Oh boy,
Segnbora there is no need to be so defensive for them and not going to name names as I have more tact than that; but what I WILL do is tell you the truth from my perspective from having worked in that industry.
While I was quite successful in it, made good money and have a really good reputation in it, I couldn't wait to get out of it. It was an industry that really should have spawned the METOO movement decades before, but sadly didn't. The industry is UGLY!!!
It is one that seethes with gossip, drugs, affairs, unreliability and is the reason why I shifted from shooting models to choosing to make much less money shooting cars, racing and animals for calendars, than to continue to spend my time in the cesspool and making good money.
I found that many of the models, while beautiful on the outside, had a tragic darkness within them and many of them came from a background of looking for some kind of validation in life. This usually lead them to other photographers that were just talented assholes with a camera looking to prey upon these young women and add another notch in their belt. Many of them (the models) would eventually turn to drugs or alcohol and slowly become unreliable, while some other reveled in acting out and carrying on a prima-donna behavior trait while on set that would make working with them extremely difficult, run over in time on the paid sets of the promoters, sponsors or out of the photographer's own back pocket... and that is if some of them even bothered to show up or show up sober enough to make it through hair and makeup.
The advent of the cell phone only made things worse, as then you had to try and cajole and convince them to stay off of their damn phones long enough to get work done. Most of them were too busy yacking away planning their next party, setting up their next high for the day or talking about so-and-so and "can you believe" crap that I had no interest in listening to... but, at least, that way I didn't have to sit there and listen to them vent to me, while trying to get work done.
Then there were the long hours of going through the hundreds of shots that you took, in my case in a dark room, sniffing fumes and realizing just how many rolls that I wasted that day and having to find the best images to present to the employers.
Fortunately, digital cameras slowly made that part of my job easier... but still had the task of going in and touching up the photos for the clients and trying to make sure that the blood shot eyes of the model from either coming off her high or having spent the night before partying was removed or get rid of it for the times that one or two came in while still high or drunk.
It got to the point where I closed the set down if they were still drunk or high and told them to go home and choose never to work with that model again.
NOT ALL MODELS WERE LIKE THIS... but a good portion of them were, enough for me to want to leave a $10,000 a month job and business to work for a couple of hundred dollars a week shooting car shows, auto racing or fluffy animal calendars pictures.
So, have whatever opinion you want of me, doesn't matter to me one bit. Yeah, maybe my opinion of them is deeply jaded... but that opinion was earned. And while some may be wonderful people to some of you, I unfortunately got to see many of them with their masks off and got to see just how damaged they became while working in that industry.
