NSFW-S2-03 - Artistic Edge RJC

Transcript is generated by AI, mostly for Search Engine Optimization and for accessibility.  There are definitely mistakes.  

[00:00:00] Welcome to the not safe for work photography podcast, where we explore the art and business of erotic photography. Today, we're interviewing Jeremy from Artistic Edge RGC and the host of the Hot AF Model Weekends. Jeremy was recommended to me by Jimmy Changa again. Thanks, Jimmy. How are you doing today, Jeremy?

Artistic Edge RJC: I'm living the dream. How 

Matthew Holliday: I don't know what the dream is actually.

Artistic Edge RJC: Well, and you gotta be careful of those dreams, cause sometimes they're nightmares.

Matthew Holliday: I turn it in that way frequently, don't they?

Artistic Edge RJC: Occasionally.

Matthew Holliday: I actually do,

Artistic Edge RJC: interesting, though.

Matthew Holliday: yeah. I actually have thought about the dream. I've decided that when I retire, I want to run, I want to buy a building, and I want to run a rock shop downstairs, like a mineral store, like a crystal store, and a game shop, and those are going to be on the bottom floor, and then the top I'm going to [00:01:00] make into a badass studio and rent out the studio.

Artistic Edge RJC: There you go.

Matthew Holliday: So that's the dream. I'm not living that dream yet.

Artistic Edge RJC: Well, you know, it's good to have, have hopes and dreams, right?

Matthew Holliday: Yeah, I just combine all my hobbies into one place and I'll just go there and spend all day and that'll keep my wife happy because I'm out of the house.

Artistic Edge RJC: It, hey, I've always been told, happy wife, happy life.

Matthew Holliday: All right. Let's get into this. We're going to start with where we always start at the beginning. How did you get into erotic photography?

Artistic Edge RJC: Well, I guess you really have to go back to when I started photography. I was running around with a girl, and she did graphic design, things like that. She had a little boy. Wouldn't allow me to help her out, wouldn't accept pity projects, as she called them. So I had car washes at the time, and I said, Well, what can we do that you can make money on, and you can have [00:02:00] something to do, that's not a pity project?

And she decided I needed to do swimsuit calendars for my car washes. So, we set it all up, I had a buddy of mine that was a photographer, he came. Did the photos. two cats and dogs don't even fight like these two did. It was just incredibly bad. And I went to her place one day and she said, come on, we're going to Best Buy. And I was like, okay, so we go to Best Buy. She walks over to the camera. She says, you're buying that. I said, Oh, you need a camera. She goes, no, you do. You're going to learn to take pictures. You're going to do the photography for the calendars. From here on out and I'm not dealing with your body. Okay, so that's how I got into it And so yeah, then it went from that to we started a little [00:03:00] localized fashion magazine called you're it you are it and we did that for a while and then we Had a falling out went our separate ways I wasn't really much into fashion.

So I started looking around thinking, man, I got all this stuff, been doing it. What can I make money at? And lo and behold, I fell into this.

Matthew Holliday: Yeah, I can kind of understand that. It is one of the only versions of photography where you can make money if you're not. Into weddings and children and stuff like that.

Artistic Edge RJC: Oh no, I won't ever do weddings. Nah, I made a mistake and got involved in one of those early on. Nope. No, not for that. Not anymore. I even tell relatives, don't talk to me if that's what the question is.

Matthew Holliday: Yeah. I had a friend of mine ask me to take pictures of her and her kids, and I was like, I don't, I don't really have any experience in [00:04:00] that . I, I, I'm sure that they'll be well exposed and technically reasonable pictures, but I don't have any experience in the posing and the the like. Yeah. No thanks.

Artistic Edge RJC: You know, there have been several times. I have had mothers reach out to me. Would you take my daughter's senior pictures? I tell them all the same thing. Now, wait a minute. I want you to step back for a second and think about something. Why would you want your daughter's name attached to me and what I do? Doesn't that sound a little bit irresponsible? I mean, you want to bring your high school daughter. Does that just make any sense at all? I won't do it. I'm not, but oh, I've had. A couple of them accused me of not doing it because I didn't think their daughters were attractive, or I didn't think they were good enough.

Nothing to do with that. [00:05:00] You need to be a better parent.

Matthew Holliday: Yeah.

Artistic Edge RJC: Things never cease to amaze me.

Matthew Holliday: So it looks like you do put a lot of glamor work on your website. Is that your favorite style?

Artistic Edge RJC: Yeah, it's just, it's kind of more fun. I don't know. Yeah, it's just do what your eyes drawn to, right?

Matthew Holliday: Yeah. Did you kind of know from the start that was what you really wanted to do, or did you end up finding your way there after trying a bunch of different stuff?

Artistic Edge RJC: You know, as my mom told me years ago, she said, this shouldn't surprise anybody because in sixth grade, when they said, what do you want to do when you grow up? I listed, I want to be a playboy photographer. So I guess I knew back then,

Matthew Holliday: That's hilarious. Yeah. Yeah. All right. You do, since glamour is your favorite style you work with a lot of models doing that. [00:06:00] Do you have a particular method of finding the models to work with that you, that really works for you?

Artistic Edge RJC: you know, it's, I look around all over the place and I know some photographers get upset because. You're stealing their models, but What? really the best way. Oh, yeah, around Pittsburgh. That's the whole big thing. It's no offense to Pittsburgh photographers that like me, but there's a lot of them that don't because I steal their models. I'm sorry. I didn't know you owned them. But yeah,

Matthew Holliday: how many photographers? How many photographers can afford to keep a model like a, like what, like a pet? They can't even understand.

Artistic Edge RJC: just, these are, I don't want to bad mouth people, but these are jealous. And yeah, they just get upset and they don't like me because of what I do with my work and I make money on it. And yeah, [00:07:00] they all want to do, you know, trade shoots and stuff and then they get upset because I get better content than they get.

Well, you know what? I

Matthew Holliday: Yeah. I've definitely heard that's definitely are a bunch of photographers that try and do that. Try and do the trade thing for nudes and nudes and nudes.

Artistic Edge RJC: don't have a problem with it. If if there's mutual gain, yeah, that's fine. But, to just expect it all the time, eh, I don't know. I guess I just look at it more from the business side.

Matthew Holliday: All right. So you didn't, you didn't comment on how you best find them. Do you, you said you always keep an eye out. Are you like looking for them in person? Are you looking on IG? Are there websites you lose?

Artistic Edge RJC: I'd be a little weird looking for the new person. At least I think so, but no, I watch IG, you know, I used to use model mayhem, but that site's really gone [00:08:00] downhill. And I have some photographer friends that they'll hit me up and be like, Hey, you should check out this girl. And then a lot of the girls I work with. Over the last few years have hit me up and been like, Hey, I have a friend who's interested and I've actually got quite a few of the models I work with now that started out that way. So there really isn't any one particular thing. It's you cast a net out far and see what you catch.

Matthew Holliday: Yeah, I've been definitely finding that model mayhem. There's a ton of people that are on there now that haven't logged in in six months, 12 months, 18 months. You send out a lot of messages and you don't get responses even for paying work.

Artistic Edge RJC: Yeah, it just, I mean, years ago, it was, I don't know. It just, it seems to have lost its, its luster, I guess. there's still some people on it, Matt, but [00:09:00] everything comes and goes.

Matthew Holliday: I've really struggled trying to find people on IG. I don't know. I don't know if I'm, my search terms are wrong or I just struggle. It's like, I tried looking up like hashtags, like, you know, Las Vegas models. Cause I'm going to Las Vegas in a couple of months and I'm just seeing a bunch of vanilla models.

Artistic Edge RJC: Yeah, I don't know that very many people do hashtags anymore. That's part of the problem. You know, it, I mean, that used to be a good way to do it. I used to do Pittsburgh models, Philadelphia models, things like that when I would be going somewhere. But yeah, like you said, they, they just don't really come up anymore. I don't know. It just seems to be OnlyFans has changed a lot of things that way. Because you get a lot of these girls are more content creators, not models, so to say. So they don't really look for photographers a lot. They're looking more for people who are content creators that can get them more people on [00:10:00] there.

Matthew Holliday: I have.

Artistic Edge RJC: least that's what I'm noticing.

Matthew Holliday: Yeah, I haven't actually thought about reaching out to content creators, but yeah, I very rarely see them. Like they'll put model, but I very, I see almost nothing in their Ig that implies that they're actually doing any modeling and they,

Artistic Edge RJC: Yeah. Yeah. It's just how times change. You got to kind of change with them a little bit. Yeah. I mean, I have a fansly page that I just use. It is like a social media, you know, you stumble across some people on there. I got kicked off of only fans. So it's

Matthew Holliday: how do you get, how do you get kicked off of only uh,

Artistic Edge RJC: they were telling me I had to give, give up the girls photo IDs.

I didn't feel my stuff to give up. You know, I refused. I was like, that's their personal information. I just don't feel that's mine to give. And I wouldn't give it. And they said, you'll be banned permanently. Well, I got [00:11:00] banned permanently because I just didn't feel that was mine to give.

Matthew Holliday: yeah, that seems to make some sense.

Artistic Edge RJC: I mean, I'd be pissed off if somebody gave my driver's license and stuff to a random Website, you know, I wouldn't be too happy about that. I told them I can give you the release forms, but that wasn't good enough. They needed photo IDs and this and that and I wasn't given it. So,

Matthew Holliday: Yeah. That's interesting. Cause you're right. Given what we're shooting and we do need to save copies of the photo IDs. If it's, if it fits into the erotic or could be interpreted as such,

Artistic Edge RJC: oh, yeah, I have them all, but still that's mine to give away.

Matthew Holliday: right. Yeah. That when the model gives it to you, she's not expecting you to share it with third parties.

Artistic Edge RJC: Yeah, that's, I just. Yeah, that'd kind of be like betraying trust. So anyways, yeah, I'm not allowed on there. It doesn't mean I don't have a burner page that, you know, you go and look girls up and, and [00:12:00] follow them to see what they're making on there to see if it's reasonable for you to, to work with them.

You know, if the content's worth what you're going to pay.

Matthew Holliday: So on that, on that subject, actually, that kind of leads into where I wanted to go next, which is how do you typically lay out boundaries and consent before a shoot? If, especially if you're working with a new model, you've never worked with,

Artistic Edge RJC: Yeah, see like new models. I just tell them. If they're new to modeling, you do what you're comfortable with. Nobody has to do anything. Then after you get to know them, you know, you just start talking and everybody's comfort level is different. Nobody has to do anything. We're all adults. You can do what you want.

And it just kind of comes around that way. And then a lot of girls have shot stuff here that they don't shoot other places because they know what I'm going to do with it. I'm not going to sell it cheap and. just build that trust up and [00:13:00] I don't know, I just, I feel kind of honored that some people trust me to that degree. Yeah, it's kind of just you get to know the people. Well, if it's somebody who's doing the stuff openly everywhere, then you just straight up say, Hey, I saw an OnlyFans, you're shooting, you know, this video, that video, is that available to be shot? And you go from there.

Matthew Holliday: I've definitely noticed a number of models seem to almost keep separate personas. I've spoken with at least, I mean, I've, I haven't shot with nearly as many models this year, somewhere in the three dozen range, and I've had at least two that after we've shot together once, they've been like, Oh, by the way, I also do this.

Would you be interested in shooting this? Is that typically the way it goes? You know, they, as they get more comfortable with a photographer, they share more of the, they expand those boundaries or

Artistic Edge RJC: yeah, that, that happens a lot. And, you know, as we'll get into later, I do this [00:14:00] as a business, so to say, and I just can't figure out these girls who don't do what I do, but as soon as I'm talking to someone about a shoot. I jump online, I start Googling their name, I'm looking through OnlyFans, I'm looking through Fansly, I'm searching their social medias, I'm searching photographers they've shot with to see what they're doing with stuff, just to see what they do.

And there are so many models that come through here, and they're like, oh yeah, I was down at so and so's, and I had no idea they were like this and that, and then I have girls that talk to me and they're like, oh I didn't know you did. why are you reaching out to me if you don't know what I told? You know, I mean, in today's world, we have so much information right at our fingertips.

It's not hard to find. Yeah, that, that always amazes me. They don't want to [00:15:00] talk about a bad situation they've gotten into. And sometimes, you know, unfortunately that's going to happen in this business. And it's just you just sometimes have bad people. But there are. There are a lot of them that it's continual and it's out there.

It's not hard to find out, but they don't look. I just recently had a girl, she got a hold of me wanting to shoot, and she was going to be in Pittsburgh, found me on Model Mayhem. The very first line of my Model Mayhem in my profile says, I am, and I'm listed as Pittsburgh. I am in a small town called Mahaffey, two hours from Pittsburgh, but Pittsburgh shows up better in searches.

She's asking me about shooting, and I said, well, I'm over in a town called Mahaffey. She goes, where's that? And I told her it's two hours from Pittsburgh. Oh, I can't travel that far. I thought you were in Pittsburgh. Did you [00:16:00] even read my profile? Because the very first line says that

Matthew Holliday: I think it has to do with the, the, the like rapid fire machine gun. You know, casting call type stuff that they do where they just send it out to literally everybody that's there. And then it's almost like the way that men tend to do like dating apps. Where they'll just send it out to literally

Artistic Edge RJC: been on a dating app. So

Matthew Holliday: Well, so there's, there was some articles about tender, about how most men on a dating app just swipe. I don't, I don't know what direction I've been married for too long, so I haven't had to deal with this, but they swipe in whatever direction is yes on like all women.

And then when the women respond and they match with some women, then they actually look at the profile and figure out if they like them or not. So I feel like female, I feel like. I feel like models do the same thing. They send out an email to all of the photographers in the area. And only if a photographer responds, are they like, all right, maybe [00:17:00] I'll look at their stuff now.

Artistic Edge RJC: yeah, I just, I don't know, I, I tend to do my homework ahead of time. So I'm not wasting my time. And, you know, as you saw my site, I had a bad situation here. I don't ever want that again. So, yeah, I don't know. I learned a hard lesson there. So maybe Maybe that's why I do what I do, but

Matthew Holliday: All right. When you approach models for work, if you, especially if you plan on selling the work how do you choose who to work with? Do you base off their look? Are you looking for a specific body type or facial look? Are you picking it off their boundaries, their pay rate, some combination of these things?

Artistic Edge RJC: you know, I look at it a lot of different ways. As I said, I'll jump on and try to see if they're selling stuff. And if they're selling things for like five bucks, well, there really isn't any reason for me to pay them to come and shoot if, you know, it's a business for me too. [00:18:00] And yeah, if you're selling things for five dollars, I can't pay you to come here so I can find someone else.

But I tend to look for Models that maybe don't have a page or if they have a page, they don't sell inexpensive and then you look at the popularity side to if, if it's a really popular girl, well, she's going to get you seen by potential customers. So I'm willing to sacrifice she's selling cheap. Yeah.

Okay. I'll, I'll deal with that because. It could get me in front of some buyers that could be looking for someone else So every case is a different one I try not to we all like a certain type of thing, but i'm not trying to sell to me so I do I do look at [00:19:00] looks but a lot of the models I work with Aren't my typical type, but I know somebody likes them. Does that make sense?

Matthew Holliday: Yeah. That's interesting. Especially the comment about more well known models that have a following that you're basically, you know, that they're interested already.

Artistic Edge RJC: Yeah, it's you know, I can't say everyone that's selling inexpensively on OnlyFans, I won't work with. That's not true. Because some people just, when you work with them, it's the, the popular kid in high school thing. Then you become popular as well. So you have to kind of weigh that in too, you know, everybody wants to be with cool kids.

So yeah, it's, it's kind of a case by case thing. And

Matthew Holliday: That makes sense.

Artistic Edge RJC: sometimes I'll look at it and I'll be like, She's [00:20:00] attractive. I'd like to add her to the library because I feel I'm building a library. And yeah, it doesn't hurt to have a book on the shelf.

Matthew Holliday: Interesting. Do you, speaking of books, do you publish or do you focus purely on digital?

Artistic Edge RJC: Nah, I'm just digital. Years ago, I, I used to think that was pretty cool to get in stuff, but I don't know, it never really got me anything, and I don't like to give my stuff away anymore, and a lot of the, the little MagCloud publications and stuff, they'll want a topless or a nude. I'd rather sell that on my Patreon than Give it away because I mean, and everybody's different.

I, I have a couple of friends that are photographers and they just love being published and they think that's the greatest thing and that that matters and great for them. You know, if that makes them happy, I'm happy [00:21:00] for you. It's just not my cup of tea at this time.

Matthew Holliday: Yeah. Interesting. It makes sense. All right. So let's let's move on and start talking about some events. I see that you run events on a fairly. Regular schedule it looks like and I think you've got an event coming up in May, right? What is that?

Artistic Edge RJC: The hot AF model weekend.

Matthew Holliday: Is that a single weekend of the year? Are there multiple hot af model weekends?

Artistic Edge RJC: Last year we only had one cause we tried a different concept that. It was the model's idea, and it didn't really go well, so we're not going to discuss that. now we're back to the normal concept, and do the one that's coming up here in May. And some of the girls have expressed an interest in maybe trying to do one in the fall, so we may try to do a fall one this year.

It just depends on, on the year. I've done as many as four in a year, and as few as one in a year, so. Just kind of kind of depends on my [00:22:00] mood a little bit,

Matthew Holliday: That makes This is one of my verbal tics I just I say that makes sense and I say all right after like every question I try to

Artistic Edge RJC: no that that doesn't that doesn't make

Matthew Holliday: right, so what

Artistic Edge RJC: up any consistency. I know, you know, it's kind of that stay tuned thing. You know, you got to have the click bait.

Matthew Holliday: so what types of photography goes on at one of these weekend events

Artistic Edge RJC: Basically, they're glamour events. And it depends on the style of the model. Some girls only shoot swimsuit lingerie, totally fine. Other girls will shoot topless, some will shoot nude, some will shoot erotic. It's up to the girl and the photographers come, they pay a small fee to come that just helps pay for food and, you know, keeping the girls here and that.

And then they pay the, the models they want to work with at the rates they [00:23:00] have for the weekend. And everybody just kind of does their own thing. And just here to be the coordinator and to clean up afterwards.

Matthew Holliday: So I assume there's an additional charge for working with the models while you're there

Artistic Edge RJC: Oh yeah. They have their own, their own rates, you know, whatever, whatever style you're going to shoot, whatever their rate is. It's, it's kind of that thing.

Matthew Holliday: where you're, you're just, you're just connecting people.

Artistic Edge RJC: Yeah, I'm just, just the hub it. But yeah, everybody seems to have a good time and yeah.

Matthew Holliday: Do you have a specific venue you tend to do it at, at the same place or

Artistic Edge RJC: Oh, it's here at my place all the time. I do construction work for a living. I do masonry work. I've been remodeling my, my place here. I actually live in an old church. So yeah, it's interesting.

Matthew Holliday: cool.

Artistic Edge RJC: And it's big. [00:24:00] So, there's lots of different areas in here. And then I, I own the houses all around me and I have a little car wash here and I have an apartment up back behind the car wash that models stay in.

And we just kind of use the whole area. I built a beach out back. I have a waterfall. I did a little barn area because we're in the middle of farm country out here and a couple of my buddies, they're into farming so. They bring down hay bales and stuff, and we stack them around, and we put up wood fences, and just kind of make it look like a barn in some spots. I kind of try to keep a lot of variety, because nobody wants everything to look the same. So, I like to just have different areas for everybody. Yeah, and we all just hang out, and everybody's told we have to all get along, and we can't hog an area. We can't just set up shop for the [00:25:00] day. Somebody else may want to shoot there too.

We got to be nice to each other and yeah, but to this point it's worked out well that way. Everybody seems to seem to have a good time and I'm pretty proud of this. Everybody that's ever come to one has come back again. We have yet to have a one and done.

Matthew Holliday: One and done.

Artistic Edge RJC: they've all continued to come back to future events and stuff.

I have a guy. That came from Phoenix, Arizona a couple years ago, and he's coming back again for this one in May. That's pretty cool to get somebody flying from Arizona to Pennsylvania. So, kind of makes me feel like we're doing something right.

Matthew Holliday: Yeah. I don't know what's going on in Pennsylvania. You guys have all the events. Yeah, cause I'm, I'm in DC area and it seems like all the events are like, cause there's that, that big studio, Scott church and Lancaster. And [00:26:00] I see a lot of events in like Harrisburg and, and, and Allentown and stuff like that.

I just see a

Artistic Edge RJC: those are about four hours away from me. That's kind of why I started doing my own, because I got tired of driving so far. I used to get down to Baltimore to events and stuff like that. I don't know, I kind of like staying at home.

Matthew Holliday: mean, I guess parts of it makes sense. The, the land values down there, I was talking with I was talking to somebody online about this. Who was I talking to? Who was I having a conversation with this in? Oh, rowdy digital images. He's a, he's been on the podcast before and he's probably coming back again, but he was talking about, he's close to Baltimore, Philly, and New York.

Pittsburgh and DC are all within a four hour drive. And there's just, it's just, and the land values are fairly low. It's, it's compared to, you know, trying to be right outside of DC or right side, right outside of Philadelphia.

Artistic Edge RJC: Huh.

Matthew Holliday: So I don't know. It just seems like, it just seems like it seems like I just see a ton of photography events there and a ton of photographers and a ton of models in Eastern [00:27:00] PA.

Artistic Edge RJC: Yeah, well, I'm focused on Western PA, so.

Matthew Holliday: So spectacularly unhelpful is what I'm, what I'm getting as what I'm

Artistic Edge RJC: Oh, I've, I've been to Eastern PA a lot, and I'm a huge Philadelphia Eagle fan, so, you know, I'm not blind to Eastern PA, you know.

Matthew Holliday: All right. All right.

Artistic Edge RJC: Oh, but, hey, now, you didn't ask me how I come up with the name for Hot AF Model Weekends, but it's a great story and I want to tell it.

Matthew Holliday: All I'm sorry. No, I'm just kidding.

Artistic Edge RJC: So, how we got the name. I was actually at an event. Down at Scott churches when the name came about and I worked with a girl the night before at my Airbnb And the girl did a little tiktok video my nephew. He was like 12 at the time He saw it on tiktok and he called me while I was at that event shooting with a a girl And he called and [00:28:00] i'm like I have to answer this.

This is my nephew and she just started to laugh. She goes Okay, yeah. And while she's sitting there with her legs spread, taking pictures, she's like, you can talk to your nephew. I answer it, and he goes, bro, I gotta tell you, that TikTok, that girl's hot AF. He didn't even text me and said, dude, that girl is hot AF on his page.

Matthew Holliday: my God.

Artistic Edge RJC: Ian in the background go, don't tell my son, he'll block me. And he wasn't wrong. I did go in and find out who he was and I blocked him.

Matthew Holliday: Yeah.

Artistic Edge RJC: got the name from, from my 12 year old, at the time, 12 year old nephew and his buddy, because they thought that girl was hot AF in that TikTok video.

Matthew Holliday: And they was right.

Artistic Edge RJC: Yeah, they were not wrong. That's how that name came about.

Matthew Holliday: That's funny. It's wild. All right. So why did you start running your own events? [00:29:00] Shit. We got distracted. We covered that. Did you answer that? I think you did. Cause you said you were tired of driving to Eastern PA.

Artistic Edge RJC: yeah, we just kind of lumped it into another question, but I can elaborate a little more because it's more to that.

Matthew Holliday: No, I'd hate to, I'd hate to read it. Sorry. Well, if there's a little more to it. Yep. Let's go ahead.

Artistic Edge RJC: Okay.

Matthew Holliday: And I will leave this embarrassing part in to explain why.

Artistic Edge RJC: Oh, that's quite all right. No, really, the reason why I started to do it was, we've already established, I shoot for content and stuff. And I typically pay 90 percent of the people I work with. if I can have events and create a place. for the models I work with to come in, make money on a day off of other people, then it's not like I have to pay them.

Part of the deal to come to this stuff is you got to shoot with me while you're here without me paying you. It's kind of a [00:30:00] give and take, you know, if you want to come and make money at my event, you got to help me out so I can make money on the content side. And it's kind of a win win for everybody. And yeah, it's, that's kind of why I started it.

I just wanted to be able to offer something other than a one time pay.

Matthew Holliday: Yeah, I I find a lot of the events in the area don't have models that I'm terribly interested in. Although admittedly, since I'm not doing it to sell content, I tend to be a little more selective and only work with models that I'm specifically interested in working with.

Artistic Edge RJC: Oh yeah, that's, that's, don't blame you at all there. I, I, I try not to always do that, but you know what? Blonde hair, blue eyes gets me every time. That's,

Matthew Holliday: Everybody's got their weaknesses.

Artistic Edge RJC: that's, yeah, and that is definitely my weakness. And I don't, I don't deny it.

Matthew Holliday: So what, what's your ideal size and in your [00:31:00] opinion for an event, number of models, number of photographers. And do you try to match them one on one? Like if you've got 10 models, you try and get 10 photographers or whatever the number is. Yeah. Yeah.

Artistic Edge RJC: Like, I, I don't want to say we're limited here in space, but I can't have 30, 40 people like they have at Scott churches, you know, and that place gets way too crowded. That's another reason why decided to do my own stuff. Cause the last time I was at an event there, it was just, it was too crowded and it just, it just wasn't for me anymore.

You know, it just didn't, didn't fit what I was looking for, but I kind of try to limit it. I mean, we can handle 10 to 12 photographers. With everybody having their own space, nobody's tripping on each other, you know, nobody's going to be in your shot, nobody's yelling at you, hey, I can see you, hey, your flash is interfered.

No, everybody's [00:32:00] got their own.

Matthew Holliday: I went to mega glam back in October and I came back and found a whole bunch of people that I hadn't noticed in a mirror in the background. I was like, God damn it. Yeah.

Artistic Edge RJC: of the, that's what I was at churches for, was one of those. And, and, it's a fine event. I didn't have a problem with that. It's just, a lot of people go, and, it just, it was difficult to find spots, and, I didn't like that people camped out in areas and set up shop, and they were there all day, and you were just of that area, and, yeah, it just, it just wasn't for me anymore.

Not, not that there's anything wrong with the event. It's, it's a very good event. I, I enjoyed every time I was there, but, I just kind of, I guess I evolved that there were other opportunities for me, but that was a great place to meet people and, [00:33:00] and make contacts. It was very good for that. And yeah, so like the 10 to 12 photographers works good for me.

And now if it's guaranteed to be sunny and everybody can be outside running around, we could probably do 20 easy, but I always try to think, well, what if it rains? if it's raining, I gotta have the ability for 20 people to shoot. And really, I can only do about 12 at all the inside things where everybody is comfortable and not stepping on each other.

So that's kind of what I base it on. But, you know, it just gives you options that way. And I probably think too much. I was told I think too much that way, but I don't know. I wouldn't want to go to an event and have it rain and 20 people all try to shoot in 15 spots, you know, and it wouldn't be cool.

Matthew Holliday: Yeah, I understand that. 

Artistic Edge RJC: I want to make sure the models [00:34:00] make money. I used to just try to have like five to seven models, but then a couple of photographers told me. They would like to see more models and I told them, well, if you want more models, you got to spend more money. And none of them seem to have a problem with that.

So year we're probably going to have 10 to 12 models here for the May one. We'll see how it works. It'll be our biggest one. And at this point, we've got the most photographers we've ever had signed up. And I'm probably going to have to stop signups before the event. So that's a good thing, I think,

Matthew Holliday: yeah.

Artistic Edge RJC: but yeah, so. We'll see where we go with this one.

Matthew Holliday: Yeah, that's, yeah, because I don't know, on one hand, the, having them match one to one is nice, but I'm just thinking back to when I went to MegaGlam last year and the year before. I didn't schedule myself for the [00:35:00] entire day because I wanted to, you know, go get lunch and,

Artistic Edge RJC: Oh, yeah.

Matthew Holliday: and take a break. And if they're, if you're matched one to one, it can get a little weird.

Artistic Edge RJC: Yeah, and I tried to tell the girls that too that it's hard to match it up because you're gonna get some guys are gonna Come and shoot with three four people and then you're gonna get some guys want to shoot with everybody And you know, I don't know. It's Yeah, it's a tricky balance. I haven't quite learned to balance yet.

Not gonna lie to you. It's a work in progress So yeah, and I take all suggestions I may not agree with the suggestion, but I'm going to listen to it and put it in the back of my mind, you know? But yeah, so we're going to try it this way and see what happens. And always making adjustments.

Matthew Holliday: So how do you choose which models to bring on? Do you reach out to them? Do you put out a call for models [00:36:00] and select from the ones that apply? How does that work?

Artistic Edge RJC: Really. It's girls that work with me. Like, yeah, I've had several models reach out to me and I want to come to your event. I want to come to your event. Well, I've never shot with you. I'm not going to have you here if I don't know you because The models all stay here. They're in the apartment and they're in my home.

Most of them get here Friday night. Then they're here Saturday night. All day Sunday. Some stay Sunday night. Personalities have to match.

Matthew Holliday: I took a look at the town on the map. I don't, it doesn't look like there's a hotel in that town.

Artistic Edge RJC: oh no. No, the nearest hotel is 20 minutes away over in Punxsutawney. Yes, where the Groundhog is. But no, in Mahaffey, we don't even have a stoplight. So, yeah.

Matthew Holliday: That's funny.

Artistic Edge RJC: But, but that's part of the of the charm of the area. You know, nobody's bothering us here. And like I said, I own everything [00:37:00] around me here. And the people I rent to, they know if you look out your window and you see something you don't like,

Matthew Holliday: Close your window.

Artistic Edge RJC: curtains are moved.

You have two closets. And they're told that when they move in.

Matthew Holliday: That's hilarious.

Artistic Edge RJC: to walk outside and see something you don't think you should see, turn around, walk back in your house. And if you don't like it, pack your car. You don't have to stay.

We all get along well that way. Yeah. So I tell, I tell everyone. entertainment when there aren't models in town is we walk outside and we kick stumps. So we're just stump kickers around here.

Matthew Holliday: Whatever makes you happy.

Artistic Edge RJC: Well, you know, you either kick stumps or step in bullshit if you walk too far across the road.

Matthew Holliday: Yeah. Yeah. I'd rather kick thumps myself. So,

Artistic Edge RJC: Yep.

Matthew Holliday: all right. How about screening photographers?

Artistic Edge RJC: You get a, you get an open, an open, clean slate when you come. I've never had to, you know, tell somebody they can't [00:38:00] come back. Talk to everybody. I explain what we're about, what we do. Be on your best behavior. Treat people with the respect you want. Respect my place the way I would respect your place. And we'll all get along fine.

Now if you happen to do something here that's not acceptable, then I can't have you back. But, you know, I don't, I don't pre, pre judge anyone that way. You, you gotta clean slate until you put a mark on when you get here. That's kinda how that works. Now there are, there are some people I won't allow here because They've just said some things about me in the past and they don't even know me.

So, you know what? I can't say I won't let them come. They may have to pay double. But, you know, I'll keep an open mind because it all comes down to the money side, right?

Matthew Holliday: Yeah,

Artistic Edge RJC: But yes, we've never really had an issue that way. But [00:39:00] if we do, I'll handle it. That's what I'm paid for.

Matthew Holliday: yeah,

Artistic Edge RJC: I, I try not to, to go by the rumors you hear, cause, I've said, my dad taught me this from the time I was little. There are two sides to every story, and somewhere in between those two stories is the truth. So, just, you gotta figure it out on your own.

Matthew Holliday: yeah. All right. Do you still attend any other events or now that you're running your own? Do you just basically just run with that?

Artistic Edge RJC: Last year I didn't attend any. I, I would like to attend some again. I go down to like the HM Photography things. I've become friends with David over the years. You know, he's been nothing but great to me. He's the one that introduced me to Patreon and stuff. Guy changed my life that way. And I'll occasionally, I've went to Orlando on one of his getaway trips before and stuff.[00:40:00] 

So, you know, I don't plan on going to a lot. But when I go, not if, but when I go, it's probably gonna be HM events.

Matthew Holliday: Interesting. I've never been to an event like that, like a destination event. I was talking with, like I said, Pam fields I talked to her last week, although in podcast time, when people hear it, it'll be a month ago. And she was talking about shutter fest and stuff like that. So what did. What did, what are you specifically looking to get out of when you go to events like that?

Cause I looked, I just looked at his website and it doesn't look like it's glamor stuff. It looks like it's more generic general photography.

Artistic Edge RJC: Who? HM? Oh, no, he's Glamour. Yeah,

Matthew Holliday: Okay. I must be looking at the wrong HM. Cause if you search HM photography, all

Artistic Edge RJC: no, you want to look at David Moser.

Matthew Holliday: right, he came up first.

Oh, okay. So if I go to Dave Moser, all right. Yeah. So the first I go to David Moser, it does look, there's a, there's a woman in a bathing suit on the front [00:41:00] page. So yeah, that is definitely more on the, but HM photography official on Instagram is totally not, it must be somebody else.

Artistic Edge RJC: Can't, he's like HM photography. Sometimes it's 6ix9ine. He's been kicked off Instagram several times. I think it's David Moser is HM, it's something like that. But yeah.

Matthew Holliday: No worries. I see it now. Like Epic pool and mansion shoots Orlando spring event, Orlando fall event.

Artistic Edge RJC: Yep.

Matthew Holliday: Oh, it looks like, Oh, this is wild. A 14, 000 square foot mansion.

Artistic Edge RJC: Oh Oh that, that place is something. I've, I've recommended it to several people. It's Yeah, it's a good time down there. And yeah, you're not crowded at that. But funny story on that. We were there. I think we were there like four days. And the last night we were there, me and the one girl that [00:42:00] I'm friends with and, you know, she comes here quite a bit.

We were just walking around talking and she goes, I wonder what's in that room. Is that a storage room or something? I said, I don't know. We opened up. It was a full arcade. We were there for four days and nobody knew there was a full arcade in the place. We were in there playing Pac Man and all kinds of stuff.

Matthew Holliday: That's hilarious.

Artistic Edge RJC: But yeah, there's movie theaters in the place and all kinds of stuff. They have bowling alleys, all kinds of things in those places.

Matthew Holliday: Interesting. That's wild. That is definitely a much higher end. I'm looking at it now. I was like 4, 000 for four

Artistic Edge RJC: not cheap to go.

Matthew Holliday: Yeah, but it includes six hours of shooting.

So he's doing the opposite of what you're doing. You're doing, I'm basically just organizing you guys here and providing a venue and you work with the model directly and he's doing, nope, I am doing all of it. Pre all of it prearranged and prepaid for

Artistic Edge RJC: Yeah, now down there, prepaid for shoots are all just [00:43:00] bikini. There's nothing more than that. If you want more than that, you have to pay.

Matthew Holliday: interesting.

Artistic Edge RJC: Yeah, but it's kind of like a vacation. Yeah, that's how you kind of have to look at it. It's a, it's a vacation that you get to hang out with hot women.

Matthew Holliday: I mean, 4, 000 for four days is not, not the worst I've seen.

Artistic Edge RJC: Yeah, it's acceptable when, when you look at the company you keep.

Matthew Holliday: All right. As a photographer, how do you find these events? I've just, the reason that I'm asking is I've occasionally stumbled on a few on Ig, but I haven't figured out like a solid way to find the ones that match my interests.

Artistic Edge RJC: See, I don't know that I struggle with promotion because really how I ended up going to the HM when the very first time was a model I was friends with reached out to me and said, Hey. You ought to go to this. This would [00:44:00] be great for what you're doing. And that's how I got there. Like the, the mega glam we talked about a girl I had shot with messaged me and said, Hey, I'm going to this event.

You ought to come to it. I went to two other events. I've went to one. I won't mention the guy's name because I do not like that individual, but a girl I knew said, Hey, I'm going to this event. You should come. That's how I ended up there. Then another one down your way Josh Triggs, he does events and stuff occasionally and a girl reached out to me that was going to one of his and said, Hey, you ought to come down here.

This fits what you do. It would be great for you. And that's how I ended up there one time. So, really, the only ways I've ever went to events that other people put together is yeah. A model I knew was going and told me you should go. So as [00:45:00] far as finding them, I don't know. Now, like me, I, I have an email list that I've accumulated over the years.

It's a lot of photographers and members of Patreon and members of my website and stuff. And it's got close 900 people on it now. And I email alerts out on stuff all the time. And then I just put it on Instagram and things, but really it's the models that, that seem to be able to, to bring photographers.

Matthew Holliday: Interesting.

Artistic Edge RJC: And what I've started to do now is, I give the models, if they get a photographer, they get a cut of the sign up fee.

Matthew Holliday: Yeah, I saw, I saw somebody recently asked me, I think last time I went to MegaGlam, I had a model ask me if she could, if I could be the person she was bringing. Cause I think there was, they said something about Stace Bernard was expecting them to bring a photographer or something.[00:46:00] 

Artistic Edge RJC: Yeah, I mean, I don't expect anybody to, but Yeah, I, I have one model, she's gotten me several photographers for this event, and she thinks it's pretty cool, cause she'll just all of a sudden have some money in her PayPal, and she's like, hey, did somebody sign up? I said, yep, they told me it was you. And, like she said, I can't believe these other girls aren't getting photographers for you, because I like it, I'm making money for just saying, hey, you should go. But yeah, so, I don't know what the magic formula is. If I could find it, I'd certainly use it, but I just haven't stumbled across it yet.

Matthew Holliday: Yeah. Oh, well,

Artistic Edge RJC: If I do find out though, I'll let you know.

Matthew Holliday: I

Artistic Edge RJC: For a small fee. No, I'm just kidding. Yep,

Matthew Holliday: worth it if it was a, it was a good method. All right. When you're going to event, how do you decide on how much gear to bring? You, are you a pack [00:47:00] rat? Do you load up like carts or you go light and fast with like one light?

Artistic Edge RJC: I travel very light and actually, I started using like LED lights that are always on, you know, just,

Matthew Holliday: Oh

Artistic Edge RJC: Instead of using flashes and stuff with those, because I can slap a couple batteries on them, take them, light it up. I'm not at events looking for, wow, that's a banger of a photo. No, I'm there more just to meet people, get to know them, you know, get a shoot in that I can throw on my Patreon or something, but I'm not really looking for anything.

I'm more just there to make connections. So I call it super light because I've seen people like down at that pool shoot, the wind blew and a guy had everything fall over. He lost his computer, [00:48:00] an expensive light, all kinds of stuff,

Matthew Holliday: Oof.

Artistic Edge RJC: smash, crash, splash. And he was done for the weekend. And I just don't want to, don't want to have to carry stuff around, move around.

Basically, when I go to an event, I take, well, I have a couple cameras in the car for backups, but I walk in with a camera, two standalone lights that I can carry around and that's it because I like to move around and I just don't want to have to I don't want to carry all that stuff.

Matthew Holliday: Yeah, I, like I said, last time, again, I keep going back to the mega glam. I went, I've been twice and both times I brought more stuff than I used. I ended up just basically setting up one light with a, with a, you know, whatever, sometimes a soft box, sometimes a strip box with wheels and just rolling it around.

Yeah. I

Artistic Edge RJC: there though, so. [00:49:00] LAUGHS

Matthew Holliday: me. No. Yeah. Cause a big part of it too, is like, I don't want to. Like if you have, you know, 45 minutes to an hour with somebody, you don't want to like, all right, now I'm going to spend 10 minutes setting up my lights to get them perfect. And

Artistic Edge RJC: That's, that's exactly right. Where I can run to a different spot. We can shoot for 10 minutes, move to another spot in 30 seconds, I'm ready to shoot again.

Matthew Holliday: yeah.

Artistic Edge RJC: I just change my camera settings a little bit. For where we're at, turn the brightness up or down just a little bit, and I'll make it go.

Matthew Holliday: And especially since you're, Oh, sorry.

Artistic Edge RJC: I just, I try to just find a way to make it work for that day. I'm not there saying, well I have to shoot this with this and that. Nah, that's not what those are meant for.

Matthew Holliday: Yeah. I yeah, I'm definitely leaning more that way. The more experience they get for sure.

Artistic Edge RJC: See I used to go to a lot of workshops down at David's, and he always laughed and he told everybody, he said, one thing about [00:50:00] Jeremy, when he shows up, he shows up with his camera in his hand and a bag of ice for the beer. And that's it. He don't bring anything else. I'm like, no, why do I want to bring a bunch of crap to your house?

You know?

Matthew Holliday: That's hilarious. And I also imagine for what you're trying to do and what you're trying to tell, like people aren't asking for, you know, super complex lighting and perfect hair highlights and stuff like that.

Artistic Edge RJC: No, that's just, that's just the stuff you post on social media. No, they're, they're not there for, for your expertise in things like that. mean, you gotta, you gotta know how to do it and, you know. But, yeah, they're, they're not there for, for that purpose.

Matthew Holliday: Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, with that, let's transition to kind of our final topic on the website and monetization. So you, it looks like you mentioned, you mentioned your Patreon a couple of times. And I noticed something specific about your Patreon. One of your selling points, you commented [00:51:00] about posting of unedited sets.

When you say unedited, do you mean uncensored? Or do you mean like unedited straight from the camera?

Artistic Edge RJC: They're straight from the camera. The higher up you buy, you get them straight off the camera. You see what I see.

Matthew Holliday: So people really like that?

Artistic Edge RJC: Yes. Yes, they do. I didn't know that. I hate to keep bringing David's name up, but he's been very influential for me. I mean, and he's one of my better friends in this. And yeah, he sat me down at his place when I, one of the first times I was there. And I had a website, and this was before OnlyFans. And my website was like 10 bucks to join and you'd get some edited pictures and stuff and he, he had seen it and we were talking and he said, why do you want me 10 bucks?

He said, your stuff's worth more than a happy meal. And I was like, yeah, never really thought about it. And then I got talking to him and I got doing [00:52:00] Patreon. And then I said to him one day, I said, how do you keep up with all the editing for all the tiers? He goes, what are you talking about? I said, like, how do you edit enough pictures to get He goes, what are you editing for?

These guys don't want to see your editing ability. They're not spending five hundred and a thousand dollars to see if you edited a picture well. They don't give a damn about the edits. And that's when I found out that people really just want the unedited sets. And they want to see what you see. It's like that POV type feeling.

They want to know what went on.

Matthew Holliday: You know, I'm sorry.

Artistic Edge RJC: once I started to, to post the sets, a lot of the people that buy in and stuff, that's what they said that they would much rather just see the set. They don't care what I edit when they're spending that kind of money. They want to see, see what all went on.

Matthew Holliday: So that is so interesting to [00:53:00] me for a couple of reasons. Number one I recently started selling Polaroids on eBay and. I did just something that I kind of tried at MegaGlam cause I saw that somebody said they would sell and they have sold a little bit, you know, enough to make it worth doing in the future, but that's kind of the same feeling cause it's more.

That's more of the realistic versus the fantasy. Like if you consider like Playboy and penthouses, like the fantasy, the super edited or super edited, super glamorous, super polished

Artistic Edge RJC: Yeah. 

Matthew Holliday: versus real. 

Artistic Edge RJC: if you look at like only fans and stuff like that, those girls aren't posting edited pictures.

Matthew Holliday: Right.

Artistic Edge RJC: Selfies and things they're taking with their phones, phone videos, and that's what guys want. They want that, that personal feeling.

Matthew Holliday: And it's all right. So I'm gonna have to remember that. Cause I just, cause again, at mega glam, I decided to try and create some actual sets to sell on like that box. And I've just been sitting there like going through and I'm like, Oh God, when am I going to edit these 50 photos [00:54:00] from this one set? And I see now that I'm probably just doing it all wrong.

I just need to export them and see if that does anything.

Artistic Edge RJC: it's, it's worked tremendous for me, and what a time saver, too.

Matthew Holliday: I know. I know. I hate editing so much. It's my least favorite thing about this whole process. I don't mind editing a few for, you know, social media and stuff and like portfolio, but yeah, trying to edit like 200 pictures, it's a

Artistic Edge RJC: No, no, that's, that's not fun for anyone. Yeah, no, it's And like I said, my members like it that way. now like I do videos and stuff like that. And in the beginning, oh yeah, you got to add music to the video and oh, you got to have an opening and this and that. Wow. Did I get a lot of complaints over that? Oh no, no. They did not want that. And one of my expensive [00:55:00] high tier members said to me. Hey, look, videos are great. And you've got things that I've never seen anybody else have of girls, you know, certain girls and stuff he goes. But you got to stop that music shit. He goes, I want to hear the slop and slosh.

I don't want to hear that music. And so, yeah, I kind of found out, nope, that the less is more with that. The more you try to make it professional and stuff, they don't want that. Nope. They want to see what you see. They want to feel they're right there. And yeah, it makes it a lot easier.

Matthew Holliday: Yeah. 100 percent going to have to remember that. Interesting. All right. See, I'm, this is why I'm doing this. I'm not, you know, listeners, whatever. I don't care. Like I'm here to learn.

Artistic Edge RJC: Oh, yeah, I, I try, I don't keep anything from anyone. I'll tell anyone anything because that's the only way I ever learned was people had to tell me and, you know, [00:56:00] yeah, and I don't listen to a lot of people but luckily I listened to that that day. And, yeah, it's, it's worked out well, but like the Patreon thing.

If you looked at my page, I have a lot of tiers and a lot of really expensive tiers. And you're buying a library when you're buying the higher tiers and stuff. So, you're not just buying a couple pictures. No, you're getting, you know, if you buy the 3, 500 tier, you're getting over a thousand videos and probably over a million pictures.

You're getting all kinds of stuff. So, you're buying a whole library of stuff where You know, when you're editing stuff and trying to do videos, this and that, you're not getting all that. You're,

Matthew Holliday: Yeah. Yeah. I guess, I guess that's the question. Like, do you want 10 or 15 edited video or edited pictures or do you want [00:57:00] 150 unedited?

Artistic Edge RJC: And these guys, when they're paying the money that, that I charge, yeah, they want, they want more and they want them unedited.

Matthew Holliday: Interesting. That's so interesting. Awesome.

Artistic Edge RJC: But I'm sold on that, that charging more and doing that because, you know, do you want your stuff getting given away? If you sell it cheap, nobody values it. They're gonna give it to their bodies, they're gonna post it online, and just gonna get the standard thing that everybody does. Where, if you're expensive, and you value it, and it's only certain people are gonna see it, it makes a difference that way. As it was explained to me, you're looking for the unicorns. You want the stuff that nobody else has. And, really the only way you're gonna get that is [00:58:00] If you're gonna sell it really high that people like me can't buy it And and i'm cool with that and yeah, it works well that way

Matthew Holliday: all right. I am, I'm definitely taking, definitely taking some notes. All right. So you mentioned Patrion a couple of times. Now we talked about why you don't have an only fans, but there's other options like bent box and mini vids and stuff like that. Why'd you pick Patrion?

Artistic Edge RJC: because you can sell a library through it

Matthew Holliday: So this is, yeah, it's your whole business model is a library rather than individual stuff.

Artistic Edge RJC: Yeah, I don't want to sell a set like i've seen people with bent boxes. They'll sell a set for fifteen dollars 24 no, i'm not selling you my sets for 24. I'm i'm just not That's not what I do. And I don't want everybody to be able to have it. that I'm trying to, to be rude, but that's, that's my work.

[00:59:00] And I value my stuff, and I value the, the models I shoot. You know, I was just talking to a girl today about her OnlyFans, and she hasn't put it out to the public, really. And she sent me the link, and I jumped on it, and I messaged her, and I said, girl, we gotta talk. And she was like, do you think I'm too much?

I said, No, what, what's wrong with you? There's nothing of you out there. Why are you putting this stuff out there for seven bucks? Stop it. Take it down. You can't do that. You're worth more than that. Yeah, so hopefully I caught her just in time.

Matthew Holliday: So what I find so interesting about the argument, especially around digital work, is that you're worth that, but on the other hand, the cost of the, so the cost of the first person getting you to pose nude, like the photographer in this instance is, you know. 150 an hour plus. But then the incremental cost of the second [01:00:00] person seeing you, dude, when the photographer shares it is zero. So it's such a, and I get why they do it. They're looking to sell it for as cheap as possible. Cause again, like once they've taken it once they're like, Oh, whatever, you know, number two person paid zero for it, but they could pay seven.

Artistic Edge RJC: yeah, see I look at how I explain it. Are you Walmart or are you Louis Vuitton? Well, I don't want to be Walmart. I mean, I don't want to be Great Value. You know, don't get me wrong, I got Great Value noodles on the shelf behind me here.

Matthew Holliday: yeah,

Artistic Edge RJC: Great Value's fine, it's got its purpose. But I always want that, that high end, you know, You want that Louis Vuitton wallet, you know. Yeah, so, wouldn't you rather be that? Like, Quentin, his dream car right now is a GT R, and he's telling me he's 15 now. I'm getting a GT R when I'm 16. I said, what's one cost? [01:01:00] About 150, 000. Well, dude, you're gonna have to win the lottery. And I said, because, because you're gonna drive that Chrysler that's sitting in the garage out back when you turn 16. But, yeah, not everybody's supposed to have a GT R. That's what makes a GTR so great to have, you know, and yeah, anybody can have a Kia. Well, I don't want my stuff to be a Kia. I want to be a GTR. It's just all how you want to, I don't want to say it's your personal value, but don't know. I value people more than I value 10 bucks.

Matthew Holliday: Yeah.

Artistic Edge RJC: wrong with 10 bucks, but yeah.

Matthew Holliday: No,

it's interesting. I, got a good 10 story if you want to hear a 10 story.

I don't know. How much is it worth? Yeah. Let's tell me there's another story.

Artistic Edge RJC: here's one. And, and I'm not ashamed of anything I've done in life. [01:02:00] You know, I'm not one of those people. say everybody has skeletons in their closet. Nah, I opened the door. I let mine run free. Yeah, that's what it is. But years ago, I went, I knew a girl that ran a strip club and stuff, and they had male dancer day and she needed more male dancers.

And she was like, I need you to come dance. And I'm like, I can't take my clothes off on a stage. And she's like, Oh, you'll be great at it. And somehow she talked me into it. So I ended up in that club and I'm dancing on stage and I got my G string on. And girls are awful in these. Okay. I mean, I'm sure you've been to strip clubs.

Guys can't touch the girls you do. You're getting beat up. You're getting thrown out the door. You're landing on your face while you're banging off the steps. I'm there. And this girl jumps up, reaches up, opens my G string, reaches in with a dollar bill, and [01:03:00] grabs a Holt. And I said, I don't think you're allowed to do that. And she's laughing, her friends are laughing, and she reaches down and grabs a ten dollar bill and sticks it down in there with the other hand and grabs a Holt. And I look down, I said, You know what? For 10 bucks, you can do whatever you want.

Matthew Holliday: We figured out how much my price is.

Artistic Edge RJC: That's right. Now we have to figure out my limitations and I've already said, you can do whatever you want for 10 bucks. So I guess I value these girls that I take pictures of. More than I value myself, but that's okay, you 

Matthew Holliday: Yeah. I mean, that's fairly typical for a lot of people. I think they tend to, they tend to undervalue themselves. I mean, you're just talking about that girl and only fan. She undervalued herself.

Artistic Edge RJC: Yeah. I don't know. I, I see these people as worth more than that, but yeah. So there's my 10 story.

Matthew Holliday: All right. We are getting close to the end. I'm going to, I wanted to, I want to ask, so I did want to ask one more question before we moved on to the final questions. So one of the, [01:04:00] one of the advantages of Patrion you're talking about is it's a more like a library B you're not. Selling access to people for a very low price.

How many sets do you think you really had to have to make the Patreon worth it? Like, is it 50 sets? Is it a hundred sets?

Artistic Edge RJC: See, I asked that in the beginning too, and it was explained to me. Why do you have to have a number? You're the one who decides what your stuff is worth. You might have one video that you think is worth 2, 000. That's what it's worth. There isn't a set number, it's what you think your stuff is worth. that's, that's why I keep adding tiers, because the more stuff I put in, I look, for a while, it's a hundred dollar tier. I looked into one time, and there was a hundred models in the hundred dollar tier. Well, that's not enough, that's way too many. So, I had to move them out, I mean, that's just too [01:05:00] many. You know what trying to say? It's I was undervaluing myself then. So as I keep going on, yeah, you, I don't want to be Sam's club, you know, where he go in and volume by cheap, cheap, but really your volume buying and it is cheaper when you really break it down.

Matthew Holliday: Yeah.

Artistic Edge RJC: But all just depends on what you feel something's worth. Cause I struggled with that in the beginning. I was like, man, I only have this much. I only have this. I only have. And it was explained to me. It's worth what you decide it's worth. There isn't like a checklist guide that you buy every month that says, Oh, hey, this model is worth this price. No, you decide what it's worth.

Matthew Holliday: All right. Well, I think that gets us to the closing segment here. So, and some of the [01:06:00] feedback I got last year, I had somebody suggest that I asked guests on the podcast to recommend other photographers and models that people should follow. And or work with who have you worked with that you would recommend that listeners, the podcast follow and or work with,

Artistic Edge RJC: will go with Brittany Myrie, and she has a YouTube channel, and, yes, I can say, sleeping with Brittany, that's a lot of fun, yeah. That is her, her YouTube channel, and what it means, she does these here, like, Reiki things, and then she does ASMR, or whatever that is, where you're supposed to fall asleep to sounds and stuff like that, but, yes, Brittany Myrie, great to work with.

Chloe, I can't remember what she changed her name to, Chloe something, but it's People's Champ. Great to work with.

Matthew Holliday: is that, is that people's champ on IgE?

Artistic Edge RJC: Yeah. Yeah, and it's with a Z. P P L [01:07:00] Z, then Champ, I think with two P's at the end. She's great. Amelia Forte, A Forte on Instagram. Love her. Kieran James. Great. Yeah, there's lots of them. It's hard to, to pick, like, Ashley Fink's been a favorite of mine for years, but our personalities match, you know, and that's a lot of it for me. If I can sit and have a conversation with you and our personalities match, yeah, you're great for me. But yeah, just a lot of them, and they're all on my website.

All the models I work with are. are on there, and I don't want to say I rank them by my favorites, but I might rank them by my favorites on the list there, so, you know, when you're looking down through, you're gonna see, you know, and that doesn't mean the ones at the bottom I didn't like, it's just, yeah,

Matthew Holliday: I will say that,

Artistic Edge RJC: personalities don't [01:08:00] mix.

Matthew Holliday: yeah, I will say that I really liked your website where you had the list of all the models you've worked with on the front page and link to their IgE.

Artistic Edge RJC: Yeah, yep,

Matthew Holliday: So that is

Artistic Edge RJC: can't link them all, I linked some of them, but there's some I got a little lazy, but yeah, I mean, You gotta show who you work with. I don't trust social medias anymore. Geez, I've been kicked off of several of them. So, you can lose that in a blink of an eye.

Matthew Holliday: Yeah, I, yeah, I've, I've definitely noticed that social media has gotten me in contact with some models and photographers, but it doesn't really seem to affect the downloads on the podcast very much. I'll wait a couple of days after the podcast comes out and I'll put up a social media post saying, you know, the podcast is out, go here and link.

And there's no appreciable increase in downloads from that.

Artistic Edge RJC: Now, see, that's what, like, my nephew and I have a little YouTube channel spending the day with Q and J. We interview models that are here and stuff like that. And, yeah, that's how we are. He thought, he just [01:09:00] couldn't wait till I put it on my Instagram that's got, like, 28, 000 followers. He was like, man, we're gonna get so many views.

I think we got three. He was like, this sucks. I'm like, it's just how it works, man. I

Matthew Holliday: in a niche like this, like the only way you can get a ton of downloads with an itch like this is if you really lean into the horny side of it. And

Artistic Edge RJC: think. Yeah.

Matthew Holliday: yeah, and I've definitely heard from the people that actually really listen to the podcast and really care about it.

They're like, no, we're not interested. Like focus on the business and the photography side. And also looking at the metrics, I found that a lot of people that find the website, looking for the horny stuff. I had a, I had a model on, I don't remember what her name was, someone, someone I interviewed in season one, she got me hundreds and hundreds of like search results because people were looking for her name plus NSFW, but they only stayed on the website for less than five minutes because all they cared about was.

Nudes. They did [01:10:00] not want to listen to a podcast. They didn't care about the content.

Artistic Edge RJC: Yeah. Pros and cons, right?

Matthew Holliday: yep. Yep. So I've decided to stick with the smaller the smaller niche audience, but that are a lot more passionate and don't listen to five minutes and leave.

Artistic Edge RJC: Yeah. And I didn't know, you know, things like that mattered until we got to doing that little YouTube channel and Quentin was showing me. Dude. They're only watching like two minutes. We got to be more entertaining in the beginning. So they watch So, yeah, we I i've been learning a lot about that. Yeah

Matthew Holliday: Well, I hate all this social media stuff. Hate it with a passion.

Artistic Edge RJC: But it's a necessary evil. I mean in the big time it is I I have a lot of a lot of models who complain to me. I hate ig. I hate ig I hate twitter. I hate or x or whatever it is. And I said, hey just swallow your pride and roll with it because It's a necessary evil. [01:11:00] It's their platform. They'll run it how they want.

You have to follow the rules. You don't have to agree with them, but if you want to do this You kind of got to be involved in it.

Matthew Holliday: Speaking of have you found any of the social media sites to be really good for finding people or just, and so just Instagram.

Artistic Edge RJC: Really? I just use instagram a lot.

Matthew Holliday: Gotcha.

Artistic Edge RJC: Like I said, I get so frustrated with that x I I just can't yeah

Matthew Holliday: Yeah. Fair enough. Fair enough. All right. Jeremy, do you have any projects you'd like folks to be aware of?

Artistic Edge RJC: Well, we do some artwork and stuff that's for sale on the website I don't know if you saw that on there or not, but

Matthew Holliday: I did. That was one of the questions we didn't have time to get to. So I'm glad you, glad you mentioned it.

Artistic Edge RJC: Yeah, we We let the girls lather up in paint, and then, they, Wap their boobs, and, Wap their vaginas down on some, Canvas, and, They are one of a kind prints, [01:12:00] And, they are the, There, there's no recreation of it, It is the, the actual print, Of it, right there, and, Yeah, sometimes there's even remnants Of things that remain in the paint, But we're not gonna talk too much about that.

Matthew Holliday: Oh my, oh boy.

Artistic Edge RJC: And yeah, so they're on there, and go check them out, cause some of them are pretty detailed. They're, they're interesting. And they make for great shower videos to put on Patreon, so, hint hint.

Matthew Holliday: That's interesting. All right. The, the hot AF weekend. Do you think this, this podcast is going to come out on April 1st? Do you think signups will be full?

Artistic Edge RJC: Well I would hope, but I don't anticipate it, no, cause, you know, you always hit that lull. Where, when you first announce, people sign up right away, then you go through that lull, and then you get to where it's getting close, and then people who waited, [01:13:00] Yeah, I'm gonna go. Yeah, I can see that that's actually gonna be the lineup.

Cause, as you know, the lineup always changes. You, you're gonna get people bailing out, and you, you replace it, but once you get a little closer, then it, it seems to settle in. But yeah, and, I haven't ever told anybody, no, you can't come, and, I say I, I, I'm gonna limit, but boy if you hold that, that sign up fee in front of my face, eh, you know, we've already established I can be bought for 10 bucks, so I'm probably not gonna take that sign up fee down.

Matthew Holliday: Yeah. Sounds about right. Sounds about right. All right. Well where can everyone find you online?

Artistic Edge RJC: Well, you can find me at artisticedgerjc. com. You can find me on Patreon, that's artisticedgerjc, and on Instagram, [01:14:00] artisticedgerjc, and we also have a Hot AF Model Weekends page on Instagram, and yeah, I have a lot of pages on a lot of different things. I don't stay real active on all of them, but I try to stay active on, on the Instagram and Patreon I'm always active on, and I keep the website updated, so yeah, those are the places to, to really find out what's going on event wise and stuff is the website, and sign up for the emails, because I send out, ah, five, six Emails a month and that's how people you get the heads up on things on those.

Matthew Holliday: All right. Awesome. And with that, we're done. You can find us at the NSFW photography podcast. com on Twitter is at NSFW photography, Instagram at the NSFW photography podcast. And we have a mastodon instance at NSFW photography dot social that is dedicated to new and adult photography. And it's currently pissing me off because I tried to [01:15:00] upgrade it last weekend and broke it and had to go back to a backup.

It's definitely being being a pain in the butt, but Hey, there's no, there's no very little moderation and content censoring there. The downside is very low discoverability. And finally subscribe on your favorite podcast app.

Artistic Edge RJC: Everything takes time, right?

Matthew Holliday: Yeah. Everything takes time.