This paper examines the work of female photographic models as a largely invisibilized and precarious form of labour, at the intersection of gig economy, body work, aesthetic labour, and emotional labour. Based on twenty semi-structured interviews conducted primarily in France, it explores how models navigate legal frameworks poorly adapted to independent and amateur practices, economic instability, and emotional vulnerability within an activity whose realities remain largely unknown to the public, often overlooked in academic research and with negative aspects rarely discussed by models themselves.

Precarity is also produced through the relational and communicational dynamics that structure modelling activity. Interactions with predominantly male photographers are marked by gendered asymmetries of power, uncertainty, and, in some cases, sexualized behaviours or gender-based violence. Relations with followers and subscribers — seen as easier to manage — take place within gender-biased contexts perceived as ordinary and require negotiation of visibility, social respect, and sexualization.

Digital presence becomes an integral part of modelling activity, demanding continuous self-promotion, boundary management, and emotional regulation. Rather than mitigating precarity, online visibility often displaces it into time-consuming communication work and intensified embodied self-display. By mobilizing perspectives from sociological and psychological studies, this paper shows how precarity is produced through the articulation of legal, economic, relational, and digital dimensions. It reframes photographic modelling as a multimodal and relational form of labour within contemporary photographic practices, involving intimate bodily and psychological exposure, structured by a gendered economy of solicitation and questions prevailing assumptions in contemporary digital and visual cultures.

Authors:
Alexandre Abellard, Toulon University, France

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Alexandre Abellard is currently an Associate Professor at Institut Méditerranéen des Sciences de l'Information et de la Communication, Toulon University, France.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandre-abellard-664867163/

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