COSTA MESA : Scantily Clad Models in Park Spark Debate

The city is reconsidering regulations on permits issued to companies that use city parks for photo sessions after residents complained that scantily clad models were seen in TeWinkle Park.

The Parks, Recreation Facilities and Parkways Commission voted 4 to 2 to withhold permits for the photo sessions while the city staff comes up with tighter restrictions on models’ clothing during photo sessions permitted in the parks. The panel will also consider the question of how often parks should be used for that purpose.

An ordinance proposal will then be sent to the City Council for consideration.

“It was a victory for what we were trying to do,” said Yolanda Davila, who led the opposition to the photo sessions. “Now we have to see what kind of ordinance they will draft.”

Rocky Forguson, founder of San Diego-based Glamour Photographers International, who arranged the photo sessions with amateur photographers and models, said he plans to work with the city to come up with a definition of acceptable clothing for the models.

“It’s going to be kind of difficult because we may think an outfit might not look too bad and (opponents) may have a different opinion,” Forguson said.

The city has issued quarterly permits since 1988 to GPI, which holds similar photo sessions at parks in Orange and Fullerton and occasionally at Cypress College.

“It’s for (the models’) portfolios so they don’t have to pay someone to do it, and the photographers are also learning,” Forguson said, adding that male and female models pose, as well as families with children. A session in November attracted 120 photographers and about 50 models, including several women clad in swimsuits, he said.

Davila said she happened upon one of the photo shoots last August when she and some friends decided to spend a Sunday afternoon at TeWinkle Park.

“All of a sudden we were surrounded by these men and all these models, some in short skirts but most of them in swimsuits,” she said. “I just thought, ‘What’s going on?’ ”

To support her claims, Davila started bringing her own camera to the photo sessions and photographing the photographers aiming their cameras at the models. One of her photos shows a young boy sitting on the grass while a scantily clad woman is being photographed by several men.

“This is where they start getting their ideas when they’re at a young age. They sat down and were staring at the girls instead of riding their bicycles,” Davila said.

Commission Chairman Rus Purcell said he opposed the wording of the commission’s recommendation but that he is not against reconsidering the permits for the photo days. But he said the board was put in an awkward position of trying to decide what is appropriate clothing for city parks and how city policy can govern that.