Laretta Houston Photography: Bad Business & Malicious Tactics Towards Models - MyModelTalk Free Casting Calls for Models and Actors!

tashaford · 07-25-2009, 12:50 PM

I've been a professional model for nearly half my life. At this advanced point of my career I regret working with Laretta houston Photography as a very poor choice in hindsight.

In May, I hired her for a shoot that was approximately $650. This shoot included makeup, hair, apparel and 4 looks. The shoot was in May and now with August around the corner Laretta Houston Photography refuses to turn over the work she was hired to do.

She disseminated my photos for commercial purposes; which are being used to sell the apparel I'm wearing in the shoot I hired her for. After I paid her and requested my photos she demanded I sign a model release. Remember, I hired her. Of course I politely declined to sign, however; she refused to give me the images until I sign a release that would give her legal cover for actions already done without my permission. It would also give her the right to sell the images indefinitely without my consultation or compensation!

This release would give me little or no room to use these images for my own benefit; which is the reason I hired www.larettahouston.com. I've tried to resolve this, but Laretta has been unrelenting in her demands for rights which I will not relinquish at this point.

Since trying to resolve this privately and professionally, I have had to deal with name calling and unrealistic slander on public forums like facebook.

To all models and future clients, I would seriously suggest you reconsider working with a photographer that is known to be bullish with talent and factually known not turn over the artistic images they are hired to create. I would hate to have what has happen to me to happen to you or anyone else.

I have since sent a complaint to the Better Business Bureau (which was accepted), and had a cease & desist letter sent by certified mail Laretta from my attorney. I plan to send a cease and desist letter to the boutique selling their product with my images I paid for and never received.

Below I have attached a few documents:
1. Breach of contract
2. Screenshot of the images being used commercially without authorization in Atlanta.
3. Model release form that Laretta asked me to sign after the shoot was over and wrapped. This should have been mentioned in negotiations with her. If it had she would not have been hired and she would not have been paid $650.00.

Example 1:
Cease & desist letter sent to Laretta Houston Photgraphy by my legal counsel.

Example 2:
Images I hired Laretta Houston Photography to shoot are being used for commercial purposes without authorization online and offline in an Atlanta boutique!

austinmodelsandtalent · 07-30-2009, 05:57 PM

I have run, unfortunately, into a lot of photographers these days that don't understand what model releases really are. I've even seen photographers hired to shoot weddings passing releases around, thinking they are required... and when asked why they're doing it, they say, "I don't know, I heard we are supposed to have one."

Without a release, however, your photos cannot be sold or used for a commercial purpose. If this has occurred, I would have someone knowledgeable about commercial print pricing put together an invoice for total due (1 year use, 3 year use, buyout) and forward it to the photographer through the attorney.

The attorney should advise you that until there is settlement of a legal action, that it is not wise to be posting this in a public place such as this (or any other Internet web site). By so doing, you risk potential charges of libel.

Sympathetic to your situation, there is only your side of the story and so my personal best advice would be to delete this post and allow the attorney to pursue this through legal actions. In the future, consider paying for services using a credit card - most card issuing banks will investigate complaints such as yours and credit back the amount if they determine you have not been delivered what was promised.

Good luck to you.

mykkal · 07-30-2009, 11:04 PM

Jeff, always good to hear your seasoned advice. There's some new knowledge there. I even benefited from that. If everything stated was factual I don't know that anyone would have anything to to worry about. Press do it all the time. At the same time I don't see the need for permanent harm to someone's reputation once the dispute is resolved. People grow. People learn. That's another conversation though

I wonder if there are many references to this type of legal advice on the internet. It'd be great for the members to have access too. Its beneficial.

Hopefully the parties here can resolve this by just doing their honoring their agreements and moving on. Power plays are always disastrous for someone. And usually petty.

Wikipedia Defamation/Libel definitions (not sure how legally accurate):

Defamation

Quote:

A requirement that this claim be false and that the publication is communicated to someone other than the person defamed (the claimant)...

In common law jurisdictions, slander refers to a malicious, false and defamatory spoken statement or report

DeSilvaModels · 08-20-2009, 05:13 PM

Wow,thank you for the information De Silva Models will not work with Laretta Houston Photography.

mykkal · 09-02-2009, 01:07 PM

hmmm... guess it didn't get resolved. unfortunate.