A theoretical reflection on modelling and photography arguing that representation retains a residue of organism and that the model’s body mediates power, sexuality and exchange between model and photographer; the essay examines visibility, abjection, commodification, light, shutter and camera in the production of images. The author contrasts photographic and painterly posing, invokes shamanic and erotic imaginaries, and notes accompanying computer illustrations comprising four stages of a necessarily incomplete computer portrait of a mathematical function.