Indiana County, PA photographer: "I won’t photograph ugly people."

"I wrote a blog a month or two ago that talked about all the things I learned about being a “self employeed” business owner. I was only roughly a few weeks into it when I posted the blog but I wrote about the Random Realities of Being Self Employed. It was more tongue in cheek really, I mean I talked about such things like how your boss is awesome (which is true..haha), about how you can sleep in, how you talk to yourself and answer your self because you have no co-workers to chat with. For those of you who don’t know, I recently quit my full time day job to pursue my dream of being a full time photographer. As exciting as it sounds that I’m following my dream and ultimately getting paid to do what I love, it also comes with a lot of accountability and responsibilities.I mean, I *AM* my own boss and if my business fails it’s *MY* fault, I can’t share the blame with a co-worker or a supervisor….it’s my fault.

With that said, I recently made a decision that I know could ultimately create backlash for what I’ve decided….and honestly, I don’t care! The really cool thing-(even among all the scary things of owning a business) is that you can make decisions without having to go through the hierarchy of people. On a whim yesterday after seeing something that was so appalling, I decided I was going to email some of my clients to tell them “I’m sorry but I won’t take your photos”.

Let me explain. Last night I posted on facebook the following: “If I’m wrong, please speak up. I came across a page on facebook that was created (by someone under a ficticious name) thats purpose is to bully, ridicule and say mean and hurtful things about their class mates. While visiting the page, I found several teenage girls that have scheduled sessions with me for their senior pictures. I am emailing them tomorrow to cancel their shoots. I do not want them to represent my business and I am beside myself at how MEAN and CRUEL they were on that page.” As I was drafting the email that I was going to send out to the clients my phone was blowing up with comments."

http://jenmckenphoto.com/blog/2011/08/17/if-youre-ugly-i-wont-take-your-photo-indiana-county-pa-photographer-personal/

to make her successful. Her standards of beauty will drop in about a month, and she'll realize that even "ugly" people's money is still money. What an asshole.

My bad. Edit to add, though, that it's kinda weird to look up people's facebook pages and dig into high school culture before taking their business.

She ran across a page and recognized names of people she had already booked with. Last paragraph above.

Photoshopping enables anyone to look just the way society perceives to be beautiful.

Good for him. Hateful actions have consequences. Better that young people learn that early on.

Not all photographers (or doctors, dentists, etc.) are male.

:wtf:

that women also work for a living.

And there is no need for you to be offended on her behalf unless you have some sort of agenda carried over from the Guns forum. I would remind you that that is a violation of DU rules.

use of the "generic he" really gets to me (some days more than others, I guess :-))

On edit - your edit (and other post) about the Guns forum wasn't there when I first tried to reply and hit a glitch in posting. I will send you a pm.

PB

;-)

Great post, great person, and great parents who didn't defend their little 'princesses'.

I'm sending the original blog to the High Schools in my area.