In 'The Model,' Mortensen shares his extensive experience in portraiture and working with models. There's already a fair amount of literature on this topic. However, Mortensen's book stands apart. Unlike most modern manuals, which often offer advice like, 'Do this and that, and you're guaranteed a masterpiece,' you'll find nothing of the sort in Mortensen's. He teaches the only way art can teach: how not to. He doesn't teach how to pose a model, how to pose their torso, or other body parts. Because such teaching produces thousands upon thousands of similar, color-coded, technically excellent, yet completely faceless, empty, banal, one-day photographs. Mortensen leaves students complete creative freedom, pointing out only common mistakes that can ruin the impression of a portrait.