PHOTOGRAPHER, VISUAL ARTIST & METAPHYSICAL THEORIST
CURRENT PERSONAL PROJECT: THE FEEDBACK LOOP THEORY
‘NO ONE TO CHANGE BUT SELF’
Neville Goddard
STUDIO MOVEMENTS…
To diversify within my visual work/photography and collaborate with radically different clients, I’m fishing for any kind of projects or traditional day jobs (in all other industries, particularly academia, hospitality, travel, corporate events and major brands) here and abroad. Which will take elements of my previous music work and apply them in different and more fantastical ways.
I’m ultimately looking for a client that wants to take on an XX project within any of these areas, & all of those example pitches are detailed in the Sarah Ginn XX tabs. This kind of work is what I call ‘hyperbranding’ and although they use music acts as examples, they have an infinite number of applications for potential clients in other industries. Especially those who are looking for a fully collaborative visual project with added academic theory.
FORCED RETIREMENT FROM MUSIC PHOTOGRAPHY….
My main personal project while I restructure the studio & move into a different client base, will be continuing to periodically write ‘The Feedback Loop Theory’, which will be my second book. This will carry on my music related work via theory writing only, after my forced retirement from music photography.
This is due to events published on the Sarah Ginn XX Sub Focus page of this site, which finely details evidence of my IPEC civil claim of IP theft against Sub Focus’s manager Sebastian Weingartshofer (director of Worship Artists) & photographer Sam Neill (also under Worship Artists & Kode Media). Unfortunately there have been a number of serious & unlawful retaliation/intimidation incidents from the defendants. This included implementing a complete dance music industry blacklisting/smear campaign since March 2023, civil legal threats of defamation & harassment (never filed) & attempting to hack into my social media/sending multiple external parties to bully me online. Finally, excessive false reports were made to The Metropolitan Police accusing me of harassment over a period of 1.5 years. This resulted in me being held in custody over their allegations in October 2024 where I received no charges (which was 6 months into their reporting). However, they continued to report me excessively to the police for an entire year after it was investigated until September 2025. Having not got the result they originally wanted, & to force my webpage offline. Of course, no further police action was taken against me from those subsequent reports, and all evidence is still visible via that page for anyone to view.
These circumstances, also followed a chronic & severe lack of bookings/enquires in photography for over 5 years, which was caused by an over saturated market & purposeful gender biased gatekeeping/bullying (from my largely male photographer peers & hirers). Minority creators often experience discrimination in the freelance world, and this is an inherent structural issue. This affects female DJs too, but that has improved greatly in the last ten years. But it is substantially worse in the more technical ‘background’ music industry jobs such as photography. In my case, this glass ceiling has stopped me working almost entirely since 2021. It was mainly implemented due to the quality of my work which caused insecurity among other photographers, who then all professionally excluded me. Adding to this 80% of the time I’m only booked/recommended by women & in general men, just don’t want to hire me or work alongside me. This bias hasn’t been known to many people in the music industry who believe photographers are hired by talent, however this silent prejudice exists strongly within this sector. But it is something I hope will change in the future.
I’ve not been able to overcome these challenges, and consistent marketing just hasn’t resulted in any bookings at all. Ultimately, I deserve to feel safe, respected, given equal career opportunities & paid in line with my experience & talents. I shouldn’t have my civil freedoms violated/career destroyed for protecting my original concepts, or experience chronic misogynistic bullying, that has now fully halted my music photography. Subsequently, due to the negative actions levied against me, even if I was able to return to this sector, I’ve currently lost all my passion for it. These were traumatic & extremely frightening situations for me, that has now caused anxiety/depression around shooting music. Until it’s all resolved and people are held accountable, I will be unable to return.
Worship & Sam Neill’s huge success in this industry, built off the incidents I’ve detailed above, further demonstrates a bigoted & dangerous environment that I don’t want to continue practicing in. This is from a personal ethics standpoint, and is not how UK Drum and Bass should be represented (particularly abroad) in my eyes. This industry is also a place that’s highly controlling & exploitative for its biggest artists. Frustratingly Sub Focus (always known as a forward thinking artist) has been requesting to resolve this dispute amicably, but is routinely ignored. And working with him would be my only way back into the industry, but that’s impossible while under this teams leadership. The long term refusal to settle this dispute on his request, also shows that Sebastian is continually breaching his managerial contract for over 2.5 years now. Therefore demonstrating a conservatorship type of arrangement that requires thorough independent investigation. Because I strongly believe financial abuse is occurring there, so it’s worth me sounding the alarm here publicly. Corrupt/controlling management is a well reported problem in the music industry, and this is a prime example. With recent management theft effecting DJ’s such as Calvin Harris and Eric Prydz in recent years, it’s a surprisingly common pitfall. Thankfully, I am very relieved I never signed up to do a project involving Worship. No matter how bad my experiences have already been with losing my whole career, working with them would have been a 1000% worse.
Finally, these varied factors combined mean I now can’t continue my craft in this field. So shifting my attention away entirely from this topic is highly beneficial. Attempting to battle issues I can’t fix, also continually puts my attention on the problem. It then acts as a pendulum thought form (strengthening the predicament & stealing my energy). BUT…I must be an excellent photographer to get this much kickback, something for everyone to think about. Workplace mobbing across all vocations is statistically directed at the kindest, most creative and hard working individuals. So not the weakest by any means, it’s just their existence causes insecurity in those with a propensity to bully. The healthiest (& happiest) option for me now, is to make no further efforts to participate in this system, one that has done everything in its power to exclude me just for being myself.
THE FUTURE…A HIATUS/THEN REBUILD
To counteract this situation, my visual work will be trying out various experimental photographic processes instead, as a side project to standard 9-5 employment. Creating new art that fits alongside my writing & expanding out my skillset is the most positive way forward. It also uses my time effectively, to form unique pitches to aim at other industries in the future. This will occur after my finances have improved via a new day job. Becoming a more versatile & proficient photographer in my own time, also stops any pressure on radical experimentation, and this new work will be shown in the Personal section of this site. The plus side of these issues, has been a huge jump in my photography ideas. I also started academic writing back in 2022, having never written anything of this nature before. Once I have taken some time out to rest and reset, I will be refining both those areas further.
‘The Feedback Loop Theory’ essay is also available in The Theories tab for anyone to view until it is completed. I particularly welcome academic feedback and work opportunities from universities and research institutions interested in this work.
My historical music photography work from the last 15 years is available in print form, via the books below.
‘There is no try, there is just do’