3: Guy with a Camera

Novel.

Hey listeners, this is Ellie Flynn. Before we get started, I just want to let you know that this episode contains swearing and explicit sexual language. It's also a story of female empowerment and camaraderie thanks to the women who have shared their stories with us. We contacted the photographer mentioned in this podcast multiple times for comment, but we never heard back. He has not been charged with any crimes and is presumed innocent under the law. We also

I was eighteen, and I was two months out of high school, and I was in a restaurant having dinner.

She noticed the guy a few tables away staring at her. After a while, he gets up and walks over.

He introduced himself to myself and my mom and invited us Verger's table.

The guy, a photographer named Greg, said he shot for a load of magazines like Vigue, Rolling Stone, and Playboy.

He was shooting a Playboy and he wanted to test me to be in that Playway and I was like, no, absolutely not. I could not take my clothes off. I think I'd seen Playway once in my dad's room. Like that's as much as I knew of it.

Eco's mom was a bit more familiar with Playboy. She knew how getting discovered and featured in the magazine could propel you to superstardom, just like it had for Pamela Anderson.

My mother she saw the opportunity and she said, you're doing this and then I was off.

Soon, Echo was whisked off to Zion National Park in Utah for her first Playboy shoot with Greg, the photographer.

I was good in front of the camera. I was pretty generic. I love the camera.

Echo had done a little bit of local modeling before, catalogs, that sort of thing, but this was different.

Working with the best of the best photographers, makeup, urners, stylus, everything. It was surreal.

It was I was like, Wow, this is cool.

On the shoot, She's surrounded by a dreamy desert landscape of pink sand dunes, epic rock formations, and endless skies.

These beautiful photographs, there's an image of me laying down in the sand and you can see the perfect outline of my body in the sand, and it was just like I was suntanning. Most of the pictures were like that, and it was it was great.

When those beautiful desert photographs were published, they caught the attention of the big guy.

Hugh Hefner saw it and said, I want Echo to Bemis January nineteen ninety three.

Hugh Hefner, the founder and editor in chief of Playboy. He chose Echo to be the centerfold, the model featured in the middle pages of the magazine, the top star on the bill. Huge names have appeared there, Cindy Crawford, Drew Barrymore, Sharon Stone, They've all been centerfold.

So it was like this whirlwind and a matter of two months out of high school, my whole life totally changed.

Echo's career with Playboy made her serious money. Her centerfold appearance earned her twenty grand in nineteen ninety two dollars aka a lot of cash, and that was just the beginning.

I worked nan step for gosh, I want to say, span of like ten years and hanging out on the Playboy yacht and going to premieres and people would recognize me all the time in the airport, on the airplanes, whatever. And you had your you know, loyal fan base, and I mean I was having time in my life.

Even today, having long since left modeling behind, Echo credits all her success to that one lucky day in a New Mexico restaurant when a random photographer noticed her and changed her life forever.

Gosh, I don't know, I don't know what my life would have been. I would have been very different. I know that, just right down to like the level of travel that I was able to do and the calor or people that I was able to meet and work with and have these amazing resources at my fingertips. I'm so grateful for the opportunity and I will always be.

This is the dream that Luis Gomez sells to models today. Work with me and I'll get you in Playboy. Work with me and I'll make you a star. It's an enticing claim. And hey, if Echo being spotted by a random photographer in a restaurant could launch her career. Couldn't that just be a pre internet version of being spotted by Luis Gomes on Instagram today? Well maybe, except that random photographer that echo met that Greg guy. It was Greg Gorman. He's one of the most celebrated American portrait

So, in looking through a bunch of free public record websites, we found out Louise's date of birth and full.

Name Luis Eduardo Gomez Lobo. He's from Venezuela and now lives and works in the US. He's also around sixty, so a lot older than I thought. I'm fascinated by who he is as a person. What was he like when you lived in Venezuela, Who is he and how do you end up becoming this person in your mid to late fifties. Luis Gomez is old enough to have lived multiple lives, including one as a rock star. Once upon a time, Luis was the guitarist for a rock

I guess the.

Labor poor heave.

Horrible well.

Feedback usually stuck to rockier stuff. They weren't afraid of a left field cover choice, oh.

Mister pols Mass.

Such as a version of the Motown hit Please Mister Postman. But even when Luis was living out his rock star dreams, there were rumors. I learned about them from a local journalist who did some digging on the ground in Venezuela. She spoke to a friend in the music industry, and without naming names, said she'd heard about allegations of sexual abuse.

The conversation was something like, if I asked to you about a venezuela and guitarist move away, who comes to your mind? And these musu chan played well, I imagine the feedback guy.

Despite their early promise, feedback never hit the big time. So it seems Louise pursued a load of other ventures in Venezuela. Around the mid two thousands, he moved to Miami, got married, and kept pursuing music. We contacted some people

So I first met Louise Goilmez probably in twenty fifteen, and he was inquiring about private training for photography.

That's Nino Batista. Back in the day. Nino was a big glamor photographer and in the mid twenty tens he was running a side hustle in photography workshops. That's how he and Louise first met.

He was pretty new at photography, like he didn't get it, which is fine, that's what people come to my classes for. And he came out to a lighting worksho a small one, probably about five or six attendees.

That I did at my house.

Nino had booked a few models for the training photographers to shoot, and I.

Did notice that was It's hard to say, but do I remember exactly, No, But do I feel like maybe he was engaging with my models in ways I would consider unprofessional?

Yeah, Nino does remember Louise making some inappropriate comments to the models.

I think a model just kind of gave him a tight liped smile, a little quick back kind of to whatever he said, and I just remember thinking, got to watch this one. Another thing I did notice, as I recall, was he didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the instruction. It kind of fit his sort of archetype that I already pegged him on, which is I just want to show up and shoot girls. Everything was about the girls. Now that's not uncommon. Lots of guys entering the field are like that.

Nino thought Luis was probably a guy with a camera or a GWC. It's a term in the glamor business for someone who, as Nino puts it, just wants to shoot girls.

So the concept of guy with camera GWC is a you know, it's an insulting term, to be clear, okay, and it should.

Be, Nino says. These men are everywhere in glamour, guys who get into photography with zero qualifications, and often not for their love of lighting and lenses.

This is not a new problem men, especially older men, praying on young women. This is a problem going back to the dawn of time.

Think about what it took to call yourself a photographer in the nineties when Echo was breaking onto the scene. All that training, not to mention the professional accolades that Greg Gorman had. Luis Gomez didn't have any of that, but he had the right equipment, a bit of training, and stars in his eyes. After the workshop, Nino says that Luis kept in touch with him enthusiastically via Facebook. He even suggested they have a jam, come.

Over and let's play guitar. You know, we should start a band, and I'm like, no, we shouldn't. Kind of blue sunshine on my butt and said he wants to be like me, he wants to.

Do work like I doe.

Nino was trying to keep his distance. Louise had left a bad taste in his mouth. But the year after the workshop, he says, Louise had news.

He said, Hey, I've.

Got to publication that I've started some small.

Magazine, Universe one three seven magazine. It was self published, several pages of glamor models pictured clothed and in bikinis, along with short articles and interviews. Luis has somehow made the leap from GWC to magazine publisher. At first, I was confused by how someone could just start their own magazine, but Nino tells me that self published magazines are common. They're everywhere in the industry and the Internet is the

In the old days of magazine was a big production, there was a lot of costs involved.

But today it's very different.

That process has become so streamlined and easy. Now you can put together a layout and you can flow some texts and some photos, a couple graphics, cheesy logo, and export PDFs and now you are publishing.

Magazines basically, just like how any guy with a camera can call himself a photographer, any guy with the right software can make a PDF and call it a magazine. Including Luis Gomez. In twenty sixteen alone, he created eight different self published magazines. Today he has even more. On his website, he claims to publish fifteen magazines. So what's the point of making your own magazines? What does that even get you?

It's just ragging rates. Like you know, I run a magazine, and if you're new to the industry, new model, you might think that means a lot more than it does.

It's all about building a reputation to a model. He looked more legit than ever, but that reputation was built on a pile of PDFs. With his self published magazines and a crash course in photography under his belt. Louise is all set, but now he needs models to shoot. I managed to track down a model who shot with him around this time. Jenny's a former glamor model from the States. She's left the industry now, so asked us

He seemed very passive.

It was whatever I said went.

I'm surprised, Jenny says Louise let her take complete control of their shoot. I was like, listen, here's the deal.

You're gonna let me pick out the photos that get published.

I'm going to bring my girlfriend on set.

I am going to have a drink.

And when Jenny nearly canceled their second shoot together, she says, Luis begged her to reconsider.

He's like, no, no, no, we can't cancel this shoot.

You're like the only one I had lined up for this. Please, please, please, I'll do whatever you want.

Sometime between twenty sixteen and twenty twenty something in bold and Louise to start behaving very differently, and I think I know what that is. On September third, twenty seventeen, Luise posts a picture on Facebook of a model in lingerie. It's a typical glamour shot, but there's something new in the top left corner, a familiar bunny eared logo. The post's caption reads, my.

New editorial lim Playboy.

This is the moment Luis Gomez first seems to claim to be a Playboy photographer. This is the moment everything changes.

So I shot with this photographer and his name was Louise Gomez.

This is Izzy, not her real name. Her words are voiced by a natta.

His name came up, and he had all these credentials, he had the publications behind him, So for me it was exciting. I was assured up and down that he had connections, that he knew everyone.

In twenty seventeen, Izzy says Luise offered her an opportunity to shoot for Playboy, and she jumped at the chance.

I ended up doing this full photo shoot for hours at his house. I remember being coaxed a little like some of the poses and things. I was just I was not super comfortable with. They were a little more open than I would have liked, but you know, I was told this was what needed.

To be shot.

And then I think it was at the end of the shoot. I remember sitting at his table and you know, just being told I can get you on any Playboy cover you want. And I'm like, oh, my god, that's amazing these photos, you know, they're that good.

I'm that good.

Like I was excited, and then it became something else. He reached out, I think, and grabbed my hand and instantly my heart sunk and I'm like, oh, boundaries, Well, what's going on? And you know, he said, yeah, I can really help you, like I want to help you. I want to skyrocket your career, like take you to the next level. So you know, basically, you can do me some favors. And then i kind of caught on to what was going on, and I'm like, oh, no, that's what this is. I'm like, no, you told me

This is the earliest allegation I've heard of Luise requesting sexual favors in exchange for promises of getting published in Playboy.

I said no, I'm sorry, I don't want to, and he said, well, I can get these photos in a small publication. I said, said, well, what's the publication and he showed me and it was nothing. It was like a nothing magazine. I don't want to be in it. I said, I came here to shoot for Playboy and he said, well, I told you what it is, and I was like, okay, well, I guess i'll take the publication.

Is These photos ended up in one of Luis's self published magazines.

I remember the publication coming out and how goofy and embarrassing it was. I didn't even want to post about it. It was an awful magazine. I just I remember being so upset.

In just one year, the balance seems to have shifted in Luise's favor. He was no longer a nobody. Now he had power and he was ready to use it. A lot of networking in the glamour industry is done at what's called shoot camps. There are events where models and photographers can meet, mingle, and expand their portfolios. They can be up to a week long and are often

I was specifically told not to work with Luis.

Go means.

I was, like, everybody keeps.

Saying that that's Alex. One of the many models I spoke to who attended events with Luis over the years, they.

Basically told me, you know, he has a tendency of trying to sleep with the models or getting ultimatums. I was just like, okay, I mean, he's got great work, but you know, I'm not going to put myself at risk. So I legit just did not work with him. Yeah, that's not my scene.

But that didn't seem to put off event organizers.

He said he had access to major publics, which meant him coming to the event guaranteed that anyone he shot with was published in Playboy. His associations are vital to his reach.

This is a source who attended many shoot camps with Louise and witnessed his behavior there. She doesn't want to be identified or named, and her words are voiced by an actor. The source tells me about an incident she witnessed at a twenty eighteen event where Louise was the star attraction. A model had been shooting.

With him, and this girl comes running and crying out of the bedroom saying that Louise attacked her. All of these women are now trying to comfort and protect this young girl. She was eighteen. Louise was asked to leave, and he refused to leave the property because he didn't have all of his equipment. So you know, you had people going up trying to locate and gather his equipment, and you know, throwing it out on the law and saying,

And he left, and that was it.

Seven other women from that same event then came forward with accusations against Luise.

It became this entire thing where these other women came in, like this morning, he said that to me last night, he said that to me yesterday. He made me feel like if I didn't sleep with him, that I would never be a model.

They all made accusations that will sound depressingly familiar to you by now, level pushing and requesting sexual.

Favors, and he was banned right then, right there.

Banning Luise came at a cost. His magazine connections had been a big draw for the models.

They want Playboy Maxim fhm. They want these major brand deals.

Other photographers just didn't seem to be as established.

None of them have the reach that Louis Gomez has. He's not a morally sound person, but he is connected very deep in the publication world.

So shockingly, the event organizers invited Luis back on the condition that he wouldn't behave inappropriately with any more models. But according to the source, Luise was immediately up to his old tricks, and when he was confronted, he played the victim and made excuse after excuse.

I didn't do that. I didn't, I wouldn't, I can't. It's not me. He was crying, and he was saying that he doesn't want his wife to find out. He loves his wife. She would leave him if she found out. I think English is his third language, so he uses that to his advantage, making it seem like he doesn't understand, or he doesn't comprehend, or he doesn't remember certain words, or oh, I'm sorry, I'm foreign. That's not what I meant my English isn't very good. It's a lie. He's

Allegedly, it only took Luise two events to get banned again.

He will not change the people that are like him or the people that enable him. They are the same.

So who are the people Luise works with? My producer Eleanor and I go to Luis's website to try and find out. There's a page of collaborators and partners, so it's like a bio of each collaborator. There's loads of photographers, another photographer, photographer, photographer. On his website, Luise has posted thumb nails of eighty so uciates and collaborators from around the world, each of them with a little bio in English and Spanish about what they do and their relationship

Where do I start with Lewis? Oh my god, it's way darker and way deeper than I could ever imagine.

But there's one collaborator who really catches my eye. Oh this is interesting. Niz Operations, director of Universe one three seven studios in the UK. I recognize niz His full name is niz Uddin and he acted as Luis's fixer in the UK. For a fee, he would help Louise find models to shoot with. He said, okay, you.

Should book this news left the room and left me on my own with that Louise.

This is our opportunity to for the first time speak to someone who was close with Louise. I mean, we kind of heard tale of this from the girls, but it seems that Nis and Louise are no longer associated.

No, and I think we need to try and get him on record.

Hi to all our Universe one three seven followers first shoots in the UK.

By twenty twenty, niz Arden had worked in the British glamour industry for years. He helped Luis Gomez, a photographer living stylesands of miles away, make connections and book models for shoots. Here's a clip of both of them, which was posted to the Universe one through seven Studios Facebook. You can even hear Louise.

We're in Newcastle upon Time, which is north east of England.

Okay.

But when the UK Glamor Models spoke to Nears about their allegations, he opted to keep working with Louise. This is an excerpt of Nears talking to hera, one of the group's leaders, on a call that she recorded.

I called a girl who welcome takes female friends again.

Instead of doing that just do you know what I mean? Like, instead of putting them in a position where they've got to take a friend with them, just don't let it happen. Why why do you why let a girl go into that type of like environment O a shoe that just shouldn't happen, Like no one should ever feel so I'm say that they should have someone sat.

There with them. It's just it's just you know why, people who know me, they know I'm in it for, you know, the progress myself and make my money and go home. I'm not in it for the pussy mate. I'll be with my mid for twenty two years, so I'm in it for the pussy at all.

So the models named and shamed Nis alongside Luise in their big social media call out. I want to talk to Nis about what happened in twenty twenty. Why did he continue to work with Luis even after hearing the women's allegations of abuse. Hi, yas that, Liz. I'm fully expecting Nis to hang up on me, yes speaking, but not only will he talk to me, he says he's happy to be in the podcast. I'm not gonna lie.

The way it worked Earie was also commission based. Okay, I get the bookings and you've given me commission, so it's my job to really puts it, promote it, and really get it out there kind of thing.

What was your commission? What did you earn?

It can be anything from fifty pounds to one hundred pounds.

Per you know, peripheral.

Yeah, I'm sure with thetall bookings.

Were you aware of anything that Louise would ask for instead of having payment?

I know he's sent me a pup from our escort and he just say, you know, come from one service or service or whatever. But I'm not. I don't want to hear about it. It's between you lot. I don't get involved in any of that. You know, it's not our business.

There's no way of knowing when there's first heard allegations against Louise, but I do know that he definitely heard. By September twenty twenty, the models gave me a trove of evidence proving that they told Nis about Luise's alleged behavior. Emily sent this voice note to the WhatsApp group describing a conversation she says she had with Niznis called me the day after my shoot, in the morning of my shoe. He had a forty minute conversation.

I said, he's a fucking pervert.

He crossed the line. He asked me if I was going to sleep with him. I've also seen multiple text messages in which models reach out to Niz informing him about bad experiences while shooting with Luis Tony.

Good keep it quiet for a while, because he's thought holding on to a lot of commissions. If he was to get some books. Now, you'll back you into the space for whatever.

And I wanted to see a single penny of it, right, Okay, So you were concerned that you wouldn't get paid if he was to disappear at that time.

Obviously the individuals wait two three days extra or even during the shoot shoot, you know, wait a bit longer, okay.

I suppose on the from the model side, though, they were very anxious to get the word out there to stop those shoots. They didn't want any more models to have to come into contact with him.

So I guess through when you know the money is being elected.

Literally, what the fuck isn't it saying what I think he's saying that he wanted the models to delay outing an alleged sexual predator just so that he could get paid.

I had to right off frands worth of bookings.

Do you have any sympathies with the girls you know from what they've been through with Louise.

You know, a week longer, you know, I could have come out and said something, but they wait a few days.

Do you think there's any responsibility in that.

Or not at all? I mean they look cherone with you.

I'm only taking bookings. Take a chaperone with you. This is all making me feel really uneasy undone.

Yeah, you know I deserve but why did I get done? I'm the guy bang in the middle of all this, you know, I'm the guy who is just taking bookings and their fit.

What do you think the models have lost from this?

It would be a bit of a safety and security I guess.

Do you think that would have had a long lasting impact on them?

Of course, of course it's actress it caused. I mean, I mean, if it supports me this kind of kind of distress, I'm sure it's probably called them the same thing as well.

I'm wasting for is to take some accountability. I'm giving him every opportunity I can think of. Does it make you regret anything that's happened over the pastor years.

I just wish I'd never been him. It's actually made me put my up even more and makes me among that. You know, no one could be trusted out there.

Niz just turns the spotlight back on himself.

I've lost my recation. I've lost a lot for its out there people who trust me, you know, I've lost that.

To me, it feels like Nis is still seeing himself as a victim in all this, whereas I can't help but think of the models who say they suffered at the hands of Luis Gomes. They were truly on their own. I feel like I have a better picture of Luis

And on and on.

My producer Eleanor and I are left feeling frustrated.

The accountability lies with the people that are enabling this behavior as well nobody is doing anything about it, and it's sort of like, oh, well, we'll just turn a blind eye until he's arrested or until what Why why aren't people taking this seriously? Why isn't there more of a stand within the industry where people say, actually, that's not on. And then.

We get a message it's from another collaborator. Hello, Ellie, thanks so much for reaching out to me. Assuming I am correct and who this person is, I have suffered more than anyone at his hand. His offenses go well beyond sexual harassment and abuse. I would like nothing more than to see him behind the far turns out there's a whole other side to what Luis is up to, because the allegations aren't just sexual, they're financial too. Coming up on the bunny.

Trap, he said, for five pounds, I could be the playboy paymade.

Effectively, any woman can be a covered all these days if you're willing to pony up the dell.

They call him the venezuela and tapeworm really, and he's the definition of parasite. It's an organism that feeds off of others to their detriment.

Thanks to the women who shared their stories with us, we contacted Luis Gomez multiple times for comment, but we never heard back. He has not been charged with any crimes and is presumed innocent under the law. We also sought comment from Playboy USA. They declined our request for an interview, but you can hear their statement later in the series. The Bonnie Trap is produced by Novel. For more from Novel, visit novel dot Audio. The show is

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