When we began posting about all the complaints and lawsuits against Steven Frischling, the failed wedding photographer turned phony travel blogger, he starting telling everyone he stopped shooting weddings in 2007. He claimed this at least three times:
However, that's another outright lie!
We knew 2007 didn't sound right after reading more recent complaints online. From his own old blog, here's one well into 2008!
http://fishfoto.typepad.com/fishfoto/2008/03/8-march-2008-bu.html
We've taken a screenshot of this too in case he quickly deletes this. And anyway if so you should be able to find it in archive.org or Google cache.
Plus, this very wedding in March 2008 was what spawned the "open letter to Steven Frischling" plead from the crushed bride who never, probably to this day, received the photos she paid him for.
You would think that you would remember something as significant as the year you closed your own business. But as usual he is lying and doing a shitty job at it.
Funny today he accused of us of doing a poor job of fact checking. He should do a quick fact check on his own lies, though it's a lot to ask of him to keep all his stories straight....
UPDATE: Frischling responded to this entry on Twitter saying basically oh yeah it was 2008 and he mixed up the date. Essentially, he could not keep denying he was shooting weddings in 2008 because we'd already proved he did. We call bullshit that he mixed up the date - how could you not remember the year you shut down your extremely troubled business, when it was only two years ago? And you recalled this wrong date on three separate occasions over two days?
Instead, he remembers, he was just trying to make it seem a lot longer ago than it was to distance himself from what he's done. He wants his Twitter audience to think it was a long time ago, so they buy his claim that it doesn't even matter now.
Why does he keep responding to us on Twitter on these minor things, but won't answer our simple "truth challenges" we posed repeatedly? He could totally discredit us if he just responded and confirmed these stories! But he won't because he's can't offer us any evidence that confirm these specific stories. This fish is caught in a net of his lies.
We've also challenged him to respond to Jeremy who left a comment below. No answer.
See our answer to Jeremy and our pop psychology analysis of what the F is wrong with Steven Frischling.
Thanks for repeating your story here Jeremy. My heart goes out to you.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if there is a possibility of some kind of class-action suit, if all his wedding victims get together and take him to court, so the judge could see the larger pattern? I have a feeling he is essentially bankrupt, but maybe a judge could say if he does not deliver the images he will have to go to prison. I bet people just want their images more than they want their money back. Or, the state could look at all the information gathered and consider a case for criminal fraud/larceny.
I have no clue as to why he, repeatedly, went through with photographing the weddings only to disappear later. From a psychological standpoint, he is deeply troubled. Obviously I can't accurately diagnose but I think he suffers from narcissistic personality disorder and/or antisocial personality disorder. I think he enjoys the travel and taking the photos, and on the surface possibly intends to follow through, but once the thrill is gone and he already has the money, there is no immediate reward in doing the actual "boring" work like editing the photos.
Also I suspect he is probably in deep debt due to his irresponsibility, and the money he gets for jobs is spent as soon as it comes in. Then he has nothing left to produce the photobooks and prints. He can't get them to you on time so he mentally checks out and just hopes you'll go away. Other people's pain and anguish do not bother a sociopath.
Sociopaths feel no guilt about lying but when people start to attack him, he cannot process this reality and immediately begins attacking them back. He'll say whatever he wants to make others look bad and then adopt it as his own version of the truth. So he believes his lies. Like, he probably convinced himself he stopped shooting wedding sin 2007, that's why he said it three separate times. That date is real to him now.
If he is like other narcissists I know, a large part of his problem is the people around him who enable him and reinforce his delusions. Most likely his family bails him out of financial messes, so he never has to be held responsible for his mistakes. Probably they refuse to accept he is disturbed, but feel sorry for his tales of woe and misfortune and conspiring brides. Surely there were signs of disturbed behavior at a young age that they chose to ignore.
I don't know what his wife's problem is and if she's a sociopath too or just stuck with him and in denial. Anyone who confronts narcissists and tries to get them to face reality are usually immediately cut off since reality does not match their own view of themselves. Maybe she'd rather have a disturbed husband than be single. Some women are sad that way.
Of course online he has this constant stream of attention from schmucks who believe everything he says, thereby reinforcing his fantasy world. That's why he's on Twitter 24 hours a day, feeding his need for immediate gratification. If people start to get suspicious of him, they'd simply check out, or challenge him briefly and then disappear. But he doesn't care because there are unlimited new suckers out there.
I was one of those that filed a complaint with the better business bureau against Steven Frischling. I was a friend of Steven, a photographer who worked with him, I even loaned him equipment when he started because he was too poor to purchase his own. I hired Fish to photograph our MAY 2008 wedding because he is a good photographer and he can be fun. WHAT A NIGHTMARE!!! A few months after the wedding he stopped communicating, then said he was sick, then stopped communicating, then supposedly hired someone to fix his wedding woes, then stopped communicating, then said he would send photos on dis, sent 1 disc with the reception, nothing from the ceremony, then stopped communicating etc etc etc. I knew Fish had a tendency to stretch the truth, but I did not realize he was a complete liar and a fraud. I even offered to help him edit photos or do office work to help him catch up and get people there photos. In the end I realized that he did not care whether he produced the photos, only that he collected the money. He is a liar, a fraud and a douchebag. I feel bad that I trusted him, I feel bad that I brought him Pizza when his child was sick in the hospital, I feel bad that he has three children who will never have a positive role model in a father-instead just a thief!! He was still hot in the wedding business through 2008, so apparently a few years here and there are unimportant to steven.
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