Disgraced S’pore Influencer Apologised But Something’s Wrong

Step aside, Eden Ang. There’s a new ‘influencer-in-hot-soup’ saga going on, and this time it has nothing to do with daddy issues. Instead, what’s growing really hot right now, is the ever-changing sentiments of the influencer-photographer Daryl Aiden Yow.

Lest you’re unaware, let me just bring you up to speed with the whole Daryl storyline. You can choose to peruse the information in our article here, but I’ll just incorporate some flashbacks for your convenience (and also to meet my word quota).

Passing off stock images as his own

Daryl Aiden Yow, a hot-shot Singaporean photographer with more than 101K Instagram followers to his name, was recently cast under extreme scrutiny when his pictures were revealed to be eerily similar to prior ones that were posted online…by others. Or similar to stock images.

So… similar.

And it starts

Local website Mothership was the one to open the floodgates, with a well-written article on the subject. And before long, Netizens were pretty much baying after Daryl’s blood.

After that, Daryl supposedly did an interview with another local website, MustShareNews, in which he allegedly denied the plagiarism and theft accusations. Apart from stating that he pays for the photos and tags sources if needed, he also expressed that people are aware of these stock photos and purchases, and did not intend to deceive anyone.

This, however was contravened by three notions:

• He didn’t tag sources in his photos. And according to MustShareNews, some of his photos were tagged only after the whole revelation
• Shutterstock’s rules and regulations required crediting, no matter the circumstances, and cannot be seen as the purchaser’s own content
• His captions were not just subtly, but full-blown deceiving

Plus, Sony Singapore, one of Daryl’s many clients, expressed “surprise and disappointment” at his claims.

And just to add this in, Daryl claims that he has the “receipts” to prove his Shutterstock purchases, and MustShareNews wrote this in its article:

“He tells us that any photos used in his work are paid for on websites like Shutterstock, and that he has “the receipts” to prove it.

We’ll be updating this post, if he sends them over to us as promised.”

Till now, the post has yet to be updated.

Blown out of proportions

Soon after, fellow influencers and photographers alike bashed the photographer online for his actions, and the whole thing just kind of blew up.

In fact, the news has since strayed from being mere online media content to actual headline news, with local news channels Straits Times and Channel News Asia, and even BBC reporting on the whole saga.

Oh yeah, BBC. The one in London.

That’s international glory, man.

Suffice it to say; Daryl’s career is teetering on the rocks, and it wouldn’t be far-fetched to say that the entire world’s waiting for his next move.

To apologise or not to apologise, that’s the question.

Apology

On Thursday (21 June, one day after Mothership’s life-changing article), Daryl Aiden Yow launched an official apology on none other than his own Instagram platform.

The transcript (in case you can’t read ‘coz you’re cutting garlic):

I didn’t intend to release any statement regarding recent events, largely because I did not know how I could accurately express how sorry I am. But seeing how people are now making baseless and false allegations against those close to me–simply by mere association–I have decided to confront the facts instead of leaving them subject to speculation. I did not want to let any more people down.

The outrage regarding how I have conducted myself is justified and I accept full responsibility for my actions and all consequences that arise from those actions.

I was wrong to have claimed that stock images and other people’s work were my own. I was also wrong to have used false captions that misled my followers and those who viewed my images. Having marketed myself as a photographer, I fell far short of what was expected of me and disappointed those who believed–or wanted to believe–in me. For all of that, I apologise.

Those close to me disagree with my actions and have asked, whenever they felt that something was not right about my images, that I stop my actions immediately. I did not take their advice seriously and would give reasons that I thought would assuage any concerns they had over those images–just enough so that we would move on to other issues. I let them down with my actions.

I would also like to take the opportunity to clear the air. The end-products of my collaborations with my friends remained honest and fair. Whatever my shortcomings were, I did not bring them to my collaborations. That would not have been fair to those who collaborated with me, and they would not have allowed such practices to be carried out in any event. These people are hard-working professionals and I was hurt to see people make baseless allegations or insinuations against them or question their integrity. They should not be hounded for my errors. To that end, I hope that these baseless allegations or insinuations would stop.

I know I have erred and hope that I will be given the time and space to grow and better myself. For those who have stood by me, I would like to thank you and hope that I will be able to earn such kindness in the future.

Thank you for taking the time to read this statement.

Contradictions, contradictions, contradictions X 88

To first-time readers, Daryl’s apology might come across as genuine. Even heartfelt.

But to those who’ve been there the entire time, Daryl’s apology doesn’t just come off as a last-ditch effort to salvage one’s career, but one filled with so many loopholes it could probably get mistaken for Argentina’s goal net against Croatia.

Vehement denial

“I was wrong to have claimed that stock images and other people’s work were my own. I was also wrong to have used false captions that misled my followers and those who viewed my images.”

This wasn’t what he claimed just a couple of days ago. In his interview with MustShareNews, Daryl denied plagiarism claims, stating that he had paid for stock photos, and had no intentions to deceive his fans.

Here, the best-est line from the article:

“Daryl also understands that people who are casual viewers ‘may not understand’ the work that goes behind creating such shots.”

Sorry we newbies arh.

Collaborations

“I would also like to take the opportunity to clear the air. The end-products of my collaborations with my friends remained honest and fair. Whatever my shortcomings were, I did not bring them to my collaborations. That would not have been fair to those who collaborated with me, and they would not have allowed such practices to be carried out in any event. These people are hard-working professionals and I was hurt to see people make baseless allegations or insinuations against them or question their integrity. They should not be hounded for my errors. To that end, I hope that these baseless allegations or insinuations would stop.”

So… your friends are gold, but outside brands are shit?

You see, according to the MustShareNews interview, he allegedly stated that clients were aware that he has used stock images, and even submitted the receipts to them (how we wish our clients would actually reimburse us for licensed things we paid for creating their contents…)

Eh, like that why is Sony “surprised” and “disappointed”? I’m going to go on a limb to say that maybe, maybe Sony is so big (or they have engaged an agency for the campaign), there’s some kind of miscommunication.

If so, the agency or the Sony team involved in this saga should be sweating now.

Receipts, receipts

In the interview with MustShareNews, he even promised to send the receipts over to them as proof.

Well, we’re a Shutterstock customer (a long-time paid customer, in fact) and all I can say is this: finding the receipts is faster than typing out this sentence. Everything in Shutterstock is fast…including how they bill us (that one, according to my boss, is super fast).

Just go to your account, go to the top right corner and click on whatever you want, whether it’s history or billing.

There: this screenshot I did took about 0.6 second.

Perhaps our Internet connection is fast lah. Thanks ah, Singtel!

Last but not least, we have some humble-apologising going on

Honestly, the entire apology would have been a tad bit more believable, had this part not been included.

“I didn’t intend to release any statement regarding recent events, largely because I did not know how I could accurately express how sorry I am. But seeing how people are now making baseless and false allegations against those close to me–simply by mere association–I have decided to confront the facts instead of leaving them subject to speculation. I did not want to let any more people down.”

Whelp, it looks like we’ve uncovered the identity of Spiderman.

Really, to apologise for one’s actions is one thing, but to apologise because your friends are being attacked and you can’t stand it anymore and you have to unveil your mask is quite another. As my boss so aptly puts it:

“Playing hero ah?”

End line

Don’t say we cold-blooded ah. We acknowledge that at the very least, Daryl apologised. And that’s undoubtedly a hard pill to swallow, even if you somewhat ease it by bringing your poor friends into the equation.

Now on the other hand…

Well, maybe prison doesn’t have Wi-Fi. Gotta empathise.

Now you know what Singaporeans are talking about today; do check back tomorrow for another piece of news of the day!