Reality TV Star Ridiculed for Inviting Photographers to Shoot His Wedding for Free

Reality TV Star Ridiculed for Inviting Photographers to Shoot His Wedding for Free

Jay Hutton, one of the tattoo artists helping people to cover up their embarrassing ink on UK reality show "Tattoo Fixers," has been mocked internet-wide, after email screenshots emerged of him trying to coax photographers into shooting his wedding in return for “credit” on “selected photos.”

A photographer alleges Hutton's representatives sent emails asking if anyone would be interested in the opportunity of photographing the reality star’s wedding day in April.

The payment came in the form of exposure across Hutton’s various social media accounts, where the lucky participant would receive “credit," on photos of Hutton's choice. “The promotional value of social media is second to none and something we charge a great deal for,” reads the email. On top of this, there will be food and travel expenses covered. What's more, the message also states that they’re seeking two photographers – or a photographer and their assistant.

The London-based photographer says screenshots of the exchange have, perhaps unsurprisingly, caused an uproar on social media. He criticized Hutton and his team’s attitude towards other peoples' careers, and voiced his concerns that somebody is going to take up the offer: “The loser though, is the person who is perhaps new to the business, and naive enough to believe that this is a really great opportunity.”

Have you ever photographed a wedding for Instagram tags before?

Lead image credit: Anne Edgar on Unsplash

[via The Daily Post]

Jack Alexander's picture

A 28-year-old self-taught photographer, Jack Alexander specialises in intimate portraits with musicians, actors, and models.

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27 Comments

Just one more example of the disrespect our industry gets. Credits don't pay the car payment, or mortgage, or for food. Never met the guy but I bet he is a colossal jackass.
This stuff just ticks me off to no end. I bet he doesn't work for free (ahem, I mean credit).

It's not our industry, it's rich people getting used to everyone doing everything for them because "famous." So any service should be free because "famous."

"The promotional value of social media is second to none"

I think most if not all people would agree that the promo value of social media is in fact second to something like say, dollars?

Always sad to see artists looking to exploit other artists with the ye olde "work for exposure" scam.

I'd answer back saying "tattoo my arm for free! i have lots of friends! exposure is second to none"

He tweeted a picture of himself ten years ago, recalling the days before his "fame", when he says worked at a local supermarket just to get by and had barely any money, in what was supposed to be an inspiring message (I guess). The tweets back to him since were mostly asking him to do tattoos for free haha.

Karma :)

LOL, I agree. I was going to say that anybody who believes that there is any value in social media these days must be living in some kind of alternate universe. I will be cheering from the sidelines when the Zuckerberg fake news media empire (sorry, I should say media "hoodwinkery" empire) goes down.

And so he should...here is a guy really feeling himself.

Again tho...our fault for continuing to give services away for free....how some photographers keep a roof over their heads i'm suuuure I dunno.

The sad thing is that somebody is REALLY going to take up the offer...

oh i bet that he was flooded with people to do it. some people will jump at the "exposure" that this will bring them. it probably will help the photog's career too. and i'm sure they will get the same offer next time. i'll shoot it with my iPhone for free.

i bet its lesa hall who take up the offer ;)

The credit does nothing. You cannot feed your family with exposure dollars. . .lol

Now this guy I have no problem ridiculing. What an a**s. How good of him to "allow" the photographer to show PRE-SELECTED images on his site. The clown does not know images belong to the photographer?

I'll shoot for credit; I accept Mastercard, Visa, American Express and Discover.

LOLL GOOD ONE!

i hope he gets lesa hallzed

if i lived nearby id be inclined to go there, shoot the best pictures of the bunch and sell them to them afterwards for a really high price

Why is everybody complaining? There is a perfect photographer out there for Jay. We should connect him with this photographer https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/photoshop-family-photos-photogr...

They deserve each other.

I don't know anything about UK copyright, but I liked the part "After a short period of time after the wedding date _we will also allow_ preselected images to be images to be promoted by the photographer on their own website or social media platform". As if the photographer has no rights to their own pictures they took. That would probably be in the contract, but just further shows the arrogance of him feeling like he is doing a great thing for someone else.

This looks like a job for Lesa Hall.

I would trade for about $5,000 worth of tattoos, but he's not even that good.

Haha I've traded several photoshoots for tattoos!

I would photograph a celebrity event for free !!. But I’m a hobbyist. My IG account would blow up 👍🏽

No one on here has asked how many engaged followers or unique monthly visits the guy has. Does he have sponsors or affiliates? Shooting the right person's wedding for "credit" (aka exposure) could absolutely launch someone's career and "pay rent" plus some. Might not be this particular guy but it's business—gotta find ways to grow it. It's all about attention. If the tattoo artist has a lot of attention, I'd shoot it. If I'm too "fancy" to do something for exposure I'd write a contract that says I'll rebate him x dollars for every client his exposure brings me. Trading pride for hustle, that's it. If someone doesn't need business then yeah, bag on the guy and the photographer that takes him up on it. But the reality is that "exposure" turns into cash too often to discount it. Again, maybe not with this guy. I don't know how many people follow him. But it happens all the time and if we've already decided not to take opportunities we'll be completely blind to seeing opportunities.

UGHHJ stop doing this people!! I need to stop eating ramen noodles at some point in my life lol

I'd probably go and walk around with the fuji that I want and take pictures for fun. If I miss something like the entire ceremony because I saw a bird well........

it'll be a nice photograph of a bird.

Well to be honest with you, this have happened to us as well. Our company name is SDE Weddings | https://SDEWeddings.com

Although not from celebrities, but more from influencers from instagram. Some with 20k, some with 70k followers. We just offer them a slight discount to our service.

The end result I thought was quite worth it. She was happy with our work, and she willingly shared our work and posted it on her site. Although we haven't seen any return on investment yet, but I do think this could be considered for some wedding vendors.

With all due to respect, I am not familiar with the celebrity under discussion here, is clear their publicity does not generate enough return on investment if the photographer worked for free.

However, I just want to point out, that this is something to consider and just to keep an open mind.

For example, if the Royal wedding ask you to photograph their wedding for free, I am sure the publicity alone and bragging right would be enough to take your business to the next level. On another note, I am quite certain the Royal wedding can afford any photographers, they got money.

I am also shocked if a famous real celebrity doesn't have the money to hire you, since I would believe most celebrity would rather keep their moments private.

So my point is just that, someone ask you to shoot for free, don't just dismiss it, evaluate it on a case by case.

Also, I really felt the photographer posting this is kind of bad taste, we all have bad clients and bad stories. I always thought is best to keep it positive.

As bad as the client is, this photographer is also getting a tons of exposure on his business.

Just my two cents.