Sanni

I haven’t finished watching the documentary yet but the scene where Bellemere listened to Ebonee Davis tell a tale of past trauma/the horrible things she was involved in didn’t sit right with me. The look on his face was gleeful like he loved hearing this dirty story of degradation and abuse.

Not only is that an uncomfortable pose to hold (Elsa’s face is turning red), I suspect Bellemere gets off on placing her on hard rocks that will cause her some pain on her knees. The problem is that I bet most did not sign up for the kind of shoot that Bellemere puts them through. I suspect that Bellemere recreates some of the S&M/bondage images that he has seen by using top models and thus turns the concept from porn to high fashion/art.

Damn, if that is not the most submissive pose by Elsa that I have ever seen. 100% guarantee that she did not come up with that on her own. Bellemere posed her in that position right down to turning her head the way he wanted. (Janine Tugonon was put in a similar pose but she was grabbing her ankles.) Yep, Bellemere wants to be the daddy and dominate the girls. No wonder some find his way of working objectionable.

@almanaotemcor Agreed. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Bellemere pointed the finger at female colleagues who work for VS. Ed, what say you? Was Bellemere your guy?

Not sure if I should post this spec but Apparently, Barbara dated her then-boyfriend Kristof Somfai from 2010-2013 and they broke up when she was 19 so the timeline fits in that case as well… The excerpt implies that the model and her ex have a relationship where she can still reach out to him for help and he is willing to corroborate her story. I don’t think it’s known what kind of relationship Barbara has with Kristof nowadays. Also, it seems that Kadel has a thing for teenage models. So maybe that’s why he could have a good reputation among the likes of Miranda Kerr.

No, that’s two different models who are friends and Kadel assaulted both of them on separate occasions. To be honest, I wonder if Barbara confided in Stella if Barbara is indeed the teenage model who later worked with VS.

Balti.

Haha, wow, it seems I can read him like a book

Greg Kadel:

The most miserable position is probably held by gay male models. They must be propositioned all the time and pressured so that they’d f*ck everyone from casting directors to agents to photographers etc.

I’ll nominate Alicia Hall Hailey Clauson Natalia Vodianova Rose Bertram

Is this still about who should have been an Angel except now models who have not worked for VS can be nominated in addition to those who have but were not part of the previous round? @Clauds

The whole point is that Russell James is different from other photographers. He seems to operate under a friend/big brother code and doesn’t try to foster a sexually charged connection with the models he shoots.

It seems that the way he does it makes it into a situation that comes across like the model is being put into a submissive role. He isn’t simply demonstating how he wants her to pose by doing the pose himself or describing it to her. Also, a photographer posing his models to that extent seems unusual to me. Many seem to let models move in front of the camera freely in order to capture a moment.

Yes it does. I can’t listen to the video right now but one of the men commentating on Bellemere’s method says something to the effect of “submission session” if I recall right. https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/02/16/beauty-and-ugly-truth/c7r0WVsF5cib1pLWXJe9dP/story.html From Rachel Cook’s thread: To me it seems that bondage and positioning the models’ bodies with his hands to have them keep certain poses shares the same psychology.

Ok, based on this trailer and the info that he apparently likes S&M imagery, it seems that manually posing naked bodies to whatever shape he wants is part of the dominance/submission game to him: Nude Trailer (2017) Documentary

In a way, it’s a good thing Bellemere posted that picture of Taylor with a vague threat. Victims are expected to come forward and share their story (which won’t always be believed) despite the repercussions they almost certainly will suffer because of it. Taylor wasn’t even quoted yet Bellemere immediately went after her as retaliation.

Bellemere called her out after the article was published. So, it basically exposed that she was one of the Angels who got VS to stop hiring him: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/02/16/beauty-and-ugly-truth/c7r0WVsF5cib1pLWXJe9dP/story.html

IF the model in question is Barbara, could the timeline be something like this: Kadel continuously harasses her -> Barbara finally can’t take it anymore and refuses to work with him -> Kadel badmouths her to Ed et al. -> VS sides with the photographer -> Barbara goes to the VSFS castings and gets rejected -> When she asks why, Ed tells her that he always sees pictures of her partying instead of working out like Adriana Lima. She was on the Christmas catalogue cover though… So maybe they really liked her but didn’t want to deal with a situation where one of the models is refusing to work with their photographer who in turn is likely refusing to work with her. Also, Barbara moved from New York to Paris. Maybe to escape bad memories and bad influences if her partying got a bit out of hand after what Kadel did? Maybe in a twisted way Kadel’s claims seemed to be corroborated by Barbara’s public partying and Ed disapproved of it but in actuality the hard partying had been caused by Kadel taking advantage of her when she was drunk (and she had probably been intentionally plied with alcohol in that case) I always love your posts!

This situation reminded me of these wise words Uma Thurman said: “Personally, it has taken me 47 years to stop calling people who are mean to you ‘in love’ with you. It took a long time because I think that as little girls we are conditioned to believe that cruelty and love somehow have a connection and that is like the sort of era that we need to evolve out of.” https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/03/opinion/sunday/this-is-why-uma-thurman-is-angry.html Just because Bellemere was sexually obsessed with the models he shot, it doesn’t mean that he was in love with them, that he admired or respected them or their work or that they were truly his “muses.”

Was that in the second Swim special? I never saw that.

I remember the nude documentary was described as showing Bellemere falling in love with every model he shoots. Maybe I should watch it to see how creepy/rapey behaviour gets normalized….

And is Candice still following Terry Richardson?

If Ed was talking about her when he talked about some model not being cast in the VS show because of partying too hard, it’d be such a low-blow from Ed.

Wondering about Bellemere’s photo choice of Taylor… It seems this photo has been used to represent feminism among other things: Maybe he thinks “feminazis” are after him?