Photographer Claims He Lost Client’s Wedding Photographs In Storage System Crash & Closes Company
A wedding is an important milestone to celebrate for any couple.
To capture memories of the event, a photographer is vital for the occasion. As such, it can be upsetting when they fail to turn up properly for their role in the ceremony.
This was the case recently for a couple in Singapore, who were told that their hired photographer lost their wedding photographs.
Source: Facebook
He said it was due to a storage system crash, before disappearing altogether and refusing to reply to their messages, closing his company down.
Photographer loses client’s wedding photographs
Posting to Complaint Singapore on Facebook, the OP shared that she engaged a wedding photographer, Alvin Yap, to take pictures of the event on 31 Dec 2022.
But about two months later, she still hasn’t received the photographs.
Upon being contacted, the photographer informed the couple on 1 Mar this year that he had been on an overseas assignment, and they would be ready the week after.
Source: Facebook
Two weeks after the update, he claimed that his storage system had suffered a crash. As a result, he lost the pictures he took of their dinner.
Source: Facebook
However, he claimed he was able to recover the photographs taken on the day and would send them over on that day itself.
On 6 Apr, the couple prompted him further, asking if he was still recovering the files.
Source: Facebook
He replied the day after, stating that he had brought his storage system to a data recovery centre to retrieve the images and would check with them on the status.
Couple stops receiving replies on issue
In the next few screenshots, the photographer seemed to have stopped replying to them entirely.
Source: Facebook
The OP added that she had not received a reply from him in ten months, either through text or email.
“Shockingly, he has yet to fulfil his end of the contract, even had the audacity to remind us not to owe money,” the OP said. “We paid well ahead of time!”
The OP also said that they attempted to engage the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) and a lawyer recommended by their MP, Baey Yam Keng.
However, the photographer appeared to have closed down his company, Mellow Pictures, making it difficult for the case to proceed further.
“This was unexpected from a photographer which we trusted and gotten to know from Blissful Brides… for our big day,” the OP said.
Associated company clarifies matter
The OP shared in her Instagram post that the photographer had also worked with Allure Weddings.
The company has since addressed the matter in the comments, stating that they have ceased contacting the photographer since April 2022.
This was due to a copyright infringement made by him. However, he had apparently failed to remove the firm’s name from his Instagram username accordingly.
“He even removed our logo from our videos not done by him, and uploaded lower res versions under his name,” Allure Weddings said. “Along with many other infringements.”
Speaking to MS News, the OP shared that another couple had reached out to them, revealing that they too did not receive their prints from the photographer.
“Wedding dinner photos were all gone, even the table-to-table pictures with guests,” she said.
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Featured image adapted from Facebook.