If a shoot goes wrong
Almost every shoot is fine. This page is for the ones that are not, and for what to do next.
In the moment
You can stop. You do not need a reason, an excuse, or a graceful exit line. “I am going to stop there” is enough, and you can say it while you are picking your things up.
If you feel unsafe rather than merely uncomfortable, do not manage the situation. Leave. Take what you can carry and go without discussing it. Getting out matters more than being reasonable about it, and you can sort the rest out later from somewhere else.
If you have a chaperone with you, say the word and go together. If you are on your own, ring somebody as you leave and stay on the phone until you are away.
The same day
Write it down while it is fresh. What was said, what was done, roughly what time, and who else was there. Memory reshapes itself quickly, particularly when you are upset, and a note made the same day is worth a great deal more than a recollection three weeks later.
Screenshot the messages that set the shoot up before anything can be deleted. The booking conversation, the brief, anything agreed about what would be shot.
Tell somebody. Even if you decide to do nothing else at all, do not sit with it on your own.
The images
Ask for them to be deleted, in writing, and keep whatever comes back.
Whether they have to comply is less clear cut than people assume. Copyright in the photographs belongs to the photographer. Your image is personal data under UK GDPR, so there are circumstances in which consent can be withdrawn, though that depends on what they are relying on to hold and publish them and on what has already been done with them. It is not a guaranteed undo button.
Ask anyway. A good many people will simply do it because you asked. If they refuse, and the images are being used in a way you never agreed to, that is the point at which proper advice is worth having. There is more on how releases work on the model releases page.
Reporting it on the platform
If the shoot came through PurplePort, use what is there. Leave an honest reference, and use the report function on the profile, which goes to the site rather than to the public. Both are worth doing, because platforms act on patterns rather than on single complaints.
A reference that says nothing costs nothing to write and helps nobody. One that describes what actually happened is the useful kind.
Talking to other models
This is the most useful thing you can do, and it is also the part I want to be straight with you about, even though being straight about it does not entirely flatter my side of the trade.
Nobody knows the local scene like the people working in it. Message other models. Ask before you book somebody new, and answer honestly when you are asked. Instagram and the platform message systems are where most of this actually happens, and it works.
The other half of it is that not every bad word about a photographer is earned. People fall out over money, over edits, over a shoot that simply did not click. Some people are difficult. A small number enjoy the drama. I have watched photographers lose work over things that did not happen, and I have watched genuinely worrying people carry on working because the real warnings were buried in noise.
Neither of those problems is solved by staying quiet. Both are improved by being disciplined about how you say it.
When you are the one giving an account
- Say what happened, not what you concluded. “He asked me to change with him still in the room” is useful. “He is a creep” is not.
- Be clear about what happened to you and what you heard from somebody else. They carry very different weight and they should not be blended together.
- Leave out the parts you are not sure about. A shorter account you can stand behind beats a fuller one you cannot.
- If it is really that you did not like them, or the pictures were poor, say that instead. It is a perfectly fair thing to say, and it is a different thing.
When you are the one hearing it
- Ask what actually happened. One specific first-hand account is worth more than five people agreeing that somebody is dodgy.
- Find out whether the person telling you was there.
- Weigh it against the rest of the picture. A photographer with years of detailed references and one vague complaint is a different proposition from one with no trail at all.
There is a practical reason for the discipline as well as a fair one. Stating as fact something you cannot stand behind can create a legal problem of your own. Describing what happened to you does not.
When it stops being a photography problem
Some things are not a matter for a reference, a forum post or a message to a group. If you were assaulted or threatened, if you were filmed or photographed without your consent, or if images of you are being used sexually or shared without permission, that is a police matter. Report it.
If the person involved is under 18, it is a police and safeguarding matter straight away, without exception.
You do not need to be certain that a crime took place before you report something. Deciding that is somebody else’s job, and they would far rather hear about it than not.
If it was a shoot with me
Tell me. I would far rather hear it directly and put it right than find out later, or not at all.
If you would rather not speak to me, use the references and say what happened. I would sooner be judged on an accurate account of a shoot that went badly than protected by somebody staying quiet about it.
Worth reading before the next one
Most of what goes wrong is avoidable, and the safety page covers the checks that prevent it.