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These are unprecedented times. It brings out the best and worst in people. You can expect the bridezillas of the world to go over the edge, but the most surprising responses came from within the photographer’s community of colleagues, when she asked for advice.
Just when you think humans can’t be any more irrational. In case you’ve had your head in the sand for the last few days, the world has gone stark, raving mad. More and more things are closing, tightening, coming under advisory, etc. Some places are a couple of steps away from martial law, and it’s all because people don’t follow the light guidelines, so the heavy must follow.
A photographer’s state just imposed limits on gatherings and her bride’s venue passed that along. The bride then moved the wedding to her home, which is private property. The photographer has small children at home and is not comfortable attending a gathering many times larger than health department advice. She informed the bride of this. The bride says it’s private property, she can do as she chooses, and she chooses a big wedding. The fallout has begun, even before the wedding. The bride’s family and friends being organized into bad reviews and general social harassment of the cautiously reluctant photographer.
Unless there is something specific in the contract that covers Force Majeure, the simplest solution is for the photographer to refund the deposit, and tell the bride she is free to find another photographer. If and when the bride brings a case for violating the contract, the photographer could explain that she was being a reasonable, prudent person, and acting in a manner to prevent harm to herself or others. Respond factually to the reviews and comments. No rational person would fault her. This is not legal advice. This is a rapidly evolving situation with rapidly evolving response.
These are unprecedented times. It brings out the best and worst in people.
You can expect the bridezillas of the world to go over the edge, but the most surprising responses came from within the photographer’s community of colleagues, when she asked for advice.
The number of people who insisted that she should fulfill the contract wasn’t the shocking bit. It was the rudeness with which the comments were made. Some questioned her “ethics” for refusing to go. Others said she was “morally reprehensible” for offering to send a (willing and able) associate to complete the job. The amount of cluelessness that raged on about how the government was putting out “guidelines, but not laws, so the bride could do what she wanted” was probably the most disturbing.
The news is full of stories today about events being cancelled, authorities intervening, people falling ill because they attended events. The rules apply to everyone else, but not to the special few who think they can just ignore a thing and make it go away.
The moral of the story is to check your contracts. If your contracts do not include clauses for Force Majeure, Acts of God, Epidemic and Pandemic, Acts of Civil Commotion, Acts of War Declared and Undeclared, and every other type of unthinkable, yet totally possible, eventuality, tell your attorney to add it. Don’t ask, tell. Also consider adding verbiage that allows for discretional termination of the contract (see Is It Okay to Fire a Client?). Angry clients shouldn’t be a consequence that keeps you from making decisions over your safety.
Unless you are a paid firefighter, well aware of the risk of your job, you should not be forced to enter a burning building because of a contract that says you must. You are contracted to take photos, not to catch fire.
These are unprecedented times. They call for unprecedented measures… like common sense.