We came across this article the other day and wanted to share it, sad thing is for those of us in the business this isn’t an unfamiliar tale. These things happen a good bit, and we all worry about it from time to time.
According to an Examiner article:
Meagan Kunert, a Conway, Arkansas, wedding photographer posted images of her latest work. However, the work actually belonged to Another wedding photographer, Amber Hughes. Amber had received a disturbing note from a colleague, he’d found a photographer who was featuring Hughes’ work on her website and claiming it as her own.
“Hughes visited the website, and she was shocked at what she saw. According to tweets she posted from around 10:00 pm to midnight (Vancouver time), she found Kunert had posted an entire wedding in her portfolio that had actually been shot by Hughes. Then Hughes found another of her weddings. And another. And an engagment session. At around 10:15 pm, she tweeted from her @amberhughes account, “I’m appalled by the reposting of my images by @meagankphotos as her own work.”"
“The article also says ”
Fellow photographers saw Hughes’ tweets, and they began re-tweeting and discussing the situation online. When it was picked up and re-tweeted by lighting expert David Hobby (@strobist) to his 65,000+ followers, the story grew exponentially and started reaching photographers around the world. Several wedding photographers visited Kunert’s site to find their work featured in her portfolio, as well. By the time the sun rose on the U.S., Kunert’s Twitter account had been bombarded by negative mentions. Her business Facebook page was awash with comments calling her out on her deceit. The pitchforks-and-torches crowd had found her pages on Pinterest, Google+, Flickr, and LinkedIn. Photographers were posting that they had emailed her demanding that she remove their work from her website or she would risk immediate legal repercussions. Her web hosting company yanked down her website entirely in response to the complaints. Her Twitter account was first to go. Then the negative comments on her Facebook page began to disappear. Then the whole page disappeared. Pinterest, gone. Flickr too. Even her husband, who said he had absolutely no clue about any of this when he was confronted on Twitter, eventually protected his account so only approved followers can see it. This could not have been a good day in Conway. As of about 6 o’clock Wednesday evening (5 o’clock Arkansas, 3 o’clock Vancouver), Hughes posted that the situation is under control. She said she has been in contact with Kunert, and they have buried the hatchet. Hughes said via Twitter that she has no intention to sue, and given the fact that she is in Canada, a suit might not have been feasible anyway. According to Hughes, Kunert planned to phone and apologize to all the people whose work she claimed as her own, and then re-launch her website for one primary purpose — a public apology. At around 6:30 pm Eastern, her business Facebook page came back up, with an apology prominently.”
There are several websites out there that help you find your images floating around the web, it never hurts to check them out and find out if you have been the victim of a fake photographer!
