Fujifilm UK Sparks Outrage by Trotting Out Topless Model at GFX Demo Event

Earlier today, photographer Danny North was at a paid Fujifilm UK event to try out the much-anticipated medium format GFX 50s when something shocking happened. After the technical talk, Fuji UK brought out a topless model for the predominantly male audience to test the camera on.

The audacity of the situation shook and angered North, who walked out of the event immediately and vented his frustration in a Twitter rant, which was sent to PetaPixel by one of our readers.

We have reached out to both Mr. North and Fujifilm UK for comment and elaboration on the incident, but it seems the two parties have already been in touch. In a Tweet, Fuji apologized for “any offense caused,” to which Mr. North suggested they donate his refund to the Women’s Aid charity:

Reactions to Mr. North’s revelations on Twitter have been mostly offense and outrage at the idea that Fuji UK would do something like this. “Please tell me you mean a Porsche cabriolet???” wrote one Twitter user, referring to Mr. North’s mention of the “topless model.” Another was more blunt: “What the actual what?? Christ alive.” she wrote.

As for Fuji’s apology, that was met with much the same sentiment:

We have yet to hear back from either Danny or Fuji UK, but we will update this post as soon as we get a statement from either.


UPDATE: Fujifilm UK sent us the following official statement in response to our request for comment:

Fujifilm has a long tradition in photography, an art-form that covers many different genres.
In a workshop on 24th February to demonstrate one of our new products in a real-life shooting situation with a working professional photographer, the choice of shooting subject made by the photographer was not appropriate and we sincerely apologise for any offence that it might have caused.

The workshop itself was arranged by an external professional commercial photographer that we have previously worked with on many different projects. On this occasion, his choice of shooting subject was not in line with our company values.

Had we known in advance that this shooting subject was going to be used we would have requested an alternative subject for the workshop. We would never knowingly use such shooting subjects to promote our brand.

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