My name is Sarah Greenwood, I am a professional (wedding & commercial) photographer who has also fallen foul of Camille Waring/Kitty L’Wren/Frederick Bresson...
I first met Camille through the SWPP (Society of Wedding & Portrait photographers) towards the end of 2009. We chatted on the SWPP forum, via email and on Facebook before finally meeting in November in Trafalgar Square to photograph a ‘proposal of marriage’ in front of the Xmas tree. I then met Camille again on 12th December where I 2nd shooted a wedding in London with her. This was mutually beneficial as I wanted to expand my portfolio – having mainly been a commercial photographer since 2005 and it also meant that the Bride & Groom had extra coverage of their day.
Camille told me that she had been living in a youth hostel and was due to fly out of Heathrow the day after the wedding on 13th December to Melbourne, Australia where she would be for 8 weeks.
By coincidence, I was also travelling to Australia and NZ on the 19th Dec but returning back to the UK one week earlier than Camille had intended (or so she says) We continued to keep in touch, we shared personal stories and I had no reason to suspect that she was anything other than honest at this stage.
25th Jan, had an email from Camille “... I will be back in March but not sure how long for so I might be handing you some weddings... Ive been in school now for 2 weeks and get the grant at the end of march.”
27th/28th March – met with the couple that Camille had asked me to photograph in her potential absence in May. She had told me she was still waiting for the grant payment. Was also told by Camille that she would pay me the full amount that the couple had already paid her – she said it was £500. It turns out they paid her £600.
Tue 30th March, had details of the April 10th wedding forwarded to me as requested, Camille said she would pay me the full amount for this wedding that she had been paid –again she told me it was £500. I asked Camille on a few occasions whether she had spoken to the couple to let them know that I would be their photographer and not her – she told them 2 days before their wedding.
In both cases i made it clear to both Camille and the couples whose weddings I would be photographing that I do not release images until I have been paid in full. This was agreed by all but unfortunately I am still waiting for nearly £800 payment from Camille. In both cases I also took an assistant whom I paid in full on the day of each wedding for their time out of my own pocket.
8th April. Email from Camille saying that she gets her first grant payment on 29th April and that she will pay my in full plus the assistant costs, plus petrol expenses etc.
15th April. Email from Camille saying she thought she would be back in the UK by now but she won’t be coming back for the May 8th wedding so can I do it?
Camille did offer me other weddings but when I said I want payment up front, unsurprisingly there weren’t any.
11th May. Camille made a payment of £100 via paypal to me towards the (nearly) £1200 she owes me.
25th May. Camille made a payment of £100 via paypal towards the money she owes me.
7th July. Camille made a payment of £100 via paypal towards the money she owes me.
This was the last payment I ever got and she has since sent me two emails stating that a power of attorney will be getting in touch as she is registering as bankrupt with the insolvency agency in the UK.
Throughout July, Camille had heated email exchanges with both couples. They both want their images and when I was going to be paid. Camille got quite nasty and fails to see what she has done wrong. She also stops replying to my emails.
26th July. After all this I started wondering whether the couple whose wedding I shot with Camille in December had ever received their photos so I emailed them to ask. An email from them on 27th July confirmed that they hadn’t had any of them so I agreed to send them a copy of all the ones I had taken so they at least had some!
So this is where we were at: I have photographs for two weddings totalling around 700 images per wedding. I can’t release the images until Camille has paid me the money that the couples paid her for their wedding photography but Camille isn’t going to pay me. Neither couple took out wedding insurance so are unable to stump up the cost of paying me out of their own pocket (and neither should they have to anyway).
Horrible catch 22.
This is where we are at this week: I now have my own agreement with both couples and I will be releasing their images this week. It couldn’t go on any longer, I wanted to release the images and both couples wanted them! I cannot imagine how upsetting it must be for any wedding couple to be put in this situation. I have been copied in to all email discussion between Camille and both couples and the lies are beyond belief. I don’t think that she realised that we actually communicated with each other as she would tell me one lie then tell them something else and I think she probably forgot who she said what to and that’s when she started getting nasty and ended communication.
The wedding industry isn’t currently regulated in the UK which is great in some ways for those of us who are honest as it means we don’t have to pay ridiculous fees to a government agency to spend on having new logos designed every ten minutes. However, it is a shame that there isn’t some way of tightening up on fraudsters like this particularly given the importance of a wedding not to mention the emotional and financial investments involved.
In some ways, my experience has positives, I got to meet some wonderful people, photograph two gorgeous weddings in April & May, both couples have said that they prefer my style of photography to Camille’s and I have written it off as a bad debt/bad experience. I still continue to work with other photographers in much the same way as I once worked with Camille and that’s with openness and trust – sadly qualities that I think Camille may be lacking – but I won’t let it put me off working with other photographers.
I only wish that I knew about the other couples whom Camille didn’t turn up for and wished that I could have photographed their days for them but all I can do is offer my support to try and prevent her from doing this to anyone else again in whatever way I can!!! I have contacted my local police station and have a ref no: CHS6151 10th Aug.
I’d also like to offer any couple (who had their wedding day spoiled by Camille not turning up), a heavily discounted rate to have some beautiful romantic shots of the ‘Bride & Groom’ or invite as many of your original guests as possible or maybe just the bridal party for some portraits and extra fun shots?! Why not get that dress on again, get glammed up, have a mini wedding day all over again... I know its not the same and I can’t make up for what you lost but you’ll definitely have something to talk about when you look over your pics in years to come. You never know, there might be a generous venue owner or publican out there somewhere that will let you use their facilities free of charge for a short time especially after they read the complaints board website??? Please contact me for details.
Yours sincerely
Sarah Greenwood
www.sarahgreenwood.co.uk
0 comments