Q: Misa, what’s happening to authenticity today?
A: People no longer ask, “Is it true?”, they ask, “Is it approved?”
Agencies, algorithms, and brands have replaced instinct with permission.
The result?
Images that are flawless but lifeless, curated to death.
This post is not about rebellion; it’s about remembering who gets to decide when we are real.
Yesterday, I received a polite message, the kind that says a lot more than it intends.
A young woman I invited to take part in a portrait session wrote:
“My agency advised me not to move forward. I only take paid partnerships now, and I need to retain the right to approve any use of photos.”
It was written with kindness. But beneath the kindness lies a distortion, one that reveals how far the “image industry” has drifted from the idea of authorship.
The Death of Understanding
Once upon a time, an agency existed to protect the dignity and exposure of an artist.
Today, most exist to protect exposure as a product.
They no longer manage images, they manage fear.
Fear of losing control.
Fear of being associated with something real.
Fear that a photograph might say something the algorithm cannot measure.
When a person can’t decide to participate in an honest artistic act without permission from an agency, we are no longer talking about representation.
We’re talking about curated obedience.
The Myth of “Paid Partnerships”
The phrase paid partnership has become the new religion of self-worth, a digital dogma that equates price with value.
But not everything that pays has meaning, and not everything meaningful pays.
When someone says, “I only do paid collaborations,” what they often mean is:
“I am no longer allowed to act outside the logic of monetization.”
That’s not protection, it’s captivity.
The agency doesn’t guard your image; it rents it out in small, controlled doses, until even you forget what authenticity looked like.
What Agencies Forgot
Managing an image is not about permission, it’s about context.
The right question is not “Who owns this picture?”
The right question is “What does this picture say, and does it tell the truth?”
In I DO ME, no one is used.
No one is sold.
No one is photoshopped into an ideal they didn’t choose.
The portrait exists as a document of being, not a campaign.
But most agencies don’t know how to manage being.
They only know how to manage visibility.
And visibility without truth is just marketing, a showroom for hollow selves.
The Tragedy of Overmanagement
When you outsource your right to decide what is authentic, you stop being a person, you become a brand.
And a brand, by definition, cannot be vulnerable.
The irony?
Every algorithm now hungers for what only the human can offer: imperfection, unpredictability, emotion.
But the agencies built to protect you from risk are the same ones that sterilize your reality.
They forget: a portrait is not a product.
It’s a moment of truth, suspended between two people.
No agency, no contract, no commercial logic can reproduce that.
Final Reflection
To the person who wrote that message, I hold no resentment.
Your words were honest, and I respect that.
But I wish your agency understood the difference between exposure and expression.
An agency can manage your schedule.
It can protect your fees.
But it should never dictate when you are allowed to be human.
That part is yours.
Always.
MISA
