Back in the days of barter trading, participants in a transaction directly exchanged goods and services for other goods and services without a medium of exchange, such as money.

However, after money was introduced, that soon became the primary means of obtaining a service.

Humanity's onward trudge along this monetary exchange system was thrown into chaos by a Singapore model's text conversation with a professional photographer.

Benjamin Matchap is a professional photographer. In fact, he spent the last year freelancing.

It was tough, which made this exchange rather tiring for him.

Professional shots

Here's Ben's initial conversation with the model, whom we will identify by her surname, Chong.

Basically the fact that Matchap charges a fee for his photoshoots was news to Chong.

Who suggested, or veered to the idea of collaboration.

While Matchap did do collaborative work at times, he insisted that it was only for shoots with an equal exchange — bartering, some might say.

This one with Chong, according to Matchap, would not constitute an equal exchange.

In one of the Facebook posts he put up about his run-in with her, he wrote:

"Sorry but if you are a model you kinda have to be pretty or at the very least have good aesthetic. If you want to collab it needs to be an equal exchange. If it's not an equal exchange I will need to charge for my time."

This irritated Chong, and she put up a Facebook post lambasting Matchap for his unprofessionalism.

Here's what she wrote:

Which resulted in Matchap putting out the above screenshots that told a fuller story.

Chong further expressed her frustration in the comment section in ways some deemed racist.

Here's what she wrote, in case the text in the screenshot is too small:

"He reject me before n say is model look pretty is bonus but i not so he charge me for photo shooting. In message i not interested photo shooting cos he is Indian. Just to be say the honesty I never say want to find he shooting at all...he reject me before so i know he wont look for me"

Matchap helpfully summarises the incident in a follow-up post.

Relative cost

Surprisingly, many comments on Chong's own page appear to side with Matchap.

With many failing to see what Matchap did wrong.

Her response is a bit difficult to understand.

But basically, her other comments appear to target two primary issues.

1. Matchap's seeming insinuation that she wasn't pretty enough to do a collaboration,

and

2. He does free work for others, so it's unreasonable of him to charge her for the shoot.

Which in turn leads to the question: should a person be allowed to choose how much his worth is, in the face of a stranger asking for free stuff?

It is of course an easy one, and the answer is yes, they should.

Here's a handy little guide by a commenter on the idea of equal trade.

With others proposing other free alternatives Chong could go for.

And finally in a sad reflection of times, someone sensibly suggested putting up guidelines on Matchap's payment structure.

Ah well.

Images collated from Matchap's Facebook and Chong's FB page

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