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Renowned music photographer quits the industry due to misogyny and bullying

by 20 Comments

Gender inequality is still present in many aspects of our society. The same goes for photography industry, and this has made a renowned music photographer quit it. London-based photographer Sarah Ginn has recently announced her decision to leave music photography. The reason – misogyny and bullying she faced from her peers.

Sarah has been the resident photographer for the nightclub Fabric for ten years. However, the events from past three years forced to make the tough decision and quit music photography.

As she says in a statement on her Twitter account, her aim now is to do corporate and production/events work. She will not capture small underground bass gigs any longer, which she did so far. She has been into music photography since she was 13 years old, and started it because of her love for music. However, the disrespect she’s been getting from some of the male musicians she’s photographed made her give it up:

[…] But it’s not really enough if you get judged for what you look like. It doesn’t matter what you achieve if people objectify you as fair game because you are backstage. Am I not a person? Do you think my body is the only thing to me? Also there are plenty of girls that will give you what you want. Quite frankly, I would rather talk about snares and bass lines, I mean that’s why I’m here tbh. I don’t want to make this a gender issue but I don’t want to have my sexuality questioned and the huge number of other things I have had to put up with. […]

Sarah also says that this has been a tough to make, which I can only imagine. However, she feels her images would be a lie if she wasn’t respected by the musicians, yet she made them look amazing. It would be morally wrong, and thus she decided not to do it any longer.

As a girl, I can relate with being objectified and judged for what I look like, especially in the country where gender inequality is still very high. I didn’t face it that much as a photographer, though, since I am not really a part of the industry, but I do it for a hobby. However, I’ve heard other lady photographers complain about being bullied and disrespected, both by their male subjects and male colleagues. And after reading Sarah’s story, it’s sad to hear that this bullying made a good photographer give up what she loves.

[via FStoppers]

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  • You want to say that good looking women gets hit on in environment of inebriated 20 year-olds? Well stop the fukin’ presses! 😀
    Here is my outrageous opinion, that I will try to back up:
    Maybe some clubs/stages are not the best place to work for women who can’t “man up”
    I have shot for years in underground/metal clubs and I can see that shootin in them, for women, would more dificult than shooting in opera or somethin’. There are a lot of professions that aren’t best for average women. I am a welder/metal-worker and my work isn’t something that most of women couldn’t handle – not just because the “sausage to bun” ratio.
    My point: This has nothing to do with sexism, or the “m” woord. Some enviourments just aren’t thr best places for women and it is fine…

    • For every one else here, I’ll translate this for you: “Men are terrible; if women can’t deal with that they should leave.”

      This commenter has a depressingly low view of men.

      • Wrong translation. Did you translate with Bing? 😀
        Men are not terrible. Women are not terrible. They are different. Terrible can be individuals – not the whole gender.
        Another personal example: My third job was office/retail job in majority women(including the boss) company. For me – I rather work in construction(what I have done) than in majority women office….

        • You literally said that men’s behavior at these venues is so bad that women should just stay away.

          • In enviourment of drunken/horny guys – you shouldn’t be suprised to have attention as a good lokling women. And if you don’t want to have this kind of attention – dat ain’t place fo ya! 😀 Same can work in both ways.

          • Like I said: you have a terrible view of men.

          • Ok. let’s assume that I have a bad view of men. What’s your alternative? Have you walked around different night clubs and bars? All kinds of venues have different atmosphere and people and even dress code. Some are quiet and laid back, like a bar where you would take your date. Some clubs are loud, high energy, where you go to get loose and hopefully get laid.
            Obviously, in one of these examples to a women, who is interested only in her work, it would bemore difficult to work. To be fair – It would be similar situation if a married male photographer would work at at “cougar bar”. Back to the original question: What’s your alternative? Prohibit certain venues, because atmosphere isn’t wery good work enviourment for women?

          • It’s looking. Next time, download Grammarly to ensure your spelling is correct. I doubt you make those types of remake if someone did the same thing to your wife, daughter or mom as the subject of this story experience.

          • Would I like to have my daughter or wife to have this experience? – No!
            What’s your point?

  • North Polar

    Clickbait title, zero corroboration to the claimed issue, and no attempt to get a statement from the venue.

    So it’s literally a ‘my feels’ post, and not X and Y happened, to cause Z with supporting evidence. You know, kind of like how journalism works, or at least used to. Considering DIY Photo and FStoppers are publicizing a one sided claim against someone, I certainly wouldn’t say this encompasses journalistic integrity or ethics.

    Personally, if I were the venue I’d demand a retraction or edit until an investigation could be done.

    • lewisfrancis

      Why bring the venue into this? Why do you need corroborating evidence? Would you ask all this if it were a man complaining about repeatedly being bullied and disrespected during his shoots?

      • North Polar

        Yes, I would.

        The ‘who’ doesn’t matter. Going off ‘half cocked’ benefits nobody except a party with an agenda. I’m not saying the one here does or not, simply that we’re being told to accept the end result with no data to back it up.

        Point is, if you’re going to publicly accuse some legal entity (person or company) of something, generally you better have proof of it. Especially since that can end up in court. False accusations that cause monetary loss are big in courts btw.

        So yeah, knowing what’s going on as more than a poorly worded screencap on twitter is important. Let alone that ‘journalism’ doesn’t qualify in the least on this, since none of the basics were followed.

        X+Y=Z because the chain of evidence shows it. Not because I I said so.

        • lewisfrancis

          Huh? What person or legal entity is the photographer accusing? What agenda are you imagining may be at play here?

          • North Polar

            If you noted, I said I don’t know if the party here has an agenda or not. It’s a general statement.

            By directly naming the venue in her complaint, she is tying the venue to the issue that happened. Their property, their issue. At least closely enough that it would fly in court. After all, you are responsible fornwhat happens on your company’s property and all. Barring some kind of contract to modify it.

            The overall point was that we don’t know anything other than ‘they said,’ especially since the ‘reporter’ didn’t apparently do fact checking or try to get more info on the story.

            So like the ‘I caught a record breaking fish this big…’ stories, it’s not factually credible.

          • lewisfrancis

            The photographer clearly states she’s staying to the end of the year and expects to thoroughly enjoy her remaining gigs, sounds like she has a great relationship with the venue.

            Many males seem to take umbrage at assertions of other males objectifying women or behaving like cads when they should be offended that too often males are, in fact, guilty of such.

            Some even ascribe agendas to women who complain as a way to deflect focus. Don’t know if you are one of those types, just a general statement.

          • North Polar

            Mmm… not too subtle ad hominems.

            Either way, after going public like that, I’d expect the venue to can her. I sure as hell would.

            Now if her employer was aware of this and let it continue, it is a whole different ballgame. As it sits now, we have no idea on it. Especially since she’s continuing her work there. Same goes if they’ve reached out to her over it. We don’t know but it changes things.

            So my key point remains that this is a clickbait article with no substance.

  • Petar Maksimovic

    So what should we do now, reprogram every man’s human nature and sexuality so this woman feels alright taking gig photos?

    • lewisfrancis

      Only if you want to date my daughter. Or not be a troglodyte.

  • Paul Willy Brown

    I hope all the other renowned music venue photographers can take up the slack.

  • cbenci

    Regardless of your view on this, please don’t turn this website into a social issues commentary blog. There are plenty of sites for this.

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