donttrustfrankiemarin

[donttrustfrankiemarin]

Don’t Trust Frankie Marin

The morning air was crisp, my hotel room still dark. I woke up early so we could shoot with the sun rising through his Brooklyn apartment windows. I gathered every piece of clothing I could, being careful to bring different textures along with a cute bra and underwear set. I had known Frankie Marin for over a year at this point (2015), although our relationship completely existed online. My partner at the time had known Frankie Marin for years and their relationship grew over the internet as well. We found similarities in the fact that we were all Texans and creatives, with Frankie Marin being the most successful of us all, both my partner and I looked up to Frankie Marin.

Frankie Marin and I agreed that we would meet up, I would model for him and these boudoir type photos would be a gift for my boyfriend. That’s what I thought I was getting into, and Frankie Marin seemed friendly enough in person. I told myself, he’s a professional, he works with real models everyday so I reassured myself I was in good hands. The shoot seemed to go well, I recognize I’m a relatively average looking woman, but Frankie Marin made sure to compliment me and help me pose. At this moment, I felt good about how the shoot was going.

We started with outfits with big slouchy sweaters, stockings, cute underwear. As I continued to take more (clothing) off (Frankie made sure I was ok with this), again I thought, he’s a professional, he does this all the time, I trust him and his work. We kept taking photos until I was completely nude laying out on his bed. I remember he kept asking me to arch my back more and more, while raising my butt up into the air. I felt as though my back was going to break, but he insisted it would make for an amazing photo. I felt him get closer to my body, shooting my private parts extremely, extremely close up. At one point he was leaning on his bed with his camera pointed directly behind me up at my vagina. I wondered what on earth he felt the need to get THAT close for but again I trusted he was getting “good” work that my boyfriend would love. 

We wrapped up and left his apartment so he could go to work and I could go back to my vacation in NYC. He asked a few uncomfortable questions about my relationship with my boyfriend, but they were so personal I thought surely he was just invested in our relationship as he has built a relationship with us both for years. He told me he would have the photos edited soon and send them over, he promised.

Later that night he started messaging me as he began editing the photos, saying how well I modeled and posed. He sent the heart eye emojis over and over again, I was stoked! Over the next few weeks I received 2 photos, both of them my private parts were covered, and they were great quality, but I knew we had taken at least over 200 shots, and I wanted to see more. 

I asked him the next month if he knew when he would have them done. He said soon.

I asked him the following month, I told him I would pay him, I would take the raw images, I would do anything. At this point my boyfriend was going to receive his gift late for Valentines Day.

At first I was disappointed, I felt as though a friend hadn’t kept their word. 

Over the years thinking back on this, I feel stupid. How did I not see what I was walking into? He never touched me. He never asked to touch me. But I had no idea. I had no idea I was about to be taken advantage of by a photographer. It had never happened to me before, I had no idea how careful I needed to be. And certainly being a young 20 year old, being photographed by a professional photographer, I felt complimented.

The reason I wrote this story is because I don’t want another girl to be taken advantage by Frankie Marin. While he is a talented photographer, and seemingly kind person, I don’t think he has the right intentions to be working with females day in and day out. These stories continue to happen, models continue to be taken advantage of by photographers who claim they are “professional”. If you would like to share a story with me on something similar or specifically with Frankie Marin please email me at - donttrustfrankiemarin at gmail.com