A popular celebrity photographer who cut his teeth shooting the likes of Kim Kardashian and Ariana Grande has been accused of predatory behaviour after allegedly demanding nude pictures from a model in exchange for a photoshoot.
Los Angeles-based model and student, Sunnaya Nash, took screenshots of her disturbing exchange with 32-year-old photographer Marcus Hyde on Instagram. The evidence shows Hyde planned to charge the model US$2,000 for photos - unless she sent him nude pictures.
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Nash responded to Hyde's Instagram 'casting call' on Sunday. As the two begin conversing through the app, Hyde allegedly suggests a nude photoshoot and asks for nude pictures of Nash before agreeing to work with her. She replies: "I don't have nude photos. I'm comfortable shooting lingerie and partial nudity."
"It's 2k then," Hyde responds.
"But nude is free?" the model asks.
"Ya," he says.
Nash then concedes, saying she doesn't mind modelling nude but won't send him any nude pictures before the photoshoot.
Hyde reiterates the shoot will cost her $2000.
"Because I won't send you nudes of myself before shooting?" Nash asks.
"Yeah, gotta see if you're worth it," says Hyde.
The exchange finishes with Hyde telling her to find someone else, and he'll "keep shooting celebs".
Nash exposed Hyde's behaviour on her Instagram story, which was picked up by Instagram 'fashion watchdog' account Diet Prada.
"What transpired in their DM [direct messages] was nothing short of the typical predatory douchebaggery you'd expect via shady Instagram "castings" by slimey dudes," Diet Prada wrote.
Since Nash shared her exchange with the popular photographer, who has over a million followers on the photo-sharing platform, a number of other models have come forward with their own allegations about Hyde.
Model Kate Rose subsequently shared her experience with the photographer alongside screengrabs of email evidence dating back to 2014. The emails show Rose reaching out to Hyde for a free test shoot.
"Send me some digital/snapshots (very simple) of your face without makeup then body shots without anything, so I can see your figure. I have limited time so I just want to make sure it's worth my time to do a free test shoot," Hyde replies.
"We're coming for you now, this is what happens after years of preying on innocent models," Rose wrote on her Instagram story alongside the email evidence.
This isn't the first time Hyde has been accused of predatory behaviour. In January 2018 a model named Charlie Qu posted a public letter accusing Hyde of raping her in 2012.
A number of other young models reached out to Nash after the exchange went viral. Nash shared their messages on her story but kept the women anonymous. One message claims the model never received her photos because she wouldn't have sex with him.
Popstar Ariana Grande, 26, also put in her two cents surrounding the controversy, unfollowing Hyde's profile and warning models to never work with photographers who make them feel uncomfortable.
Hyde has not publicly responded to the allegations but did delete all photos of his famous clients from his Instagram and made his account private, the Daily Mail reports.
The photographer was gifted US$25,000 by Kim Kardashian and her music mogul husband, Kanye West, after he was in a near-fatal car accident in October 2018.
Newshub.
