Introducing NO-PHOTO Wristbands
An introduction to our new photography policy at Fox&Badge
We are an arts event, brimming with all kinds of artistic content, much of it visual. We want to share all that artistry and experience with both our attendees and our larger community, and photography plays a very key role in that.
We need to be able to share what we do to survive.
We all have very different relationships to photography at events. Some attendees want to film everything; some wish there was no photography at all at any event.
We strive to strike a measured, respectful, sensible balance where:
we are lightly permissive yet fully respectful & consensual; protective yet open
we can clearly communicate what our events are like
we can be open, inviting, inclusive, unsecretive
we can maintain clear records of all the beautiful various strands of each event
we can offer a relatively phone-free environment, with very few phones out
everyone’s individual desire for privacy can be addressed
guests can clearly request not to be photographed, and for any imagery to be fully removed
guests can enjoy happy visual memories
cast & crew can share and benefit from their immense artistry
We hire an unsurpassable team of photographers and videographers.
We have spent many years refining our process and relationship with them, our events, and our community, and we are deeply proud and respectful of their incredible work.
They have to all work incredibly quickly to try & capture a fraction of the complex scenes, and it’s impossible & impractical for them to individually ask consent of everyone in shot.
They do their very best, avoid shooting anything clearly private, and prioritise immediate image-removal requests. We have many times contemplated a blanket guest ban on photography, but feel that it is out of keeping with the visual, artistic, permissive and open nature of our event.
And so we strive to find a good balance, respecting all sides. We acknowledge that sadly we’ll probably never satisfy everyone.
We recently ran an awesome 2nd version of our Sensual SpeedDating event at our camp at Borderland (the Swedish burn), where the ethos is 100% against any form of photography, so we of course took no photos. We thus have no means to convey to (& reassure) future attendees how beautiful, blissful, gentle, innocent and loving the experience was.
A rigid rule closed a door to a possible future.
We respect that, but don’t feel it is necessary or ideal.
We believe it is possible to be fully present at an event whilst still taking the occasional, judicious photograph, and we believe we can trust our community to behave well & responsibly around this.
WHAT’S CHANGING?
To better protect the privacy of all attendees who wish for that, we are introducing 2 new measures:
All guests and attendees will be offered at the door the choice of a bright red “Please Do Not Photograph Me” wristband; & photographers will fully avoid shooting them.
Anyone wishing to not be photographs can also email us (minimum 2 days in advance) at foxandbadge+photography@gmail.com with a clear photo/s of their face, which we can then distribute to our media team in advance.
We welcome other, better ideas that enable us to best approach all the nuances of this topic, and create the best possible environment for as many people as possible.
(This topic can be inflaming and triggering for some and we gently request that any responses are moderate and considerate, and recognise we are all doing our best to mediate between varied needs, emotions and mindsets <3)
