5 photographer horror stories that will make your skin crawl
Photographer horror stories can be some of the most chilling and eerie stories out there.
Any artist can tell you that the journey from great idea to great artwork is a long and difficult one. The road is full of difficulties and disappointments. Some mundane, some bizarre, and some just downright horrific.
It’s no different for photographers – there are some real horror stories out there. Over the years some photographers have shared their worst experiences in making art. Below are five of the worst stories we found.
And we don’t mean funny photographer horror stories. Being a photographer is about capturing visions of the real world.
Sometimes you run into, and then capture, stuff you just didn’t want to see.
Wedding photos for an abusive relationship
Sometimes you can have an experience so bad it puts you off wanting to pursue your craft. Maybe you even end up changing paths in life.
For one former photographer, now current driver (as of three years ago), there was one nasty gig as a wedding photographer that made him set the entire camera down. A pure and unbridled photographer horror story.
Professional photographers, especially portrait photographers, often end up dealing with unpleasant people. But encountering an abusive husband during the wedding? That’s a wedding horror story.
It’s unfortunate that seeing this would cause someone to put down their camera, but it is understandable. And it’s easy to see why someone like the former photographer in this story would lose his cool in that moment. It’s one hell of a photography horror story – and one wedding we can’t give our blessing to.
Losing precious equipment is a different kind of photographer horror story
The last story in this comment takes the cake when it comes to accidents costing you data and gear. Photography equipment is expensive and delicate.
Plus, advances in storage capacity mean that photographers will often have thousands of pictures stored on their camera’s SD card at any given time. If you lose that SD card, you’re losing countless hours of work – not to mention the camera as well.
In art, it is easy to grow emotionally connected to your equipment, even when you forget about the loss of work and funds. As far as we’re concerned, that moment of watching a camera fall in the river is a photography horror story all on its own.
Getting tricked into working for free is anyone’s worst nightmare
This story speaks for itself, and it’s a story all too familiar to creative workers. People who don’t understand your craft simply don’t realize how much work goes into it. And for the most part, they don’t care to learn.
This photographer really went through a mess for a truly thankless job. No doubt, it must have put some strain on the friendship, too.
A few quick tips for everyone out there buying art: Art is more work than you think it is. Photography isn’t just about pointing a camera and shooting a picture, and even if it were it’d still be unfair to expect free work. And you definitely don’t manipulate the artist into looking like they’re slacking off so you can guilt them into doing more work for free.
We’re starting to sense a pattern here with wedding stories and photographer horror stories. Get your bread and never let someone other than yourself tell you how much your work is worth.
Getting sabotaged by another photographer is a photography horror story you wouldn’t expect
It’s a dog eat dog world, man. A shame, too, since all of us creatives should just be supporting each other. But it turns out that some people are going to be petty no matter where you go.
The photographer in this story thought they were just covering for an unreliable colleague, and never had any intention of stealing any job. But, whether it was his plan from the beginning or he was just an opportunist, a certain Derek decided to take advantage and lose this freelancer a regular gig with a newspaper.
Not. Cool. This is the kind of dishonorable conduct you shouldn’t tolerate from anyone. A deep and sinister photographer horror story, as trust among those in your profession is something you really shouldn’t have to take for granted.
Literally witnessing an attempted murder on the job, just WTF
What do you even say to this one?
Some photography horror stories transcend the issues of photography itself and are just plain horror stories that happened to a photographer. The first story in this post is one of them.
Luckily, the dad survived, and no one was orphaned that day. But this one really puts things in perspective. Art is difficult, and it can even be dangerous sometimes, because you can’t just keep yourself locked up in a studio all the time.
And on that awful note…
After that horror show, you probably need a bit of cheering up, so here’s a nice photograph of a cat wearing a bow tie.
