model looked or how she would be styled. Obviously, I want these things to be on point, but I wasn’t so interested in the shoot that I was willing to invest a lot of time in getting these elements right. I enlisted the help of a digital assistant at the rate of $5 per hour. I asked him to devote 6-8 hours to the project and gave him access to my Model Mayhem account. I also asked him to search the hashtag #ParisModel on Instagram and reach out to potential models there. This was the message he sent to models from his account:

I hope you're doing well! I’m reaching out on behalf of John Ricard, a NYC-based photographer who will be in Paris from April 14–18. He’s currently looking to connect with creatives for a fashion shoot during his stay and wanted to see if you'd be interested in collaborating.

This would be a personal creative project intended for social media and potentially for editorial coverage, similar to a feature he published last year – you can check it out here:
🔗 https://fstoppers.com/editorial/how-i-p … ion-652834

As part of the collaboration, you would receive:
A full gallery of unedited images
A curated selection of professionally retouched images

Let us know if you’re interested or if you have any questions. Looking forward to possibly working together!

After a few hours, he had a few positive responses. He pointed out that his hit rate might have been higher if the messages had been sent from my account rather than his account which has a small following and based in Bolivia. Still he found a couple of viable candidates and we settled on a model whom I will call Lacy in this article. Communication with Lacy was good and I had every reason to assume the Lacy shoot would go as smoothly as the previous year’s Mari shoot had gone.

I told Lacy that I was open to any clothing she was comfortable wearing for the shoot. I suggested that she pick the location so that she would not feel umcomfortable traveling to an unknown area to meet with a stranger who contacted her through the internet by way of a third party. I gave her a choice of several days for the shoot and also allowed her to pick the shoot time. I told her that she could bring a hard drive to download all of her unretouched images immediately after the shoot. And, I shared my wife and daughter’s Instagram accounts with her so she could see that I was in fact traveling to Paris with my wife to visit my daughter.

It was reasonalbe to assume that I would be photographing Lacy on our agreed upon day and time.

I’ve been in this photography game for a long time and I let my digital assistant know that there was no telling if the shoot was going to happen until I had Lacy directly in front of my lens. As you might have guessed by now, the shoot never happened despite Lacy confirming that she would be there just a few hours before the shoot.

At around 4pm Lacy sent this message that suggested she was having some hesitation about doing the shoot. I forwarded this message to my wife because I knew that this was a sign that the shoot ultimately wouldn’t happen.

About half an hour later, I received this message.

Suddenly, Lacy didn’t feel well. I was immediately taken back that time more than a decade ago when I was shooting TFP semi regularly. I used to ask the models to let me know as soon as possible if they couldn’t make it to a shoot. I would tell them that they didn’t even need to give me an explation. Just let me know you won’t be there so I don’t waste time waiting for you to show up. And here I was again, waiting for some random model to show up for a shoot that would be of as much, if not more, benefit to her as it would be to me. And she didn’t even have the courtesy to show up.

I walked around the streets of the area that she had suggested we shoot in, walking in bookstores that sold books in a language I couldn’t read. I started a conversation with an attractive couple on a street corner and I took a few photographs of them. I enjoyed that interaction and told them they were the highlight of my day. And then I decided, never again would I bother with a TFP shoot.

It is time for me to accept the fact that what I have to offer -decades of experience photographing models, artists, executives and regular folk, just isn’t valued by the averate young model. It is a simple task for these models to have a friend photograph them using a phone. If they want to shoot with a professional, they can post their avaialbility on a site like Model Mayhem and they will have their pick of dozens of photographers who will respond with their availability. Times change. There is nothing wrong with how things have shifted. It is what it is. Moving forward, I would rather post a job offer for someting in the range of $100 to $150 for an hour or two of shooting if I want to shoot a model on location or in my hometown. It will be easier and I will have my pick of models to chose from. The experience will be both more productive and more enjoyable.

TFP may be dead, but fortunately, my photography is alive and kicking.